© Project China 2014 Text: Project China 2014 Editor: Rebecca Schwieler Layout & Design: Rebecca Schwieler Photos: Brian Ye, Rebecca Schwieler Print: Elanders Sverige AB Legally Responsible Publisher: Gustaf Banér, President of the Media Committee at SASSE mediapres@sasse.se +46 (0)8 506 92 900 Published by The Student Association at the Stockholm School of Economics (SASSE) Stockholm, Opinions uttered in the Report Book do not necessarily represent the opinions of Project China or the Student Association.
From Made in China To Created in China Bridging the gaps between the future leaders of China and Sweden since 2003
Table of Contents NEW SHIFTING WORKFORCE - CHINA IN MOVEMENT Made in China - A Mark of Quality A Gigantic Experience The Shanghai Free Trade Zone The Conflict Affected City Opportunities for You
14 16 20 24 26
GROWING UP IN CHINA School Life in Different Cultures A Swede in China The Creator of the Modern China The Effects of the Regulation on Childbirth The Growing Presence of Fashion What do you know about Tea?
32 40 42 46 48 50
INNOVATION THROUGH DIGITALIZATION From Copycat to Leading Innovator Apps Used in China Shenzhen: China’s Home of Tech-startups Digitalization changes the Chinese Stock Market Robot-restaurant - the new way to run a Restaurant Back from the Qin Dynasty
56 60 62 67 68 70
SUSTAINABLE MODERNIZATION A Model for Future Cities The Growing Cloud over China A wisely chosen transportaion for you and the environment Travel through China by Train Rising Demand of Oil in China Organizations with Sustainable Thinking Geely Competition
76 78 82 84 86 88 92
ABOUT PROJECT CHINA Sweden Day China Week The Project Group
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Words from the Managers
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ctober 15th 2013 was the first day of our long and challenging journey. The whole process from planning to executing the project can be summarized in our final product – this report book. It has been an incredible experience to be part of something of this size and having the possibility to unite two different worlds. Project China’s purpose is to bring Sweden and China closer together through a professional and cultural exchange, thus creating an understanding and opening up opportunities between the two countries. This year we believe we have continued Project China’s legacy, as well as we have taken part of it with us. We are honored to have led and shaped Sweden’s largest international student project and we would like to thank our whole project group, as it would never have been possible without them. Through hardship and adversity, the project group has faced many challenges throughout the year, and still we continued pushing forward to reach our goals. We are happy have been able to further expand Project China, among others hosting the largest competition ever in Project China’s history, involving both students from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm School of Economics in the Geely car competition, and establishing even closer and more waterproof collaborations with our corporate as well as university partners. We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished with Project China 2014, and sincerely believe that we have made an impact not only nationally, but also on a global level, bridging the gaps between the future leaders of Sweden and China. Yours Sincerely,
Brian Ye Jonathan Roos
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ear reader
For being the 12th consecutive year of Project China, I am happy to be able to introduce the theme of this year – From Made in China to Created in China. What we wanted to do differently this year was to not only emphasize China’s booming economy, but also show what is behind it. China has for long been known for their low cost labour, but this is no longer all that China stands for. China has moved towards high skilled labour and experienced a major shift in its workforce. The focus of Project China 2014 is to remove the old negative connotations of “Made in China” and instead associate it with what China is today – a world-class innovator. Project China has grown to become the largest international student project in Sweden since 2003 when it all began. It started as a collaboration between the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the student association at the Stockholm School of Economics and for the second year in a row we had the great opportunity to visit three top universities in china - Tsinghua University in Beijing, Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai. There are so many hours behind this book and to finally being able to give it to you feels quite unbelievable. Reading it will give you a deeper understanding of China and this year’s theme. So grab a cup of tea and enjoy reading and I hope it will get you as fascinated as I am of this country! Best regards, Rebecca Schwieler Report Book Manager, Project China 2014
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New Shifting Workforce
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- China in Movement
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Made in China - A Mark of Quality by ELLINOR LIDÉN
For most people ”Made in China” has evoked expressions like cheap, low quality and mass production. Today, China and the world, however, have seen a shift. Is ”made in China” on the way to becoming a hallmark of quality rather than an indicator of poor quality?
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lthough many of the world’s great In recent years, however, this deeply inventions come from China, such rooted viewpoint has changed and China as the compass, paper and the printing is currently considered one of the world’s press, the country’s image has still had a most innovative countries. China has slightly negative connotation through the always been an inventive country so what years. It has been seen as a has really changed, and how mass-producing country with come it changed now and not products of poor quality. earlier? An important factor The fascination is that China’s economic Hence, it has for a long period of time been attractive of China and its policy since Mao’s death to manufacture clothes and gradually became more development other products in China in liberal. The authorities have, order to inexpensively get continues to grow among other things, allowed them out to the market. The foreign investments and in every year.” stamp ”made in china” has 2001 the country became a thus become synonymous member of the World Trade with poor quality, which in Organization. Today it is turn has affected the outside world’s view clear that China is one of the world’s fastest on the whole country. growing economies. A more transparent
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China entails a more open business environment, and the more the rest of the world gets to see of the country and its development, the greater the chance that people reevaluate their opinions. The great economic success of this new and more open China has in turn generated increased interest from the outside world to keep up with the developments. The fascination of China and its development continues to grow every year. The country has been referred to as a major power, a great source of inspiration and an incredible innovator, and it is well known that a favorite child has many names. As a conclusion it is certain to say that China in many aspects is a country to look
up to. With its ambitious and hard-working citizens and the unique and warm culture it is no wonder that the world is fascinated by the country. It undeniably requires something extra to succeed in generating one innovative solution after another in the way China does. The new fast trains called Gaotie trains are an excellent example (see page 82). What other country has managed to deliver a complete and interconnected high speed train that is also timely, convenient and even enjoyable? I guess that the answer (or more probably the lack thereof) makes it easy to state that looking at China means looking into the future.
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A GIGANTIC EXPERIENCE
by EMMA BÄCKMAN
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It is early in the morning of our last day in Chengdu and we are heading to one of Chengdu’s most recent tourist attractions. On distance the building looks almost like any other building with wave-shaped roof and a smooth design – a nice, not so ordinary, shopping mall.
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etting closer to the building I am starting to realize that the distance when we first saw it must have been many kilometres. The building is towering up in front of us even though we still have minutes of driving left before we are actually there. When we arrive at the parking lot we step out to stand in front of the world’s biggest freestanding building; the New Century Global Center. Although the word “building” does not do its justice; it is a giant. A mountain. The measurements of the Global Center are incredible: 500 meters long, 400 meters width and 100 meters high. The total floor space sums up to 1,7 million square meters. The design is said to be inspired by sailing seagulls and undulating waves, which is obvious from the outside. The size and exterior of the building is in itself fascinating, but there is so much more than just a massive, elegant structure. Inside the building you find a beach covering 5000 square meters, the worlds largest LED screen 150 meters wide and a shopping area covering over 400 000 square meters. The remaining space is housing cinema, office space, two hotels, conference centres and in contrast to the beach – an ice hockey rink with international measurements. As if that was not enough, the creators have also managed to construct a hide away from China’s biggest problems; the pollution. With industries and plants chained to
every bigger city, the pollution is sinking down between the skyscrapers, creating a thick layer of fog. Chengdu with its rapid development is not an exception, it is even considered as one of the most polluted cities in the world. The people of the city barely see the sun at any time of the day. That is why an artificial sun is installed within the Global Center, so that the visitors can enjoy both the sunlight and warmth from the installation, 24 hours of the day. When we visit the Global Center we are all determined to see everything during the few hours we can spend. By starting at the top floor in the shopping mall area and taking one floor at a time we should make it, we thought. We made our way through each floor, passing a gaming hall, the cinema and the ice rink where we saw Chinese people trying to skate, some more successfully than others. We passed some of the stores, the giant department store and the lobby. When our time in the mall was up, I could not tell if we even managed to go from one end to the other. The place is so big that I did actually lost track of where we were and where we started. One thing I was and still am sure of though is that the building knows how to make you feel small, and happy - I left with shopping bags, a good mood and a memorable experience, only regretting not having more time to explore the world’s biggest freestanding building.
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Corporate Profile The Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is one of the top ten automobile manufacturers in China. Since entering into the car market in 1997, the company has expanded rapidly through a combination of flexible management and unremitting, independent innovation. Last year, Geely sold an estimated 491,000 cars within both Chinese and export markets, outpacing the average growth rate of the Chinese motor industry by an impressive 15% and making the company the 7th biggest passenger vehicle manufacturer in China. The Volvo Car Corporation, the premium brand under Geely Holding since 2010, sold 421,951 vehicles globally in the same period and is on track to boost its global sales figures to 800,000 units by 2020. In February 2013, Zhejiang Geely Holding acquired the Manganese Bronze Holdings, manufacturer of one of England's most recognised rides - the London black cab - for $17.5 million.
Brands & Network Geely’s complete domestic sales network comprises of around 1,000 4S dealers and service stations. Meanwhile, it operates nearly 200 sales and service outlets in its overseas markets. Geely recently invested millions of dollars in the construction of a brand new state of the art call centre, offering 24-hour services to customers in China. The company is the market leader in customer care, thanks to its new SAP-based ERP management systems and after-sale service information systems, which enable it to process market information responsively and react rapidly to any changes in customer demand. Geely is also a pioneer in new marketing initiatives, becoming the first car manufacturer to sell cars online. In 2011, Geely had a total user base of 2.2 million in China and was one of the country’s most recognised brands.
The Shanghai Free Trade Zone by GIOVANNI PALMIOLI
On 29 September 2013 the Chinese government officially launched the China Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone (henceforth “SFTZ”) in Shanghai. After China’s admission to the World Trade Organization in 2001, the launch of the SFTZ marks a major milestone in China’s opening up strategy which initiated in 1980 with the establishment of four Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The SFTZ was hailed as a significant attempt at economic reform since 1980, when Shenzhen became a SEZ (HSBC, 2014).
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he Chinese authorities asserted that the launch of the SFTZ is part of a long-term national strategy to restructure the economy and deepen market-oriented reforms, especially in the financial sector. Since the SFTZ is a pilot program, the zone has been considered as a testing ground for future financial reforms. The regulations implemented within the SFTZ will be refined by the Chinese government over a 3 year period, starting from the inception of the program. It is important to note that the SFTZ goes beyond the features that typically define special economic zones which are generally established to attract foreign investment and technology through various incentives. The purpose of the zone is not only to reform the financial sector and open up the domestic economy, especially the service sectors, but also transform government functions and bring trade and investment administration systems up to international standards. A core principle is that the zone should be used as a laboratory for future economic and financial reforms. If the zone proved to be successful, the government would then replicate the SFTZ model in other parts of the country. According to China’s Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, Shanghai was chosen because the city has traditionally been at the forefront of China’s opening up policies. Shanghai is de facto the financial capital of China. Before the launch of the SFTZ, the city already welcomed four specially supervised customs zones: the Waigaoquiao Free Trade Zone, the first bounded area in China which was approved in 1990, the Waigaoquiao Logistics Park (2003), the Yangshan Free Trade Port Area
(2005), and more recently the Pudong Airport Free Trade Zone (2009). The SFTZ encompasses the four zones and covers a geographical area of approximately 28.8 square kilometers. China’s transition from copycat to innovator is not taking places only through high-tech products or innovative online services. China is also exploring innovative administrative measures. The Shanghai Municipal People’s Government published the “Special Administrative Measures on the Entry of Foreign Investment into China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone” – the so-called “Negative List”. The list, representing the most important and innovative feature of the SFTZ, applies for foreign investment and specifies in which sectors foreign investment is not allowed. The list provides administrative guidelines and financial requirements by investment sector. For those sectors included in the list, foreign investment will be subject to restrictions or prohibited. The first 2013 Negative List included 18 service sector classes, each divided into categories and sub-categories. The initial list included restrictions or prohibitions for 190 sectors. It is worth noting that on July 1st 2014 the Shanghai authorities released a revised version of the original Negative List in which the number of restrictive measures was reduced to 139 measures. To date, the new negative list includes 110 restrictive clauses and 29 prohibitive ones. Any sector outside the list is now fully open (in theory); foreign companies are now granted pre-establishment and are only required to go through an online record-filing procedure with the Shanghai PFTZ (Pilot Free Trade Zone)
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Administrative Commission in order to economy and open the financial sector to obtain a business license. The license can foreign investors. According to official now be obtained within only 4 figures released upon the zone’s days in the zone, significantly one-year anniversary, the zone less than an average of 29 days attracted some 12,000 firms a testing in other parts of China. This after the first year, although ground for fu- only 1677 are foreign-funded mechanism replaces the older one whereby foreign companies ture financial companies (Xinhua, 2014). To were required to apply for predate, it is widely agreed that reforms ” approval and had to go through the zone has failed to live up tedious and time-consuming to the high expectations in the administrative procedures. With market. In September 2014 the new system, all application even China’s Prime Minister materials is submitted and handled by the Li Keqiang expressed his disappointment Industry and Commerce Authority (AIC). about the slow pace of reforms within the zone (The Economist, 2014). Some factors The SFTZ drew a lot of attention in the have been cited by investors. business community upon its launch. Investors and experts have long awaited For example, the zone is actually not as aggressive market-oriented reforms by free as its name implies since many service the Chinese government to restructure the sectors are still subject to restrictions.
