China update

It seems that thousands of Mexicans . . . oops, I mean thousands of Vietnamese are pouring across the southern border to take the low wage jobs in factories that the Chinese are no longer willing to do.  Maybe China needs its own Donald Trump.

I’m not sure if the Mexicans will build our fence, but the Vietnamese are apparently building China’s newest Great Wall:

During a visit last year to the Chinese border town of Dongxing, small groups of Vietnamese workers could be seen building a 10-foot (3 metres) high border fence on the Chinese side. Ngoc Duc, 30, said he had come across the border illegally. He said he earned 100 yuan [$16] a day in China doing welding work on the fence, compared with about 200,000 dong ($9) a day in Vietnam.

“China is the best place to make money,” he said when asked if he feared being caught by Chinese authorities. “More and more of us will come.”

PS.  Ever get confused by all those Chinese provinces?  It’s much easier if you learn the 4 directions: bei (North), nan (south), dong (east) and xi (west.)  Also useful if you play Mahjong

Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 4.19.44 PMLet’s start with Beijing, which means northern capital. Thus Nanjing means southern capital (before the communists took over.) Beijing is surrounded by Hebei province, which means north of the (Yellow) river.  Directly south is Henan, meaning south of the river, or literally “river south.”  Then Hubei, north of a big lake in central China. Then Hunan, lake south.  Then Guangxi and Guangdong, which means “expanse west” and “expanse east.”  Near Shanghai you see three provinces with “Jiang” which means long river, referring to the Yangtze.  Sichuan means 4 rivers, with “si” meaning 4.  Wait, do we now have three words for river?  Yes we do, but how many does English have?  Not sure about Yunnan, but Hainan means south sea.  And Shanghai means by the sea.

Going back up north we have Shanxi and Shandong, which mean west and east mountain.  Not to be confused with Shanxi is Shaanxi, right next door, which means west province, and my wife insists the pronunciation is totally different, although I can’t really hear it.

The Taiwanese use the old spelling system, so their capital city Taipei would be Taibei in Mandarin.  It’s on the north side of Taiwan.  On the south side is—you guessed it, Tainan.  And in the middle in Taichung, with chung meaning central.  What interesting names!! You can just describe where you are on the map in China, and 50% of the time you’ll accurately describe the place name in Chinese.  But chung is zhong on the mainland. Thus Zhongguo means “central country” (or middle kingdom if you prefer) and is the name of China.

Not quite sure why we call the Ivory Coast, “Cote d’Ivoire,” and Burma, “Myanmar”, but don’t call Germany, “Deutschland” or China, “Zhonggua”.


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29 Responses to “China update”

  1. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    10. August 2015 at 13:27

    “It seems that thousands of Mexicans . . . oops, I mean thousands of Vietnamese are pouring across the southern border to take the low wage jobs in factories that the Chinese are no longer willing to do. Maybe China needs its own Donald Trump.”
    -No surprise, as since the 1990s, China grew as fast as China, while Vietnam grew as fast as India. Fortunately for China, Vietnam has less than a tenth of China’s population, while Mexico has over a third of ours.
    “I’m not sure if the Mexicans will build our fence”
    -They did. 🙂

    BTW, it seems Vietnamese-Americans (who mostly came here as refugees, without selection), have an average IQ of 100:
    http://humanvarieties.org/2014/06/19/hvgiq-vietnam/
    This is much higher than that of Mexican-Americans (by roughly two thirds of a standard deviation).

    Thanks for the directions advice. I’m trying to figure out the causes of high Chinese (and Korean, and Japanese) IQ, and why Fujian’s and Guangdong’s is so reputedly high, even though these regions are both in the South.

  2. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    10. August 2015 at 13:35

    Not quite sure why we call the Ivory Coast, “Cote d’Ivoire,” and Burma, “Myanmar”

    -Both countries’ leaderships prefer the new names. “Cote d’Ivorie” is a 19th century imperial designation, while Myanmar is a name change made by the Burmese government in 1989.

