Finally, A Full Interview With Tang Hui

Interviewing Tang Hui is something I have been wanting to do for months but my translator isn't around right now. So I'm glad somebody at AFP finally saw the value in interviewing Tang Hui and getting her story out there. I've been writing about her for months, trying to get more attention on her. In a culture that traditionally sees no value in girls, Tang Hui has spent 7 years, faced beatings, prison, and police intimidation and brutality to get justice for her only daughter. Tang Hui is a courageous hero and is an important part of a growing peasant uprising happening across China when the common citizens are trampled on.

I've talked before about how Tang was sentenced to a labor camp (basically a prison that any Chinese citizen can be sent to without trial) for "disturbing social order" when she inconvenienced the lives of government officials who refused to fairly prosecute the men who kidnapped and raped her 11-year old daughter. In the AFP interview, Tang talks about what she and her daughter have been through in the last 7 years.

The police initially refused to help rescue Tang's daughter and she found her on her own. Even after she found her daughter, some police refused to rescue the girl. The girl has been physically and emotionally scared for life (as one would expect) and has moved every year to go to new schools to keep her past from catching up with her. The girl should be by her mother's side, getting comfort, but instead must constantly move. Tang stayed in Hunan to fight for justice for her daughter.

The case was intentionally bungled and delayed for over 4 years, almost unbelievable considering how quickly most cases pass through China's strict legal system. Only two of the men were sentenced to death. In the three years since the trial ended, Tang has crusaded for tougher penalties resulting in being beaten so badly she was in the hospital for a week and being sent to a labor camp.

Tang says that she "no longer believe[s] there is justice in this society," but that she "will persevere." Even though she lost her case suing for recompense for being imprisoned in the labor camp, she was granted the right to appeal the ruling. She will carry on, for her daughter, for herself, and for all oppressed people in China. "If I thought about such things, then there are things I would not dare do. And if you don't dare do some things, then those people will never get what they deserve."

Changsha - An International Tourist Destination?

A cool statue on Changsha's Buxing Jie

Changsha's government is hoping to see Changsha as an international vacation destination by 2020. The local officials here feel this lofty goal is reasonable after it hit 1,000,000 tourists in 2013 (whether that is so far or a projection for the year is unclear).

Mao Zedong's childhood home

I live here. I love living here. Some days the smog makes it impossible to breathe, open your windows, or see the building that is just across the alley, but it is far from becoming any kind of a tourist destination, much less an international one.

The problem with the plan that the city's officials have outlined is that, well, there is no real plan for achieving this goal. The only plans they have are things that will increase the quality of life for locals, but not attract tourists. The plan released talks about how "Changsha city government has added more than 80 community parks in the past three years and 700,000 square meters of green space." This is awesome, but not something that will attract tourists. The city also says that it "has many varieties of flowers and plants planted in grassy medians along main roads and important areas, so the city appears as if it is in a perpetual state of springtime." I don't think the word "springtime" means the same thing for Changsha officials as it does for normal people. I live here and I haven't seen this boom in flowers. Also, Changsha has no springtime. It goes from winter to summer back to winter. And the perpetual smog prevents any real feeling of springtime with sunshine and chirping birds. 

At Window of the World

Changsha does have a lot going for it. It is on the fast train line, only 2.5 hours (or less) from Guangzhou. It's now only 6 hours from Beijing. It also has a very nice international airport. The city has tons of hotels (one 5 star hotel with more coming), Chinese and western restaurants, and will have a new subway system open by October, making it very easy to come and stay here. 

Changsha has one of the best zoos in the country, Yuelu mountain, and Shaoshan, Mao Zedong's hometown. It has the Grand Hunan Theater and Mawangdui tombs. Hunan also has a very unique food culture. These things are all great for locals or people in Hunan, but none of that is worth making the trip here. 

The biggest thing (literally and figuratively) that Changsha has going for it is the coming world's tallest building. That is something that people might come from all over the world to see. But that is quickly going to fade. If Broad Group is successful in building a structure of this size in 3 months, they will be copied. More tall buildings will pop up around the world and Changsha will soon just be on a list of tall buildings. 

