Tencent cleared to distribute Nintendo Switch in China
▻https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-18-tencent-cleared-to-distribute-the-nintendo-switch-in-china
Government of Guangdong province offers provisional go ahead for sale of the Switch in China
Which countries have the most immigrants?
The proportion of immigrants varies considerably from one country to another. In some, it exceeds half the population, while in others it is below 0.1%. Which countries have the most immigrants? Where do they come from? How are they distributed across the world? We provide here an overview of the number and share of immigrants in different countries around the world.
According to the United Nations, the United States has the highest number of immigrants (foreign-born individuals), with 48 million in 2015, five times more than in Saudi Arabia (11 million) and six times more than in Canada (7.6 million) (figure below). However, in proportion to their population size, these two countries have significantly more immigrants: 34% and 21%, respectively, versus 15% in the United States.
Looking at the ratio of immigrants to the total population (figure below), countries with a high proportion of immigrants can be divided into five groups:
The first group comprises countries that are sparsely populated but have abundant oil resources, where immigrants sometimes outnumber the native-born population. In 2015, the world’s highest proportions of immigrants were found in this group: United Arab Emirates (87%), Kuwait (73%), Qatar (68%), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman, where the proportion ranges from 34% to 51%.
The second group consists of very small territories, microstates, often with special tax rules: Macao (57%), Monaco (55%), and Singapore (46%).
The third group is made up of nations formerly designated as “new countries”, which cover vast territories but are still sparsely populated: Australia (28%) and Canada (21%).
The fourth group, which is similar to the third in terms of mode of development, is that of Western industrial democracies, in which the proportion of immigrants generally ranges from 9% to 17%: Austria (17%), Sweden (16%), United States (15%), United Kingdom (13%), Spain (13%), Germany (12%), France (12%), the Netherlands (12%), Belgium (11%), and Italy (10%).
The fifth group includes the so-called “countries of first asylum”, which receive massive flows of refugees due to conflicts in a neighbouring country. For example, at the end of 2015, more than one million Syrian and Iraqi refugees were living in Lebanon, representing the equivalent of 20% of its population, and around 400,000 refugees from Sudan were living in Chad (3% of its population).
Small countries have higher proportions of immigrants
With 29% immigrants, Switzerland is ahead of the United States, while the proportion in Luxembourg is even higher (46%). Both the attractiveness and size of the country play a role. The smaller the country, the higher its probable proportion of foreign-born residents. Conversely, the larger the country, the smaller this proportion is likely to be. In 2015, India had 0.4% of immigrants and China 0.07%.
However, if each Chinese province were an independent country – a dozen provinces have more than 50 million inhabitants, and three of them (Guangdong, Shandong, and Henan) have about 100 million – the proportion of immigrants would be much higher, given that migration from province to province, which has increased in scale over recent years, would be counted as international and not internal migration. Conversely, if the European Union formed a single country, the share of immigrants would decrease considerably, since citizens of one EU country living in another would no longer be counted. The relative scale of the two types of migration – internal and international – is thus strongly linked to the way the territory is divided into separate nations.
The number of emigrants is difficult to measure
All immigrants (in-migrants) are also emigrants (out-migrants) from their home countries. Yet the information available for counting emigrants at the level of a particular country is often of poorer quality than for the immigrants, even though, at the global level, they represent the same set of people. Countries are probably less concerned about counting their emigrants than their immigrants, given that the former, unlike the latter, are no longer residents and do not use government-funded public services or infrastructure.
However, emigrants often contribute substantially to the economy of their home countries by sending back money and in some cases, they still have the right to vote, which is a good reason for sending countries to track their emigrant population more effectively. The statistical sources are another reason for the poor quality of data on emigrants. Migrant arrivals are better recorded than departures, and the number of emigrants is often estimated based on immigrant statistics in the different host countries.
The number of emigrants varies considerably from one country to another. India headed the list in 2015, with nearly 16 million people born in the country but living in another (see the figure below); Mexico comes in second with more than 12 million emigrants living mainly in the United States.
Proportionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina holds a record: there is one Bosnian living abroad for two living in the country, which means that one-third of the people born in Bosnia and Herzegovina have emigrated (figure below). Albania is in a similar situation, as well as Cape Verde, an insular country with few natural resources.