  3. Gravatar of Patrick R. Sullivan Patrick R. Sullivan
    10. August 2015 at 13:47

    Interesting read on China;

    http://www.amazon.com/China-Me-Emily-Hahn/dp/1497638267

    Degree in chemical engineering from Wisconsin in the early ’20s. She worked in an oil refinery out west for awhile, then bought a Model T and drove it around the West, Mexico and Canada. She wrote letters to her brother back home, detailing her travels, which he gave to The New Yorker.

    As far as I can tell, she was the first of that magazine’s ‘Letter from …’ writers. Later wrote of her experiences in Africa, Japan and China (where she got addicted to opium, and cured of it by a German doctor also an expat).

    Captured in Hong Kong by the Japanese in 1942 she was swapped for Japanese diplomats we’d captured/interned in the States. She returned to writing for the New Yorker until she was 90.

    Best part is that she writes like a novelist.

  4. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    10. August 2015 at 13:56

    I’ve been reading a book called Thirty Years in Moukden, by one of the first British doctors in Shenyang. As he stayed there from 1883 to 1913 (with intermissions; e.g., during the Boxer uprising), he lived in interesting times. Discussed are the state of Chinese medicine prior to his arrival (abysmal), general Chinese customs and habits, Chinese bureaucracy, the 1910 pulmonary plague epidemic, the Boxer uprising, the Sino-Japanese war, the Russian occupation, and the Russo-Japanese war.

  5. Gravatar of Andrew_FL Andrew_FL
    10. August 2015 at 14:01

    The good news is, the Vietnamese won’t be voting in China.

    China should absolutely have an open border.

  6. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    10. August 2015 at 14:29

    That is a good one, Andrew FL.

  7. Gravatar of Kevin Erdmann Kevin Erdmann
    10. August 2015 at 14:42

    Sadly, you could have substituted Bernie Sanders for Donald Trump.

  8. Gravatar of Andrew_FL Andrew_FL
    10. August 2015 at 15:17

    I aim to please, and failing that I aim to get on people’s nerves for being unpleasable.

  9. Gravatar of benjamin cole benjamin cole
    10. August 2015 at 15:49

    Guangxi is an autonomous region, perhaps not a province. I wonder what that means. There are many Zhuang (not Han) people there.

  10. Gravatar of LC LC
    10. August 2015 at 15:49

    The interesting read in Chinese press last week was plight of Vietnamese brides in China. The estimate is up to 100K are in China, with many demanding Green cards (similar to US system). They complain that they have fulfilled all their obligations and given births to kids, so they should be treated equally.

    Rumor on the ground here is 1 child system will be completely gone next year, so more people are getting pregnant in anticipation.

    Regarding Donald Trump, hilarious to see the freak show media created, but completely censored in China.

  11. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    10. August 2015 at 17:52

    Three reasons why Americans don’t use (should not use) “Zhonggua” as a term for China:

    1. “Zhonggua” is way too complicated for Westerners, especially compared to “China”.

    2. “Zhonggua” is used by the Communist Party of China in their propaganda and refers not only to mainland China but to all territories claimed by the PRC, including Taiwan.

    3. “Zhonggua” means “Central State”. It is not a neutral term. The term originates from the belief that China is the centre of the universe. It implies that China is superior to any other people and nation. Chinese people are already uber-nationalistic. If you start calling their country “Centre of the Universe”, this trend will not get better.

  12. Gravatar of LC LC
    10. August 2015 at 18:13

    Christian:

    Your list of reasons is laughable.

    By that reasoning, we shouldn’t even name many places in Iceland, Norway or Africa or India. We shouldn’t call Israel Israel because it implies West Bank is not Palestinian. Of course only the Chinese are uber-nationalistic.

  13. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    10. August 2015 at 18:48

    @LC
    You misread my post. But name it “Zhonggua” if you want to. No one is hindering you. We’ll just wait and see who is laughing about whom then. I continue using “Israel” and “China” if you don’t mind.

  14. Gravatar of LC LC
    10. August 2015 at 19:08

    Christian:

    We should all laugh for peace and better existence for all on Earth.

  15. Gravatar of BC BC
    10. August 2015 at 22:36

    Scott, I’m sure you already know this, but Taiwan is not a Chinese province, except in Chinese propaganda.

