Jingwen

From The Guardian:

Life expectancy has soared in China, while fertility has plummeted due to strict birth control policies. In 2009 there were 167 million over-60s, about an eighth of the population. By 2050 there will be 480 million, while the number of young people will have fallen. “It’s a timebomb,” warned Wang Feng of the Brookings-Tsinghua Centre for Public Policy in Beijing.

China’s economic miracle has been fuelled by its “demographic dividend”: an unusually high proportion of working age citizens. That population bulge is becoming a problem as it ages. In 2000 there were six workers for every over-60. By 2030, there will be barely two.

Read the rest of the article

The most disgusting part of this article was the opening two paragraphs. What the fuck kind of a child leaves their 84 year old father outside on New Year’s Eve (and the three nights after that) and refuses to let them enter? Whatever the fuck happened to filial piety, or you know, basic humanity?!

From the LA Times

More than 30 million Chinese people live in caves, many of them in Shaanxi province where the Loess plateau, with its distinctive cliffs of yellow, porous soil, makes digging easy and cave dwelling a reasonable option.

Each of the province’s caves, yaodong, in Chinese, typically has a long vaulted room dug into the side of a mountain with a semicircular entrance covered with rice paper or colorful quilts. People hang decorations on the walls, often a portrait of Mao Tse-tung or a photograph of a movie star torn out of a glossy magazine.

The better caves protrude from the mountain and are reinforced with brick masonry. Some are connected laterally so a family can have several chambers. Electricity and even running water can be brought in.

Read the article.

…is anyone else thinking hobbits?

From Mamamia:

Harmony Day is a day for celebrating the many different cultures and backgrounds that make Australia so wonderfully colourful and diverse. Despite its touchy-feely name, (which has provided a source of amusement for some of my friends), it’s a great concept.

This year’s theme – “Everyone belongs” – is about every Australian being welcome and included in our community, regardless of where they come from. It’s about celebrating the things that make us unique as well as things we have in common.

…

But, let’s be honest, we need Harmony Day because we don’t always enjoy harmony in our communities. We need a theme like “everyone belongs” because so many Australians don’t feel like they belong. We need to tackle racism and divisiveness because it is alive and well in modern Australia.

Racism continues to be experienced by the traditional owners of this land, as well as migrants, international students, asylum seekers and refugees, who have often endured the most to forge a new life in our lucky country.

It’s disappointing that, while enthusiastically promoting Harmony Day, some of our political leaders continue to employ divisive language and pursue policies that discriminate against particular groups of people and directly jeopardise harmony within our communities.

The only group of people who truly had the right to decide who came to this country and the circumstances in which they came were the traditional owners of this land. Yet, they were given no choice. Indeed, many of them continue to feel marginalised by a society that has been established around them.

The other more than 97 per cent of us fall into the category of “those who’ve come across the seas”.

Read more