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Moreover, a lack of clarity on what is allowed in the zone has prompted investors to take a waitand-see approach. Nevertheless, some think that the SFTZ might have the potential to become a new Hong Kong or Singapore. It may be too early to dismiss the SFTZ at this stage. One should view the zone from a long term perspective and bear in mind that the zone is meant to operate as a laboratory for future reforms, especially in the financial sector. The SFTZ is therefore unlikely to deliver significant results in the short run. It is however true that the zone is an important stepping stone towards China’s marketoriented reforms.
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The Conflict Affected City by MARCUS WALLBERG
Although the most westernized parts of China are located in its east, the Xinjiang province is China’s far western region. The province is home to one of the country’s biggest ethnic minorities, the Turkic speaking Uighurs. This Muslim minority group has history of independence and autonomy with Turkic and Mongol rulers, and it has been part of China for the last 300 years.
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oday Han Chinese make up 40% of the population of Xinjiang, excluding large numbers of military troops stationed in the region and unknown numbers of unregistered migrants, and Uyghurs accounting for about 45%. During the Communist era, the region experienced economic development
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which came with large flows of the Han Chinese people migrating from the east of China. Unfortunately the migration has resulted in a rising anti-Han and separatist movement over the last 20 years because of the discrimination and marginalization of the Uyghur people. Occasionally, this has caused violent conflicts. Russian influence of Xinjiang has been very present throughout history, especially during the rule of various warlords after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. The Soviet Union supported a Uighur-led separatist East Turkestan Republic in the north of the region in 1944-1949, but later switched side when the Communists took over. Xinjiang has had a fast economic development since the 1950s, much because of the large resources of oil and petrochemicals, which today stand for
around 60 % of the area’s GDP. Other than that, Xinjiang is an important trade zone and pipeline into Central Asia. International attention turned to Xinjiang in July 2009 when bloody clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese in the region’s main city, Urumqi, prompted the Chinese government to send large numbers of troops to patrol the streets. Nearly 200 people, most of whom Han, were killed in the unrest, according to officials. The protests against the Chinese government had already started in the early 1990s, to which the Chinese authorities reacted forcefully. These culminated in clashes in the city of Yining (Ghulja in Uighur), 1997, in protest against the execution of 30 alleged separatists. The authorities reported nine dead in the clashes although separatists said more than a hundred protesters were killed.
To date, there are still many conflicts in Xinjiang, detonation of car bombs by proindependence fighters and public stabbings making the situation today more unstable. The Chinese government has for some time stationed military in the bigger cities in Xinjiang. That however does not seem to have calmed down the situation. Today the growing population of Han Chinese is getting the top-paying jobs which increases the segments and might continue to keep the conflict alive. The fact remains that a big part of the Chinese energy resources comes from the Xinjiang province, which makes the area even more important to the Chinese government. There is still a long way to go before achieving independence, if that is what the already autonomously-ruled Xinjiang wants.
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Opportunities for Swedish Students by REBECCA SCHWIELER Students at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Stockholm School of Economics are given the opportunity to travel abroad for an exchange year to different universities around the world and both schools have partner universities for exchange in China. There are lots of reasons for why you should take an exchange year in China, and we wanted to find out more about the opportunities given and what thoughts those, with a little more experience, have of China. Hence we took the chance to interview the Presidents, at the time, of both schools.
Karl-Olof Hammarkvist Acting President of Stockholm School of Economics between May 2013 -May 2014 Previous roles at Stockholm School of Economics: Vice President Adjunct Professor of Business Administration Senior Advisor PhD in Economics
To begin with, what kind of exchange programs and relations do the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) have with China? We offer two kinds of programs here at SSE. One is within the CEMS network where we a cooperating with Tsinghua
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University in Beijing. Then we have the normal exchange program with Tsinghua University, Fudan University in Shanghai and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. There’s also a research institute in Stockholm cooperating with China.
Why do you think it’s important for students to engage in China related activities both inside and outside school? In general I think it’s important for every student to have an international exposure, go to other countries to see how the business works there. Even if you work for a swedish company in the future they will most certainly have some international relation and more or less global activities. Today, if you open the newspaper, there is almost always something about China and it is such an important country today. Therefore students need to get involved. What would you say are the most important reason for getting a relationship to China in the long-run? When it comes to trade today, you can’t get around China. The Chinese economy will probably overtake the US economy in a few years and that’s something you can’t avoid. You better learn about China early because, sooner or later, you’ll end up doing business with them. What do you think are the biggest culture differences in business between Sweden and China? Mainly, from what I have learnt from
doing business with them, the Chinese have a very long-term perspective and that it takes time. It can take year after year before you get a deal with them. They also have a more complicated decisiontaking process with their hierarchy in the companies. It is a very different culture than in Scandinavia. Today it’s different since more people understands and speak English and most people are familiar with western people, while going back a few years this was a very odd situation for them. They have gone through a remarkable shift. Far from everyone speaks English though, and hence, learning some Chinese is a great idea for younger Swedes today, I would say. How do you think the relation between China and Sweden will develop in the future? I think we will develop in a very positive way. Sweden was the first country to approve China as a nation in 1949. We are extending our business with China more and more both when it comes to business and cultural exchange. China is an important partner we’re living close to in the global world!
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Peter Gudmundsson Principle of KTH since 2007 Led the department of Solid Machanics at KTH between 1993 to 2005 MSc in Engineering Physics PhD in Solid Mechanics Played ice hockey for KTH during his time as a student at KTH
First of all, what opportunities do you give students at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) for exchange in China? KTH is the university in Sweden with the largest collaboration with China and we have a good contact with the largest univerities in China. It’s also developing over time so there are good opportunities for an exchange at a top univeristy in China. KTH is also well known in China and respected by the universities which open doors for both students and researchers who takes the chance to go there, Why do you think students should take the opportunity to travel to China for an exchange year? In recent year, we’ve seen a tremendous development in China and they are investing in the univerities giving an increasing quality in the education. If you look in to the future, I think it’s important to have a good relation with China in both research and education. Would you recommend someone who wants to travel abroad to go to China? I do recommend it! Of course we can’t promise everyone a chance to go there since
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we have agreements with the universities of a certain numbers of students. For those who get the chance though, I think it’s a very good experience. What do you think about the competition between Swedish and Chinese students? Can we learn something from them or the other way around? Well, it’s a big difference in culture overall but also among the students and how they work. In Sweden students are more used to work together in projects and are open to problems while Chinese students are more focused in individual subjects and they have a deep knowledge. It is a culture difference which I believe is useful to get to know for both parts. What do you think of the future between China and KTH and China and Sweden in terms of both education and between companies? If this development continues in China I foresee an even extended collaboration in terms of research and exchange of faculty and students. I really recommend everyone who gets the chance to work and study with or within China to take it!
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Growing Up in China
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School Life in Different Cultures by BRIAN YE & KATIE LIU After having experienced a student life in Stockholm, many international students, especially those from outside western countries, have plenty of curiosity and questions about what Swedish students go through before being enrolled into a university. Vice versa European students have lots of thoughts 32
about how difficult a Chinese student life is in different aspects. Hence, we have found it necessary and interesting to write about the student lives we went through in different periods in both Sweden and China and in which way the huge differences are showed vividly.
Elementary school life in Sweden Every Swedish-born child is obligated to attend the compulsory 10-year elementary school program, which begins in early fall the year the child turns 6. Since a couple of centuries ago, the education system in Sweden became completely free of charge for elementary school – including lunch, study material and study fee. Already in the early stages of the education, classes show aspects of Swedish society’s beliefs, human rights and values, the individual’s freedom and gender equality. Swedish children are mostly educated through discussion, giving them a possibility to engage in discussions and debates in order to express their own beliefs and thoughts. The school even chooses to form a student council where a few people from every class are democratically elected as class representatives in order to encourage improvements of the school environment for the students and also diversify the discussions through different perspectives. Already as a child/teenager, a Swede learns how to think open-minded and how a democratic system works in a society where large hierarchies are something not encouraged in Swedish education. In order to have a smoother form of education, every class contains about 20-30 students which all have a responsible teacher called “mentor”.
and spring) from the 6th to the 9th year of school, where the grades from the spring of the 9th year are used to apply for high school. However, in order to apply for high school the student needs to at least have passed the core subjects – English, Swedish and Mathematics. Other than that, in the 6th year students must choose to learn a third language – either Spanish, French or German – which means that a Swedish student is taught at least three different languages.
