Author Archives: Mary Ann O'Donnell

milk theory

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Recent limitations on the quantity of milk powder that Chinese citizens can purchase in Hong Kong and bring back to Shenzhen have given rise to “milk theory”. As with the satiric pronounciations of China in the previous post, the humor of milk theory turns on a pun. Here 奶 can mean wife, mother, milk, or breasts, depending on context.

Milk Theory:

1)      Second wives can be found anywhere, but you can only bring two cans of powdered milk. 2) The meaning of one country two systems, is one country two breasts.  The greastest distance in the world is between the child one holds and the milk powder on the other coast. 3) You have high quality milk powder, we have high quality second wives. The quality of milk powder is in inverse proportion to the number of second wives. 4) Previously, we knew it was against the law to carry white powder, but only recently have we found out its also against the law to carry milk powder. 5) Milk, is a problem the government can’t solve; housing is another problem the government can’t solve. However, the government does have the means to deal with dairies [rufang also puns with a woman’s chest]. 6. Those who created poisonous milk powder never did jail time. Those who sold poisonous milk powder never did jail time. But people who bought safe milk powder are going to jail.

奶论

1）  二奶到处可以找，奶粉只能带二罐。2）一国两制的意思，就是一国两奶。这个世界最远的距离，使孩子在怀里，奶粉却在对岸。3）你有优质奶粉，我有优质二奶。奶粉的质量，跟二奶的数量成反比。4）以前知道带白粉犯法，现在才知带奶粉也犯法。5）乳，是政府解决不了的问题；房，更是政府解决不了的问题。至于乳房，政府官员有办法解决。6）做毒奶粉的不坐牢，卖毒奶粉的不坐牢，买无毒奶粉的却坐牢。

what does china mean to you?

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 Currently circulating on we chat, another of those punny jokes that do political analysis so well:

How do you pronounce the English word “China”? The single man says “Where’s my wife?” The lover says, “Where’s my sweetheart?” The beggar says, “Where’re to?” The poor man says, “Where’s the money?” The doctor says, “Where should we cut?” The businessman says, “Where’s the scam?” The official says, “Where’s the power?” The thief says, “Where’s the mark?” The developer says, “Where’s the site?” The government says, “Where do we raze?” And the lower class says, “Where do we migrate to?”

光棍念“妻哪？”，恋人念“亲哪？”，乞丐念“去哪？”，穷人念“钱哪？”，医生念“切哪？”，商人念“欺哪？”，官员念“权哪？”，强盗念“窃哪？”，开发商念“圈哪？”，政府念“拆哪？”，贫民念“迁哪？”

two child style

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The above advertisement is for the Shenzhen office of Asiaray, a Hong Kong company that specializes in providing outdoor advertising throughout the Mainland. Three related comments:

1) This particular advertisement caught my eye because of its representation of a two-child family. Just who is the intended audience of this advertisement? Families who have paid fines for their second child? Only children couples who are permitted to have two children? Or is it another sign that China may relax the one child policy, as discussed on Reuters?

2) Cultural turning. The copy literally translates as “Fashion Style — Realize Creativity Everyday”. It may be thanks to Psy the English word “style” is now showing up in advertisements all over the city. However, the official translation of 宣传部（文体局) on the Nanshan District Government website is Propaganda Department (Style Council).

3) Backlit billboards are particularly common in the Shenzhen subway and at bus stops. Indeed, outdoor advertising is the most common form of public art in Shenzhen. Recent research suggests that how we feel can impact our actions — just not in the way we think. This particular advertisement, for example, may not stimulate people to buy backlit billboards from Asiaray. Nevertheless, it does promote both the two-child family and fashion as the means for crossing a threshold into a better future.

Thought du jour: We know that Asiaray and other agencies (including Municipal Style Councils) sell wish fulfillment, using our desires against us. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe what we want is to be caught up in a daydream, all four of us, hand-in-hand on a fashionable rush to the future … until we loop back and repeat the experience, all four of us, hand-in-hand on a fashionalble rush to the future.

this day in history…

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The Shenzhen Archive Information Web (深圳档案信息网) has been uploading monthly records of important Shenzhen matters (深圳大事记). Years 2002 through 2009 have been uploaded and it is possible to learn that ten years ago, on Feb 27, 2003, the Shenzhen City Two Meetings (两会) opened. The digital archive journal (电子期刊) is also online, offering insight into how archival history stregthens the nation and other ideological positioning. In turn, these reports contextualize website articles on Shenzhen history, such as interpretations of the Sanzhoutian Uprising (解读三洲田起义) or background on the opening of Shenzhen’s Hongfa Temple (深圳弘法寺的前世今生). All this information has been going up over the past two years or so, and suggests the contours of Shenzhen’s growing online presence.

shenzhen good samaritan law passed

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Inquiring minds want to know: what is Shenzhen’s Samaritan Law? Well, it’s actually its being referred to as “the good person law (好人法)” and ims to protect good Samaritans from being sued by people they have helped.

