Mourning Loss of a Beijing Bookstore

The Bookworm was a wonderful place to learn more about China in English

Today came sad news from Beijing -- The Bookworm is closing next Monday, November 11. For many expats in the Chinese capital go there to not only find books, but also meet people, have a drink, have lunch, hang out, and write their memoirs (I know at least one journalist did!).

For me it was a great place to listen to all kinds of speakers talk about China, and they were all pretty frank about the politics, the economy, social and environmental issues. But they were also very excited about what they were discovering.

Paleontologist Xu Xing talked about his field work

I remember paleontologist Xu Xing talking about discovering dinosaurs in Liaoning province and how there are so many dinosaurs yet to be unearthed and what they can tell us about prehistoric life in what is geographically China now.

One year I interviewed Howard Goldblatt, who through his winding career that started off in the US Army led to him studying Chinese in Taiwan and had a knack for learning the language so much so that he became a translator.

And listening to him talk about what it's like to translate a novel, and in particular Chinese -- you have to really understand what the author meant to say in the passage to be able to convey that in a similar writing style but in English.

He translated Wolf Totem, a semi-autobiographical novel by Jiang Rong, that talks about young people being sent down to remote Inner Mongolia and learning the ways of the nomadic people there and how wolves are critical to the ecosystem.

Academic Howard Goldblatt on the intricacies of translation

The Bookworm held the Literary Festival every year and there were always interesting authors coming through, or people who live in Beijing but I didn't know about. I always tried to catch as many of these as I could to get different perspectives on things.

Sadly the bookstore and unofficial community centre is closing down because it is an "illegal structure".

General manager David Cantaloupo explained The Bookworm was originally started on Sanlitun Beilu in 2002 and then moved to Courtyard 4 in Sanlitun, diagonally opposite Sanlitun Village.

"[When] they started to privatize state-run enterprises 20 years ago, regulations were looser then," he says. "[The bookshop was built] on a pump room. It doesn't have an address. It's [built on] a structure that was never [transformed] into things that they can rent out. [It is an illegal structure]. We've been paying rent here for a long time.

Many authors came to the Literary Festival every year

"[The government] are trying to clean up Beijing. City planners are trying to get things in order. Whether there's anything else behind it, it is unclear to us," Cantalupo said.

In a statement that was disseminated this afternoon, the bookstore thanked everyone for their support and hoped to keep The Bookworm going.

"While we attempt to reorganize and find a new location, we wish to say what an honor and a pleasure it has been to have played a small part in fostering cultural exchange, promoting literature and an appreciation of the arts during an incredibly exciting era in Beijing, and indeed for China as a whole."

I hope the owners do find a new location and keep The Bookworm going. It's doing a massive public service to bridge the gap between East and West, creating greater understanding of China, and at the same time making us expats feel like we're not alone in Beijing.

Remembering the Creator of Old Master Q

Joseph Wong's felt-tip drawing of Old Master Q

I woke up to the news this morning that the creator of Old Master Q, Alfonso Wong, had died in California at the age of 93 of organ failure on January 1.

A giant poster in the courtyard of Comix Home Base

It was very sad news, as I heard he was not in good health for a long time.

For many Old Master Q was the comic strip they read as children, they really liked him, along with characters Big Potato, Mr Chin, Mr Chiu and Miss Chan.

The last three characters contrasted with Old Master Q and Big Potato, who were from a bygone era and helped provide social commentary in a humorous way about how society was changing from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Wong used his son Joseph's Chinese name as a pen name, Wong Chak, and he followed his father in not only learning how to draw Old Master Q and his companions, but also continuing the comic strip a bit longer and later set up a company to retain the copyright of the characters.

Joseph drawing Old Master Q

Last month I was very fortunate to speak to Joseph, 68, and ask him about his father. His memories of him when he was a child was watching Alfonso drawing all the time, and he assumed that all fathers did this.

One time in school the teacher asked each student in the class what their father did, and that's when Joseph realized his father was the only one who drew for a living.

And because his father used Joseph's Chinese name as a pen name, whenever the phone rang for Wong Chak, they had to ask which one.

Joseph explains that Old Master Q is actually his father, that he drew himself into the comics, and the way he acted and interacted with people was very similar to the cartoon character.

It's amazingly coincidental that there is an exhibition of Old Master Q at Comix Home Base, featuring not only archival cartoons, but also local artists reinterpreting the comic strip.

An artist's interpretation of the famous comic book character

The show was supposed to end today, but will be extended until January 5. Hopefully it will be further extended to give people more time to visit and appreciate Alfonso Wong's contribution to Hong Kong culture.

