1. Fresh Off The Boat. I’m guilty of putting off watching this one because I was a little nervous about it. I’m not a fan of the comedian behind it – Eddie Huang – so I was worried the humor wouldn’t translate well. But was I wrong. My god-daughter calls it “the ChineseModern Family.” And after finally devouring the first season in two days, I have to agree. The humor is just as good as anything written on Modern Family and has broad appeal. For me personally, since I have lived in China, Orlando, and was a teenager in the 90s, the show and its humor appeal to me on every level. Even if you don’t hit all those notes, there is something here for everyone. The good news is the show was just renewed for its third season!

The show stars Constance Wu as Jessica the mom, Randall Park (he’s actually Korean, but that is a different conversation) as Louis the dad, and Hudson Yang as Eddie the eldest son. It follows the Huang family as they move from Washington DC to Orlando in 1995 where Louis opens a steakhouse. While the whole cast is amazing and everyone is funny (even the grandma, who only speaks Chinese) Wu’s Jessica is the real show-stealer. Every scene she is in is laugh out loud funny and she perfectly captures the quintessential “Chinese mother.” The casting also features a whole host of other Chinese and Asian actors. In summary: funny, funny, funny. Definitely check it out. Fresh Off The Boat is on ABC.

2. Rush Hour. Can you believe it has been eighteen years since the Rush Hour movie came out? Unfortunately, the TV version was canceled after only its first season (which was only a half season), but you can still check out the last two episodes on CBS on Thursday nights. While Rush Hour couldn’t quite live up to the quality and charm of the original, it should have been given another season. The show was funny, the martial arts were decent, and the plot definitely made for a quality hour of television. I will certainly miss this one next year.

The show starred Jon Foo as Agent Lee (the Jackie Chan role),  Justin Hires as Detective Carter (the Chris Tucker role), and Jessika Van as Kim, agent Lee’s sister. The martial arts are not as good as the original movie, but without Chan and with a TV budget, having the same standard would be an impossible task, but they do what they can. I said after episode 4, “they really need more martial arts in this show,” and then episode 5, Assault on Precinct 7, really went all out. I was impressed. The show had an uphill battle to climb to stand on the shoulders of the original, but it did a really great job and deserved more of a chance. Check it out before it’s gone!

3. Into The Badlands. If it’s martial arts you want, then Into the Badlands is for you. We are talking Game of Thrones level violence here, and it is amazing! The really exciting news is that AMC renewed Into the Badlands for a second season! The show features Daniel Wu as Sunny, a (smokin’ hot) warrior in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where guns are outlawed so everyone uses hand-to-hand combat, even the women! the only issue with the show is that Wu is the only Chinese actor in it. The two other notable non-white characters are Sunny’s girlfriend, Veil, played by Madeleine Mantock, who is of Black, Hispanic, and European descent, and Sunny’s padawan M.K., played by Aramis Knight, who is of German, Indian, and Pakistani descent. Still, that’s pretty high diversity for most American TV shows today. It also gets a bump and is on this list because the general plot of Into the Badlands is loosely based on Journey to the West, the famous Chinese saga of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to the Western Regions to obtain Buddhist sacred texts. I haven’t noticed many similarities yet, but the characters haven’t yet begun their “journey.” Hopefully the series will last long enough to see those similarities come through.

4. Hell on Wheels, Season Five. Yes, just season five. One of the only things most Americans know about Chinese-American history is that Chinese laborers were used to build the railroads. Yet Hell on Wheels’ creators must have missed even that little tidbit in history class because for the first four seasons there was not one Chinese character. The show finally makes up for that dearth by making the Chinese railroad workers the central plot of season five. You don’t need to watch the first four seasons to know what is going on. Two railroad companies are trying to be the first to reach California. Most of what happened in the first four seasons is completely irrelevant to where the show is now. And since the show has a penchant for (spoilers) killing off its totally amazing women characters, I would have stopped watching it myself if the fifth season hadn’t focused on the Chinese railroad workers. The final season of Hell on Wheels(which is the second half of season five) will premiere on June 11, so you have plenty of time to catch the first half of season five before then. Hell on Wheelsseason five stars Anson Mount as Cullen Bohanon, the railroad foreman, Byron Mann as Chang, the dangerous “rice shop” owner who supplies the railroad with Chinese workers, Angela Zhou as Fong, a young railroad worker with a secret, and Tzi Ma as Fong’s father. The plot is strong, the characters are realistic, and the casting is excellent. It’s only too bad Hell on Wheels didn’t include these characters from the beginning. Hell on Wheels is also on AMC.