There is not much studying until the 6th year of school when students start receiving grades. Until the 6th year students receive a feedback report on how well they are performing in school. In 6th grade, students are graded on a hexastichal system from A to F, where F is Fail, not passing, and A is the highest grade. Grades are given in the end of each term (both fall
Elementary school life in China China has a so-called nine-year compulsory education policy for all children from 6 to 15 years old, which is almost the only free education available. Every class consists of around 40 students and one teacher. The hierarchy system in China begins to take shape from elementary school with clear class committee systems
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and a strong class-leadership group. This group consists of one class monitor, one or two vice-monitors and four commissaries in charge of studies, art, sports, and general affairs respectively. As in both school and society, the elections for the above seats are never fully democratic. Every class has a main responsible teacher who nominates the important positions such as class monitor, vice monitor and the commissary in charge of studies. Only for the remaining positions may the students give a vote in elections, which is exactly the same as with the current politics running in the country. From grade 1 to 9 students have exams every two months, in total four times a year. Every exam is scored and then ranked within the class. The results usually determine directly whether your parents and teachers will punish or reward you. Thus every student knows how serious he/she should take his/her exam and how
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different results bring different treatments. There is no food provided at school and when it comes to drinks the expenses are shared within the class regardless of whether you are drinking or not. Libraries can seldom be found in elementary school. There are three big events every year during elementary school: the celebration of Children’s Day in June, Sport Games in September and New Year’s party in January. The first two are bigger with the whole school holding the events together in units of classes. The New Year party is usually only held within your class with everybody sitting in a circle, eating snacks and giving performances one by one or in groups. High school life in Sweden High school in Sweden is very similar to the later part of the elementary school in terms of class structure and school subjects. The largest difference is that students
attend certain high school programs with subject-specific courses and also have the possibility to choose non-mandatory courses. These programs could be either practical or theoretical in fields of natural sciences, social sciences, technology, economics, etc. In other words, a program is made of mandatory core courses, subjectspecific courses and elective courses. The kinds of courses that can be chosen depend on the certain high school’s offerings. Another large difference is that high school in Sweden is not mandatory, so if you do not want to attend high school you can go ahead and start working already after elementary school – something which is solely controlled by your own free will. Just the same as during elementary school, every high school has a student council discussing various topics regarding improvement of study environment and student welfare. However, since students here are between 15-19 years old these
kinds of organizations tend to be more serious where nationwide associations for high school councils exists. High schools are only open until around 18:00 every weekday and are closed during weekends, which means that students have to finish their homework and study at home. Other than that, students are allowed to either go to a municipal school or free private school, where the difference is that the first mentioned is owned by the state and the second one, owned by a company. The academic quality can vary a lot, even within these categories. Just like the elementary school, grades are given in the end of each term and a grade will be set for that certain course. This is unlike elementary school where the students have the possibility to improve their grade throughout the years. However, the way of examination can vary from course to course. During the high school years, students are more and more shaped into the people
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they will be in the future, mostly because the students have a lot of time to socialize and interact in activities besides studying. With that said, already as a teenager a Swedish person is usually mature enough to make his/her own decisions in life – to decide in which direction she/he wants to head in. This is also one of the reasons why Sweden celebrates so much once students graduate from high school because that is seen as the unofficial confirmation of entering adulthood. High school life in China Compared to high school, elementary school life can, with no doubt, be regarded as heaven. Most Chinese students believe that this period is the hardest as well as the most informative one. During high school, classes may start at 7:00 am and end at 9:50 pm every day. The first two years promise one weekend off every two weeks whereas during the last year students have only one weekend off within a month. After one year of study, students can choose either liberal arts or science. Chinese, English and Mathematics are of equal importance and needs to be studied by all students. Besides these three subjects, students of liberal arts study Politics, History and Geography, while students of science focus on Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Students who achieve better grades are being well taken care of and paid more attention. In many high schools, there is the so-called ‘A class’ including all the best students and teachers in the school. The aim for setting this ‘A class’ is to keep the top students from the troublemakers and less talented students and create an even more competitive atmosphere. Most high schools have this ‘A class’ setting as they believe it can help more top students get into the top universities. The more students
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that are enrolled into top universities after three years of study, the more famous and popular this high school will become. The scale of exams becomes bigger and bigger after every year. Monthly or even weekly exams are not rare, especially not during the last year when all exams are repeated
again and again until the final one the college entrance examination. This extremely important exam lasts two days in early June. Streets nearby are blocked in order to provide a quiet environment for exam takers. Around those two days, you even hear about the exams on TV, radio or
newspaper. Parents usually take a few days off to accompany their children, waiting for them outside the exam districts. After elementary school most students move into student dorms, containing 4 beds, within campus. Student dorms are strictly managed by building managers who examine whether you are in or out, if your room is clean and if you fold your blankets etc. The canteens inside campus are usually really nice and the food offered is not that costly at all. Relationships and computer games are considered as the strongest kinds of poison by high school teachers. Once being caught with either, the teacher will inform the parents and use every way they can to stop this. The life of a high school student should be as simple as possible, therefore no distractions shall stand in the way. Thus, in many high schools few festivities survive nor keep their original scale. University life in Sweden Compared to China, Swedish people do not see university as the obvious choice right after examination of high school. Many people tend to travel for a year or do any other kind of work to receive experience before starting again. Once admitted to a Swedish university, the study environment is very different from what students are used to from high school. During high school students receive a lot of guidance to approach tasks and problems, while in university it is much about individual capability. Usually there is a large gap in terms of workload which forces students to redo their daily schedules completely. However, this is common knowledge learnt during university; freedom needs to be handled with responsibility. The student life of university is the
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most colorful part of a Swedish student’s academic period during university. This is the part where you can explore your likes, join different clubs and engage yourself in activities of your choice that you want to develop towards – ranging from sports to arts to career building. Since most Swedish university do not have large campuses, it is still hard to feel the very classical campus life, such as campuses that are as large as towns. These kinds of activities tend to be very fun, which makes it easy for the student to get stuck in it. As mentioned previously, freedom should be handled with responsibility, which is exactly what is needed once attending these kinds of activities at university. The classes are not like in elementary school or high school. Every class is as large as the number of people admitted to the program you study. These are usually the people you become very good friends with since they are attending the same courses
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as yourself the first few years. During the late years, once enrolling to the elective courses, students receive an individual schedule but the people you got to know earlier remain. University life in China After three tough years, students can finally take a deep breath and enjoy their beautiful lives in universities where love does not need to be hidden any more. Many couples are to be found within the campus and although students are still taking many courses, riding their bikes in a hurry or doing their report till midnight, they have more free-time to distribute. More important is that they are finally allowed to make their own decisions instead of listening to their parents or teachers. There are no longer any teachers in charge of your studies and every student takes responsibility of his/her own results. Almost every student lives in 4-bed dorms within campus, which is sometimes
big enough to be called a town. You can sometimes find more than 10 cafeterias within campus providing all kinds of food at low costs. There are also several libraries where students go after their lectures. Life in universities is more colorful. Students usually join at least one organization or club to fulfill their habits or practice their interests. Countless events together with speeches given by celebrities fill the days inside campus. As a huge contrast with high school, campus life teaches students more about how to use time efficiently and how to achieve selfcontrol. Classes do still exist with around 25 students, but they are a bit vague since every student chooses the courses to study out of the compulsory ones. However, parties or picnics are held within a class a few times every year, among which karaoke is the most popular activity. Graduation trip is usually regarded as the most exciting thing to do together with the rest of the class and
the best memory of university. These trips are decided by the whole class with a trip to another city for about three to seven days. According to the international education ranking, Sweden is one of the top countries with the best-functioned education systems, together with Finland, Germany and Denmark. On the other side, despite of the obstacles in terms of policies and resources, Chinese education systems also end up with many satisfactory results. Our intention is not to determine which system is better but to show the huge differences between students in many aspects, as well as satisfy the curiosity of getting to know facts from another country. Once knowing these facts, you will probably understand different student behaviors under different education systems. However, nothing will stay the same forever. How will students’ lives change in the future? Let your thoughts swirl around in your head.
Growing Up in China 39
A Swede in China by PERSHENG BABAHEIDARI
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ith no experience of travelling in East Asia I did not know what to expect when I first entered China, other than what I had heard through my friends’ experiences. I felt excited but at the same time frightened of what I was about to see. Travel in a country for a whole month begun as a challenge but turned out to be a journey I will not ever forget. Starting with a walk by the Pudong River made me realize something - I was a small European girl in an ocean of Asian people. A huge crowd walked towards me and it felt like they watched my every move. Most of the time they passed by without caring but sometimes they stared with, what it felt like, excitement. For some of them this was the first time they saw a foreigner in person, something I did not realize in that moment. It felt strange but also fascinating being photographed and appreciated based on my appearance, as if I was a famous celebrity. I soon learned that I was verbally disabled. Among one billion people only a small amount knew English and I did not meet many of them. It felt horrible not being able to speak in words they understood and not being able to express myself the way I wanted to, but at the same time it motivated me to learn their language – Mandarin. My phone became the intermediary
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between me and the Chinese as I started to write down useful phrases. The result was me being able to order food, take a taxi and bargain in Mandarin. After being in China for a while I learned that it was not unusual to see couples wearing matching shirts or hear adults saying their favorite movies were cartoons. Neither was it strange to see guys carrying their girlfriends’ small handbags nor that the Chinese do not think that anything is cheesy. The contrasts were, and are, big and I literally felt like I entered a whole other world. I started to wonder – What do Swedes and Chinese people really have in common? The view we have on China in Sweden is not the same as the actual picture you see when you go there. I know now that it is hard to copy-paste Chinese influences in a country far away, among people with other experiences. I thought I had a pretty good picture of how China would be like – but I was wrong. I did not know I would be so fascinated of this country. That I would learn to love the culture, the language and the people or that I suddenly knew that someday, I want to work here. Some things needs to be seen and experienced in real life before deciding on what you think. And when we left the airport in Hong Kong to go back to Sweden, I knew that it will not be long before I return to this amazing country - China.
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The Creator of Modern China by SORÉNA AMINI
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oday, China is the largest economy after the United States and many predict that this will come to change, in favour of China, within a few years. One person has made a greater impact than anyone else in getting China to what it is today economically. He introduced capitalism in a communist state and, after years of struggle, he reformed China’s economic and fiscal policies enormously. His name is Deng Xiaoping.
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n 1 October 1949, after the end of the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. With inspiration from the political system in the Soviet Union, he began to transform China into a communist state. Command economy was put in front of market economy and anyone who questioned Mao’s ability to lead the country was punished. Among those who understood the limitations of command economy was Deng Xiaoping. After the Great Leap Forward, which ended up as a disaster, both Mao Zedong’s position of power and political notion were questioned. To strengthen his position, Mao introduced the Culture Revolution, with the aim to spread out the notion of Maoism. Those in the party that doubted this very ideology were forced to retire from all their
positions. Deng Xiaoping was one of them. After several events, Mao finally allowed Deng to make a comeback in the communist party, and the struggle for power began. One of the groups within the party that opposed Deng was the radical leftist group (known as the Gang of Four) led by Mao’s wife Jiang Qing. They saw Deng as their greatest challenge to obtain power and began a campaign against him, called Criticize Deng and Oppose the Rehabilitation of Right-leaning Elements. This resulted in removing Deng from the party’s power apparatus. When Mao, soon before his death, turned against Jiang and her associates, the gang lost a lot of trust from the party. After Mao passed away, the same gang attempted to seize the power but did not succeed. Deng saw the chance for a comeback once again, and this time also a change to stay.
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In 1978, Deng got the power he long desired and, as a result, the change of China’s economic policies was about to happen. Following his position, as de facto leader of the People’s Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping started to open and liberalize the economy. The private sector was growing at a rapid pace and the Chinese economy as a whole was booming like never before. Despite the economic reforms, China officially remained a communist state with the famous one-party system. Deng started to find a way to compose communism with capitalism. This resulted in a new constitution, in 1982, because ideas about a more market orientated state were something that Mao disgraced when the original constitution was written and signed. In early 1979, Deng undertook an official visit to the United States. He met President Jimmy Carter, as well as several Congressmen. This was also one of the first steps getting American companies to expand to China. Soon after,
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several American companies established themselves in China, e.g. Coca Cola and Boeing. With Deng Xiaoping in power, the Chinese economy rapidly grew for years in a way never witnessed before. The boom didn’t end until the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, when Chinese students and other activists, who protested against the communist party, were brutally killed after orders from Deng. This historical incident was widely condemned by world leaders and led to economic sanctions and arms embargoes. The implementation of Deng’s version of capitalism in a communist state has not been without problems. The combination of liberalization of the economy and the unaltered political situation has led to an alternative market economy, with stateled/state-owned companies that compete against each other in a questionable way. This has its weaknesses, critics say. The lack of a free market inhibits those benefits
an economy gets from being a free, e.g. fair competition. For China to reach its fullest potential the market needs to be free and in order for that to happen, China has to repeal the one-party system and establish democracy. Deng’s, as well as his successor’s ambitions to open up China, ended with its economy. Deng officially retired from the political scene in 1992. His power had, after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, been weakened since more members of the Party opposed more of his reforms. Deng’s successor, Jiang Zemin, decided not to keep reforming the economy at the same pace. For Deng to reassert his economic philosophy, he made a famous southern tour, visiting a number of cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou. In his speeches he stressed the importance of economic reform and criticized those imposing such things. Since the national media in Beijing were owned by Deng’s political rivals, his tour was at first ignored and therefore
unknown to the greater public. Once again there was a battle within the Party whether to continue to open up the economy or not. At first, Jiang showed little interest in Deng’s trip, but when more people sided with Deng, Jiang eventually did that as well and Deng’s philosophy about an open economy continued. Deng Xiaoping died on 19 February 1997. In December 2012, China’s current President, Xi Jinping, visited Guangdong in his first trip outside of Beijing since taking the Party leadership. He paid tribute to the statue of Deng, which has been interpreted as following in the footsteps of Deng’s economical ideas about fighting corruption and liberating the economy. Even though the grief after the death of Mao was more extensive, Deng was honoured in a grand way and today he is remembered as one of the greatest leaders that the People’s Republic of China has ever had.