Generational Divide

Many fresh graduates have high hopes, then see the reality of the job market

Government figures show that fresh graduates in Hong Kong are only earning HK$1,800 more than those who finished tertiary education 20 years ago. That means today's university graduates aged 20-24 are earning a median income of HK$10,800 ($1,393) in 2014 compared to HK$9,000 in 1994.

Data from the Census and Statistics Department show a 20 percent rise in median income, which compares to a 45 percent increase in the Composite Consumer Price Index, 75 percent in tuition fees, and nearly triple of property prices.

Simon Lee Siu-po, assistant dean of undergraduate studies at Chinese University's Business School says employers could be less willing to make attractive job offers because he believes there are so many more university graduates each year.

All families want their children to do better than the previous generation, and many believe education is the way out. However the sheer numbers of graduates each year means a flood in the labour market, thus lowering the value of a university degree.

Some employers prefer to hire graduates from the mainland

Lee then took a dig at young people today, saying, "Youngsters nowadays, compared to the last generation, are less skillful and are reluctant to learn. Many employers are disappointed by the young generation."

He even went so far as to say employers would rather hire mainland graduates because their English and Putonghua skills were much better than locals.

Ouch.

This touched of a maelstrom of comments, at first illustrating how wages have not kept up with inflation at all, but also how it was practically impossible for young people to save with salaries that are so low.

Then the issue of young people not as hardworking as the previous generation is a perennial comment older people like to say. While many of us may have come across students or young people we don't think are as diligent as they should be, there are many others who maybe putting in more hours than we know of.

Nevertheless, many employers are frustrated that a lot of young people believe they are not being paid what they are worth and so they decide their own work output. It's an interesting perspective that employers haven't encountered before, but it is kind of a chicken-and-egg conundrum -- bosses don't think they can give pay raises unless the employee can demonstrate their worthiness, while employees think, pay me better and then I'll do more work.

But perhaps the last problem of employers looking to expand overseas are choosing to hire more mainland graduates than local ones hits a sensitive spot, particularly with the Occupy movement last year, as well as nativism that is ongoing.

Part of the problem is that students have been screwed around by the Education Department, using them as guinea pigs to see which language is the best medium of instruction. Before 1997 it was English, and then it was Cantonese and now it's becoming more Putonghua in the classroom.

If you keep changing the regulations, students get very confused and don't really learn much of anything effectively. Is it surprising that this has impacted graduates' skill sets to help them land a job?

I would hazard to guess that the majority of fresh graduates are keen to make a good start on their careers, and like us before, will find it's not that easy to find a job, or discover there's no such thing as a dream job.

They just want to be given a chance to prove themselves and from there it's how determined they are to make something of their lives and to contribute to society.

Granted the economy is slow these days, we should at least give young people the opportunity to demonstrate their Lion Rock spirit. They may not have the exact skills needed, but if they have the right attitude, then why not give them a chance? They are our future, the city's future.

Just End to a Two-Year Nightmare

Justice was served today for an Indonesian domestic helper who suffered horrific torture and slave-like conditions by her employers.

Tai Chi-wai, 42 was sentenced to three years and three months in jail, while his wife Catherine Au Yuk-shan, 41, was handed a five and a half year jail sentence.

The trial which lasted several days gripped the city as the domestic helper Kartika Puspitasari, 30, testified about how she was beaten and forced to do undignified things for two years.

Kartika told of when she first arrived in October 2010, Au threw away all her clothes and forced her to wear over sized old clothes, but no underwear or bras. She also told of how Au cut off all her hair and brandished a box cutter, threatening to kill her if she let her hair grow back. Then the employer slashed her forearm and wrist with the blade, the scars still visible.

The domestic helper testified she worked seven days a week with no holiday or pay, and was forced to sleep in the kitchen. And then Au beat her often, using wire hangers, shoes, and a bicycle chain, and even scalded her face with a hot iron.

That's not all -- Kartika said in court that from June 27 to July 1 last year, before the family went on holiday to Thailand, Tai tied her legs to a chair and her hands behind her back. She testified that he left no food or water for her and literally sat there for five days until her employers came back.

The couple's defense? They claimed Kartika's injuries were self inflicted and that her claims were "ridiculous".

In giving his verdict, Judge So Wai-tak described the couple as "cruel" and "vicious", and that they had damaged Hong Kong's reputation as a safe place to work. He said that a doctor's testimony showed that Kartika could not have intentionally hurt herself because of where the marks were on her body.

According to media reports, Au and Tai were calm when the sentence was read out, and apparently were prepared for jail; they already contacted the Social Welfare Department to look after their three children ranging in age from five to 11.

Hong Kong started importing domestic helpers in the late 1970s which made it easier for women to go to work in order to contribute to a two-income household. They first came from the Philippines and more now from Indonesia.