Check out this behind the scenes story about the making of season five of Hell on Wheels.

The post TV Shows With Chinese Actors You Need To Be Watching appeared first on The Nanfang.

The ad has had millions of views and has sparked debate and discussion around the country. Some people believe the ad is empowering. Some think it is pandering. Personally, I think the ad is daring not only because it empowers women, but because it directly undermines the Chinese government.

The derogatory term “leftover women” (剩女; shèngnǚ;) was coined over a decade ago by the All-China Women’s Association, an organization that was founded in 1949 as the leader of the women’s rights movement but has become little more than a Party mouthpiece to help keep women in their place. The term refers to women over 25 (it was 27, but apparently the age has been lowered in recent years) who are not yet married and thus unlikely to get married. Even though these women are typically not married because they have been furthering their education and careers, they are considered a drain on society because they are not getting married and giving birth to the next generation. Even though China’s explosive rate of leftover men is a much larger problem, shengnan (剩男) are not similarly criticized and the term doesn’t hold the same meaning. Men can get married at any time in their lives and are expected to get married later as they pursue their careers. Since there are at least 20 million more men in China than women, it is unavoidable that many of these men will never marry.

Leftover men are viewed victims who don’t have a choice but to remain single; leftover women are viewed selfish for choosing to remain single.Leftover men are viewed victims who don’t have a choice but to remain single; leftover women are viewed selfish for choosing to remain single.

The Chinese government has been behind this calculated attack on urban, educated women from the beginning. China has been hurtling toward a demographic disaster since the inception of the one-child policy in 1979, but China has only been taking steps to correct this course in recent years. By focusing on “leftover women,” the Chinese government was able to shift the blame the countries lack of employees to women who are getting jobs instead of getting husbands and pivot away from blame on the one-child policy.

“Yes, we are in a bad situation, but it wouldn’t be this bad if those women were hunting for husbands as hard as they are hunting for jobs,” the government seems to say. By not taking one of the millions of leftover men into her bed and giving birth to the next generation of Chinese workers, unmarried women in China are not doing their duty for the Chinese State.

The Chinese government has even ramped up its attacks on unmarried women in recent years. Especially since the adoption of the two-child policy, you expect to see more attacks against “leftover women” because these women are actively working against China’s efforts to increase its population.

I’m surprised that the SK-II ad was approved by Chinese censors and it hasn’t been removed. The message that women don’t need to get married or have kids is totally contrary to the message the Chinese government has been sending women for over a decade.

And that is why this ad is so subversive. This ad glorifies the leftover woman. It empowers them. It calms their parents’ fears. It tells women that they can be good Chinese daughters on their own. And that’s pretty awesome.

The post How a Cosmetics Company is Subverting the Chinese State appeared first on The Nanfang.

“The transaction strengthens our dominant position in China’s image industry, enhances our core competence in the global high-end image market, and marks a significant milestone on our journey of globalization,” said Amy Jun Liang, CEO of Visual China Group.

But what does this actually mean for the images and their use? Will the images become harder to access? 

Inside China, the photos are already heavily censored, so I don’t see a reason why there would be any changes.

Outside of China, the images will not be hard to find. Thanks to the Internet, images like “Tank Man” are easy to find. However, they might become more difficult for use in projects for profit, such as films. Would that mean that China would be enforcing its oppressive censorship on the world?

The post Chinese Company Now Owns the Rights to Iconic Tiananmen Square Photos appeared first on The Nanfang.

You can find the dumpling wrapper recipe here.

This flavorful recipe is sweet with a kick of pepper. Sure to be your new favorite!

Sweet and Spicy Salmon Dumplings

This recipe says you can use cooked salmon (maybe from a leftover meal at home or from a restaurant), but you can also used fresh salmon. The dumplings will get hot enough when fried to cook the salmon. You can also use canned salmon in a pinch. 