  16. Gravatar of Chuck Chuck
    11. August 2015 at 02:20

    Those wily Chinese are hiring illegal immigrants to build a fence to keep out illegal immigrants! So nationalistic!

  17. Gravatar of TravisV TravisV
    11. August 2015 at 03:52

    “Shanghai closes flat after yuan devaluation”

    “Of course, a 4.9% rally the day before suggests Beijing’s latest attempt at economic stimulus and supporting the busted stock bubble had been priced in…..”

    http://seekingalpha.com/news/2716606-shanghai-closes-flat-after-yuan-devaluation

  18. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    11. August 2015 at 04:01

    E. Harding, Do you know what proportion of the Vietnamese refugees were of Chinese descent? (My hunch is that this doesn’t explain anything, but I’d be curious anyway)

    I understand the preference of Burma’s government, but why do we honor their preference, but not Germany’s preference?

    Ben, Yes, and there are also tribal areas across the border in the hills of Vietnam.

    LC, I’ve heard that too. Ending the one child policy would be great news.

    Christian, Doesn’t Taiwan agree with the one China concept? Doesn’t Taiwan’s constitution insist that there is just one China? Didn’t the two Germany’s eventually merge? Won’t the two China’s and the two Korea’s eventually merge?

    I’m far more worried about Russian nationalism than Chinese nationalism, although I agree that China (like the US and Russia) is too nationalistic.

  19. Gravatar of John Hall John Hall
    11. August 2015 at 05:54

    I don’t see what’s wrong with calling “Cote d’Ivoire” the Ivory Coast.

  20. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    12. August 2015 at 08:04

    John, I agree. Ditto for Germany.

  21. Gravatar of collin collin
    12. August 2015 at 10:10

    Scott,

    Realize Donald Trump gained his early support from his stupid comments about Mexico. But, here in California Donald Trump pinata are all the rage! I have thought that anti-immigration discussion has been really ridiculous because since 2009 the number new illegal immigrants a is LOT less than before. (However, the housing crash started in Cali in 2005 so it was the housing collapse that caused less immigration here not the other way around.)

    I am glad to see that the Chinese with the high boy/girl birth ratios are allowing bride immigrants in the country. Without it, I wondered if China was having a weird Socio-Political experiment with so many more young men in the society without access to dating young women.

  22. Gravatar of AbsoluteZero AbsoluteZero
    12. August 2015 at 11:29

    Scott,
    Good post.

    Somebody said: ‘ “Zhonggua” means “Central State”. It is not a neutral term. The term originates from the belief that China is the centre of the universe. It implies that China is superior to any other people and nation. ‘

    This is a persistent misconception.

    There are two characters in “中国” (simplified) / “中國” (traditional) / Zhōngguó (pinyin).

    The second character “国” means country or nation (not state or kingdom). It also exists in Japanese and means exactly the same thing.

    The first character “中” is a very basic character that is also itself a radical. It has a number of meanings. The most common is “middle” or “in the middle”. By itself it does not connote superiority, supremacy, importance, or centrality. It just means middle. There are many examples to illustrate this.

    “中間” (zhōngjiān) means in the middle, or in between. It also means intermediate, as in a score that’s neigher high nor low. The second character here meaning a span or space.
    “中年” (zhōngnián) means exactly middle age. The second character means year or age.
    “中旬” (zhōngxún) means the middle third of a month. The second character here means a period of time.
    “中葉” (zhōngyè) means the middle years of a century. The second character originally means leave, but here it means a period of time.
    “空中” (kōngzhōng) means in the air, as in a plane or a bird flying in the air. The first character here means the sky.

    There are many more. In none of these is there a connotation of superiority or centrality. It just means in the middle. And all these also exist in Japanese as kanji compounds. While the pronounciations are different, they all mean exactly the same thing.

    Can the character “中” connote centrality? Yes, but only in combination with other characters. For example, “中心” (zhōngxÄ«n) means the center, or core, of something. This is because the second character “心” means heart.

    As a radical, “中” is also a part of many other characters. One example is “仲” (zhòng). The radical on the left means people. This character also has a number of meanings, among them intermediate, mediation, arbitration, and so on. Note that, if anything, it has the connotation of neutrality.