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THE EFFECTS A OF THE REGULATION ON CHILDBIRTH – salvation or devastation?
by ELLINOR LIDÉN
Restrictions that impede the course of nature have in many cases proved to be harmful to humanity. This is something China truly experienced during Mao’s time as leader of the country. Yet the government found no other way than to do just that as the population grew at an increasing pace. What are the consequences? Was the result as expected, or was it the other way around? Several signs unfortunately point at the latter. 46
t first glance, the one-child policy in China could be considered purely a good thing. A reduced population has the potential to enhance the development of the economy, living standards and society as a whole: something that sounds good to most people’s ears. But why does no one talk as loud about the disadvantages of reducing the population? Imposing a restriction which fines exorbitant sums if you have more than one child means that the Chinese population prioritizes to give birth to boys. They believe that boys will be more able to support the family and the elderly; they feel the need to think and act egoistically. As a consequence, many abortions are based solely on the fact that the fetus was a girl and the number of abortions thus increases drastically. Something that can be seen not only as unethical but also as counterproductive to the very thing that the restriction was supposed to cause: increased development. Various campaigns have been introduced to prevent this problem, such as campaigns in which families with a daughter get lower school fees and pension. The fact still remains that
enough skilled working population, a prerequisite that is currently not fulfilled. The aging population and the labor shortages will therefore prevent economic development. As the government has begun to understand the importance of this problem they have also realized that the population is dominated by men and it is probably too late to do anything about the notion that a son is more beneficial is it. The fact that they are now beginning deeply rooted in the population. Does not to ease the restrictions by, for example, it feel strange that a slightly unconsidered allowing more than one child if one parent restriction should be soothed is an only child, can have with the help of another little and slow effect. Most unconsidered restriction? the notion that a Chinese people have learned Another question one son is more benefi- to live with the single-child should ask herself a little policy and the consequences more often is how lonely cial is deeply are now so well rooted that it children are affected by the rooted in the may be difficult to change the restriction. In some forums population” direction. discussions about the mental It is thus clear that this health problems facing the lonely children restriction has created a series of negative have arisen as a consequence of the pressure spirals which creates new problems. The to find a good job to be able to support their problems build on each other and China parents and their relatives. There has also ends up in a vicious circle that can not been a discussion about the overall change be overcome easily. It turns out that this of the behavior of the Chinese population initially benign regulation has grown and due to the children’s experience of their become a malignant tumor that threatens upbringing. Is it possible that the Chinese the future of China. The lesson we can all are on their way to becoming a population learn from this is that in most cases it is best dominated by spoiling? to let nature take its course. Authorities Meanwhile the restriction on the number and researchers claim that the growth of of births has meant that the growth of the the population could be naturally reduced population has stalled in such a large extent on its own since people would probably that it can not keep up with the country’s voluntarily adjust their family size overall growth. China’s progress requires considering economic conditions.
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The Growing Presence of Fashion by EMMA BĂ„CKMAN
Walking down the central streets in Shanghai today is not a very different experience from any other bigger developed city in the world. You will see international brands ranging from UNIQLO and H&M to Michael Kors and Armani, and the people you meet are dressed in the latest fashion and accessories. You can easily see how fashion and street style are important to people. The fashion industry has matured over the last 20 years and undergone a remarkable change in the past decade and still continues to grow. 48
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t was not long ago when China was defined by the one and only fashion statement; Zhongshan suit, also known as the Mao suit. Both men and women were dressed in a western suit inspired clothing made for function and not fashion. Later on when China started undergoing its modernization, the clothing of the people started to be more experimental. Prints and colours popped up in the streets and it was now okay to wear bright coloured clothes and have different haircuts. The look was starting to become a statement for each and every Chinese person. The western approach to fashion spread and the first China Fashion Week took place in 1997. The event has grown ever since and has become a top-rated platform for fashion design and is now worldrenowned. It is known as the platform for displaying originality and fashion trends to the whole world. In 2010, MODE Shanghai was established and is now the leading international fashion trade show in Shanghai. It is a trade show and platform for brands and retailers that are interested in the Asian fashion retail market. During the last years it has grown to become an important event for the world’s fashion people. The flourishing fashion market in China is drawing attention, and notable fashion designers from all over the world are turning their heads towards China. It is common fact that the shift in economy of the Chinese people opened up an enormous market for luxury brands, and the Chinese people are now the world’s top consumers of luxury goods (McKinsey 2009). Fashion retailers such as H&M and Zara, the two biggest fashion retailers in the world, are focusing on the Chinese market, opening new stores in a rapid pace. The success of these less expensive brands is a result of the changing desires of the Chinese
consumers; it is no longer only a chase for brands, it has become a chase for a lifestyle and brands that can express the lifestyle and social status that the consumers would like to have. Because of the development of an international market within China’s biggest cities, the small local retail stores have been forced to move to second- and third-tier cities. But this is not a sign of closing off China from the fashion world. Students in China are becoming more and more inclined to gain more experience and exposure to the fashion business. The interest from the younger generation is bigger than ever and the number of applicants to top fashion schools all over the world has tripled during the last years. In combination with the growing importance of the fashion weeks and other fashion events in China, the fashion industry is facing a growing influence from the Chinese fashion world. The prediction is that China will become the world’s largest fashion market within just a few years and it is obvious that China is still undergoing big changes in the fashion industry, from being only a manufacturer in the shadow of foreign brands to becoming a centre for design and innovation.
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What Do You Know About Tea? by KATIE LIU & YAOWEN WANG
’It is essentially a worship of imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.’ — Okakura Kakuzō (The Book of Tea, 1906)
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ea was regarded as a miracle cure in Europe in the early 1600s. Today, tea-drinking is accepted as part of a healthy lifestyle all over the world. However we have been wondering if the soup steeping of a white tea bag is the same thing as the tea served in China. While impressed by the standardness and accessibility that the modern industry grants to tea, we have also started to wonder how the tea culture began in Europe and if westerners are really interested in tea and its culture apart from being a cheap and fine beverage. History of tea in western world Driven by this curiosity, we decided to find out how tea was brought to the western world and how tea was served and viewed centuries ago. Back in the 9th century, the first western travelers mentioned in their logs that Asian had tea drinking habits. Soon after that, the western missionaries started to send information back home about what they saw and how tea was regarded in China. Through those messages, westerners started to offer tea to guests using exquisite tea sets. A Dutch was first out of transporting tea as a good to Europe, in 1596, which made Amsterdam the first European trade center for tea.
After that, tea gradually became the main exchange good in the replacement of silk between European countries and China. Tea was first considered as a medicine exhibited in the pharmacy. However, this Asian medicine was extremely expensive and could not be afforded by most people. The Dutch are seen as the first ones who drank tea in Europe at the beginning of the 17th century, and this behavior was later spread to France. Due to its high price it was only popular among noblemen. It is said that in 1682 the Mary Queen of Holland paid 80 gold coins for a bottle of tea, from which we can imagine how exclusive tea was in Europe at that time. Louis XIV of
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France also started drinking tea after he got to know that Chinese never had heart attacks. The way of adding milk into tea was invented by a French noble lady, Marquise de la Sabliere, although adding milk or sugar is seen as strange to Chinese people. After the popularity of tea in the Netherlands and France, the tea culture was soon spread to England and thereafter led to the birth of ‘Afternoon Tea’. Chinese philosophy in tea culture Influences of European tea drinking culture in Europe could not be avoided and most times these two become a unique integration. However, the combination of Chinese and European tea drinking has blocked many westerners’ eyes in
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experiencing the original Chinese tea culture. To Chinese people, tea has been deeprooted in lives, representing not only a healthy drink but also Chinese tradition and culture. Chinese tea culture has been really broad and profound and has become a special culture landscape. Having pure and fresh natural characteristics, tea can calm down people as meditation, help nurture spirituality, remove distractions, and help train ourselves physically and mentally. This fits Chinese philosophy to a large extent according to the thoughts of contentious introspection under the influence of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
Which tea fits you?
Several characteristic components of tea are found beneficial for human health. However, different categories of tea can have various functions, thus fit certain group of people. In addition, the choices of tea are also made according to different weather, seasons or regions. You might know how many categories there are, but do you know which category fits you? Green tea, also called unfermented tea, contains more tea polyphenols. It has the functions of antioxidation, anti-aging, reducing blood pressure and reduce fat and body weight. Moreover, it is also considered having better effects in antibiotics, anti-inflammation and even cancer prevention. However, people who have stomach illness should not drink green tea too often. Oolong tea, also called semi-fermented tea, helps especially with digestion and refreshment. It lowers cholesterol levels as well as weight. The strong scent of flower and fruit of Oolong can make people feel relaxed and happy, thereafter lead to refreshment. Black tea, although it is less seen in the tea markets, can help reduce blood fat, lower cholesterol and decrease greasy feelings. Red tea, completely fermented tea, is more appropriate to people who have sensitive stomach or stomach illness. In addition, red tea has protective and nourishing functions to liver, as well as function of preventing blood clots and anemia. Jasmine tea is also able to bring refreshment due to its special scent. Due to the influence of the deep-rooted metaphor, Jasmine tea is considered more as a lady tea. Women can drink more jasmine tea, which is believed to be able to help adjust physiology metabolism. White tea has a relatively light flavor, thus it has been utilized as an effective Chinese medicine to decrease internal heat and eliminate the summer heat in folk. Based on the above instructions, we believe you can make a better choice next time in drinking tea, to make your body feel better. Want to test how much more you know about the tea culture right now? Get a cup of tea, sip it slowly and introspect yourself for a while as we Chinese people do.
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Innovation through
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Digitalization
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Alibaba Baidu
Tencent
Xiaomi
From Copycat to Leading Innovator by GIOVANNI PALMIOLI
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi recently outsold iconic Apple in terms of smartphone units in China, the world’s largest smartphone market. The Chinese company is also poised to soon overtake Samsung, the top smartphone producer in China. Xiaomi has been associated with Apple so often that it has even been called China’s Apple or Apple copycat. 56
Samsung
Apple
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iaomi’s latest MI4 model looks undeniably similar to Apple’s iPhone 5S. Yet, Xiaomi’s smartphones are much cheaper than iPhones. Similarly, Xiaomi’s tablet - the Mi Pad – is strikingly similar to the mini iPad. The company has inevitably been largely criticized for copying from its market rivals. Some believe that Xiaomi and other Chinese high-tech companies have what it takes to compete with their western rivals in innovation-intensive industries. Such companies may therefore help China break its traditional image of copycat or borrower of western technologies. Nonetheless, one may rightfully raise the question: Is copying someone else’s products and
adding a few new features real innovation? Over the last decade the center of hightech gravity has been shifting towards Asia, especially China. China has long been known for being a “fast follower” in technology. This helped China gain the label of copycat. However, this image of China has started changing significantly over the last few years. China now designs its own smartphones and is gaining a competitive edge in innovation-intensive sectors, especially telecommunications, mobile devices, and online services. China is now home of four of the world’s ten largest Internet and technology companies namely, Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Xiaomi. Innovation can be defined as the fresh thinking that creates value for which people pay. One may generally think of innovation as the creation of products or services with groundbreaking features for which people pay. There are however other ways in which companies can be innovative. For example, a company may improve the way goods are made or the way its services are delivered. Dubiously, a company may also be innovative by taking market leaders’ products and quickly adjusting them to meet demand in its market. This approach is the “fast-follower” strategy that China has been adopting successfully.
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China has been known for having a comparative advantage in cheap and low value-added production tasks. The country’s goal is however to move away from such tasks and become a leading innovator by increasingly compete in high value-added activities such as R&D, design, product development, marketing, customer services, and so forth. Aware of the critical importance of innovation for China’s economic development, in February 2006 the Chinese government launched the Medium to Long-Term Plan for the Development of Science and Technology (MLP). This longterm plan set, Zizhu Chuangxinor or socalled “indigenous innovation” at the top of the policy agenda of the government (Knowledge@Wharton, 2013) “Indigenous innovation” is a policy concept introduced by the Chinese government with the goal of boosting the creation and commercialization of proprietary ideas and technologies by Chinese companies (China Business Review, 2010). It can be thought of as the set of domestic policies aimed to protect high-tech manufacturing industries and their R&D capabilities by potentially discriminating against foreign enterprise investments. Such policies may include: tax incentives or subsidies to strategic domestic companies, government procurement, or requiring foreign firms to share with, or transfer their intellectual property rights to national champions. One may question whether such polices genuinely aim at fostering innovation or whether they simply help Chinese companies borrow or “steal” foreign technology. The sectors subject to “indigenous innovation” policies include: computer and application devices,
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communication products (including mobile phones), modern office equipment, software, new-energy equipment, and energy-efficient products. According to the government plan, China will become a major science and technology hub by 2020. China’s investment in innovation has become increasingly important over the last few years. Some evidence of China’s innovation may have come as a result of the above mentioned policies. A recent report issued by the US National Science Board – the advisory board to the US President on research in science and technology – indicates that China’s share of world’s high-tech output rose from 8 percent in 2003 to 24 percent in 2012. It is believed that China might soon overtake the US’ share of 27 percent as China’s R&D investment keeps growing at a staggering pace of around 18 percent a year, according to the report. Another indicator that the report highlights is R&D intensity which is the ratio of a country’s R&D gross expenditure to domestic GDP. China’s R&D intensity has been rising rapidly: from 0.5 percent in 1995 to nearly 2 percent in 2011, although still far from the 4 to 5 percent typically showed by small and developed countries excelling in innovation such as Switzerland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Such figures may indicate that China is poised to become an innovation powerhouse capable of competing with the more well-known and established innovation hubs. China nonetheless faces serious challenges if it truly aims at becoming a global innovation powerhouse within the next decade. One of the major issues is the domination of the government in the economy. Even
though foreign companies perceive China as a massive market full of opportunities to tap, they believe that the Chinese government does not ensure fair competition in the market. Just as for foreign firms, start-ups launched by fresh graduates have to grapple with a system that is significantly biased in favor of state-owned enterprises and individuals connected with government officials. Similarly, small entrepreneurs may be reluctant to share their ideas as they fear they would be stolen by the government or big market players such as the state-owned enterprises. As a result, the lack of a strong legal framework ensuring IPR protection hinders innovation, and rather, promotes technology imitation or idea thefts. Within the context of research, grants and patents tend to be allocated to those who are well-connected with government officials. Even though China filed more patents than any other country in 2011, many question the originality and quality of its patents. Furthermore, China’s education system is typically criticized for being too rigid and overly controlled, which prevents students from being creative, thinking outside the box, and questioning authorities. As a result, one might view China’s education system as “innovation-unfriendly”, at least to some extent. Lastly, corruption, red tape, and lack of transparency prompt many Chinese graduates to immigrate to more developed countries to conduct research. Once the Chinese economy will no longer be thwarted by the dominance of the government, and young entrepreneurship will be promoted freely, one might then expect the country to become a leading innovator. Until then, China will only struggle to fully capitalize on its potential.