¾ cup honey
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
¼ cup pineapple juice
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Dash of paprika
Dash of garlic powder
1 cup cooked salmon, chopped or shredded
12 dumpling wrappers
1 cup of oil, if frying

1. In a saucepan, add all filling ingredients except salmon and heat over medium heat. Stir occasionally until sauce begins to boil. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes until syrupy.
2. Remove from heat and blend in salmon.
3. Drain sauce from salmon and set aside.
4. Spoon salmon mixture into dumpling wrappers and pinch closed.
5. Cook dumplings.
   • To fry dumplings, preheat oil in a wok for 30 seconds on high heat, then lower heat to medium. Cook dumplings on each side for about 3 minutes or until golden brown.
   • To steam dumplings, place in a steamer basket or on an elevated plate in a wok over water on high heat for about 10 minutes.
6. Always cut a dumpling open to make sure it is cooked through.
7. Serve hot with excess sauce for dipping.

The post Dumplings Get Creative: A Recipe for Sweet and Spicy Salmon Dumplings appeared first on The Nanfang.

Perhaps Mr. Frank should have applied for Chinese visas.

While European countries and America closed their doors to those asking for help, a few brave Chinese foreign ministers went out of their way to rescue as many refugees as they could and put them on boats to Shanghai.

Ho Feng-Shan was the consul general of China in Vienna during that tumultuous time. Sometimes called “China’s Schindler,” from 1938-1940 he saved thousands of Jewish lives by issuing them visas for Shanghai. Shanghai accepted over 20,000 Jewish refugees during the WWII era.

The similarities between the refugee crisis of WWII and the Syrian refugee crisis of today cannot be ignored. But while Europe and America openly debate why and how they should accept the refugees or not, China has remained shockingly silent on the matter.

China is a vast land with a growing economy but is facing several demographic issues. With an aging population and a dwindling workforce, accepting refugees would make good economic, if not moral, sense.

Even though China has already announced plans to amend the one-child policy into a two-child policy, it will take decades to see any improvement. Economists predict that China’s workforce will diminish sharply by 2030, a mere 14 years from now. Second-children born next year will not be able to enter the workforce in time.

Statistics show that immigrants increase gross domestic product. More people means more production.

In 2014, Germany was also facing a shortage of millions of skilled workers. After Germany agreed to accept 800,000 Syrian refugees, the head of the International Monetary Fund (the IMF) Christine Lagarde said, “If the influx [of refugees] is well-managed, yes, it is bound to be a positive in a society which is aging and which has the fiscal space to accommodate it.”

Economist Thomas Piketty, the author of “Capital in the 21st Century,” recently wrote, the crisis represents an “opportunity for Europeans to jump-start the continent’s economy.”

Why shouldn’t China take a bite of this economy-boosting pie?

There are other ways immigrant populations can benefit China. More workers pay more taxes, which benefit everyone, but especially future generations. Public education in London, England has seen extraordinary improvement in recent years, much of which is credited with the city’s large migrant population.

Immigrants bring different skills and aptitudes and can transmit those to non-immigrant colleagues (and vice versa). They can increase competition in particular labor markets, increasing the incentive for natives to acquire certain skills. Workplace diversity can boost productivity, as a number of U.S. and U.K. studies have shown.

Over the last few years, China has been easing and tweaking its visa policies in order to lure overseas talent. Syria has thousands of willing and eager workers looking for a new place to settle down and raise their families – not just live for a few years and leave as many Western workers do. Immigrants are also often eager to assimilate into their new communities, learning the language and accepting local culture so they can quickly call their new location “home.”

China’s open door policy of the Reform and Opening Up Period was nothing new. China has a history of eagerly welcoming those in need. China should live up to its own reputation and build on the legacy of people like Ho Feng-Shan and welcome Syrian refugees with open arms.

The post China Should Open Its Arms and Welcome Syrian Refugees appeared first on The Nanfang.

As far as authorities were concerned, a husband beating his wife was not breaking the law. Women who did seek help were often told to go back home to their abusers. Thanks to several high-profile cases in recent years of horrific instances of spousal and child abuse and the work of women’s rights groups, a new law is now in effect. But what does this law mean exactly and what are its flaws?

The Good

China now has a domestic violence law! This is good. Any law on the books is better than none.

The new law will provide protection for abuse victims and allow abusers to be charged with abuse. The law covers men and women. While it is unlikely that man men will take advantage of the protections the law allows, I was impressed that the law took men in abusive relationships into account. This is very important considering that before last year, men could not legally be considered rape victims. The gender-neutral stance of the law is a big step forward.

