11 « Week In China

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WiC 11 (Apr 17, 2009)

Battery-powered Buffett

Auto Industry, Talking Point BYD plans to carjack the hybrid market

Last December’s Detroit road trip to Washington was a cross-country exercise in humility for US car bosses; following the PR disaster of the previous ...

Internet & Tech One of China’s most successful internet firms is under attack

Every nation has its own version of Microsoft, and in China’s case, Ctrip seems to have been propelled into the “dominator” role. Competitors, ...

Healthcare How China proposes to fix its healthcare system

Samuel Goldwyn, the Hollywood film producer, thought a hospital "no place to be sick.” Many Chinese patients have formed similar opinions. But ...

A powerful problem

Energy & Resources China’s electricity prices pose a conundrum for reformers

As far as backfiring sound bites go, Pete Wilson can lay claim to one of the greatest. The former governor of California passed legislation in 1996 ...

Leaving Las Vegas

China and the World Chinese businesses are heading home from overseas

The ‘China Rising’ literary genre sells a lot of business books, especially in airports. You will be familiar with many of the themes – that the ...

Lender of last resort

Banking & Finance Earthquake-ravaged Fangbei tries a financial experiment

After narrowly losing out in the Masters at Augusta last weekend, golfer Kenny Perry cut a very dignified figure. The 48 year-old commented: “If this ...

History Lessons Masterly inactivity

Just before his death, Xiao He, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, urged Emperor Hui (210-188 BC), the ruling monarch, to appoint Cao Shen as his ...

That’s not all, folks

Entertainment China wants to dominate cartoons too

Is Shrek a strategic threat? Most parents would argue he is more of a friendly force, especially in encouraging junior audiences into an hour or two of ...

Fast Food Getting fat in Hangzhou

What is it? Pork belly, with a lot of fat. This Hangzhou classic is not for those watching their cholesterol. Despite the ...

Box office king

Entertainment Who is China’s most successful director?

The average Hollywood studio exec is very likely to know the work of John Woo, has probably heard of Zhang Yimou, and may even have an inkling of Chen ...

Society Fancy eating in the dark?

For one restauranteur in China, décor is not a problem. That’s because his clientele can’t see anything. Welcome to China’s weirdest dining ...

Till the fat ladies sing…

Entertainment Four singers celebrate their size

Counting calories’ means something different in Mauritania. Despite government attempts to discourage the practice, as many as one in five women from ...

Too Yung to gamble

Chinese Character The rise and fall of the Chinese tycoon, Larry Yung

Larry Yung is serious about horseracing. The low-profile billionaire is the owner of a number of prize-winning thoroughbreds and one of only 12 ...

Novel ideas on the internet

Society Millions are paying to read online fiction

Last spring, eight people were arrested by police after successfully (albeit illegally) digging up artifacts from a 15th century tomb near ...

Absolutely bananas

Planet China Many visitors to China have stories of meals featuring creatures rarely…

Many visitors to China have stories of meals featuring creatures rarely represented on Western menus. But snake and shark’s fin pale in comparison to ...

Cartoons Paint it black

One of the more interesting indicators of the Chinese economy’s relative state of health is the art market. And the recent Sotheby’s spring sales ...

And Finally Can the internet help clean up Foshan’s public toilets?

Chinese public toilets are unloved institutions. Adeline Yen Mah recalls in her book, Watching the Tree: “We had been forewarned of the appalling ...