Two events focused attention on the extent to which many Chinese have become afraid to help strangers in need. The first was the widely publicized Nanjing Peng Yu Case (南京彭宇案). Apparently, on November 20, 2006, Peng Yu helped Xu Shoulan after she had been knocked down disembarking from a bus. He accompanied her to the hospital to receive medical assistance, where it was discovered she had several broken bones. According to Chen Erchun, he helped Peng Yu bring Xu Shoulan to the hospital and she was grateful when the two left her there in the care of the doctors. Subsequently, however, Xu Shoulan sued Peng Yu for causing her accident. Peng Yu admitted that he could have been responsible for causing the accident because he was the first to disembark. The court found that because it was impossible to know what actually happened at the bus, but required Peng Yu to pay damages of 45,876 rmb to Xu Shoulan.

The second event, the “Yue Yue Incident (小悦悦事件)” took place in Foshan. On October 13, 2011, the two-year old toddler crawled into the street, where she was hit by a truck. An estimated 18 pedestrians walk passed and another car hit her before someone moved to help. Yue Yue died in a Guangzhou hospital eight days later on October 21, 2011. The outrage for the callous behaviour of the pedestrians as well as shock at what the event said about public morality in China promted the Shenzhen Government to proposed the Good Person Law.

The Samaritan Law was passed two days ago. I’m not sure what to make of the law. I hope it helps us overcome our fear of strangers and general suspicion that people are trying to take advantage of us. I have become self-protectively suspicious about intervening in shouting matches or giving money to beggars I don’t recognize. Indeed, I wonder if Shenzhen’s decision to legislate public morality does not so much respond to a general indifference to strangers and their well-being, but rather compensates for the “street smarts” that we have cultivated in order to navigate uncertain waters.

But here’s the rub: There are questions about how the Samaritan Law will be enforced and if public morality can be legislated. Moreover, proponents emphasize that the law only protects those who help in a reasonable manner; people who use inappropriate means to help cannot expect legal protection. Apparently, people are not only concerned about helping others, but also worried about being helped.

Sigh.

 

cancer village map

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On May 6, 2009, Deng Fei (邓飞) published the “Cancer Village Map” which documented reports on villages where cancer rates were significantly higher than elsewhere in the country. Three days ago, the Chinese government officially acknowledged the existance of cancer villages.  Not surprisingly, most of the villages are located in in the prosperous areas of the country. Moreover, as in Shenzhen, these villages occuppy a grey area regulated and unregulated space. Below, I have translated the orginal post.

Cancer Village Map

cancer map

Jiangsu Province

Yangqiao Village, Guhe Township, Funing Coungy, Yancheng City (盐城市阜宁县古河镇洋桥村). According to a 2004 report in Jiannan Daily, between 2001-2004 more than 20 villagers died of cancer caused by a nearby pharmeceutical and two chemical factories. At night, villagers slept with a wet cloth covering their mouths and noses. The did not feed ducks near the water, but in the pigsties.

Dongjin Vllage, Yangji Township, Funing County, Yancheng City (盐城市阜宁县杨集镇东进村). According to a 2008 report in China Economic Report, between 2001-2006 over 100 villagers died of cancer because of pollution from a nearby chemical factory. All villegers took liver medicine. The villagers sued the factory, but were only given 70 rmb (a little over $US 10.00 today) per person compensation.

Xingang Village, Longgang Township, Yandu District, Yancheng City (盐城市盐都区龙冈镇新岗村). According to a 2009 China Youth Daily report, over the past 7 or 8 years, there were 57 reported cancer cases. All of those who died from cancer were between the ages of 50 to 60 years old.

Guangfeng Village, Guangyi Zhen, Wuxi City (无锡市广益镇广丰村). According to a 2003 China Consumer Report, the village was surrounded by liquid gas and chemical factories. Between 1999-2003, 24 people or more than one-third of village deaths were cancer related. Toxic gas and powder filled the small alleys and emited a strange oder, which fumigated relatives who visited for Chinese New Year.