The law also grants protection to victims who are not legally married. Cohabitation without marriage is on the rise in China, and barely a day goes by that I don’t read about a Chinese woman being murdered by her boyfriend. The fact that the law will allow unmarried women protection from abusive men who are not their husbands is a great addition to the law (one that wasn’t in the initial drafts).

The law also protects children, not only from abusive parents but from abusive guardians, even those the child may not be related to. In a country with millions of “left behind children,” this was also an important addition.

The law will also allow abuse to be a mitigating factor in divorce proceedings. Previously, a partner’s abuse was not taken into consideration when granting divorces or divorce settlements.

The Bad

The law doesn’t actually go into effect until March. So, I guess, beat your wife while you can?

The law doesn’t cover same-sex couples. It isn’t just that the law is vague and doesn’t mention them one way or another, the law explicitly doesn’t apply. Guo Linmao, a member of the Legislative Affairs Commission of parliament’s standing committee, said, “There are a lot of examples of domestic violence between family members, and also between people who cohabit. As for homosexuals in our country, we have not yet discovered this form of violence, so to give you a certain answer, it can be said that people who cohabit does not include homosexuals.”

So according to Guo, homosexual couples don’t experience violence so they don’t need protection.

This is, of course, wrong and blatant misdirection. Many rights groups in China have latched on to this issue, so maybe someday the law will be expanded to include them.

The Vague

The law does not explicitly protect people from sexual violence. The law defines domestic violence as “physical, psychological and other harm inflicted by family members with beatings, restraint or forcible limits on physical liberty.” While “physical” harm could include sexual violence, the fact that the law doesn’t specifically list sexual violence is worrisome. Even countries such as the United States that have made marital rape illegal continue to grapple with this issue. The is something that China’s leaders need to clarify sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, it is unlikely any changes will be made to the law anytime soon. We will have to wait and see how judges interpret the law to see if it covers sexual violence. Hopefully it will.

The post China’s New Domestic Violence Law – The Good, The Bad, and The Vague appeared first on The Nanfang.

“My mother was stranded in Rome,” said one victim named Rose. “We had to pay thousands of dollars to get her back home to the United States.”

People interviewed asked not to be identified by their full names.

The person accused of the scam, Cansu Uzcan (also known as Jansu Uzcan), is attending Shenzhen University and allegedly used a stolen credit card to purchase flights while selling the flights to Shenzhen expats at discounted rates. Victims deposited cash into Chinese bank accounts under Uzcan’s name or the name of her boyfriend, Sean Champion.

Some of the people Uzcan approached were cautious initially, but after booking the flights through Uzcan, United Airlines emailed the victims directly to confirm the flights. Some were even able to apply the flights to their United Airlines Mileage accounts. After several people successfully completed flights booked through Uzcan, the number of expats purchasing discounted flights through her grew quickly.

But on September 2 people noticed that their flights were being canceled by United Airlines.

Some who were halfway through their trips were told by United Airlines that they had to pay for the full cost of their flight – often double or triple the amount of money they paid Uzcan – in order to return home.

Some travelers arrived at the airport before finding out their flight had already been canceled. “I was told I would have to pay over $3,000 to take my flight,” Seth said. “I only paid $500 for it in the first place.”

At least two dozen people contacted Uzcan through WeChat and email to find out what happened. At first, she said that United’s system had been hacked and she returned some of the money, according to the victims.

Sean Champion, Uzcan’s boyfriend and partner in crime, from his Facebook page.

By the end of September, she began blocking the WeChat accounts of people who had booked flights through her.

United Airlines has since started contacting people who completed flights or attached their United Airline Mileage accounts to flights that weren’t taken. According to letters from United Airlines sent to the victims, the people who booked flights through Uzcan violated the airlines terms of service because Uzcan was using a stolen credit card to book the flights.

United Airlines said the victims are liable for flights they took because United was never paid for the flights by the credit card company. United Airlines has also nullified all the mileage accounts connected with the scam.

“I lost over 100,000 miles I had saved,” another victim named Ariyana said. “United Airlines is saying that I owe them thousands of dollars. The stress has been unimaginable. I had to hire a lawyer. I don’t know when I’ll be able to recover financially. I won’t be able to go home for Christmas this year.”

“United Airlines has been terrible to all of us,” Rose continued. “They are treating us like criminals.”

“United Airlines allowed this apparently fraudulent card to be used for months but are now blaming us for their lack of oversight and responsibility,” said a victim named Jayton.

