Now I need to check up on this more thoroughly, but this comment threw me quite a bit. I was conducting 'job interview' style talks with individual students and one of the standard questions was 'why did you choose this university' etc. etc. cue standard reply of 'oh, it's one of the best for accounting etc. etc.
One student, however told me that as an ethnic Mongolian she was not entitled to entry to Fudan or any of the other top three Shanghai universities.
Can this be true? Was it just sour grapes from this individual or is there some kind of policy, either on behalf of the universities themselves or by the government? It requires further investigation - comments welcome...
Photographs from the SHUFE performance of Much Ado About Nothing. Very hastily scanned... write up later.
See below, and click on the thumbnails to enlarge.
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So from now on I'm glued to the TV. I'm going to offer some rare praise to CCTV9 which despite making its lead story the relatively irrelevant meeting between Wen Jiabao and the president of Ethiopa spent a good ten minutes on US election coverage.
Of course the angle was a Chinese one, and that's fair enough (it'll make good discussion material for tomorrow's journalism class). But the Chinese angle is an important one, with Taiwan and trade tariffs at the top of the agenda.
The station even did a vox pop round up of views around Beijing and incredibly found a Bush supporter though perhaps he might have just been being facetious. Of 100 polled, however, about 77% descibed America as the most unpopular nation in Chinese eyes (Russia was most popular).
In a couple of hours the US will gear up for its election.
I would like to remind any Americans who happen to chance upon this of a couple of things:
In countries such as China, where I live, there is no such thing as an election. Therefore the leaders of the country are not accountable to anyone but themselves. Corruption and human rights abuses are rampant.
Since the 9/11 attacks, there have been serious bombings in Bali and Madrid and numerous smaller attacks. Largely unreported Iraqi civilians and soldiers are killed on a routine basis. Military casualties of just the US and UK are as follows:
Iraq:
861 US military KIA
45 UK military KIA
Afghanistan and other theatres:
58 US military KIA
Several more Spanish, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian and soldiers of other nationalities have been killed by hostile fire bringing the Iraq total to 969, not to mention some 50-odd reporters, countless contractors and aid workers.
Today's vote affects everyone. It's not just about tax cuts, education and healthcare any more. Since you have it, please use it wisely.