Gaoqiao Village, Gaoqiao Township and Tumen Village, Huangxu Township in Dancong District, Zhenjiang City (镇江市丹徒区高桥镇高桥村、黄墟镇土门村). According to a 2004 China Environmental Report, beginning in 1997 the area showed a significant increase in tumors, with 71% of cases located in the relatively prosperous southern areas of Zhenjiang. Cases were attributed to a contamination of the  groundwater system.

Jiangxi Province

Huangxiken Nursery, Wangcheng Township, Xinjian County, Nanchang City (南昌市新建县望城镇璜溪垦殖场). According to a 2004 Jiangnan Metropolitan Daily, runoff from a chemical factory contaminated rice paddies, where the seedlings were covered in black liquid. That year, out of a total of 80 village deaths, close to 20 died of throat and lung cancer.

Guanshanqiao Village, Yanrui Township, Yushan County (玉山县岩瑞镇关山桥村). According to a 2006 People’s Daily report, 6 lime kilns located near the village emited grey powder and smoke that negatively affected over 100 mu of arable land. After a rain, vegetable leaves turned pale grey. That year of 60 village deaths, over ten were due to cancer.

Baiyefang Village, Xinsheng Xiang, Yugan County (余干县新生乡柏叶房村). According to a 2004 People’s Daily (Eastern China Edition), mercury in drinking water was 3 times greater than standard. Over ten years, at least 45 people died of mercury poisoning, while another 20 surffered from related dementia. Baiyefang is the most famous of China’s cancer villages.

Sichuan

Minwang Village, Jiancheng Township, Jianyang City (简阳市简城镇民旺村). According to a 2004 report in Democracy and the Legal System, the N-nitroso compounds of ammonia in drinking water was 30 times higher than allowed by law. The source of contamination were chemical factories that did not process runoff befor discharging into the Tuo River. Historically, Minwang was known as a Longlife village, however recently 5 beople died of cancer.

Tingjiang Village, Shuangsheng Township, Deyang Shenfang City (德阳什邡市双盛镇亭江村). According to a 2008 report in China Economic Daily, the village escaped the ravages of earthquakes but not contamination. As of 2008, fifty or sixty people had died of cancer. The mother of Yang Jia, one of the youth heroes of the Wenchuan Earthquake, committed suiced because of the pain from throat cancer.

Henan Province

21 villages including Huangmengying Village in Zhouying Xiang, Shenqiu County (沈丘县周营乡黄孟营村等21个村庄). According to a 2004 Xi’an Evening Report between 1990 through 2004, over one hundred people died of cancer, almost half of total deaths for the same period. Industrial and residential contamination of the upper reaches of the Shaying River seriously contaminated the groundwater system. Residents of all 21 villages in the area need to buy purified water.

Old North Guanzui Village, Ling County (浚县北老观嘴村). According to a 2002 report in Southern Weekend, since the 1980s, the fast development of paper factories resulted in extensive water contamination and rivers that looked like black ink. In a period of four years, 79 people died of cancer.

Qiancun East Village, Changcun Township, Changheng County (长垣县常村镇前孙东村). According to a 2007 Guangzhou Daily report, serious water contamination resulted in numerous deaths due to cancer over a period of five years. All of the fish and shrimp in the river died off and it became impossible to use river water to irrigate fields. The cause of the contamination was 21CN Science and Technology Company.

Guangdong Province

Five villages including Shangbei Village, Xinjiang Township, Wengyuan County, Shaoguan City (韶关翁源县新江镇(上坝村等5个村庄). According to a 2001 report in Legal Daily, runoff from mineral extraction contaminated the “fish and rice country” of Shangbei and Xiaozhen Villages. Arable land became a deep red color. Villagers report increasing cases of skin and liver cancer, if ducks went into the water they died within four or five hours, although some lived as long as three or four days after exposure.

Hubei Province

Cuiwan Village, Zhuji Township, Nangpan City (襄樊市朱集镇翟湾村). According to a 2006 Yangzte River Commercial Report, within a three year period, over 100 people out of 3,000 villagers died of cancer. Of these, the majority were aged 30-50 years old. Villagers claimed that deaths were due to industrial contamination of their river.