At the Changsha zoo

Changsha needs something unique to draw tourists. It doesn't have the beautiful mountains of Guilin, the pandas of Chengdu, the history of Xian, or the international appeal of Shanghai. While the city is a great place to live (it has lots of jobs and a low cost of living), it lacks that special "something" to draw tourists in significant numbers. Until the city find's it's spark, it won't achieve it's goal of being an international tourist destination by 2020. Of course, a lot can change in that time. If I'm still here in 2020 and Changsha is the tourist destination it dreams it will be, I'll eat my words. 

It's Really Happening! World's Tallest Building Given Safety Clearance

I've been talking about Changsha being home to the world's tallest building since last June. Originally the building was supposed to have been finished in January of this year. Then April. Then it was just plain stalled because Broad Corp (the construction company) was unable to procure the safety permits. For a few weeks, it seemed as if Changsha was not going to be home to world's tallest building after all.

But today Broad Corp announced that it has finally received the permits and will begin construction in June. This means the building should be done around September or October, about the same time that Changsha's first subway lines will open. And to drive the fact home that the Sky City is coming, Broad Corp has released this surprisingly good promotional video.

I am excited for this. I am looking forward to it and hope it does happen. However, to think that this is somehow going to cure urban sprawl in China is a bit of a dream. The Sky City is being built about 45 minutes away from Changsha. It's far more likely that the sprawl will actually spread as people move closer and closer to Sky City from Changsha. Sky City is going to offer thousands of job opportunities for people who won't live in the building (housekeepers, nannies, tutors, plumbers, decorators, and so on), plus grocery stores, restaurants, and shops will be built in the surrounding area as well. It is fairly typical when large buildings/schools/factories/military bases are built in China that lower class neighborhoods quickly follow. 

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't still support Broad's endeavor. It will at least put a very large number of people in less space that is far more sustainable than in a typical Chinese building. It will help with pollution and urban sprawl, just not as much as Broad's video makes it seem. This is only the beginning, though. If Sky City is even a small success, Broad's model will be repeated. More prefab buildings will be built around China and around the world, and they will continue to improve. Over time buildings like this could change the urban landscape as we know it. 

The most pressing concern is just how far will you actually be able to see from the top? I think it would be amazing to be able to go to an observation deck at the top of the building, but Changsha is rather famous for it's "fairy fog." There are days I can't see the next building over from my 15th floor apartment. It will be pretty disappointing to go to the top and only be able to see smog. What is the city's plan to combat this problem?

A typical view of Changsha's famous scenic Yuelu mountain
from the roof of my apartment building. 

In Honor of Mother's Day - How I Learned to Love My Daughter's Mother

I did something different with my book review this week. I decided to write about Xinran's Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love, but instead of a typical review, I talked about how this book touched me personally. You can read my article "How I Learned to Love My Daughter's Mother" over at iPinion.

PS, also a very happy Mother's Day to my husband's cousin Lindsey who is spending this Sunday here in China with her new daughter.

Ugly Foreigners Hits Home: The Changsha Griefer

I actually first heard about this guy a few month ago, but it came across as an isolated incident and everyone seemed to think he would just move on so I pretty much ignored it. What happened was a tall, blond Westerner was caught asking people for money. He even had the gall to ask for money from another Westerner. He had a sob-story about his wallet getting stolen and and needing 20 RMB to get home (ps, you can get everywhere in Changsha for 2 rmb by bus). 

Changsha is a small town (relatively), and the expat community is even smaller. Even if we don't all know each other personally, we can always find someone who knows someone else around here. It's like six degrees of Kevin Bacon. We all at least know each other through someone else. And we are rare enough that the locals all take notice of the Westerners and what we are doing. I can't eat out anywhere without people "slyly" taking pictures of me. We thought when we first heard of this guy several months ago that it was just a weird anomaly and he would leave soon enough. But, boy, were we wrong. 