Several of the fraud victims have reached out to law enforcement officers in China, the U.S. and Canada. While all three countries are investigating the case, they claim there is little they can do. “Most of the transactions were conducted through WeChat,” a Canadian police officer said. “Anyone could have been behind the screen.”

Many people have asked how this could happen. How could so many expats be convinced to deposit their money into someone else’s bank account so easily?

The expat community is small. Even though there are thousands of expats in Shenzhen alone, we are all connected. Everyone knows everyone else through someone. We are all also very Internet savvy and keep in touch with each other. Many times, we feel we are “in this together.” Living overseas is not easy, so we are always trying to help each other. Giving each other tips and tricks to make life easier and save money is extremely common.

When Cansu said she could help fellow expats save money through booking flights, we believed her. She is also very well-known. Many expats vouched for her because they know her through Shenzhen University. I actually met her several months before when she organized an event as part of the International Cultural Industries Fair.

We didn’t have a reason not to trust her.

At least for me, I didn’t lose that much (about $500). I chalk it up to a learning experience. But some of the people I quoted in the article and many others lost a lot more money and are facing legal issues with United Airlines.

At this point, even if nothing legal can happen to Cansu Uzcan, United Airlines needs to stop treating the victims of her scam as criminals. She took advantage of the trust and community expats in Shenzhen have built, but United is continuing to ruin lives by re-victimizing the people Cansu took advantage of.

United Airlines needs to reinstate the mileage accounts of the victims at least – at most they need to refund the people who were swindled by Cansu Uzcan.

The post Dozens of Foreigners in Shenzhen Swindled in United Airlines Ticket Scam appeared first on The Nanfang.

Shenzhen is quickly becoming known as the city with the worst landlords. I have lived in the city for only two years but am on my third landlord. The first apartment we had was for 4,500 yuan. The owner sold it as soon as our contract was up, and so we had to leave. In the second place we told the house owner that we wanted a long-term rental because we are expecting a baby. The house owner agreed and signed a two-year contract. We were only in the apartment for two months when she messaged us and told us she was selling the apartment. The new house owner keeps saying she wants us to leave so she can move into it, but she has thus far refused to give us a move-out date. This means we have now been in our apartment for over a year but haven’t been able to “settle.” We can’t completely unpack, hang pictures on the wall, or decorate the baby’s room.

After my bad experiences with landlords and apartment hunting with my friend, I had considered writing about this problem, but then I found out that one of the regular contributors to Shenzhen Daily had already decided to write about it. However, I was dismayed by his lack of accountability as a landlord.

In last week’s opinion piece entitled “Soaring housing prices hurt SZ,” Wu Guangqiang said that Shenzhen’s housing prices are too high, which I agree with. But then he went on to relate his experience as a landlord: “The apartment we bought in 1989 is only 64 square meters in area. Since we moved to a larger unit in 2005, my wife has been in charge of leasing the original one. The initial rent was 1,000 yuan and it gradually grew to 1,500, 2,000, and 2,500 until it had hit 4,000 by the end of July this year. All of a sudden, rent prices saw another leap in July, and the price of my old, tiny flat jumped from 4,000 to 5,000… The only thing I know for sure is that the young men who rented my apartment were forced to move out and look for something smaller and cheaper.”

We have a saying in America, “If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” No one forced you, Mr. Wu, to raise the rent on the apartment and kick those tenants out. When you complain about rent in the city being too high, you as a landlord are the one who sets those prices. You are the only person responsible for your rental prices.

I find it interesting that Mr. Wu’s solution to this problem is for the government to get involved. He said, “Unless Shenzhen’s government does something to curb the overheating housing prices, Shenzhen will suffer, rather than benefit, from the runaway prices.” What exactly do you want the government to do? Do you really want the government to tell you how to rent out your own property? Do you want the government to tell you whom you have to rent your property to? Should the government just abolish private property? Is it so hard to be a responsible landlord that you need the government to tell you how to do it?

This is kind of like dropping garbage on the ground and then saying, “The government should really do something to stop me from littering.”

If the rental prices in Shenzhen are too high, be a better landlord and lower your rent. It is that simple.

What do you think should be done about Shenzhen’s high rent prices and bad landlords? What have some of your rental experiences in Shenzhen been like? Let me know in the comments!

This article originally appeared in the Shenzhen Daily.

The post Headaches from Apartment Hunting in Shenzhen appeared first on The Nanfang.

