.JPG)
Friday, January 30, 2015
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
.JPG)
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Luxury Brands Gear Up for Chinese New Year Spend Abroad
http://www.businessoffashion.com/2015/01/luxury-brands-gear-chinese-new-year-spend-abroad.html
From Paris to New York, purveyors of luxury goods are teaching staff Mandarin, offering traditional New Year “hongbao” gifts and flocking to social media sites as well-heeled Chinese tourists pack their bags to ring in the Year of the Goat abroad.
Chinese shoppers spent around 380 billion yuan ($61.13 billion) on luxury products worldwide last year, with spending outside China up 21 percent even as domestic sales of high-end brands dipped for the first time due to a government clampdown on excessive gift-giving, according to a report from consultancy Bain & Co on Tuesday.
Tiffany & Co, Macy’s Inc, Prada SpA and Christian Dior SA have made moves to woo Chinese shoppers, who spend far more on luxury brands abroad than at home due to greater variety, lower prices and favorable foreign exchange rates. Top destinations include South Korea, Japan, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and the United States, a 2014 report from the World Tourism Cities Federation shows.
“Traveling Chinese shoppers are the alpha consumers of global commerce today, with pent-up demand for high-quality goods at home leading them to overindulge in spending abroad,” said Sage Brennan, CEO of U.S.-based China Luxury Advisors.
The annual Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on Feb. 18 this year, is a high season for consumer spending. Last year, the week-long holiday drew around 200 billion yuan of spending by Chinese shoppers using top Chinese bank card UnionPay, according to the Chinese payment provider. That was an increase of 23 percent over 2013, and included spending abroad.
By Adam Jourdan. Editor: Ryan Woo.
Chinese investments in the United States
http://www.aei.org/feature/china-tracker/
The American Enterprise Institute and The Heritage Foundation’s China Global Investment Tracker follows large Chinese investments, excluding bonds, around the world. The leading recipient of these kinds of investments is the United States, which received almost $78 billion between January 2005 and December 2014.
The deals described in the tracker are worth $100 million or more and are voluntary transactions. They let ordinary people make their own economic choices. Chinese purchases benefit Americans who hold desirable assets, including individual family homes, not just office towers or giant corporations. Chinese investment helps support a small number of American jobs.
China is not an enemy, but it is not a friend. Government involvement in Chinese investment in the US should be limited but some guidelines are necessary. Chinese firms and individuals should not be allowed to buy advanced technology that could have military uses. American policymakers should be aware that most Chinese firms have little familiarity with a competitive market under the rule of law, so their ability and willingness to obey American law should be monitored. If these guidelines are kept in place, Chinese investment in the US can continue to be a net positive for both countries.
The American Enterprise Institute and The Heritage Foundation’s China Global Investment Tracker follows large Chinese investments, excluding bonds, around the world. The leading recipient of these kinds of investments is the United States, which received almost $78 billion between January 2005 and December 2014.
The deals described in the tracker are worth $100 million or more and are voluntary transactions. They let ordinary people make their own economic choices. Chinese purchases benefit Americans who hold desirable assets, including individual family homes, not just office towers or giant corporations. Chinese investment helps support a small number of American jobs.
China is not an enemy, but it is not a friend. Government involvement in Chinese investment in the US should be limited but some guidelines are necessary. Chinese firms and individuals should not be allowed to buy advanced technology that could have military uses. American policymakers should be aware that most Chinese firms have little familiarity with a competitive market under the rule of law, so their ability and willingness to obey American law should be monitored. If these guidelines are kept in place, Chinese investment in the US can continue to be a net positive for both countries.
Friday, January 23, 2015
.JPG)
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Why Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Spent Years Learning Mandarin Chinese by Julianne Pepitone
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stunned Chinese students when he conducted a half-hour discussion in Mandarin on Wednesday. Zuck's skills delighted the open-mouthed onlookers — but experts say it's all part of Zuckerberg's quest to conquer China, and effectively the world.
Facebook says its mission to is to "make the world more open and connected," but it faces a major roadblock in China. The nation banned Facebook — along with other social sites like Twitter and YouTube — in 2009.