    As for being nationalistic, I agree with Scott, Chinese people, while nationalistic, are no more nationalistic than many other nationalities.

  23. Gravatar of E. Harding E. Harding
    12. August 2015 at 12:57

    @ssumner
    Read further down in the link, the question is addressed thoroughly:
    http://humanvarieties.org/2014/06/19/hvgiq-vietnam/
    Most recent Vietnamese immigration to the U.S. is unskilled:
    https://www.advancingjustice.org/sites/default/files/Community%20of%20Contrasts,%20South,%202014_0.pdf
    Despite this, significant achievement gaps between Vietnamese and Hmong+Laotians+Cambodians open up during the second generation:
    http://www.academia.edu/6347302/The_Socioeconomic_Attainments_of_Second-Generation_Cambodian_Hmong_Laotian_and_Vietnamese_Americans
    “I understand the preference of Burma’s government, but why do we honor their preference, but not Germany’s preference?”
    -Ah, but “Germany” has been called Germany for a long time in the English-speaking world. Linguistic inertia is powerful.

  24. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    13. August 2015 at 05:46

    Thanks Absolutezero.

    E. Harding, I’m not surprised that the Vietnamese do better than the other Southeast Asians. Their culture is a bit more like that of China (as far as I recall).

    We’ve been calling Burma by that name for a long time.

  25. Gravatar of BC BC
    14. August 2015 at 03:38

    “Doesn’t Taiwan agree with the one China concept? Doesn’t Taiwan’s constitution insist that there is just one China? Didn’t the two Germany’s eventually merge? Won’t the two China’s and the two Korea’s eventually merge?”

    Scott, it depends what you mean by “Taiwan agreeing” to the one China concept. The Nationalists (KMT) fled to Taiwan after being defeated by the Communists, claiming to still be the legitimate government of all of China. They were an occupying force in Taiwan so it’s disingenuous to claim that “Taiwan” agrees with the one China concept. If the American occupying forces in, say, the Philippines following WW2 declared that the Philippines were part of the US, would that mean that Filipinos “agreed” with the one America policy? If, in the interim, the losing side in an American civil war set up a government-in-exile in the Philippines, would that constitute Filipino agreement?

    There is negligible support among the Taiwanese for becoming part of China. If the two merge, it will not be voluntarily on the part of Taiwan.

  26. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    14. August 2015 at 05:49

    BC, Taiwan is a democratic country. This “occupying power” is the elected government of Taiwan. Their constitution says there is one China.

    Of course there is no support today for Taiwan and China merging, but what about after China becomes democratic and rich. The Taiwanese are ethnically Chinese (Han), after all.

  27. Gravatar of BC BC
    15. August 2015 at 07:08

    Taiwan *is* a democratic country in the present tense. I’m sure you are aware though that they are under tremendous international pressure, as well as threat of force from China, to not “unilaterally” change the status quo. This One China status quo was established long before Taiwan became democratic, and the KMT at the time was indeed an occupying power (past tense).

    If China ever liberalizes, I think it is uncertain what will happen with Taiwan. On the one hand, a liberal China would certainly be more attractive than an authoritarian China to Taiwan. On the other hand, a truly liberalized China would also be less coercive in blocking Taiwanese independence. How much more rich and democratic do the US and Canada need to become before both countries merge into One North America (ex-Mexico)?

  28. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    15. August 2015 at 15:05

    BC, I agree it’s an open question, but Taiwan has traditionally been part of China, and was in 1949, which makes “occupying power” sort of suspect. How can you “occupy” you own country? A better argument is that Japan was an occupying power from 1910-45.

    Canada and Mexico have not traditionally been part of the US. The two Koreas is a much better analogy.

    I would add that the Nationalists won the last presidential election, although they may lose the next one.

  29. Gravatar of Lunchtime links | Nobody Expects the Dismal Science Lunchtime links | Nobody Expects the Dismal Science
    24. August 2015 at 09:06

    […] China has thousands of Mexicans Vietnamese spilling across the border to work low-wage and more grueling jobs the native Chinese no longer want. Scott Sumner asks where is the Chinese Donald Trump and useful Chinese geography tips. […]

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