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APPS USED IN CHINA
by YVONNE LE
If you have ever been to China you may have felt that frustrating feeling of not being able to use either Gmail or Snapchat without using a VPN service. China’s censorship on the Internet is widely known and due to this many everyday apps we use in the west are not accessible from within China. China, with its population of 1.35 billion, is surely one of the world’s biggest and most important mobile phone markets. So what apps are used instead? People using iPhones and the iOS can use App store like usual, but the accessibility to Google’s services in China is limited. As a result, Google’s app portal, Play store, is inaccessible from within China and many alternative app portals have grown out of it. Instead, some of the largest IT companies in China have developed their own App portals and the selection is huge. The more significant ones include Tencent App Gem, Xiaomi App store and Baidu App Store. With this sorted out, we can start to dig into the apps themselves.
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WeChat (微信)
WeChat, or in Chinese微信, is a messaging app developed and maintained by the Chinese company Tencent. With around 400 millions active monthly users it is undoubtedly the largest and most powerful app in China at the moment. Apart from normal text-messaging, it is also possible to send shorter voice messages. When you see people on the street talking to their phones in an odd way, they are using the voice message feature. WeChat also works as an integrated Twitter and Facebook as you can have your own feed and share statuses, pictures and more. It is also possible to make purchases and the possibilities are growing since Tencent is continuing to buy shares in other apps and integrating them with WeChat.
Dianping (大众点评)
Dianping can be described as the “Chinese Yelp” or maybe it should be the other way around, since Dianping was founded around a year before Yelp in 2013. Nonetheless, Dianping is a local review site with a strong focus on restaurants. The Dianping app has approximately 150 million active users as of now. Apart from reviews, the Dianping app lets the user know which restaurants are close by and the distances to them. Moreover, the app has a huge collection of food pictures uploaded by the users and discounts at the restaurants can also be claimed by using the app.
Alipay Wallet (支付宝钱包)
Alipay is the largest third-party online payment platform in China. Alipay Wallet is the name of the mobile app. Alipay can be used to transfer money to other accounts and can be used to make payments in store as well. When making payments in stores, the user is offered two alternatives. Money can either be transferred by using a combination of sound waves and a sensor on the cashier’s side or by using QR codes. Of course, it is also possible to transfer money virtually using only the app itself. Alipay Wallet also offers a popular “split the bill”-feature and the possibility to purchase other variations of goods.
Weibo (微博)
Weibo is the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. There are many weibo (which stands for “microblog”) services. The biggest ones include Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo.
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Shenzhen: China’s Home of Tech-startups by BRIAN YE Technology can be seen as one of the most essential elements of human nature. With its vast impact on the world the ICT industry has never been flourishing as much as it is in present time, not only in the west but also in the east. Thirty years ago Shenzhen was just a mere fishing village with barely any industry in sight. Today, Shenzhen is a metropolis seen as a heaven for the world’s tech startups and one of the foremost pioneers of the market economy in China, challenging other megacities in Asia. 62
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he Silicon Valley, the center for western enterprises in the IT and Computer industries, has been leading the technological innovation in the world where companies such as Facebook, Oracle, and Apple are all stationed. However, the West is becoming more and more pressured by the East with some claiming that Shenzhen will overtake the Silicon Valley in terms of technological growth and innovation. Huawei, Lenovo and ZTE are three examples of Chinese companies, all stationed in Shenzhen, that are ranked alongside some of the world’s largest companies in the industry - Samsung and Ericsson. After 1976, at the end of Mao Zedong’s regime as the Chairman of the
Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese government decided to reform the former national economic setup, and start implementing and formulating policies based on opening to the outside world. Mao’s successor Deng Xiaoping was the person responsible for these reforms, and was behind the establishment of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in China – zones allowing more free-market oriented policies and flexible governmental measures for companies and investors. The main purpose of these reforms was to dramatically change China’s technological, economic and industrial impact on the world, which has been proven through the latest 30 years in China. Shenzhen is one of the cities included in one of these zones, and is today considered as one of the fastest growing cities in the world. This
particular zone is well known as the Pearl River Delta. As China’s first and one of the most successful SEZs’ in terms of economic and technological growth, Shenzhen has attracted many investors and companies resulting in investments of more than 30 billion USD in total. Investments in six strategically chosen industries – biotechnology, new energy, new materials, information technology, telecommunications, and the cultural and creative industry – has given the city the capability to compete and challenge its neighboring cities, especially Hong Kong. Shenzhen is closing in to Hong Kong despite the fact that Hong Kong is still one of the world’s leading financial centers. Having the world’s third busiest container port, Hong Kong is still right on the verge
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of losing the third place to Shenzhen partly through Shenzhen’s incredible growth over the past 30 years and partly through the investments done in the strategically chosen industries in the city. Statistics from the South China Morning Post has shown that Shenzhen reached a level of 22 000 USD per capita GDP in 2013. This can be compared with the estimated growth of 9% from the per capita GPD in 2012 to 2013 by the Mayor of Shenzhen, Xu Qin, which was outperformed by the actual result of 10.5% growth. Apple’s largest hardware manufacturer Foxconn, stationed in Taiwan, has for instance its largest factory worldwide in Shenzhen with over 200 000 workers employed. The Blackberry, iPad and iPhone are all manufactured from this company, which can be seen as the results of the investments done in Shenzhen. Despite Shenzhen’s exponential growth, Mayor Xu still wishes for a close collaboration with Hong Kong through accelerating the development of the Qianhai financial zone. This zone, covering an area of 15 km2 in Shenzhen is an attempt to encourage further collaborations between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. At the current
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state, the two cities’ partnership is growing, involving them more in offshore and crossborder finances in this particular zone. According to Mayor Xu’s work report, he is expected to invest around 20 billion USD this year to develop Qianhai’s commercial properties and infrastructure, allowing 10 000 enterprises to open office in this area. There are however analysts stating, in a report by Credit Suisse, that the Qianhai financial zone is an attempt to threaten Hong Kong and replace its financial role to China and to other international investors. Nevertheless, Qianhai should rather be seen as a possibility for Mainland China and Hong Kong to jointly grow instead of being seen as a threat that will devour what Hong Kong is now. Over the past 30 years, the world has observed an enormous change in the East. The technological innovation in China is growing. Though China is able to challenge the other superpowers in the west, there is still a path to walk down before completely succeeding on a global level. China is on its way to marking a key phase of shift of economic power from West to East.
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Digitalization Changes the Chinese Stock Market by PERSHENG BABAHEIDERI
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he e-commerce industry is continuously expanding in China so that in fact, if you take a look at the Chinese stock market you can see that the two best Chinese stocks to buy are actually from the e-commerce industry. This industry is expected to be worth $540 million by 2015, according to China Briefing, a business intelligence firm. According to the German research firm yStats, online-shopping is increasing in China and, in 2013, Chinese consumers spent more than those in the Unites States. This is an interesting development showing that the Chinese consumer market, based on the technology improvements, is growing. The two official Chinese stock markets are the Shanghai Stock Market and the Shenzhen Stock Market, both developed in the beginning of the 90’s, hence they are new to the industry. In the 80’s the Chinese companies could for the first time give out some kind of security paper to private investors which was a huge step for the Chinese because the norm is public possession. Since then the Chinese Stock Market has been moving upwards. It is still considered, though, that buying stocks in China is a big risk that comes with a bigger potential of making good investments. Because of the digitalization, customers can easily buy items online instead of visiting a physical store. Items that usually can be hard to reach in the local area become available and time is saved from not
having to run to different stores to find the items you are looking for. The technology has made it easier to buy, which has given increased results when examining the Chinese stock market. The digitalization of the trading system on the internet has made more people more willing to trade on the stock market. In 2013, the onlineshopping reached $298 billion in China while it reached $263 billion in the United States. Today, in 2014, China has already increased this number by 60% compared to 2013. The gross merchandise volume, GMV, which is the total sales sold online for merchandise of China’s online shopping rose 47.1% in the second quarter of 2014, compared to the same period last year, that is the second quarter of 2013. In numbers it increased to 630 billion Yuan, according to a mid-August report from iResearch, a Chinese Internet industry-consulting firm. In addition to this, in the second quarter of 2014 the National Bureau of Statistics indicated that the sales of China’s consumer goods reached 6.2 trillion Yuan, 10.1% of which were from online-shopping. Historically this is the first time that the online sales transcended 10% in only one quarter. The digitalization has made a large impact on the Chinese stock market. It has changed the path of online-shopping to a globalized e-commerce industry
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Robot-Restaurant - the New Way to Run a Restaurant by DAJANA VLAJIC
The industrial world has been served by robots for decades and time has now come for machines to take over restaurants as well - or at least a third one. Currently being the world’s largest market for industrial robots, China astonishes enthusiasts of mechanical automatism around the planet by opening a restaurant entirely driven by Wall-E-resembling robots. 68
Customers of the Kunshan-located android restaurant “Robo-Cook�, are greeted, treated and served by fifteen second generation robots. Understanding forty common everyday sentences, the communication stays basic - but gentle - between them and the customers of the restaurant. Autonomously they meet their customers at the door, take their orders, cook the food and serve it thereafter. The robots move along fixed paths in the 3,200 square feet big restaurant, delivering customers from doors to tables and back. Two of the mechanical employees greet their customers at the door while two of them stand in the kitchen. Provided with ingredients by human employees, the kitchen robots prepare the most basic meals while the more complicated are
prepared by humans. On the other hand, stir-frying meat, vegetables and making dumplings are cooking skills not to be taken for granted when considering human kitchen abilities. Song Jugang is the mind behind the mechanical restaurant and explains to the local newspaper AFP that the idea was influenced by his daughter who expressed a wish for a robot in order to skip the housework. The cost per robot, he says, is 6500 dollars which more or less equivalent to the sum of a yearly salary of a human employee. Jugang highlights the profitability and states that the robots are never sick, cannot complain or demand vacation. After two hours of charging, they are ready to work for another five hours. The replacement of human workforce is not complete in this restaurant, but the trend is expanding over the country within several industrial branches. In 2010 FoxConn, one of Apple’s manufacturing companies, replaced human employees with robots after criticism for poor working conditions.
The company stated itself that the major intention of the replacement was to reduce labour costs. Multinational manufacturers and factors such as related rising wages in the country have resulted in an increased import of industrial robots. In 2012, the number of robots in operation in China was 96,000. The equivalent number in Japan was 300,000, and is still the premier country of robots in operation. In general terms, China purchased not less than 36,560 robots in 2013, overtaking Japan´s ranking as the leading consumer in the world. Per Vegard Nerseth, head of robotics for Switzerland’s ABB, predicts that China will surpass the currently larger markets of U.S and Japan, and become the premiere robot market in the coming years. Despite the cooking skills, service skills and beneficial labour costs, the robots of the Kunshan restaurant are still dependent on human assistance to operate orderly. Yet, the use of these impressive robots is a move towards an even more technological world.