Hebei Province

Guxin Village and at least 6 or 7 other villages in She County(涉县固新村等至少6、7个村庄). According to a 2004 report in Xinmin Evening Report, since the early 1970s, this area of the Shannanpan and Ganhe river systems had higher cancer rates than other parts of the country. Statistics from the 80s, show rates of esophagus and stomach cancer 20 times higher than other parts of the country.

Xinanliu Village and 7 other villages along the banks of the Ci River (磁河两岸诸多村庄西南留村等8个村庄). According to a 2007 report by Law and Life, the eight rivers along the banks of the Ci River, the water system of over 20,000 villagers had been contaminated. Cancer related deaths accounted for almost half the deaths in the area.

Wuzhuang Village, Qianxi County, Tangshan City (唐山市迁西县吴庄村). According to a 2009 report in Science News, over a five year period, 10 members of this village with a population of less than 700 residents had cancer. All ten of the cancer patients lived within a 100 meter radius of a smelting factory.

Anhui Province

Liuzhuang Village, Shitai Township, Sheji District, Huaibei City (淮北市杜集区石台镇刘庄). According to a 2001 People’s Net report, this was a famous cancer village. In 2001, over 66 people died of cancer, and the water was as “yellow as cow piss”, earning it the name “killer water”.

Hunan Province

Quangu Village, Guangjiao Township, Nan County, Yiyang City (益阳市南县厂窖镇全固村). According to a 2008 report on China News Net, water quality in the village was so low that it would ignite when lit. It was a former bomb testing site and for over 10 years grass hadn’t grown in the area. It was suspected that chemical weapons were also tested there.

Jinhu Village, Longhui County (隆回县金湖村). According to a 2006 news report on Changsha Political Television, over a period of 20 years, that 29 members of the 285 member village died of sudden deaths, primarily spleen and lung cancer. Villagers suspect the cause was chemical fertilizers.

Hainan Province

Yinggehai New Village, Ledong Li Nationality Autonomous County (乐东黎族自治县莺歌海新村). According to a 2008 Hannan Daily report, as of 2008 118 villagers had died of cancer, resulting in high levels of concern from the Provincial Public Health Ministry and Center for Disease Control.

Xinqun Village, Wanning City (万宁市新群村). According to a 2008 by Nanhai Economic Report, rates of lung cancer death in Xinqun were 9 times greater than in other developed areas. Village drinking water was already seriously contaminated.

Shaanxi Province

Longling Village, Guapo Township, Hua County (华县瓜坡镇龙岭村). According to an undated report from Beijing Youth Weekly, since 1974, of 58 villager deaths, 29 were due to cancer. Professor Lin Jingxing and other researchers and the Chinese Geological Research Institute confirmed that flour and vegetables from this village were contaminated.

Hezuitou Village, Shangluo City (商洛市贺嘴头村). According to a 2003 Xi’an Evening News report, between 1991 and 2003, 46 villagers died of cancer, and during the highest point, there was one death a month. Before the factories were built in 1991, only one villager died from cancer ever two or three years.

Zhejiang Province

Wuli and Zhushanjie Villages, Nanyang Township, Xiaoshan District (萧山区南阳镇(坞里村、赭山街村). According to a 2004 Daily Business report, 80% of villagers had died from cancer. The 26 chemical factories had an estimated daily discharge of 2,000 tons of liquid waste.

Shandong Province

Xiaojiadian Village, Feicheng City (肥城市肖家店村). According to a 2007 report in the Chongqing Morning Report and a broadcast of the Central Economic Half Hour in 2006, 1/3 of the 90 deaths in this village were due to cancer. The average age was 48 years old, with one cancer death of a 4 year old. Dr. Wang reported these deaths, all cancer deaths were confirmed by County and higher level hospital personnel. Dr. Wang also said that these rates of cancer were definitely related to water contamination.

Inner Mongolia Province

Latehai, Baotou (包头打拉亥). According to a 2006 report from New People Weekly, hospital records show cancer deaths accounted for 70.9% of all deaths. Public documents classified water quality as level five, with particulates, sulphates, hardness, and chlorine all exceeded national standards. Further investigation linked cancer deaths to radiation contamination of water from Baotou steel production. In addition, runoff contaminated fields in neighboring villages which no longer could grow wheat. In a ten year period, 77 people had died of cancer.

Yunnan Province

Hutou Village, Laibin Township, Xuanwei City (宣威市来宾镇虎头村). According to an undated Xinhua Net “Focus Discussion” Column, since the 1970s, 6.5% of the population has lung cancer, which is over 1,000 times that of global average.

