|
Front Page of the Day
Wen Jiabao in the classroomPosted by Joel Martinsen, September 7, 2009 4:42 PM
Friday morning, September 4, Premier Wen Jiabao attended five periods of class at Beijing's #35 Middle School. The Premier's morning schedule included a math lesson on congruent triangles, a look at Sun Li's short story "The Reed Marshes," a geography lesson on "the cradle of the Chinese people," a lecture on research, and a music lesson on the song "May the World Be Filled With Love." According to Xinhua's account of the students' impressions, Wen took copious notes. Teacher's Day in China falls on September 10, so the Premier's visit included an afternoon meeting on the importance of education and the need to keep teachers' salaries on par with civil servants. Today's front-page photo follows more than a week's worth of similar feel-good stories on the front page of The Beijing News. Many of the featured stories so far this month have been related to the upcoming 60th anniversary celebrations: preparing downtown Beijing for the parade and drilling the soldiers who will be taking part. The H1N1 flu has been the only other major story, with a photo on the 1st of students getting their temperature checked, and a close-up of a new vaccine on the 4th. Other Beijing newspapers have had similar cover photos, with the Beijing Times in lock-step with The Beijing News the past few days. Links and Sources
|
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
HaiTek on
Chinese in Argentina
Sam Voutas on
Taxi vs Taxi
animal rig on
Cats and dogs in the animal cruelty law
Paul Jones on
Bankrupt schools and their fleeing foreign bosses
Chris/Kati on
Reserve a ticket on the 2012 ark through Taobao!
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
 Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
 Tales of Old Hong Kong: The new Tales of Old Hong Kong compiled by Derek Sandhaus is available at Earnshaw Books.
Diamond Hill by Feng Chi-shun: Feng's memoir Diamond Hill describes an era of gambling and gangsters, Suzie Wong and squatter villages, fires and food stalls, and the Kowloon Walled City and its white powder. "A time when people were poor, but life was rich," he says. The world that he grew up in no longer exists, but his book - the first ever on the Diamond Hill refugee settlement, in either Chinese or English - offers a candid picture of what life was like for most Hong Kong residents in the 1950s.
William A. Callahan's China: The Pessoptimist Nation: China: The Pessoptimist Nation shows how the heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Through a careful analysis of how Chinese people understand their new place in the world, the book charts how Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings in a dynamic that intertwines China's domestic and international politics.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ Lost in Beijing finally gets killed (2008.01): SARFT (广电总局) brings down the hammer on Lost in Beijing (苹果), one year after its offense. + People: Tina Liu (2004.09): Tina Liu is Hong Kong's most prominent image stylist, but her mercurial career has involved her in almost every aspect of Hong Kong's media world. + Asimov Published, Interviewed in Beijing (2005.03): Cover story from this week's Book Review section of The Beijing News announces the publication of a Chinese translation of Isaac Asimov's complete Foundation series. Yup, the Beijing News has scored a fictional interview with "I, Asimov". They've been taking similar liberties recently in their entertainment sections, captioning photographs of celebrities with made-up quotes.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
 (on the mainland)or Feedburner  (blocked in China) Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links) Top Links: Links from the top bar Danwei Jobs: Want ads Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30 |
 |
Chinese media, advertising, and urban life. |
|
tweet
facebook
bookmark
HaoHao
digg
Comments on Wen Jiabao in the classroom
This event may have been completely staged, but it is another nice feather in the Premier's cap showing us what a fatherly man he is, channeling Zhou Enlai (rather than that rebellious advocate of naked physical education, Chairman Mao). What a marked contrast this was with the apoplectic response in the United States to an Obama school visit. I wonder how many of the kids at Beijing #35 will ace the Gaokao and end up unemployed anyway: this is one story ripe for a follow-up!
Today's papers are reporting that the Premier found a mistake during the geography lesson:
The "new textbooks" have been published by SinoMaps since 1995. Time to be thrown out?
Justrecently's blog provides an excerpt from the class visit which indicates how Wen -- in a far from original yet nevertheless important idea -- extends into China's wartime past to increase student gratitude for their peaceful surroundings. The Kangzhan, it seems, is the ultimate response to student ennui.
link