Some countries are both immigration and emigration countries. This is the case of the United Kingdom, which had 8.4 million immigrants and 4.7 million emigrants in 2015. The United States has a considerable number of expatriates (2.9 million in 2015), but this is 17 times less in comparison to the number of immigrants (48 million at the same date).
Until recently, some countries have been relatively closed to migration, both inward and outward. This is the case for Japan, which has few immigrants (only 1.7% of its population in 2015) and few emigrants (0.6%).
Immigrants: less than 4% of the world population
According to the United Nations, there were 258 million immigrants in 2017, representing only a small minority of the world population (3.4%); the vast majority of people live in their country of birth. The proportion of immigrants has only slightly increased over recent decades (30 years ago, in 1990, it was 2.9%, and 55 years ago, in 1965, it was 2.3%). It has probably changed only slightly in 100 years.
But the distribution of immigrants is different than it was a century ago. One change is, in the words of Alfred Sauvy, the “reversal of migratory flows” between North and South, with a considerable share of international migrants now coming from Southern countries.
#migrations_nord-sud #migrations_sud-sud #migrations_sud-nord #migrations_nord-nord #visualisationToday, migrants can be divided into three groups of practically equal size (figure above): migrants born in the South who live in the North (89 million in 2017, according to the United Nations); South-South migrants (97 million), who have migrated from one Southern country to another; and North-North migrants (57 million). The fourth group – those born in the North and who have migrated to the South – was dominant a century ago but is numerically much smaller today (14 million). Despite their large scale, especially in Europe, migrant flows generated since 2015 by conflicts in the Middle East have not significantly changed the global picture of international migration.
▻https://theconversation.com/which-countries-have-the-most-immigrants-113074
#statistiques #migrations #réfugiés #monde #chiffres #préjugés #afflux #invasion
signalé par @isskein
Fast fashion, small paychecks: UNIQLO’s sweatshop labor practices – People’s World
▻http://www.peoplesworld.org/article/fast-fashion-small-paychecks-uniqlos-sweatshop-labor-practices
SACOM conducted undercover investigations at Chinese contractors of Fast Retailing with support from the Japanese NGO, Human Rights Now (HRN), and the Chinese labor rights organization, Labor Action China.
The organization carried out undercover operations three times. In the first operation in 2014, HRN looked into textile and garment factories in Guangdong Province operated by Pacific Textiles Ltd (PT) and Dongguan Luen Thai Garment Co., Ltd (DLTG) respectively.
In January 2015, SACOM and HRN published their investigation report, immediately causing an international outcry. HRN Secretary General Ito Kazuko said, “After we uploaded the report summary onto our website, it attracted a large number of viewers in a single night. I was surprised at so many reporters coming to our press conference announcing the report.”
The report described shocking working conditions in the two factories. In both factories, workers’ base wages were at a level of one-third of the average wage in each city. The monthly pay was 1,550 yuan ($227 U.S.) for workers at the PT factory in Canton City and 1,310 yuan ($192 U.S.) for those at the DLTG factory in Dongguan City.
Alexandra Chan, a project officer of Hong Kong-based labor monitoring group Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior, or SACOM, speaks while displaying a photo of a bare-chested factory worker in China making products for Japanese fashion giant Fast Retailing Co. during a press conference in Tokyo. | Koji Sasahara / AP
As these factory workers’ base wages were too low to make ends meet, workers had no choice but to work overtime for 112-134 hours a month.
The Three Mawangdui Maps: Early Chinese Cartography – SOCKS
▻http://socks-studio.com/2014/03/02/the-three-mawangdui-maps-early-chinese-cartography
Between 1972 to 1974 three tombs in the archaeological site of Mawangdui, China, were excavated. In one of them, the archaeologists discovered three of the most ancients maps in China, contained in a lacquer box: a topographic, a military and a prefecture planimetry, oriented with south at the top. The maps, drawn on silk, display the Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi regions and depict the political boundary between the Han and Nanyue Dynasty. The person buried in the tomb was probably a high-ranking official in the state; as his burial took place in 168 B.C. the maps must have been drawn earlier.