"Is [China] critical to success of Facebook? The answer is no; there's a huge global market outside China," said Brian Blau, consumer tech and markets analyst at research firm Gartner. "But having China will make [Facebook's] global ascent, so to speak, complete. And that's absolutely what they want."
The company has ramped up its make-nice efforts this year, but none has been splashier than Zuckerberg's charm offensive at Tsinghua University's renowned business school on Wednesday.
"I’m so glad to be in Beijing. I love the city," Zuckerberg said in heavily accented Mandarin at the start of the session, revealing his Mandarin skills publicly for the first time. Students gasped audibly throughout the video-recorded discussion, during which Zuckerberg said he learned the language partly because his in-laws speak it, and partly because learning a language helps one understand a country's culture.
The ability to avoid using a translator for business dealings comes in handy, too — especially in China, where communications are typically more formal and government authorities' view of free speech lies in diametric opposition to that of Facebook. (The company did not reply to a request for comment on this article.)
It's not as if China would be merely another line item for Zuck & Co. to add to the list of Facebook-friendly countries; its sheer size makes it tough for any company to ignore. As of April, China had a whopping 618 million Internet users — about double the entire U.S. population — according to data that Topeka Capital Markets analyst Victor Anthony cited in a research note earlier this year.
If Facebook could sign up just 30 percent of those Chinese Internet users (compared with the site's 70 percent penetration in the United States) it would add value of $3 to $4 per Facebook share, Anthony said.
"China is a sore spot for Facebook and its competitors," said Blau, the Gartner analyst. "It's a big potential revenue opportunity. They've all struggled with what to do."
Facebook is trying to figure it out. Tsinghua University announced Monday that Zuckerberg will join its influential board, which includes Apple CEO Tim Cook and other high-profile business leaders. A Facebook spokesperson told Reuters later that day that Zuckerberg will spend several days in Beijing this week to meet with advertising partners and experts to learn about the market.
The company has also been busy hiring Chinese graduate students for positions in the U.S., according to a Chinese-language report that Anthony cited in his research note.
"We believe it is a matter of when, not if, Facebook enters China," Anthony wrote.
Mark Zuckerberg Wows Audience by Speaking ChineseNBC NEWS
But Blau, the Gartner analyst, doesn't think those steps are enough to soften the Chinese government's Facebook ban — with or without Zuckerberg's Mandarin.
"Will it change the biz climate? No. He's just speaking Chinese," Blau said. "They're not changing their product that got banned. But sure, knowing the native language makes him look accommodating and shows he's making an effort."
The fabled extra effort it takes for a native English speaker to learn Mandarin versus Spanish, for example, added to the allure of Zuckerberg's Q&A session.
"The idea that there's something inherently difficult about learning Mandarin is a misconception," said Grant Goodall, professor of linguistics and director of the language program at the University of California at San Diego.
Instead, Goodall said, the difficulty is the lack of cognates between Mandarin and English; that is, television is "télévision" in French and "televisión" in Spanish. One doesn't have to work hard to commit those to memory.
"The difference is that when learning a Romance language, you get a bunch of words for 'free,' so to speak," Goodall said. "So it's a big, big time commitment [to learn Mandarin]. If someone spent 100 hours learning Spanish, it would take 200 to 300 hours to get to the same level in Mandarin."
So Zuckerberg deserves the Internet's collective clap on the back, Blau said, even if it doesn't thaw the icy Facebook-China relations.
"One of the wealthiest guys in the world runs a tough brand every day and took this on to improve himself," Blau said. "That's just a job well done no matter how you look at it."
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Educating for the Future: Learning Mandarin As a Key to U.S.-China Relations by Jennifer Raab
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-j-raab/learning-mandarin-as-akey-to-us-china-relations_b_6278808.html
First Lady Michelle Obama made a critical point earlier this year when she told an audience of American and Chinese students at Peking University, "Studying abroad is about so much more than improving your own future. It's also about shaping the future of your countries and of the world we all share." She might have added this: When the study abroad involves mastering the language, the opportunity for "shaping the future" increases exponentially.
