Chinese New Year

By John Ballard

Happy Chinese New Year!
Here are two videos in observance of 2010,  Year of the Tiger. Anybody looking for precision about how many years that might be can paddle around in Lake Wikipedia. I'm satisfied simply to break open a fortune cookie and enjoy the day.

A few years ago I discovered this video spotlighting an ensemble of elderly Chinese musicians performing a traditional melody.

The two stars of the ensemble are the 85 year old Lu Chunling (standing on the picture with his flute) and the 72 year old Li Yi (sitting, holding his banjo). Lu is a master of the bamboo flute. His instrument and virtuosity lead him to play in front of well known people as Queen Elizabeth II and Mao Zedong. The lively and lovely grandpa told the audience during the performance that he has been in the Netherlands 50 years ago, quite some things have changed since his first visit, when he was in his mid-30s. Li Yi is a recognized player of the Chinese banjo. Xu Fengxia (behind her citer on the picture) and Zhang Zhenfang were contributing to the great performance with their instruments, the citer and the erhu.

On a more modern note, Tan Dun is a contemporary Chinese composer whose You Tube Symphony was featured in a global competition via auditions from all over the world submitted via You Tube videos, culminating in a live performance last April in Carnegie Hall. The video is an hour and a half long, but You Tube viewers can drag the timer to selected segments. I particularly like the original composition at 7:45 (only seven or eight minutes). Listen for echoes of Beethoven's Eroica.

This short introduction to Tan Dun appeared yesterday...

?000?

Something told me this morning that a few interesting factoids about China would come up today.
Sure enough here is a treasure trove from The Independent.

• 
  Many Western countries, including Britain, have barely increasing GDP figures, whereas Chinese officials expect an 8 per cent increase, at least, for 2010.
  
  China's urban population right now is more than 540 million, which dwarfs the entire EU.


• By 2025, at least 220 Chinese cities will have more than one million people, compared with 35 for the whole of Europe. Some 300 million rural dwellers will migrate to the cities in the next 20 years.


• China now consumes around 40 per cent of the world's aluminium compared with only 2 per cent in 1970.


• The country's fledgling middle class is steadily establishing the world's largest housing market, with forecasts indicating that China could have as many as 78 million new homeowners by 2013.


• The expansion of cities is driving up demand for cement in particular. Economists have forecast that China will consume 40 per cent of the entire global supply of cement during 2010, having maintained an average annual growth rate of 25 per cent over the past 10 years.


• As supplier to the world, it has helped hold down living costs elsewhere by producing so many cheap goods. For example, it produces two-thirds of the world's socks.


• Official figures show that there are more than 1,000 China-backed projects in Africa and 750,000 Chinese workers in Africa, but these numbers are thought to be an underestimate. China has also rapidly expanded its presence in Latin America, signing 20 oil deals with Venezuela and a $10bn loan to Petroleo Brasileiro in return for a long-term daily supply of 160,000 barrels.


• China's banks are the world's biggest by a long way. Based on market capitalisation, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is the world's biggest bank.


• According to US government statistics, China's average life expectancy stands at 71 for men and 75 for women, which is higher than that of EU members Hungary and Bulgaria. Despite this, there remains a significant disparity between the quality of life enjoyed by those living in wealthier urban areas, who earn on average 3.5 times more than those living in poorer, rural settings.


• China's 2.3 million strong People's Liberation Army is the world's largest military, and it is very much in the hands of the Communist Party.


• China constantly says that human rights issues are domestic matters and that foreign governments have no business interfering. There are no signs that human rights are improving. China doesn't concern itself much with the issue: the rest of the world needs it too much, so the debates about human rights have largely gone out the window.

I live in Cherokee County, Georgia.
Nearby, a private school (pre-K thru college prep) is relocating to a new campus, having outgrown temporary quarters in five years.
The faculty includes a teacher of Mandarin.
Happy Chinese New Year, ya'll.