I work at a newspaper, but the biggest news in weeks broke while I was on my way home for the weekend Thursday night. In the 45-minutes it took to get from my office to my home, my Facebook, Twitter, and in-boxes were filled with two things – celebration over the end of China’s decades-old One-Child Policy and questions asking me what is really going on over here. So let me explain what China’s new Two-Child Policy actually means.

This is only a proposal.

The Two-Child Policy has not been approved by China’s government yet. Couples are not yet safe to have two children. It will still take several months for the policy to be accepted by the government and then it could take up to a year to be adopted nationwide. When the government eased restrictions two years ago, it took over a year for the policy to take effect here in Shenzhen. That means that if a woman was to get pregnant with an unapproved second child tomorrow, she would still be in violation of the law and have to pay a huge fine or risk her child being denied a hukou or be forced to terminate the pregnancy.

All Chinese couples can eventually have two children.

This is nothing to be happy about. First the #CCP would kill any baby after one. Now they will kill any baby after two. #ChinaOneChildPolicy

— Chen Guangcheng 陈光诚 (@iguangcheng) October 29, 2015

Two years ago, China already relaxed the One-Child Policy and announced that in families where one of the parents was an only child, the couple could have two children. The new policy will allow all couples to have two children.

But they have to apply for it.

You can’t just go out and get pregnant in China. You have to apply for permission, even for a first child. The same is now true of a second child – you have to ask the government if it is okay first.

You Can’t Undo Decades of Brainwashing Overnight

China’s insistence that families should only have one child pre-date the current One-Child Policy. Even though Mao initially encouraged families to have as many children as possible to spur the economy, by 1970 the government had serious concerns about the country’s population explosion and began “encouraging” people to marry later and have as few children as possible. The official One-Child Policy was enacted by 1980. Most people of child-bearing age today have only lived under the One-Child Policy.

The One-Child Policy isn’t simply a rule like “wear your seat belt” that most people begrudgingly accept. It has been pounded into their minds that having only one child is their moral and patriotic duty. To have more than one child would be to betray China. The punishments for violating the policy have been strict and brutal, creating a culture of fear of the government and authorities. Forced abortions are still commonplace today. Abortion under duress even more so. Families who violate the policy have to pay huge, life-crushing fines. Families who cannot pay the fines can be denied jobs and housing. Children born outside the policy are denied personhood, by which I mean they are denied a hukou or official registration. Hukou-less persons are denied schooling, healthcare, housing, jobs, bank accounts, train/bus/airplane tickets, and cannot marry. They don’t exist in their own country. They also can never leave because they cannot apply for a passport.

People in China also believe that having a second child is too expensive. When you only have one child, it is easy to think that that child has to have the best life – the best clothes, the best education, live in the best neighborhood, go to the best college, and so on. Because of this, many people believe their expenses for raising a second child will double. Instead of finding ways to cut costs by sending them to a less expensive school, many families who qualify for a second child opt out because of financial concerns.

After living your whole life in this kind of environment, it is difficult to suddenly change your way of thinking and have a second child.

Last year, when the restrictions were first eased, the government estimated that 90 million children could be born under the new policy. Only around 250,000 were. Here in Shenzhen, it was estimated that 25,000 couples qualified to have a second child. Only around 1,500 were born – in a city of 14 million people. The effect of a limited second-child policy was almost negligible. Some scholars estimate it will take 70-100 years for China’s birthrate to return to normal.

Current Second Children Born Outside the One-Child Policy Will Still Be Denied Personhood

There has been no indication that current second children who were born outside the One-Child Policy will be granted clemency. Their parents still broke the law and they and their children must suffer for that.

Any child born outside the Two-Child Policy Will Be Denied Personhood

Any child born outside the new two-child policy will still be denied a hukou.

Women Who Get Pregnant Outside China’s Family Planning Polices Are Punished

China’s Family Planning Policies go beyond the One-Child Policy. In China, women who get pregnant out of wedlockcan be legally fired from their job. Women who have a child out of wedlock can be denied housing. Women who have a child out of wedlock are subject to the same fines as couples who have children outside the One-Child Policy. Chinese women who are not married are not allowed to store their eggs for future fertility treatments.

And, of course, children born to women who are not married can also be denied personhood.

Just to be clear, men cannot be fired from their jobs nor are they fined for having a child out of wedlock.