All three maps have been valued for their “modern” appearance: they use a planimetric projection, with the depiction tending towards conventionalization (of settlements, mountains and trees), and shows an early use of scale mapping. The scale varies between 1:150,000 and 1:200,000 in the central portion of the topographic map and between 1:80,00 and 1:100,000 in the central portion of the military map, a remarkably small scale error.
The prefecture map was in tatters when it was found and because of its conditions, its interpretation is difficult. Despite gaps, in the lower part it is still possible to recognize a city with an outer and inner wall.
Ancient poop shows how diseases may have spread along the Silk Road | Science | AAAS
▻http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/ancient-poop-shows-how-diseases-may-have-spread-along-silk-road
The proof is often in the pudding, but sometimes it’s in the poop. That’s the case in western China, where scientists have found fossilized intestinal parasites in 2000-year-old human excrement: the first evidence of infectious diseases spreading along the Silk Road. Preserved by the arid climate and stone walls of the latrine in which they were found, the poo was deposited on “hygiene sticks,” bamboo sticks with strips of cloth used to wipe the nether regions.
The sticks, excavated in 1992 from a latrine at a relay station where travelers most likely slept and ate, were kept in a museum and forgotten about until now. The sticks—and their trimmings—were transported to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where researchers examined the feces under microscopes. They discovered eggs from four different parasites, including the Chinese liver fluke—a flatworm endemic to marshy areas. People contract the parasite by eating infected fish. Because the sticks were found on the eastern edge of the Taklamakan desert—dry and arid even then—scientists concluded the parasite must have been picked up from the marshy lands of modern-day Guangdong province, about 2000 kilometers away. The findings, reported today in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, suggests two things: that infectious diseases were carried and spread along the Silk Road, and that these early travelers toted a lot more than silk.
Early evidence for travel with infectious diseases along the Silk Road: Intestinal parasites from 2000 year-old personal hygiene sticks in a latrine at Xuanquanzhi Relay Station in China
▻http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X1630164X
Highlights
• 2000 year old personal hygiene sticks with cloth recovered from latrine on Silk Road.
• Analysis finds eggs of Chinese liver fluke, roundworm, whipworm and Taenia tapeworm.
• Closest region endemic for Chinese liver fluke is over 1000 km away.
• This indicates ancient travellers migrating along Silk Road with their parasites.
Abstract
The Silk Road has often been blamed for the spread of infectious diseases in the past between East Asia, the Middle East and Europe. While such a hypothesis seems plausible, there is actually very little concrete evidence to prove that diseases were transmitted by early travellers moving along its various branches. The aim of this study is to look for ancient parasite eggs on personal hygiene sticks in a latrine at a large relay station on the Silk Road at Xuanquanzhi (111 BCE–CE 109), at the eastern margin of the Tarim Basin in north-western China. We isolated eggs of four species of parasitic intestinal worms: Chinese liver fluke (Clonorchis sinensis), Taenia sp. tapeworm (likely Taenia asiatica, Taenia solium or Taenia saginata), roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) and whipworm (Trichuris trichiura). The Chinese liver fluke requires wet marshy areas to sustain its life cycle and could not have been endemic to this arid region. The presence of this species suggests that people from well-watered areas of eastern or southern China travelled with their parasites to this relay station along the Silk Road, either for trade or on government business. This appears to be the earliest archaeological evidence for travel with infectious diseases along the Silk Road.
Game of Assassins
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kIkECWFRzo
Ce n’est pas une chef d’oeuvre mais le film est quand même intéressant par le contexte familial des caractères. Au centre de l’histoire se trouvent deux frères et leur soeur qui partent assassiner le roi d’un pays ennemi et se déchirent entre l’envie de vivre une vie paisible, la pitié filiale et la loyauté envers des idée et des personnes. Contrairement aux classiques la famille élargie n’existe pas dans ce film qui peut se lire comme un regard sur la société actuelle en Chine. C’est pareil pour les rois et leurs officiers. Ils sont présentés comme individus dont le machiavellisme n’est motivé que par leur égoïsme plutôt que par les forces célestes et politiques qui font agir les personnages classiques. En traitant un sujet tiré de l’époque précédant l’unification de la Chine par Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇) le film nous n’apprend rien sur la Chine classique et par cela nous fait savoir que les valeurs traditionelles ont été remplacées par des mobiles bien connus des occidentaux.