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Back from the Qin Dynasty by JONATHAN ROOS Ancient China was at its time far more advanced than any other civilization. China has been responsible for numerous technological innovations such as the magnetic compass, the invention of matches, the propeller, gunpowder and the list goes one. To place China’s early technological advancement in to context we can look at iron melting.
areas such as transportation and power generation. Construction of China’s highspeed railways begun in 1999 and has now become the largest high-speed railway network in the world. China is also a large developer of renewable energy. Wind power is being installed at a faster rate than in any other country in the world as well as China manufactures 40 percent of the world’s solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Five of the worlds top ten silicon-based PV manufacturers and three of the world’s top ten wind turbine manufacturers are from China.
Around 2300 years ago, neither the Middle East nor Europe could melt a single ounce of iron, while the Chinese were melting and forming multi ton objects. This Furthermore, China is an innovator in high metallurgy was not present in Britain until voltage transmission. China deployed the the mid 1700’s, which was then classified world’s first Ultra High Voltage AC and DC as the most technologically advanced lines, one which is capable of delivering 6.4 country in Europe. In the 16th century gigawatts to Shanghai from a hydroelectric Europe underwent a plant around 2000 km scientific revolution away in southwestern while China had China. These high Traditionally Chinese experienced drastic companies were fast fol- voltage transmission political changes lowers, but we are starting lines are more efficient already in the start and carry more power to see true innovation,” of the 15th century, over long distances said Colin Light, partner causing science and than those in the US. at PricewaterhouseCootechnology to stagnate. pers.” The western world China has as well surpassed China’s developed the most technology, but now China has caught up. powerful supercomputer in the world. The country’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer was in The People’s Republic of China can June 2014 announced as the number one be said to have undergone the fastest system in the world. It is capable of speeds industrial revolution in history and is up to 33.86 petaflops (33.86 quadrillion today a major competitor in the race for calculations per second). Tianhe-2 was technology. Today China is outpacing built by China’s National University of the US in several crucial technologies, in Defense in collaboration with the Chinese
”
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IT company Inspur. Tianhe-2 uses Intel processors, but China has also had large domestic contributions to the supercomputer. China has created its own chips and started building large systems with entirely domestic products. Even though China has in fact made all these and more technological advancements, Chinese companies are still facing perception problems with customers in many parts of the world that their products are of lower quality and reliability than that of other countries. On the contrary to what many consumers believe, plenty of executives in both Western and Chinese companies believe China’s technology sector is “reaching a critical mass of expertise, talent and financial firepower that could realign the power structure of the global technology industry in the years ahead”, says Joru Osawa and Paul Mozur from the Wallstreet Journal. China’s technology companies such as HuaWei, Lenovo, Alibaba and many more are also currently expanding and taking over large market shares in their respective fields. China’s fast rise in the tech industry can be seen as the outcome of its drastic increase in R&D investment. According to a study from December 2013, China will increase its R&D expenditure by 20% from 2012, landing at an investment of $284 billion, while the US R&D budget is merely growing by 4%. It is believed China will surpass Europe in terms of R&D investment in 2018 and surpass the US in 2022. China was once a world leader in technology and has finally come back to compete with the big boys, moving away from solely being a country that follows to a country that innovates.
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Sustainable Modernization
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A Model for Future Cities Sino-Singapore Tianjin EcoCity, or SSTEC, is the name of the new sustainable city being built 160 kilometers from Beijing and about 45 kilometers from the city centre of Tianjin. Several international partners as well as the government and private sector of both China and Singapore are working together to meet the demand for ecofriendly living. With a new way of thinking, the eco-city outside of Tianjin aims to become a model for future sustainable cities. The question is how? 76
by REBECCA SCHWIELER
Founded 2009 Location Tianjin Binhai new Area Land Area ≈30 km2 Population 350 000 residents Recycling Rate >60% (overall) Use of Renewable >20% Energy Highway, Railway, Air How to get Here Routes, by Sea
Moving people to cities Tianjin Eco-city is not only built for the sustainable aim. Building a new sustainable city will bring people from the countryside closer to the center. There will be more apartments available to give those people outside the city an opportunity to come closer. Not only will this new eco-friendly setting give such people a chance to change their lives, but it will also reduce the number of people taking the car back and forth to work every single day. Traffic jams will be reduced leading to less pollution and better health for the residents. Keeping it close With a land area of 35 km2, divided into 5 districts, Sino-Singapore Tianjin EcoCity will provide 350 000 people with a new home. The city will be compact with offices and leisure activities close to the residential districts making it easier for the inhabitants to walk. By keeping everything in a relatively small area and building a so called spine - a strip called the eco-valley - through the city will make it easier to live without a car. A better wildlife When visiting a big city today you barely see other animals than doves. The wildlife is no greater than expected when walking in between skyscrapers in every other city, but not when entering SSTEC. Alongside, inside and through one part of the city there will be water features allowing recreational activities for the residents and also provide them with a better wildlife. In the parks placed around the city, by the water, there will be reed beds to attract bird-life and clean the water. From kindergarten to retirement Tianjin Eco-city will provide its residents with a kindergarten for kids in the age of 2-6 and a foreign language school comprising both primary, secondary and high school. There will also be an international world-academy school accommodating around 1,200 to 1,500 students. Being placed in the center of the city facilitates for parents when their kids can either walk or take the bike to school. After graduating students have a great opportunity to work at any of the, at the moment, 600 companies having offices, powered by their own energy stations, in town. Sustainable homes and locally produced energy The way of building houses and apartments will be more sustainable than the usual way of building in China. Multiple-glass windows and insulated walls require less energy and on top of that they will also have window blinds moving up or down to adjust the inside temperature. Energy will be produced locally by solar panels on the roof-tops and there will also be wind-turbines placed around the city. The streets will be lit up by sunlight driven, motion and sound sensitive, lamps
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The Growing Cloud Over China by ELLINOR LIDÉN
The fact that China has made a name for itself as the world’s most polluting country is something most people are well aware of. The incredible rampaging of China’s industrial development has left its marks. A very good example can be found in Shanghai, where people walk around with a protective mask to reduce the potential damage caused by the polluted air. At the same time many cities suffer from poisoned water, and natural disasters continue to strike the country. As a consequence, many people ask themselves the question: is there any solution at all to these huge problems, and is the government of China doing anything to find it?
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common notion is that the politicians in China focus on everything but the environment. People talk about the economic and industrial development, and the growth has skyrocketed in recent years. As an obvious consequence of this development, the environment suffers. It is in other words easy to criticize China on the environmental issues of today. However, it is not as easy to see what actions have been taken and what is being done to alleviate the problems. Despite the large focus on developing the industry, the government of China has always placed great emphasis on social stability. The approaches they have used can be discussed but the right intentions have often been there. The fact that China’s growth today threatens both its own citizens’ as well as the whole worlds’ health forces the government to act. In the end this environmental degradation will affect the economic growth negatively. An example is the spillage of sulfur dioxide
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which causes acidifications depleting the resources of the nature. This is obviously another important incentive for the Chinese leaders to start acting. The so-called ”Five Year Plan”, developed in 2011, is an important step in the right direction. This includes a focus on renewable energy rather than coal power. A number of restrictions preventing heavy emissions, combined with a focus on more innovative energy sources and new technologies, is supposed to counteract the country’s growing emissions. China already accounts for over half of all the world’s solar panels and this percentage is going to increase. There have also been talks about a new solar project that is said to have the potential to innovate the
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entire market for solar cells. China’s largest manufacturer of solar cells will develop and produce a huge 1000 Mega Watt solar complex to be placed in the desert of Xinjiang Turpan. There is also potential for increased use of hydroelectric turbines and this is something that is planned to be utilized in the future. Moreover, the use of wind power is planned to increase by up to ten times before 2020. It is clear that China has bitten off more than the nation can chew. Despite the measures that have been taken, there is still a need for further and more aggressive measures in order to improve the environment. What should not be underestimated though is the government’s desire to create welfare in the country and the initiatives already taken in this direction.
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A Smart Transportation Choice by DAJANA VLAJIC Despite being one of the world’s leading countries in terms of expansion and production of transport systems and means, China still has some distance to travel before the development can be sustained below the critical levels of emerging pollution. The solution is affected by closely related factors such as politics and economics, as well as population. What follows will describe the most common everyday transport systems in terms of efficiency, transport distances and eco-friendliness and how the Chinese market relates to the extreme rates of pollution in the country. Vehicles China has a firm position as the top manufacturer of vehicles in the world, producing over twenty-two million motor vehicles in 2013. Despite this fact, the rate of vehicle ownership was solely 38 per 1,000 persons in 2010, in contrast to the 804 per 1,000 persons in the U.S. Although the high-way and road systems have expanded, there is no doubt that the motor vehicles are one of the more expensive and polluting means of transportation.
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Bicycle Inexpensive and eco-friendly, the bicycle is a top alternative for short-distance travels. For students living on large university campuses, the bicycle becomes one of the most convenient and fast means of transportation. The sight of more students choosing bicycles over walking is common on campuses and during rush-hours the chaos becomes a fact, not alone on campuses, but also on public roads.
Metro Taking the metro is the most convenient means of transportation when travelling within the large and emerging cities of China. Modern, capacious and clean is how a major of the metros are in the more modernized and centralized parts of the country. In contrast to the old history of railways, the first metro system opened in the late seventies. It has, in analogy with the rail transport, become the largest in the world with Shanghai in the lead, followed by Beijing and with London on third place. The metro is also one of the fastest transportation means, saving time during the well-known rush hours. In 2011, over two billion passengers were carried over in Shanghai and Beijing.
Rail transport Commuting by train is one of the most budget-friendly alternatives when traveling long distance in China. Since the late nineteenth century, the railway network has progressively expanded into the world’s largest one, doubling its length since the middle of the twentieth century. The daily trains provide a fast and comfortable trip in and between the provinces, such as the night trains with a small modification - the convenient sleeper cars. Regardless of this primary mode of transport, the commuter can always count with a hot water tap, used for the somewhat traditional purposes of preparing fast noodles or tea.
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Travel Through China by Train by YVONNE LE
China has one of the longest and busiest rail transport networks in the world and it is continuing to expand. It is unquestionably one of the most convenient, eco-friendly and cheapest way to travel around in China. The train journey itself is an experience! There are a lot of different types of trains operating in the Chinese railway network and there will be more. As of now, China has the world’s longest HSR network with a length of 11,028 km. Due to huge investments from the government, it continues to expand and is planned to reach a length of 18,000 km by the end of 2015. The maglev trains are included in the category HSR trains. Dongche (动车) Dongche has top speed of 250 km/h. Travelling by Dongche between Shanghai and Beijing will take around 12 hours. It is possible to take this type of train at night and purchase a bed ticket. It is possible to either purchase a hard sleeper or soft sleeper ticket. A hard sleeper ticket is a bed space in an open compartment. There are several walls dividing the open compartment to small doorless rooms. Each doorless room consists of 6 beds, 3 beds on each wall. Soft sleeper is a bed space in a closed compartment shared with three other people. Dongche tickets costs between 300 - 700 RMB depending on bed types.
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Gaotie (高铁) Gaotie trains are usually indicated with a G on the tickets. It has a top speed of over 300 km/h. This train will transport you from Shanghai to Beijing in around 6 hours for approximately 500 RMB for a one way-ticket. Apart between Shanghai and Beijing, there are more lines operating the Gaotie trains, it is possible to take the Gaotie between Wuhan and Guangzhou in only 3 hours for example. Maglev (磁悬浮列车) Maglev trains uses magnetic levitation to move instead of traditional wheels. The high-speed rail operating between Longyang Road metro station and Pudong International airport in Shanghai is of Maglev type. The maglev trains in Shanghai started operating in public in 2004. The distance is 30 km and can be finished in 7-8 minuts. The Shanghai maglev train has a top operational speed of 430 km/h but can reach a top non-commercial speed of 501 km/h. Plans to extend the maglev highspeed rail are constantly under discussion Vactrains (真空管道磁悬浮列车) Vacuum tube trains is a proposed train type under development. The entrepreneur Elon Musk published a proposal of what he calls the Hyperloop in 2013. The Hyperloop would be a transportation system that uses evacuated or partly evacuated tunnels tubes in which the transport medium operates in, imposing reduced air resistance and thus decreased speed limitations. The technological and economic feasibility of the proposal have been questioned. However, researchers at Southwest Jiaotong University in Shanghai are currently developing a vactrain that theoretically should be able to reach around 2,900 km/h. Other countries have considered building vactrains but later dismissed them because of feasibility and viability questions. The Swiss Swissmetro was supposed be a national transportation project operating maglev trains in low-pressure tunnels.