While the monthly income they earn here is good compared to what they can earn back in their home countries, doing domestic work and looking after children and the elderly is physically demanding, and for many it's demeaning, as some have university degrees.

The majority seem get along with their employers, some have very happy relationships with their families, while Kartika's case is the other extreme as a two-year brutal physical and psychological nightmare.

This case shows how few checks and balances there are when it comes to Hong Kong families hiring domestic helpers. Since she lives with the family, the domestic helper has no choice but to live with the family and try to tolerate the situation.

Domestic helper support groups are now calling for the government to allow option of domestic helpers living with their employers so that they are not on call 24 hours a day, and also it will make it easier for them to report abuses to the police.

It will be interesting to see how the government reacts to this case and if it leads to further guidelines on how domestic helpers should be treated in Hong Kong. It cannot turn a deaf ear to these workers who make a significant contribution to the city's economy and community.

The Real Lives of China's Paramedics

A scene from Emergency Room, a documentary by Zhou Hao

The Chinese Documentary Film Festival 2013 started last week and runs until September 28. It's been going for six years and this year features the largest program to date. I didn't know much about the festival until YTSL told me about it and we caught a documentary last night at the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

It's called Emergency Room by Zhou Hao made this year. At first viewers don't quite understand what is going on because there is no narrator. We literally follow paramedics in ambulances as they go from one call to another.

Here's the trailer:

One of the first calls is to a small lane and the paramedics, wearing white lab coats, have to carry their equipment to find a young man who has fallen from a low-rise apartment block.

But he is already dead by the time they arrive. After a quick assessment, one of the paramedics say that although the deceased was a drug user as evidenced by the needle points all over his arms, the man succumbed from his injuries from the fall.

The paramedics want the police at the scene to sign a paper proving they did attend to the scene, but the undercover police refuse to do so, as they admit to chasing the man and he jumped trying to avoid them. As a result the police are worried about being blamed for his death.

And so we get a peek into the life of paramedics, the people they attend to, how hospitals work in Guangzhou and the overall health system.

Paramedics only make money when they successfully collect someone and take them to the hospital and are paid by the patient themselves or family and friends.

However, when they ask the patients they bring to the hospital to contact their family or friends, many of them say they don't have any. One man is stabbed after a fight with a fellow factory worker. He is brought in but claims to have no friends, and yet doesn't want to tell his family where he is because he doesn't want to be seen as a failure. He starts to cry thinking of his predicament of being fired yet again.

Another is a drug user who wanders aimlessly in hospital clothes and yet claims to be looking for his sister, saying his father is in prison, his mother disappeared. One paramedic has to look after him and is annoyed that the original hospital won't take him -- this prevents the paramedic from going out on other calls, and thus earning more money.

But he takes his responsibility seriously and looks after the addict the best he can under the circumstances, much like baby sitting a petulant child.

There are a few cases of drinking too much alcohol. When the paramedics arrive, the groom-to-be has died from excessive drinking. They try to jump start his heart using a defibrillator many times, but he is long gone.

Meanwhile the grooms' friends are in a state of shock, wailing and kneeling in front of his body as the paramedics go through the motions even though they know he is dead.

Then there's another case of drinking too much but this time the guy is lucky, after he is given an injection inducing him to urinate. The young man even boasts that he usually drinks even more than tonight and how drinks with really high alcohol content leave his mouth feeling really dry. Really?

We also meet a woman who is apparently pregnant but passed out from an overdose because she had a fight with her husband after discovering he was having an affair. An acquaintance brings her into the hospital but then has to find the woman's parents to pay for the hospital fees, to no avail.

The woman comes to and smokes in the hallway, admitting she is pregnant. She claimed she wanted to kill herself and then staggers off.

Documentary filmmaker Zhou Hao

Meanwhile we watch some trainee nurses practicing for their exams, while full-time nurses complain about how men don't want to go out with nurses because they work long shifts.

The documentary shows how sad people's lives are -- migrants who come to the city alone and hardly have any friends they could depend on to help them, others in depressing situations, and then those who are drug addicts whose families have deserted them and turn to hospitals for help.

It also demonstrates how the paramedics only have time to deal with symptoms and nothing is being done to address underlying social problems.

What is even more impressive is how this film was made -- with a digital camera -- and the paramedics are willing to be so candid. Periodically the cameraman -- probably the director -- asks them questions to further explain things or talk about their livelihood, but for the most part the camera watches them, with some amusing results.

Hao was previously a trained photographer working in state media before he switched to documentaries in 2001. His best known work is Senior Year, about the dreaded annual gaokao or university entrance exams, while Using follows a drug dealer.

Emergency Room is a snapshot of what is going on in Guangzhou -- but could easily be a picture of every other city in China. We hope Zhou continues to make these kinds of documentaries to show us what is really going on in the mainland -- warts and all.