▻https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/258437?language=en-US
Set in 213 B.C. Game of Assassins is about General Tu Jia who trains a trio of young assassins to seek revenge against villainous King of Wei. And one of the assassins succumbs to the dark side for temptation of wealth and power.
Production Company: China Film Group Corporation (CFGC)
Release Info: 2013-12-08
https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/zwIq9qw5KXsy9Jkd2QvYeu0wip1.jpg 
https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/z3foEJ9clhDiVgBjpAoKcADH38U.jpg Cast
Bryan Leung - King of Wei
Jiang Chao - King of Chu
Chen Kuantai - General Tu Jia
Dong Zhihua - General Teng
Xie Yuanjiang - Jing Chan
Zhou Yichen - Ping
Xiao Hong - He Guang
Zhu Guoan - Thunder
Wang Xiaobao - Hao Xue
Guan Yu
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Yu
Sun Quan sent Guan Yu’s head to Cao Cao, who arranged a noble’s funeral for Guan and had the head properly buried with full honours.
...
Guan Yu had two known sons – Guan Ping and Guan Xing. Guan Xing inherited his father’s title “Marquis of Hanshou Village” (漢壽亭侯) and served in the state of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period.[Sanguozhi 22] Guan Yu also had a daughter. Sun Quan once proposed a marriage between his son and Guan Yu’s daughter, but Guan rejected the proposal. Her name was not recorded in history, but she was known as “Guan Yinping” (關銀屏) or “Guan Feng” (關鳳) in folktales and Chinese opera.
Ka-Yan Leung
▻http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0415777/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Ka-Yan Leung was born on January 20, 1949 in Guangdong, China. He is known for his work on Ip Man 3 (2015), The Man with the Iron Fists (2012) and Xun cheng ma (1982).
Kuan Tai Chen
▻http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0155291/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Kuan Tai Chen was born on September 24, 1945 in Guangdong, China. He is an actor and producer, known for The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), Da lui toi (2010) and Die Schule der Shaolin (1977).
▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9riode_des_Royaumes_combattants
A world to turn upside down | The Economist
▻http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21588873-economic-issues-facing-novembers-plenum-chinese-communist-party-none-looms-larger?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/aworldtoturnupsidedown
MORTGAGING a village home is a sensitive issue in China. A nervous local official has warned residents of Gumian, a small farming community set amid hills and paddies in Guangdong province, that they risk leaking state secrets if they talk to a foreign reporter about the new borrowing scheme that lets them make use of the value of their houses. They talk anyway; they are excited by what is going on.
Urban land in China is owned by the state, and in the 1990s the state allowed a flourishing property market to develop in the cities. That went on to become a colossal engine of economic growth. But rural land, though no longer farmed collectively, as it was in Mao’s disastrous “people’s communes”, has stayed under collective ownership overseen by local party bosses. Farmers are not allowed to buy or sell the land they work or the homes they live in. That hobbles the rural economy, and the opportunities of the farmers who have migrated to the cities but live as second-class citizens there.
Spatio-temporal exploration of SARS epidemic
▻http://cybergeo.revues.org/12803
Un peu ancien, mais c’est pour les archives de @simplicissimus
Apparu en Novembre 2002 dans la province de Guangdong, en Chine, le Syndrome Respiratoire Aigu Sévère (SRAS) a largement occupé le devant de la scène médiatique pendant l’année 2003, atteignant même rapidement le statut de « première pandémie du XXIe siècle ». Six mois après sa ré-émergence à Hong-Kong en mars 2003, 30 pays étaient touchés, 8500 cas identifiés et 800 personnes décédées des suites de ce coronavirus. Dans cet article, nous proposons une approche de géo-visualisation, dynamique et interactive, permettant une exploration spatio-temporelle de l’épidémie.
En Chine, un mouvement de grève dans la chaussure prend de l’ampleur
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/asie-pacifique/article/2014/04/21/en-chine-un-mouvement-de-greve-dans-la-chaussure-prend-de-l-ampleur_4404837_
Les ouvriers d’une usine de chaussures du sud de la Chine entament, lundi 21 avril, leur deuxième semaine de grève, une manifestation jugée comme l’un des plus importants mouvements sociaux du pays ces dernières années.