Nothing Has Changed

Long story short – this isn’t good enough. China’s family planning policies are still in violation of basic human rights. Do not give China any kudos for this. Only when China ends all of its family planning policies and every person in China is recognized as a human being will it be good enough.

The post China Still Has the Most Brutal and Backward Family Planning Policy in the World appeared first on The Nanfang.

Liu Cixin (L), author of “The Three-Body Problem,” and Ken Liu (R), the book’s English translator.

The Hugo Awards first started back in 1953 to honor writers in a genre that, at that time, was largely shunned by the literary community. The Hugo Awards are known for having honored some of the “Gods of Science Fiction,” such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and Robert A. Heinlein. However, for much of the 1900s, nominees and supporters of the Hugo Awards were largely male and white.

But as readers of science fiction became more diverse, so did the authors, and over the last 20 years, women and minorities were also being recognized with Hugos. For one set of science fiction writers and fans, though, they believed the more progressive and inclusive atmosphere of the Hugo Awards was threatening the status quo and decided to fight back. This group called themselves the Sad Puppies.

Liu’s novel “The Three-Body Problem” has been growing in popularity for years. After being originally released as a serial in China in 2006, the Chinese novel version was released in 2007 and immediately became a best seller. The English version of the novel, translated by Ken Liu, was released in 2014 to critical acclaim and was quickly nominated for a Nebula Award, another important science fiction award. Many assumed the novel would be the one to beat at the Hugo Awards, but when the Hugo nominations were announced in April 2015, “The Three-Body Problem” wasn’t on the list. What went wrong?

The Sad Puppies are all sci-fi writers and Hugo nominees — though none of them has ever won a Hugo. The Puppies believe that race, gender and sexual orientation should not be a factor when it comes to Hugo nominations. However, they also believe that anytime a minority author is nominated, it is mostly because of their race or gender and not because of the quality of their work. They seem to believe that only straight, white males are capable of writing good science fiction.

So this year, the core group of Sad Puppies rallied together people who agreed with their ideology and became the majority voters for this year’s Hugo Awards. As a result, most minority authors were left off the list of nominees, including Liu Cixin.

Thankfully, not all of the nominated science fiction authors agreed with what the Sad Puppies had done. Many nominees who were supported by the Puppies were horrified by what had happened. Author Marko Kloos, who was a first-time Hugo nominee for his novel “Lines of Departure,” declined his nomination, which made room for the inclusion of Liu’s novel.

Kloos said on his blog, “I cannot in good conscience accept an award nomination that I feel I may not have earned solely with the quality of the nominated work.”

Annie Bellet, another first-time nominee who was selected by the Sad Puppies even though she is a woman, also refused her nomination. Bellet said, “I love the Hugo Awards. To be nominated was awesome. But I’m a writer. That’s what I want my public face to be. I don’t want people to think of me as some political figure, or some ball in the political game.”

The Hugo Award voters — fans of the genre — also took a stand against what the Sad Puppies had done to manipulate the awards. The World Science Fiction Society received a record number of Hugo votes this year — 65 percent more than last year. Five categories, those with only Puppy-backed nominees, did not receive enough votes to hand out awards, and Liu became the first Chinese author to take home the best novel award.

George R. R. Martin, the author behind the hit novels and HBO series “Game of Thrones,” wondered if all the new voters this year had gathered to support the integrity of the Hugos, and they clearly did. This year’s Hugo Awards have opened up a whole new world of opportunities for Chinese science fiction, but it is disheartening to realize how close “The Three-Body Problem” came to not winning.

This year’s Puppy fiasco was a game-changer not just for Chinese science fiction but for the Hugo Awards themselves. While it is a good thing that the Puppy nominees did not win in five categories, it means that many excellent science fiction authors — of all races, genders and sexual orientations — were shut out of the competition, which is a great tragedy for authors who work so hard on their craft.

There are currently several changes being considered by the World Science Fiction Society to make sure the Hugo Awards remain fair and inclusive in the future.

Kloos said of “The Three-Body Problem,” “I honestly can’t think of a novel I would have rather seen on the ballot this year than this one. It’s precisely the kind of science fiction the genre needs — hard and entertaining science fiction with great depth and scope. It’s truly deserving of an award.” At least some good came out of this year’s Hugo Awards.

This was was originally published in the Shenzhen Daily. 

The post How Liu Cixin Almost Didn’t Win a Hugo Award appeared first on The Nanfang.