Asia Weekly

China and South Korea, friends or enemies?

Despite the smiles and handshakes when Chinese President Hu Jintao and his counterpart President Lee Myung-bak met in Seoul last week, their third summit this year, relations between the two countries' peoples are "worsening," says the JoongAng Daily.

Greedy professors a product of Chinese culture?

Status-seeking professors looking for personal gains are a product of a Chinese cultural obsession with one-upmanship, says Wang Ting. A vacancy in the division chief position at a Shenzhen university saw 40 professors fighting for the title. China's "once-sublime" universities have deteriorated because professors neglect their studies and focus on networking for higher positions.

Need for a sea change

Beijing must pull off a "drastic rebalancing" of the Chinese economy, or the US financial meltdown could become "the catalyst that devastates" the country's achievements, argues William Pesek of Bloomberg. The government needs to quickly boost domestic consumption, strengthen the yuan and invest in education, health care and social security. Many argue that it won't be the end of the world if the US slowdown and the gradual economic decline of Europe and Japan take a one or two percentage point bite out of

China's annual GDP growth.

China: business as usual?

As the Chinese milk scandal spreads far beyond the country's borders, with bans and recalls on dozens of dairy products from Indonesia to Europe, Beijing has to face the fact that "the oohs and aahs, the awe and adulation, have passed," says Paul Jacob in The Straits Times (Singapore). The authorities at least appear to be taking the crisis seriously.

Traditionalists get their leathers in a twist

Germans are up in arms because their traditional dress is now being made in China in a bid to cut costs, says David Crossland in Der Spiegel Online. Protectors of German heritage fear that cheap imported clothing is eroding Bavaria's proud sense of heritage.

Chinese need sporting chance

China is still a "backwater" when it comes to ordinary citizens' participation in sport, says Kent Ewing on Asia Times Online. Sports venues "remain few and far between" and the failure of a national fitness program started in 1995 has led to a growing obesity problem.

The underside of China's art boom

China's white hot contemporary art scene has been called many things: avant garde, postmodern and revolutionary, to name a few, says Elizabeth Farrelly in the Sydney Morning Herald. Most contemporary Chinese art is "certifiably Pop.

More haste less speed

Macau may be a mecca for the gambling megarich and home to hotels "so big some rooms have different zip codes," but just down the road lies "the Real Macau," says The Business Times (Singapore). Taipa Village is a "living testament" to Macau's colonial heritage, and seethes with the vibrancy, or in some cases, idles with the authenticity of a local town rather th

My years at Mao's ear

In his new memoir The Man on Mao's Right: From Harvard Yard to Tiananmen Square, My Life Inside China's Foreign Ministry, Ji Chaozhu, who was born in China and at age nine moved to New York, tells of his experiences returning to China in 1950 and working as an English interpreter for the country's top leaders.