The fact that the First Lady said this in Beijing is especially significant, because of all the foreign languages young Americans need to master, Mandarin Chinese ranks in the top tier; indeed, it may be first. Consider the facts: Economists believe it is only a matter of time before China passes the United States as the largest economy on Earth. More than 875 million of China's 1.28 billion people speak Mandarin, and it is also spoken in Taiwan and the influential Chinese communities of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. That brings the total number of speakers to more than 1 billion -- one-fifth of the planet's population -- making Mandarin the world's most widely spoken first language.
Yes, English will to be the universal language far into the future. Even so, learning languages like Mandarin is imperative. It is a matter of respect for the people with whom we are increasingly engaged in the new global economy. It is also a matter of practical necessity. Communicating with others can be problematic when it has to be done entirely through translators - especially when they are at a second or third tier of proficiency in English. "Lost in Translation" is more than the title of a hit movie.
Clearly then, the U.S. needs to field large numbers of Mandarin speakers in such realms as diplomacy, business, law and academics in order to relate effectively - and compete successfully - with this emerging world power. It is not too much to say that our nation's future prosperity depends on how well we Americans do in the Mandarin-learning business.
At my school, Hunter College in New York City, we take this challenge very seriously. Hunter is one of 11 colleges and universities (10 of them, including Hunter, public) designated as a Chinese Flagship Center, an initiative of the National Security Education Program. We offer an intensive four-year program in Mandarin that students pursue along with another non-language major. It includes funding for two stays in China-a summer trip and a final, capstone year spent studying at a Chinese university and working as an intern with a Chinese organization. Graduates are certified as having Professional Language Proficiency in Mandarin. In the three years since the program began, total enrollment has more than tripled.
Public colleges and universities like Hunter have a particularly important role to play, because learning Mandarin should be an opportunity available to students from every kind of background, not the privilege of an elite few. This is a core issue for Hunter, which has students from 150 different countries, many of modest means and the first in their families to attend college. Our goal is to see this extraordinary diversity reflected in our Chinese language program.
The in-country component of our program is its keystone. Mastering the four tones of the Mandarin language can be extremely difficult, and so practicing in Chinese-speaking surroundings is crucial. And while the term "student ambassador" may seem like something of a cliché, it points to an important truth: Students living overseas and sharing in the daily life of their host country become the familiar, nonthreatening face of their homeland. Over time, as hosts and guests rub shoulders day in and day out, and as a web of cross-cultural relationships is formed, it becomes easier for both sides to recognize their shared humanity and more difficult to sustain suspicions grounded in isolation and ignorance.
Hunter expects to produce a growing stream of graduates who are fully prepared to put their knowledge of Mandarin and their familiarity with Chinese society to valuable use. They may become international lawyers or political scientists or software engineers or translators or architects. Whatever they do, they will contribute to the ongoing US-China dialogue that is crucial to mutual understanding and prosperity.
And, bottom line, a large cohort of Mandarin speakers will contribute to our national security, helping guide U.S.-Chinese relations away from the confrontational and toward the cooperative. That's why the program is called National Security Education. That's why it is one of the best and most cost-effective investments America can make in its higher education system. And that is why it deserves the nation's recognition and continuing support.
First Lady Michelle Obama made a critical point earlier this year when she told an audience of American and Chinese students at Peking University, "Studying abroad is about so much more than improving your own future. It's also about shaping the future of your countries and of the world we all share." She might have added this: When the study abroad involves mastering the language, the opportunity for "shaping the future" increases exponentially.
The fact that the First Lady said this in Beijing is especially significant, because of all the foreign languages young Americans need to master, Mandarin Chinese ranks in the top tier; indeed, it may be first. Consider the facts: Economists believe it is only a matter of time before China passes the United States as the largest economy on Earth. More than 875 million of China's 1.28 billion people speak Mandarin, and it is also spoken in Taiwan and the influential Chinese communities of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. That brings the total number of speakers to more than 1 billion -- one-fifth of the planet's population -- making Mandarin the world's most widely spoken first language.
Yes, English will to be the universal language far into the future. Even so, learning languages like Mandarin is imperative. It is a matter of respect for the people with whom we are increasingly engaged in the new global economy. It is also a matter of practical necessity. Communicating with others can be problematic when it has to be done entirely through translators - especially when they are at a second or third tier of proficiency in English. "Lost in Translation" is more than the title of a hit movie.