Apparently this griefer has been getting more desperate or more bold (or both) in his begging. He has been popping up all over town (usually between Furong Lu and Buxing Jie) asking Westerners and locals for money. He will even hop on buses and grief riders. But what really takes the cake and earns him "Ugly Foreigner" status is that he has been stealing people's drinks at Starbucks. I kid you not. According to local weibo users: 
"I’ve seen him before. He grabbed a girl’s coffee inside the West-side Starbucks, then came back and did it many more times! I was just shocked."
"Once a foreigner at Houjiatang grabbed a bottle of watermelon juice from me, it’s just ridiculous. I forgot whether or not he said thank you to me."
So this guy has moved from occasional annoyance to thief and making all foreigners look bad. He has been a blight on Changsha for about two years and it is time for him to GTFO. So if you see this guy, don't give him any money and guard your coffee!

*UPDATE*
An article over at The Shanghaiist for some reason is trying to gain sympathy for this man. An unnamed source claims the griefer has been in Changsha for 5 years, is HIV positive, and was left destitute after a girlfriend robbed him. I seriously do not know why he hasn't been picked up and handed over to the embassy for deportation. The American embassy traditionally will return Americans back home when they fall on hard times or have serious medical issues come up. I don't doubt that this man needs help, but he isn't going to get it on the local buses. He needs to go.

Link Round-Up, May 6th, 2013

Sorry for the delay here; I was in Hong Kong for the weekend. But here are some awesome links!

The Backstreet Boys are coming to Changsha on June 5th! They better not flake out like stupid Psy! “As part of their 20th anniversary world tour, the Backstreet Boys will begin their tour in China.” (my humble translation). ~ XSPiao.

Changsha is taking the lead in preventing domestic violence against women. “Changsha has built China’s first working team for domestic violence prevention made up of 20 men, who have vowed to strive to take part in domestic violence prevention. The city has established a protection and help center, injury appraisal center and 176 complaint centers across the city…The city has also opened the 12338 hot line, and built a legal service team to offer legal, policy and psychological consulting services to women victims.” ~ All-China Women’s Federation.

Hunan’s first person to die of the new H7N9 bird flu at least wasn’t from Hunan. “Jiao, a native of neighboring Jiangxi Province, tested positive for the flu and was transferred from the Liuyang Municipal People's Hospital to the Changsha Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention on April 26 after eleven days of exhibiting symptoms.” ~ Xinhua.

Three Taiwanese tourists were killed outside Changde, Hunan on their way to Zhangjiajie from Changsha. “A bus crash in China's central Hunan province Monday killed three Taiwanese tourists and seriously injured two others, authorities said…The bus, which was carrying 13 Taiwanese tourists from Changsha to a scenic area in Zhangjiajie, overturned on highway in Changde City, Xinhua reported.” UPI Asia.

The media made a big deal about a “suspension bridge collapse” in Fenghuang, only to find out it was a little swinging bridge over a creek. ~ Xinhua. 

CBS made this interesting video showing the imitation towns that have been popping up all over China. 

China is thinking of adding a five-year visa option beginning in July (which would be awesome!). “It states that China will grant two new types of visa, R1 and R2, for foreign professionals. Both types will be granted to foreign talent and professionals at senior level that the country urgently needs, state-run China Daily reported.” ~ ZeeNews.

China is getting smarter at preventing protests related to sensitive dates - just make everyone go to work. “As text messages circulated calling for another protest, authorities decided to fiddle with the calendar: For many, Saturday became a workday, and the day of rest was moved to Monday, May 6. So as Saturday dawned, schoolchildren straggled reluctantly back to class, and employees at government-run work units discovered the day was taken up by urgent meetings.” ~ NPR.

Some people just deserve to be scammed. Seriously. Who would pay over 3 million RMB to get a package through customs? “Police arrested 14 African men who had used Malaysia as their base to con women in China through parcel scams…The fourteen men, students in private colleges here, were nabbed at four premises in Taman Mutiara Indah, Puchong, after they were alleged to have conned three Chinese women of a total of RM9.5 million.” ~ New Straits Times.

Book Review: Healing, Romance, and Revolution: Letters from an American Nurse in 1926 China by Dennis and Carolyn Buckmaster

I don't use Twitter very much, but when I do I am sure to look for any posts related to "Changsha." That is how I found the book Healing, Romance, and Revolution: Letters from an American Nurse in 1926 China. Harriet Smith was a nurse in Changsha, Hunan, China for several years. This book only covers one year when she actively wrote to her mother and best friend regularly.