Les ouvriers de l’usine de chaussures de Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings à Dongguan, dans la province du Guangdong, se plaignent que leur employeur ne verse pas ses cotisations aux assurances sociales et au fonds de prévoyance du logement dont ils sont censés bénéficier.
(…)
Le site de Dongguan, le plus important centre de production de Yue Yuen avec 1,4 million de mètres carrés, selon son site Internet, fabrique des chaussures pour Adidas principalement, mais aussi pour d’autres marques comme Nike et Saucony. Sur les quelque 40 000 personnes qui y sont employées, les grévistes affirment que l’ensemble du personnel avait cessé le travail.
423000 salariés au 31/12/2012
(37000 de moins que 15 mois plus tôt…)
▻http://www.yueyuen.com/bOverview_productionFacilities.htm
Un deuxième site arrête le travail, à Ji’an dans le Jiangxi (ex-Kiang-si) province située au nord du Guangdong.
Yue Yuen shoe strike expands from Guangdong to Jiangxi｜Society｜News｜WantChinaTimes.com
▻http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1103&MainCatID=11&id=20140421000013
A week after 30,000 workers from the Yue Yuen shoe factory in Dongguan in southern China’s Guangdong province took to the streets over invalid contracts, 2,000 workers from another of the company’s factories, located in Ji’an in eastern China’s Jiangxi province, have also joined the strike, reports the Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily.
Non contente de les escroquer en ne payant pas les cotisations, la société rédige ses contrats de travail de façon non contraignante pour elle (version locale de CDD ?) ce qui empêche les salariés de se faire enregistrer sur place…
The protest began on Apr. 14 when workers found out that the factory had failed to pay its employees their full social security and housing fund contributions.
A senior factory worker surnamed Li told the web portal Nanfang that he was unable to use his permanent work contract as evidence of local residence in order to enroll his child in a local school because he was told his contract was not legally binding. Migrant workers like Li must present documents which prove to the local authority that they and their family members have stayed in the province for at least five years before their children are allowed to study in the area.
In addition to the invalid contracts, the factory also cheated its workers in regards to their insurance packages, with some having to pay 40,000 yuan (US$6,400) while others only had to pay 10,000 yuan (US$1,600) for the same scheme. Following these issues coming to light, workers decided to strike to demand that the factory sign new contracts with them and improve their working conditions.
Vu par Bloomberg (et la presse financière)…
L’action subit sa plus forte baisse depuis un an.
À cause de la hausse des salaires qu’il faudra consentir pour arrêter la grève…
Yue Yuen Drops in Hong Kong as Strike Disrupts Output - Bloomberg
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-21/china-strike-at-nike-adidas-factory-extends-to-sixth-day.html
Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd. (551), the world’s largest branded shoemaker, fell most in almost a year in Hong Kong trading after the company said it plans to increase factory workers’ compensation in a bid to end a strike.
Yue Yuen fell as much as 6.3 percent to HK$24.45, the most intraday since May 7, 2013.
Certains salariés se prennent même à rêver…
Some demanded no punishment for strikers and the right to elect their own union leaders.
New H7N7 bird flu strain discovered that could pose threat to humans | World news | theguardian.com
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/new-h7n7-bird-flu-strain-discovered-china
Un nouveau #virus contamine la volaille en #Chine
The new strain poses a potential threat to people, according to lab tests which found that the virus, called H7N7, caused severe pneumonia in ferrets, which are used as proxies for humans in flu research.
An international team led by Yi Guan, a flu specialist at the University of Hong Kong, took samples from chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, partridges and quail at markets in Shandong and Zhejiang provinces to the north and south of Shanghai, and further samples from markets in Guangdong. They found H7N9 in chickens in Rizhao, Shandong, and the new H7N7 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang.
H7N9, déjà un impact de 6,5 Mds de dollars, essentiellement sur la volaille chinoise.
(et, accessoirement, 36 morts à ce jour)
#H7N9 bird flu outbreak costs more than $6.5 billion so far -U.N | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/21/us-birdflu-idUSBRE94K0ZQ20130521
“The economic impacts of H7N9 have been astounding,” Juan Lubroth said during a presentation at the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
“Over $6.5 billion has been lost in the agriculture sector because of prices, consumer confidence and trade. So poultry industry losses in China have been high,” he said.