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Rising Demand of Oil in China
by MARCUS WALLBERG
China is the largest energy consumer and producer in the world. Rapidly increasing energy demand, especially for liquid fuels, has made China extremely influential in world energy markets. This year China has also become the largest net importer of oil, but the country has not always been top consumer.
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ack in 1959 great oil reserves were discovered in the northeastern part of China. Later during the 1960s, the Daqing field produced million tons of oil. China continued the drilling and found new rich oil areas in Tianjin, Dagang, Shandong and Shengil. Ten years later China was already exporting the crude oil to Japan, among other countries, and then started to look for new sources offshore.
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By 1993 China could no longer meet its domestic demand and therefore had to start to import from outside. Since then, the demand for oil has been rapidly rising, and ten years later, in 2003, China became the second largest consumer after the United States. Maybe not as affected by the global economy crisis, China today consumes more than 10 million barrels of oil every day. With an expectation of 100 million new cars in less than a decade, the fuel further requires an oil import that is larger than the US consumption today. To meet the future demand, China is making headway on improving its domestic oil pipeline network to integrate its oil supply through pipeline links with Russia, Kazakhstan and Myanmar. Besides improving infrastructure, China is planning to set up a strategic crude oil storage with a capacity of more than 500 million barrels, and this should be finished within 6 years. As Chinese demand has risen and domestic production has declined, in recent years, China’s major oil corporations have been trying harder and harder to secure oil from foreign emerging suppliers. For example, the China National Petroleum Co. (CNPC) made a Sino-Russian deal in February 2009 in which China will lend Russia US$ 25
billion in exchange for 300 million tons of oil over 20 years. Foreign companies, such as Shell and Exxon Mobil, are looking to establish joint ventures with Chinese oil companies, in addition to Chinese companies seeking out overseas projects. In 2004, for example, Chinese oil giant Sinopec signed a US$ 70 billion deal with Iranians to develop the Yadavaran oil field. Looking at other alternatives, the natural gas production is rapidly increasing; however, the fuel yet comprised a very small part of China’s total primary energy consumption. In the near future we might be seeing the oil companies develop older natural gas fields by exploring different sources such as deep water, shale gas, and gas derived from coal seams. China’s first deep water field is expected to be up running later this year. Today most of the gas is still imported from countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. Even though oil stands for a large portion of China’s total energy, it is coal that gives the country most of its energy. Coal accounts for around half of the world’s consumption and it is still growing. One large coal plant is built every week.
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Organizations with Sustainable Thinking by REBECCA SCHWIELER
Several Chinese organizations are working to build up a China with more focus on a sustainable way of living. Not only to produce in a sustainable way, but also to give children a better future, provide people with information and change lives. Everyone can do something and these organizations, together with many more, make it easier for the population to make that change. Made Green in China
We have all had at least one, probably more than one, product marked ‘Made in China’. In the last few years though, China has started to not only produce but also innovate products. Made Green in China, MaGiC, is an open initiative with the mission to inspire students at different universities in China in developing a greener and healthier China. They are doing this by providing universities with tools and knowledge, leaving the rest to the students. In 2009 MaGiC started a competition with focus on green design. They challenged students and youth to create a new product by only using waste as a resource. MaGiC gives companies and students an opportunity to interact with each other to develop a better life in China in the future.
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LOHAO City Organic
Like many other parts of the world, China wants to focus on eating organic and locally produced food. LOHAO - Lifestyle of Health and Organic - City Organic is a franchise of organic groceries stores in China founded to fulfill the need and demand of organic food in China. Their aim is to provide their consumers with the “finest organics and top-quality health foods” both in physical stores and online. Organic food will not only be good for a better health but also for the environment and wildlife.
LOHAS – Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability
“Live, Love, Laugh, Learn & Share ideas for Health and Sustainability”, so reads the slogan of LOHAS is quite a good description of what they are working for. Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability is a worldwide market segment for a more sustainable living. About 23% of the population in the United States represents this segment and China is one of the many countries showing a great interest in integrating the principles of LOHAS into their culture. The characteristics of a LOHAS customer is their passion about the environment, planet, human rights and more, and China aims to get most of their population to follow this lifestyle.
EcoVillage of Hope Society
HANDA Rehabilitation and Welfare Association are two non-governmental and non-profit organizations working together with the EcoVillage of Hope Society nurturing health care and education for children in China. They are also working with the aim to enhance the facilities where children live by using environmentally sustainable technologies and responsible practices. Their vision “Healthy Children in a Healthy World” indicates their focus on helping children, mostly orphaned, abandoned and ostracized, while still caring about the environment.
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The average car uses over 100,000 RMB worth of fuel over its lifetime. With the new Geely Wise, that could be just 15,000.
Oh, by the way, we forgot to mention it is also CO2-friendly. If you, too, want to see more green roads, visit geely.com/wise
Be Geely. Be Wise.
Design by Per & Mattias
Travel Journal by the Winners of the Geely Car Design Competition During China Week we gave students at the Royal Institute of Technology and the Stockholm School of Economics the opportunity to compete for a trip to China. The Geely Car Competition consisted of two parts. For the first part, we wanted students from KTH to design a future car inspired by China. The second part was for students at SSE where they were to create a marketing plan for one out of the three best car designs from KTH. The winners travelled to China in August and got to see some of the best parts of the country. Follow Per Asplund & Mattias Lundkvist and Lulu Zhang & Xinga Li on their journey to and within China.
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Design by Per & Mattias
Per & Mattias’ Experience of China
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he Geely competition gave us a great opportunity to experience China. The first stop was Shanghai, where we spent three days accommodated at The Seagull Hotel, situated right in the city centre at the Bund. Our guide for the week, Mr Chen, took us to places like the Financial district and Private gardens, showing us a lot of the culture China has to offer. The trip continued via the beautiful “lake town”, where we got to spend a night right by one of the many canals running through the small village. The last few days were spent visiting the city of Hangzhou, home of the Geely headquarters. Hangzhou truly is a city with two faces. When taking a walk through one of its central districts, you really get the feeling that this is one of the world’s most highly populated cities (it has an estimated population similar to the whole of Sweden). The other face is shown as you take a trip to the outskirts of the city area. Small villages and tea plantations give a great contrast to the concrete and high tempo of the inner city, and we truly enjoyed visiting the village of Meijiawo, home of what is known to be the best green tea in China. Apart from getting a tour of the city, we also went on a boat ride on the very famous west lake, said to be the most beautiful lake in China. No one would argue that this was a suiting finale of a great adventure, and we would like to once again thank Geely for rewarding us with this experience.
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Lulu & Xingas’ China Experience
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he Geely-trip started out in Hangzhou, where we were supposed to meet Geely representatives and receive the award. Upon arrival, Geely’s chauffeur welcomed us and drove us from the airport to their office where we met our contact person at Geely, as well as one of the higher executives. They congratulated us for our competition contribution and handed over our award, which in our case consisted of two envelopes with cash. After a bit of chatting and a guided tour inside their office, we were free to travel as we pleased. With our award money we spent a few days in Hangzhou, visiting its famous tourist attractions and busy shopping streets. Thereafter we headed to Suzhou, a city in which one of us has relatives. The next destination was supposed to be Shanghai, but before that we made a spontaneous trip to Xiamen, a small island of the southern coast of China. It was lovely, offering sandy beaches, delicious fresh mangoes and lots of street food. Despite the relaxed atmosphere, the time passed by quickly and soon we were heading back to the mainland. Shanghai was splendid as usual; we visited some tourist attractions, the bars at Xintiandi and enjoyed some Cantonese cuisine. In short, there was so much to experience and we are very happy with our award. Big thanks to Project China and Geely for providing us with this opportunity! MILI CAR 米粒车
Design by Lulu & Xinga
Team Xinga Li, Lulu Zhang
For Chinese people, rice is not just an important source of food. Since the introduction of rice around 2500 BC, more people survived from starvation and more time and effort could be used on building and developing their country. Currently, increased urbanization is putting pressure on the urban infrastructure. The more people Cur moving into the cities, the less space there will be for transportation – the demand for flexible and economical transport solutions will rise further. The Mili Car solves the issue by using robust but flexible joints that are able to rotate 360 degrees. This innovative feature eliminates the turning radius and makes it easier to maneuver and park in the limited spaces available in cities. The car is steered with a joystick in order to allow for such flexible movements; turning the joystick allows the driver to pan the vehicle, while twisting the joystick allows for turns. To ensure the safety and user-friendliness of the car, the rotational movements are only accessible when the car is parked or driven at a low speed. To further reduce the space needed for the vehicle, the car incorporates a flexible backbone that folds in when the car is parked. Notwithstanding the smaller size, there is place for one driver and two passengers in the front of the car. The middle seat is foldable, and behind the seat there is space for groceries and other everyday bags and belongings. In addition, since the speed is limited in an urban environment, the car is driven by battery to reduce pollution, another of the mayor issues today. All in all, the car is perfectly adapted for the small urban family or couple who wants to travel comfortably, economically and environmentally friendly. The Mili Car is inspired by rice in both form and symbolism. The goal is to once again solve a substantial societal issue, thus letting people focus on other tasks, and continue developing their country.
FRONT VIEW
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Geely logo
SIDE VIEW
About Project China
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n the beginning of May Project China changes the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) and the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) into becoming a bit more Chinese. China Week is all about creating awareness and interest for China among Swedish students and companies. It is a week to inspire Swedish students of what China has to offer and include several events and activities where students can interact and get to know the Chinese culture, business market and future career opportunities. China Week gives you the opportunity to see what the great country in the East has to offer. At the career fairs this year, companies active in the Chinese market, like Atlas Copco, Finnair and Geely, had the opportunity to connect and network with students interested in China. Also, for those who wanted to learn more, several lunch lectures were held during the week at both schools. Both career fairs held several activities and as a visitor you had the chance to try dumplings and Chinese tea as well as get a chance to learn some calligraphy. Alyssa Rydin from ‘Hälsa Utan Gränser’ offered some students to try acupuncture, while Marianne Wikström
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from ‘Svensk-Kinesiska Föreningen’ talked and inspired the students about her experiences of China. The career days during China Week ended with a dinner where participating partner companies, the project group of Project China 2014 and selected students were invited. After months of hard work and preparations we could finally make our plans into reality and the result was better than expected. By linking students in Sweden directly to companies active in the Chinese market, we hope to continue to give students the unique opportunity to make contacts with a possible future employer. Likewise for partner companies to meet students interested in a potential future occupation in China. Thank you everyone who came and visited us during China Week and also a great thanks to all sponsors, companies participating during the career fairs. Finally we want to thank all volunteers and other people involved for making China Week 2014 possible. Hope to see you all next year!
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weden Day is an annual theme fair taking place at China’s top universities Tsinghua University in Beijing, Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai. During Sweden Day, Chinese students are able to learn more about Swedish culture through interactive activities, by tasting traditional food and experiencing music. It is also an opportunity for Chinese students to interact with Swedish companies as well as a unique chance for our partner companies to meet Chinese students and promote their brand. This year’s research trip began in Beijing with Sweden Day at Tsinghua University. Travelling from a cold Sweden with rain, Sweden Day in Beijing turned out to be one of the hottest days in 50 years during the time. Despite the unfamiliar hot weather, even for the Chinese students, the fair turned out great and the water guns were over used. The day ended with a dinner together with company representatives and students from Tsinghua.
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Fudan University in Shanghai was a bit grey in weather terms but the fair was just as good as the first one. The Swedish cracker was well received as well as the dancing around the midsummer pole. Lots of students, both international and Chinese, as well as visitors from the outside came to try the Swedish specialties. The last Sweden Day was held at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and it was a total success as well. Many interested students passed by to visit the companies and ask questions. A special thanks to H&M for joining all three Sweden Days and also to all other companies and company representatives. We also want to thank all volunteers from every school, visitors and everyone helping us making the career fairs in China possible. Many hours of hard work resulted in a few fantastic days with great response from people participating, and we are so thankful for being able to do this at the Universities and we hope the collaboration will continue in the years to come.