Tianjin Independent City

Xidi Village and Liukuaizhuang Village(西堤头镇西堤头村和刘快庄村). According to a 2009 China Quality 10,000 li Walk Report, in a period of five years, over 200 people developed cancer, reducing a “fish and rice” village to a cancer village. According to an investigation, over 100 large and small chemical companies surround the villages, discharging black smoke and water discharge, and toxic odors and loud noises permeate the area.

Chongqing Independent City

Huangqiao Village, Bishan Township, Liangping County (重庆市梁平县碧山镇黄桥村). According to a 2006 report in the Chongqing Daily, it seems that the villagers have been visited by the “Illness Devil”. Between 2003 and 2006, out of 500 villagers, 20 died of cancer, but know one knows what caused the deaths.

Taiwan

Wangtian Village, Dadu, Taichong County (台中县大肚乡王田村). Through 2007, since telecommunication wires were put in five years previously, over 100 villagers died of cancer, and villagers were in a panic. Villagers suspected that electro-magnetic currents had turned their village into a cancer village.

the view from the top, circa 1997

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The 69th floor observatory of the Diwang Building remains an important tourist destination, albeit something of a time capsule.

The Diwang building was completed in time to celebrate the Return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty. The 69th floor observatory includes a museum that commemorates Shenzhen’s history from 1980 through 1997, a kitchy “Lan Kwai Fang” bar street, and observation maps that date from 1997. The key exhibit is a wax figure installation of Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher’s iconic 1984 meeting. The installation symbolizes the ideological function of Shenzhen circa 1997 — the buffer zone between Beijing and Hong Kong, which enabled the PRC to push forward its “one country, two systems” policy.

The juxtaposition of Shenzhen then and now resonates precisely because the interior design of the museum hasn’t changed since 1997. In fact, all one has to do is look at one of the maps and compare it to the view from the observation platform to remember that in 1997 Diwang precipitated the city’s glass and steel makeover. Notably absent from the 1997 maps — the civic center, the kk 100 building, and the Binhai Expressway and Northern Loop. Obviously present in the 1997 maps — the extent to which the construction of border town urban villages such as Caiwuwei, Dengba, and Hubei had shaped urban possibility in Shenzhen . Moreover, in the 1997 images, Buji and the second line seem distant, far far away from the booming border region. Nevertheless, villages still show up in the images below — the relatively dark patches are urban villages, including the remains of Caiwuwei after the construction of the KK 100.

Visiting the museum and observatory costs 80 rmb a ticket and if memory serves (because sometimes it doesn’t), fifteen years ago the price of admission was 80 rmb.

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shangbu

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One of Shenzhen’s first administrative zones (管理区) and former commune, Shangbu (上步) disappeared from the Municipality’s administrative nomenclature during the restructuring of 1990. Nevertheless, architectural traces remain, even as the Nanyuan New Village and Badeng New Village handshakes have been creatively upgraded. Shenzhen’s Minority Work Team  is also located in the area, reminding us of the diversity of Shenzhen’d migrant population.

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the shape of space: buji village #1

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In the urban villages around the Old Buji Market (布吉墟), alleys and narrow roads wind upward, accomodating dense settlement and inadvertant public spaces. The most notable feature of the space is the proliferation of walls and determined privatization of small plots, or homesteads (宅基地). The isolating spatial organization of Buji reflects what urban planners disparagingly call “small farmer mentality (小农民意识)”. In practice, this means only investing in one’s own home, and minimal investment in public spaces and programs. Obviously, not only farmers have this mentality.  The Shenzhen Dream entails homeownership, while Tea Party populism represents one version of the US American  urge to privatize land and resources. However, the term “small farmer mentality” is usually a pretext for urban renewal programs that involve razing neighborhoods where the working poor live and replacing them with mall-burban settlements, where only the upper middle class can buy into the dream. Spaces like a Buji urban village  illustrate one of the key conundrums facing not only Shenzhen, but cities everywhere — creating livable neighborhoods for the working poor, rather than leaving urbanization in the hands of privatizing opportunists, whether they be individual farmers or employees of an urban planning board.

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scale of gentrification, buji

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Gentrification in Shenzhen not only means displacing the working poor, but also rescaling the city. In Buji, the process has just begun and thus the palatable violence of this transformation is more visible than it is in the inner districts, where neoliberal environments have a more polished veneer. The images below highlight the extent to which the construction of massive public infrastructure effectively isolates neighborhoods and privileges car-owners.

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