Since I live in Changsha, I found the book to be very interesting. It is still common for my husband and I to be stopped and asked for pictures when we go downtown, yet reading this book showed me that foreigners have a long tradition here in Changsha. "Hat" worked at a mission hospital and nursing school during her years here, but there were also universities, a YMCA, and other foreign owned business here in Changsha during that time. Hat was hardly an anomaly back then and had plenty of other foreigners to keep her company. I really enjoyed reading about the awful weather we have here and familiar places like Yuelu ("Yali" back then) mountain and Orange Island. There are some very interesting passages about Chiang Kai-shek and the clashes between the Communists and the Kuomintang during that time.

While I enjoyed the book for the most part, it does have significant issues. First of all, the title. The title is way, way too long. It tells you that this book is self-published because there is no way that a real publisher would let a title like that out the door. I know it seems like a weird thing to harp on, but since I am in China most of my books are on Kindle and the title is too long to see in the library or across the top of the page. It is obnoxiously long and amateurish. Secondly, I think anyone not living in Changsha would have a hard time finishing it. I finished it because I have a vested interest in a book about the city I live. But even I found myself plodding through the second half. The book isn't incredibly long (only about two hundred pages), but it feels like it is much longer. It took me about two months to finish when a book that length should only take a few days. I found myself looking for the original documents that were included just so I could skip some pages because that information was completely irrelevant to the story. They are great primary sources if you are researching this time and this place, but for anyone else it doesn't add to the story. In fact, there are times when she just goes on and on about pointless things (like the rugs! She just drones on multiple times about buying the stupid rugs) that should have been cut out. However, there was a lot more about her I wanted to know that wasn't included. What was she even doing in Changsha, China? What happened to her afterwards? Also, the end-notes make it hard to read. There are many people and places whom readers need more information about, which are included in the end-notes, but having to go back and forth from the book to the end notes is frustrating. Also, some of Hat's stories are without any context, like just what was going on politically and her sudden engagement. This book would have been much better as a novel and not just a collection of letters. The book should have been novelized both for a better reading experience and to appeal to a wider audience. The letters should have just been given away free on the website or included as an appendix as primary sources for researchers.

Long story, short:  I did enjoy the book, but only because I have a personal connection to Changsha. I don't think anyone who doesn't live here would be able to finish it. The book needs to be completely rewritten as a novel in order to appeal to a wider audience because it really is fascinating, but frustrating to read in this format. I'm giving it 3 stars because I live in Changsha; for anyone else it is probably just a 2.

I Do Book Reviews!

Have you noticed that I do book reviews? One of my goals this year is to publish one book review each week. So far I have only done books by popular authors such as Anchee Min, Xinran, and Lisa See. But I will review any book with a China theme. If you have written a book that somehow has a relation with China, I will happily review it. I accept books in any genre. I don't charge for reviews, but will need an e-copy of the book (I don't accept physical copies). I also cross-post reviews to Amazon and Good Reads.

If you have written a book that somehow relates to China and would like me to review it, send an email to amanda@amandarobertswriter.com. If you have written a short piece like a short story, essay, or poem, please consider submitting it to my new anthology Floating Lanterns.

Have you written a book that isn't related to China, but still want reviews? Then check out The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages, a compendium of hundreds of websites and blogs all willing to review your book (most for free!).

Update on Tang Hui: Down, But Not Out

Last week Tang Hui finally had her day in court in her lawsuit against government officials who imprisoned her and sent her to a labor camp without trial. The court, unsurprisingly, did not find in her favor. On Tuesday, Tang filed an appeal. Hopefully, the more she appeals and the higher up the court system she goes, she will get further away from local, corrupt prejudice. That's probably just wishful thinking, though.

Weird New Attraction at Window of the World in Changsha

If you live in Changsha and you're really, really (I mean really) bored, you could head out to Window of the World theme park to see their latest attraction: giant furniture. They seriously have the lamest events out there.

In communist China, chair sits on you!