H7N9 Confirmed in Chicken — CRI English (avec Xinhua) ▻http://english.cri.cn/6909/2013/05/21/2702s766066.htm
(21/05/13)
A poultry sample has tested positive for the H7N9 virus in Zengcheng City in the southern province of Guangdong, the country’s agriculture ministry said yesterday.
The avian flu virus, which has so far led to the deaths of 36 people nationwide, was detected in a sample of chicken from a market in Zengcheng.
The ministry ordered Guangdong to properly dispose of the sample and increase monitoring efforts.
Pour un salaire juste - La Vie des idées
▻http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Pour-un-salaire-juste.html
L’usine Honda Nanhai, dans la province du Guangdong, a connu en 2012 une importante grève qui a par la suite servi de modèle à d’autres. L’analyse de l’évolution des grèves du début des années 2000 à aujourd’hui en Chine révèle un changement fondamental : le passage de la conscience de la loi à la conscience des droits.
#Chine : mobilisation sans précédent de citoyens contre la censure | Rue89
►http://www.rue89.com/2013/01/09/chine-mobilisation-sans-precedent-de-citoyens-contre-la-censure-238423
Ce genre de manifestation est rare en Chine, mais depuis quelques jours, l’affaire Nanfang Zhoumo a pris suffisamment d’ampleur pour la justifier.
A l’origine, un éditorial du magazine, grossièrement censuré par le chef de la Propagande de la province du Guangdong, Tuo Zhen : au lieu d’un article évoquant les espoirs de changement pour la nouvelle année et la volonté de voir la Constitution chinoise appliquée pour rendre les Chinois « réellement libres », c’est un texte, rédigé par Tuo en personne, qui a été publié. Un court article chantant les louanges du Parti communiste chinois.
Gay wedding goes ahead in China despite official hindrance | Gay Star News
►http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-wedding-goes-ahead-china-despite-official-hindrance041012
Gay wedding goes ahead in China despite official hindrance
Lu Zhong and Liu Wangqiang have become the first gay couple to publicly say ‘I do’ in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian
04 October 2012 | By Derek Yiu
Lu Zhong (left) kisses Liu Wangqiang
China’s Fujian province has seen its first ever public gay wedding between two young men, who had already made history by getting engaged in nearby Guangdong province.
Lu Zhong and Liu Wangqiang, 24 and 20 respectively, wowed their hometown of Ningde on Tuesday (2 Oct), a day after the national day, as their cascade of wedding cars paraded the city’s roads and parks and showcased their love.
With the newly-weds attracting as many as 1000 onlookers, according to the West Strait Morning Post, Liu Hua-sheng, a well-wishing taxi driver, described the scene as being ‘grander than the Chinese New Year.’
The evening climaxed when Lu and Liu, clad in black-and-white wedding suits, kissed each other on the lips.
In China where same-sex marriage is not legally recognized and homosexuality often frowned at, Lu and Liu’s love has been nothing short of high-profile for the public.
In August, they became the first gay couple to get engaged publicly in Dongguan, Guangdong, before moving on to shoot wedding photos across Quanzhou, Fujian.
Shortly after Monday passed, Lu posted a message on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter: ‘It’s 2 Oct and we are getting married, facing blessing as well as criticism. Still, we stand tough. Today is our big day! Bless us!’
Lu told Gay Star News they were not being illustrious at all, as they were simply following ordinary wedding customs.
While society was supportive at large, he said the government was not. ‘Government officials exerted pressure on different hotels, while the Public Security Bureau went about in karaoke boxes telling people to seize us,’ he explained. ‘They even sent ruffians to look for us.’
It was the help of a karaoke box owner that helped the wedding went along smoothly, largely uninterrupted by ruffians with clubs.
Around sixty friends travelled all the way from different parts of the country to witness Lu and Liu’s wedding ceremony, joining the couple’s family members.
‘I learnt about my brother’s (sexual orientation) seven, eight years ago,’ said Lu’s elder sister. ‘I hold nothing against his choice, but I don’t quite agree with his public exposure.’