Clearly then, the U.S. needs to field large numbers of Mandarin speakers in such realms as diplomacy, business, law and academics in order to relate effectively - and compete successfully - with this emerging world power. It is not too much to say that our nation's future prosperity depends on how well we Americans do in the Mandarin-learning business.
At my school, Hunter College in New York City, we take this challenge very seriously. Hunter is one of 11 colleges and universities (10 of them, including Hunter, public) designated as a Chinese Flagship Center, an initiative of the National Security Education Program. We offer an intensive four-year program in Mandarin that students pursue along with another non-language major. It includes funding for two stays in China-a summer trip and a final, capstone year spent studying at a Chinese university and working as an intern with a Chinese organization. Graduates are certified as having Professional Language Proficiency in Mandarin. In the three years since the program began, total enrollment has more than tripled.
Public colleges and universities like Hunter have a particularly important role to play, because learning Mandarin should be an opportunity available to students from every kind of background, not the privilege of an elite few. This is a core issue for Hunter, which has students from 150 different countries, many of modest means and the first in their families to attend college. Our goal is to see this extraordinary diversity reflected in our Chinese language program.
The in-country component of our program is its keystone. Mastering the four tones of the Mandarin language can be extremely difficult, and so practicing in Chinese-speaking surroundings is crucial. And while the term "student ambassador" may seem like something of a cliché, it points to an important truth: Students living overseas and sharing in the daily life of their host country become the familiar, nonthreatening face of their homeland. Over time, as hosts and guests rub shoulders day in and day out, and as a web of cross-cultural relationships is formed, it becomes easier for both sides to recognize their shared humanity and more difficult to sustain suspicions grounded in isolation and ignorance.
Hunter expects to produce a growing stream of graduates who are fully prepared to put their knowledge of Mandarin and their familiarity with Chinese society to valuable use. They may become international lawyers or political scientists or software engineers or translators or architects. Whatever they do, they will contribute to the ongoing US-China dialogue that is crucial to mutual understanding and prosperity.
And, bottom line, a large cohort of Mandarin speakers will contribute to our national security, helping guide U.S.-Chinese relations away from the confrontational and toward the cooperative. That's why the program is called National Security Education. That's why it is one of the best and most cost-effective investments America can make in its higher education system. And that is why it deserves the nation's recognition and continuing support.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Mark Zuckerberg's Calculated Move to Learn Mandarin by Matt Schiavenza
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/Mark-Zuckerberg-Speaks-Chinese-to-students/381864/
When Mark Zuckerberg spoke Chinese during an appearance Wednesday at Beijing's Tsinghua University, the Facebook CEO smiled and dismissed his linguistic chops. "My Chinese is really zaogao," he said, using the idiomatic term "spoiled cake" for "terrible." The audience cheered, impressed he could say anything at all.
As it turned out, Zuckerberg's Chinese wasn't half bad. The Facebook CEO was able to converse in the language for a half-hour, impressing the audience despite some stumbles with grammar and pronunciation. Foreign Policy's Isaac Stone Fish, a Mandarin-speaker, rated his Chinese as equivalent to that of a second-year college student, while several experts polled by The Washington Post more or less agreed. But Zuckerberg isn't in college. He's the CEO of a $200 billion company based in the United States learning a language that requires the average English-speaker much more time to learn than a European tongue.
Zuckerberg claims a strong interest in Chinese culture. His wife, Priscilla Chan, is an American of Chinese descent, and Zuckerberg is an avowed fan of martial arts star Huo Yuanjia.
But his interest is more than merely personal. Five years after China blocked Facebook, the company retains significant business interests in the country. Chinese app developers have used Facebook as a platform for mobile app installation ads, a large and growing business. The company also maintains a presence in Hong Kong, where 61 percent of the population uses Facebook, and was reportedly seeking to open a sales office in Beijing.
Even if China's government unblocks Facebook, the company faces a more competitive Chinese tech scene than ever before. Both Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, and WeChat, a chat service that resemble Facebook's own WhatsApp, boast user bases in the hundreds of millions. At Xinhua, Zuckerberg cited several Chinese companies, including WeChat's Tencent, as examples of companies whose innovation he admired.