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The Project Group 2014
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BRIAN YE PROJECT MANAGER
JONATHAN ROOS PROJECT MANAGER
With China and Sweden both as my homes, it felt natural for me to join a project that serves the purpose to bring the countries closer together. Currently a third year student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, I feel honored to be able to represent my university, together with SSE, and my two homes on a global level. Project China has given me experience and memories that I will keep and remember throughout my entire life. Since starting my studies at KTH, I have always kept an extra eye for Project China and waited for an opportunityto join the project. After this year’s participation, I feel that my interest in China has escalated – seeing China from a completely new perspective and going one step into the direction of understanding what China really is. Being one of the project managers has been one of the largest challenges I have ever taken on, and there is nothing I regret about it. Shaping the project and working with 11 other ambitious and motivated individuals has been so inspiring for me and helped me grow as a person. With my hand on my heart, I am happy to say that I am proud for what we achieved together in Project China 2014.
When I was twelve years old I moved to Beijing, China together with my family. It was not until I started my bachelor at SSE that I moved back to Sweden. During my time in China I grew to love the country and saw it in a perspective that few westerners have ever experienced it. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to apply to this project; I wanted to have the possibility to show China how it really is, and connect the two countries, that I have through my youth called my home. Now having finished the project and looking back at it, I’m amazed of how much we in the project group have accomplished. I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with such fantastic and enthusiastic people. I have gained memories for life as well as I have acquired priceless experience. There are few places where a student can be given such responsibilities as I have had as a project manager. Throughout the whole process it has been great to see the mutual love for the project within the project group, which has resulted in everyone working and supporting each other to an incredible level.
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SORÉNA AMINI CORPORATE RELATIONS MANAGER
ELLINOR LIDÉN CORPORATE RELATIONS MANAGER
Project China is not an ordinary project. Being a part of Scandinavia’s largest international student project there has been a great adventure I did not expect when I applied. The project group, as well as the Alumni’s, are like a family and the mutual interest of China connects us in a unique way. According to forecasts, China will be the largest economy within a few years. The interaction between China and the rest of the world will grow for each day and in order to cooperate correctly we need to understand the Chinese history and culture. There is almost impossible to know everything about China, but the best way to get more familiar to this fascinating country for is to be a part of Project China. After each fair in China, we had dinners together with the company representatives and students from the universities. Meeting with the Chinese students in China and getting to know their perspective of world issues was both interesting and educating. It is sometimes easier to get an accurate picture of a country by talking to the people there yourself, rather than reading the newspaper about how and what they think.
Being a part of Project China 2014 has definitely given me a deeper knowledge of the culture and business life in China. It has been a very interesting journey to take part in. Together with the rest of the project group I have gone through both rewarding and tough days to make this year’s project as good as possible. In addition, my career- as well as personal network has been expanded, meeting so many new people within different areas and industries. China is such a fascinating nation and it’s been inspiring to dig deeper into the reasons of its rapid development!
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GIOVANNI PALMIOLI CORPORATE RELATIONS MANAGER
PERSHENG BABAHEIDARI EVENT MANAGER
Project China was by far one of the most exciting experiences of my student life. It was great to be part of a student project that has been so successful since its inception. As soon as I heard of it at SSE, I could not wait to apply. The project is one of a kind. Frankly, I don’t know of many projects with a mission as praiseworthy as Project China’s, namely bridging the cultural and business gaps between China and Sweden by providing students and companies with a platform for interaction. I really enjoyed working with company representatives and travelling around China. A special comment goes to Chengdu, one of the most beautiful yet underrated cities of mainland China. I am glad I got to visit it for the first time with the PC group. The mix of local people, landmarks, and food makes Chengdu a very unique and culturally rich place. After eating the famously spicy Sichuan hot pot a few times I enjoy spicy food now, unlike in the past. I can’t hardly wait to see the city again. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in Project China. For those students out there who have a genuine interest in China, do not hesitate to apply!
When I entered the project group of Project China 2014 in late fall 2013, I was currently studying my 2nd year of Bachelor in Industrial Engineering and Management at KTH. I did not know what to expect nor what great impact this project would have had on me. It was certainly something extra. I might even say that entering Project China was one of the best choices I have made in my life so far. As the Event Manager for China Week, I was responsible for the weekly long events that took part at SSE and KTH during May of 2014 together with Dajana. Even though we planned everything from scratch we needed to be prepared when something did not go as expected. It was an intense week with greater problem solving skills as an outcome. I never thought of China as a country I must visit. Project China has opened my mind, especially when we actually went to China. Every impression, every district, every second of that trip was so wonderful. We have worked hard during the Sweden Days, explored new places together and have had a lot of fun. I am so grateful for the memories and the amazing and driven people I have gotten to know.
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DAJANA VLAJIC, EVENT MANAGER
I am pleased to have taken part in this important collaboration between Sweden, progressive and forward-looking, and China, an emerging and resourceempowered giant. As Head of China Week I experienced all the perks of planning, creating and organizing seminars and fairs at KTH and SSE. Collaborating with partner companies and organisations, my project partner Persheng and I managed to attract over 700 people to the seminars and more to the fairs where cultural events like acupuncture, Kung-Fu performances and tea ceremonies took place. Despite months of preparations, we were strongly captivated by the deeply rooted culture and practices of the Chinese people. Witnessing misty rituals around the Golden Buddha at the summit of Mount Emei, tandem cycling on the city wall of Xi’an under gazing afternoon sun and climbing for hours through rain to the peak of Hong Kong are some of my most immense memories. Nonetheless, everyday commodities as passing strenuous morning people, taking the subway or having the daily dose of dumplings remain as the strongest ones. In analogy to the sign of year, 2014 has been a venturing, strong and energetic year for the project as a result of great team efforts, and I wish all the best of luck to the future Project China!
KATIE LIU, EVENT MANAGER
The year with Project China 2014 has been running so fast and I cannot believe that it almost comes to an end now. Thinking about all the weekly meetings where wonderful ideas were yielded, all the successful events which we put our energy and efforts to, as well as all the happy time we’ve spent together, I proudly view us as an extremely excellent team and in my deep heart view you as my closest comrades. I really want to thank you all, especially for that very moment which touched me to the most in the hot mid-summer evening before our first Sweden Day. The scene of you singing the birthday song and holding birthday cakes in front of me surprised me and called my tears. That night was really tough for me, but I was so glad that I had you as my strongest support and together we fulfilled all the tasks. As I said on one of our banquets, I was so proud of you that you could make it to conquer the unfamiliarity of all surroundings such as food and the extremely hot weather. It is still so easy to recall the moments when we were riding bikes on the ancient wall in Xi’an, when we were watching a movie on the train with 10 people squeezing in one cabin, when we were screaming in Hong Kong’s amusement park and a lot more. With many unforgettable experiences together with you, I sincerely feel lucky to be one of the Project China 2014 team.
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EMMA BĂ„CKMAN EVENT MANAGER
YVONNE LE COMMUNICATION MANAGER
The responsibility as Head of Sweden Day was beyond my expectations; both in terms of proportion and fun. Collaborating with Chinese students was the main challenge and I tried, I failed, I tried again. In the end we found a mutual working method and we pulled of a great event. I will never forget that last day of the fairs: the burning sun, all the curious students, satisfied partner companies and last but not least the dinner in the evening to celebrate our achievement. The team of 2014 was also beyond my expectations. In the beginning I was worried how it would be to work so intense and travel for so long with people I barely knew. But my worries quickly disappeared. I met 11 people where no one was like the other, and jokes were never far away. We got to know each other well and we collaborated, experienced and laughed during a great year. Project China was the greatest experiences during my bachelor. It was a year filled with challenges, personal development, great friends and great experiences!
Working as the Head of Visual Communication of Project China 2014 has gained me experience that I could not possibly have gained through other channels. I got a splendid opportunity to put my knowledge into action and I have been able to prove to myself and the world what I am capable of. I have contributed both to myself and to the society by bridging the gap between two countries that are both culturally and geographically far from each other, but after working with this project, apparently much more alike. The best memory of the trip to China must be all the different people I met during the fairs, in the hostels and of course my fantastic and talented team members. They and the other people I met inspired me deeply and helped me grow in to a more open-minded and understanding person. It got me motivated to grow even more. I left China with another mindset and a better me. Last but not least, this would not be possible without all the partner companies, sponsors, my team members and everyone involved. A huge thank you for your contribution and making this the best possible!
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MARCUS WALLBERG COMMUNICATION MANAGER
REBECCA SCHWIELER COMMUNICATION MANAGER
It’s with joy and a feeling of great accomplishment I arrived at Arlanda Airport, coming back from the amazing trip to China felt sort surreal. Project China 2014 have been a lot of hard work, but also very rewarding and a lot of fun. Being responsible for marketing the project have taught me so much and I’m very happy and proud of our events in China. I will never forget staying up half the night in Beijing preparing the printing 6 meter backdrops, nor the travel through China by train and meeting all the super nice local people. There’s a lot to discover in the chinese culture. Marketing the project has involved a lot of collaboration with the other project members, and my tasks have varied a lot. Of course part of the job have been printing physical posters, but most of the marketing have been done in digital ads on social media. One of the absolute highlights of the project was when I got to interview both the president from The Royal Institute of Stockholm and Stockholm School of Economics for Project China’s promotion video.
Before I began my studies I had a dream of traveling to China to see and experience all things this country has to offer. Never did I believe my journey to China would end up the way it did and that I would get to do it with such a great team. Time flew away with lots of work, many new discoveries but most of all loads of fun. This project has changed me as a person and I’m so glad I got the chance to join this fantastic project. My role as Head of Report Book and Communication Manager has given me the opportunity to do a lot more since my main task actually began during this fall. Being the person who helped out who ever needed it gave me an opportunity to get more experiences and even though it sometimes took up all my time I’m so glad I’ve done what I’ve done for the project. Spending four weeks in China was an incredible experience. I saw many parts of China which I don’t think I would have seen otherwise. Being a part of Project China 2014 is something I won’t ever forget and it definitely made my first bachelor year better than I ever thought!
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PARTNERS & SPONSORS PARTNER UNIVERSITIES
PARTNER COMPANIES
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COLLABORATORS
PRODUCT SPONSORS
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THANK YOU
We would like to extend our most sincere thank you to the following people for having faith in the project and also for your continued support in making the project possible. Companies and Organizations Sigrid Jönsson Atlas Copco Liselotte Duthu Atlas Copco Lotta Gill Atlas Copco Jeff Ren Atlas Copco Tao Xu Atlas Copco Daniel Ekström Embassy of Sweden, Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis Christer Ljungwall Embassy of Sweden, Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis Shirley Liu Ericsson Måns Burman Ericsson Louise Skorus Finnair Kenneth Gillberg Finnair Victor Yang Geely Holding Jeff Zhang Geely Holding Jinshuai Chen Geely Holding Gang Wei Geely Holding - CEVT Kristina Liljas H&M Alyssa Rydin Hälsa Utan Gränser Bengt E Johansson Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Swedish CSR Ambassador Peter Gudmundson Royal Institute of Technology Henrik Blomgren Royal Institute of Technology Yingfang He Royal Institute of Technology Åsa Ankarcrona Royal Institute of Technology Lihua Gao SCA Vivienne Yuan SCA Lynn Tan SCA Henrik Sjöberg Six Year Plan Sara Cao SKF Jerry Ni SKF Vivian Wang SKF Tony Fang Stockholm Business School Karl-Olof Hammarkvist Stockholm School of Economics Nicolina Zilliacus Stockholm School of Economics Håkan Johnsson Stockholm School of Economics Tove Forsbacka Karlsson Student Association at the Stockholm School of Economics Marcus Fröderberg Student Association at the Stockholm School of Economics Marianne Wikström Svensk-Kinesiska Föreningen Liselotte Kjellme Swedish Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University
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Peter Larsson AXA Andreas Östlund Bergamunken Martin Johansson Cupcake Sthlm Johannes Mårlöv Coffeecow Lisa Söderholm FACE Stockholm Christian Bauer Kick Up Lisbeth Thomsson Nestlé Anna Block Mentos Babba Canales Uber Anna-Stina Atterday Veckans Affärer Birgitta Hansson-Sidvall Världskulturmuséerna Foreign Language Uni Maria Swedish School in Beijing Adam Sarac Consulate General of Sweden Belinda Yan Visit Sweden Lynn Li Visit Sweden Volunteers Julia Ye Xiang Xiao Karin Wu Tore Haglund Beibei He Yun Zhou Oscar Svernlov Weitao Xing Mengxi Pu Xu Yan and her team at Tsinghua University Shuai Shao and his team at Fudan University Swedish students at Fudan University in Shanghai Volunteers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai Li Chunfeng and her team from Beijing Mu Rong and her team from Keskeihouse at Shanghai Jiao Tong
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