Also present was Lu’s middle school class teacher Mr Lin, who expressed his understanding and wished them happy.
Liu’s 78-year-old grandma did not attend the wedding, saying it is hard to understand his way of handling things.
Liu’s father, meanwhile, acted as a middleman. ‘I had once thought of disowning this son, but I couldn’t stand firm in the end,’ he said. ‘Still, I asked Wangqiang’s granny not to get into his way and just let him be.’
Lu has told the local media that he would like to hold China’s first large-scale public gay wedding, partly in a bid to get more sponsorship and make it an impeccable one that they would otherwise be unable to afford.
Lu’s family is now helping to build a house for the couple in Zherong county, where the newly-weds plan to settle down, ideally running a barroom and leading a stable life together.
Asked earlier if they want to have kids, Lu said: ‘We’ve thought about that, but it’s not really possible right now. Our careers are still fledging. Maybe we will.
‘Someone from Guangzhou is willing to help us bear kids.’
Below are pictures of the wedding and some pre-wedding photos (Courtesy of Lu and Liu, and Fadie Photo)
Province de Guangdong (Chine) : Emeutes contre la vente de terres où vivent de nombreux villageois
►http://fr.squat.net/2012/06/27/chine-emeutes-terres
Selon des informations de CJZG traduites/adaptées en anglais par China Digital Times, des émeutes ont éclaté le 26 juin 2012 dans la ville de Foshan (province de Guangdong).
C’est dans le village de Zuotan (en banlieue de Foshan) que doivent être vendues à des entrepreneurs des terres sur lesquelles vivent et cultivent de nombreux villageois. C’est donc là que le conflit a lieu entre les habitants et la police. La corruption au sein des politiciens du village et l’inefficacité des « appels citoyens » auprès du gouvernement ont poussé la population à protester en s’organisant de manière plus offensive…
Des Nouvelles Du Front » L’atelier du monde au bord de l’implosion
►http://dndf.org/?p=10914
Les grèves se suivent dans les usines chinoises et les revendications se ressemblent. Mauvaises conditions de travail, heures supplémentaires non payées, salaire trop bas… Les sous-traitant de Nike, d’Etam, d’Apple ou d’IBM sont les premiers d’une liste destinée à s’allonger.
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Des conditions de travail qui se détériorent avec la crise européenne
La crise de la dette en Europe et une situation économique difficile aux Etats-Unis entraînent depuis plusieurs mois une chute spectaculaire des commandes dans les usines chinoises travaillant pour l’exportation. Dans la province du Guangdong (sud-ouest) par exemple, ces dernières ont plongé de 9% le mois dernier ! L’activité manufacturière chinoise enregistre actuellement sa plus forte chute depuis mars 2009, tandis que l’inflation a stagné à 5,5% le même mois. « L’économie chute et ce sont les travailleurs qui font les frais de ces pertes » s’insurge Geoffrey Crothall. « Ils ne peuvent pas le supporter ! ».
« De très nombreuses entreprises veulent en conséquence délocaliser vers l’intérieur du pays où la main d’œuvre coûte beaucoup moins chère », analyse Li Qiang, le fondateur de l’ONG China Labor Watch, basée aux Etats-Unis. « Il y a beaucoup d’anxiété parmi les travailleurs : ils ont peur que leurs usines ferment et qu’ils soient virés sans compensation. Ils sont anxieux de savoir où leurs usines vont être relocalisées. Tout ça ajoute au sentiment de malaise », renchérit Geoffrey Chrothall.
Débats autour des réformes en Chine | Martine Bulard (Les blogs du Diplo)
►http://blog.mondediplo.net/2011-06-17-Debats-autour-des-reformes-en-Chine
A peine plus d’un an après les grèves qui avaient secoué les usines de Foshan dans la province du Guangdong (Canton) (lire Isabelle Thireau, « Les cahiers de doléances du peuple chinois », Le Monde diplomatique, septembre 2010), une nouvelle vague de manifestations bouscule la Chine.
Fin mai, protestations sociales, revendications environnementales et rejet des discriminations ethniques secouaient la région autonome de la Mongolie intérieure, après la mort accidentelle d’un berger, écrasé par un des camions remplis de minerais qui sillonnent en permanence ce territoire. (...)