Whatever Facebook's plans for China may be, Zuckerberg's linguistic ability seems to signal that, at least, the CEO did not let the firewall deter him.
"This is not a hobby," said Emily Parker, an expert on China's Internet, on Twitter. "It's a business mission."
When Mark Zuckerberg spoke Chinese during an appearance Wednesday at Beijing's Tsinghua University, the Facebook CEO smiled and dismissed his linguistic chops. "My Chinese is really zaogao," he said, using the idiomatic term "spoiled cake" for "terrible." The audience cheered, impressed he could say anything at all.
As it turned out, Zuckerberg's Chinese wasn't half bad. The Facebook CEO was able to converse in the language for a half-hour, impressing the audience despite some stumbles with grammar and pronunciation. Foreign Policy's Isaac Stone Fish, a Mandarin-speaker, rated his Chinese as equivalent to that of a second-year college student, while several experts polled by The Washington Post more or less agreed. But Zuckerberg isn't in college. He's the CEO of a $200 billion company based in the United States learning a language that requires the average English-speaker much more time to learn than a European tongue.
Zuckerberg claims a strong interest in Chinese culture. His wife, Priscilla Chan, is an American of Chinese descent, and Zuckerberg is an avowed fan of martial arts star Huo Yuanjia.
But his interest is more than merely personal. Five years after China blocked Facebook, the company retains significant business interests in the country. Chinese app developers have used Facebook as a platform for mobile app installation ads, a large and growing business. The company also maintains a presence in Hong Kong, where 61 percent of the population uses Facebook, and was reportedly seeking to open a sales office in Beijing.
Even if China's government unblocks Facebook, the company faces a more competitive Chinese tech scene than ever before. Both Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, and WeChat, a chat service that resemble Facebook's own WhatsApp, boast user bases in the hundreds of millions. At Xinhua, Zuckerberg cited several Chinese companies, including WeChat's Tencent, as examples of companies whose innovation he admired.
Whatever Facebook's plans for China may be, Zuckerberg's linguistic ability seems to signal that, at least, the CEO did not let the firewall deter him.
"This is not a hobby," said Emily Parker, an expert on China's Internet, on Twitter. "It's a business mission."
Monday, January 12, 2015
Kevin Rudd: Don't Believe These Five Myths About China by Jeff Wang
http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/kevin-rudd-dont-believe-these-five-myths-about-china-video
On an autumn day in 1971, in a small Australian town, Kevin Rudd's mother handed him a newspaper. The headline announced the China had joined the United Nations. The impression it left on him led him to a lifelong study of Chinese language and culture. That small, but catalytic act might have had an impression on the world. Rudd later became prime minister of Australia and one of the founders of the G20, and helped avert a global economic depression.
Rudd, now a senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School, spoke last night before an audience of 1,200 educators at the National Chinese Language Conference in Los Angeles, California. [Video of his complete talk embedded below.] At Harvard, his work is defined by three questions: Is a new strategic relationship between the United States and China possible? Can it be inclusive of the values of both societies? And what would it look like?
As his work at Harvard gets under way, he spoke primarily about the danger of mutual misperceptions between powers such as China and the United States. Rudd cautioned against these commonly held myths about China:
- China is a single monolithic state. Though it may speak with one voice, China is vast and diverse. Language is a vehicle for understanding this complexity.
- China intends to rule the world. Historically, China has focused on domestic issues. It has been far more concerned about trade than imperial ambition. This was true during the era of the Ming voyages as it is today.
- China is motivated by wealth, power and, above all, face (面子). The West is also concerned with these things and China is no more concerned than others.
- There are fundamentally conflicting values between the West and China. There are many values — equality, freedom, solidarity with those across borders, and sustainability — that we increasingly share. Many of the philosophical and historical traditions bear some similarity, and it requires deep understanding and study before we write them off as different.
- Chinese is too hard to learn. Chinese grammar is easy and straightforward, and far simpler than Germanic languages, for instance. To learn another's language is a mark of respect and a doorway to understanding. It is do-able even if you start later in life.
Rudd ended his remarks with a truth. He told the audience of educators that it is their work foremost — above that of statemen — that drives the future of the U.S.-China relationship. Teachers build bridges "of the future, to the future."
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Friday, January 2, 2015
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)