Foreign Correspondents' Club of China http://www.fccchina.org The professional association of foreign journalists in Beijing. Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:43:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= FCCC April Happy Hour http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/11/fccc-april-happy-hour/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/11/fccc-april-happy-hour/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:43:58 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3718 The time has come, the FCCC board has decided, to give the monthly Happy Hours a fresh coat of paint and a bit of zip and we are starting the new season today, Thursday, April 11th, in the Press Bar at The St. Regis hotel. 

The bar is so named because the hotel was built on the site of the old International Club, whose bar was a favourite haunt of foreign correspondents back in the day. We thought it would be fun to pick up on that tradition. So come and breathe new life into an FCCC social tradition and bring your friends. Cheap booze in very hospitable surroundings: what more could you want?

The Happy Hour will stretch for two hours, from 7.00 pm until 9.00 pm.

BRING YOUR FCCC MEMBERSHIP CARD! WITHOUT IT THERE WILL BE NO PRICE DISCOUNTS!

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/11/fccc-april-happy-hour/feed/ 0 A Sexual Revolution With Chinese Characteristic http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/a-sexual-revolution-with-chinese-characteristic/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/a-sexual-revolution-with-chinese-characteristic/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 04:52:23 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3697 A discussion with Richard Burger, author of Behind the Red Door: Sex in China, about how China’s sexual revolution took off and where it is heading.

Extramarital sex has soared in China’s cities in recent years, yet many husbands expect their wives to be a virgin. Prostitution is cracked down on periodically yet is available everywhere. Richard Burger chronicles sex in China from ancient times through complete blackout during Mao’s era to present day, as the tug-of-war continues between liberal Western influences and traditional Chinese values.
Topics will include sex in ancient China, China’s prostitution industry, China’s gay population, “yellow fever” and the role of the Internet in the country’s sexual transformation.

DATE: Apr 16 (Tuesday)
TIME: 3-4:30pm
VENUE: Embassy of Belgium, Sanlitun Lu 6
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 80 RMB on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Richard Burger has more than 20 years of journalism and public relations experience. He started off as an indexer for the New York Times, back when newspapers were indexed manually. He worked as a business reporter for the Fairchild News Syndicate in D.C. and as the news reporter for a Maryland radio station. He managed public relations programs for both the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai World Expo, and lived in greater China for nearly eight years. He blogs at The Peking Duck (www.pekingduck.org), which he launched in 2002. It was one of the first blogs dealing exclusively with China.

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/a-sexual-revolution-with-chinese-characteristic/feed/ 0 “Bo Xilai: Power, Death and Politics” – A Book Talk With Jamil Anderlini http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/bo-xilai-power-death-and-politics-a-book-talk-with-jamil-anderlini/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/bo-xilai-power-death-and-politics-a-book-talk-with-jamil-anderlini/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 04:37:08 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3691 Jamil Anderlini will provide analysis of this high political drama  and why it matters for the world’s second largest economy and the rest of the world.

His book, “The Bo Xilai Scandal”, documents the extraordinary tale around the rise and fall of Bo Xilai, the disgraced former politician and contender for the top leadership of the Communist Party. Weaving together lurid details and political context, Anderlini provides a compelling account of the popular politician’s fall, brought about by his wife’s murder of a British businessman, and involving the most serious defection attempt in recent Communist Party history.

DATE: Apr 11 (Thursday)
TIME: 2:30-4pm
VENUE: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Liangmahe Nanlu 4
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 80 RMB on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Jamil Anderlini has been Beijing bureau chief for the Financial Times since February 2011 and has worked as a reporter in China for more than a decade. In 2010 Anderlini was named Journalist of the Year at the prestigious Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Editorial Excellence Awards, and won the Best Digital Award at the Amnesty International Media Awards for his coverage of Chinese petitioners seeking justice in Beijing.

In 2013 he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and short-listed for Foreign Reporter of the Year at the Press Awardsin the UK. He is the author of a recent ebook, published by the FT and Penguin and entitled “The Bo Xilai Scandal” (2012).

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/bo-xilai-power-death-and-politics-a-book-talk-with-jamil-anderlini/feed/ 0 Etiquette in China: How to Behave, Now That We’re Rich http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/etiquette-in-china-how-to-behave-now-that-were-rich/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/etiquette-in-china-how-to-behave-now-that-were-rich/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 04:25:18 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3683 No other country has gone through the leap to prosperity that China has over the past thirty years. With modes of behaviour becoming blurred and options endless for China’s new rich, it’s not surprising that many of them are seeking new guides to tell them how to behave with the westernised global elite they seek to join.

Sara Jane Ho, founder and principal of China’s first high-end finishing school, Institute Sarita, tells you what her students really want when they come to learn etiquette.

DATE: Apr 10 (Wednesday)
TIME: 1:30-3pm
VENUE: Embassy of Switzerland, Sanlitun East 5th Street 3
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 80 RMB on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Sara Jane Ho is the founder and principal of Institute Sarita.
A native of Hong Kong, Ms. Ho, then attended Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school in USA. She holds a BA degree in English Literature and Government from Georgetown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ms. Ho holds a diploma in International Etiquette & Protocol from Institut Villa Pierrefeu, a traditional finishing school in Switzerland. It was there that she was inspired to bring the art of international savoir-vivre and etiquette to China, bridging East and West .Ms. Ho is the youngest person on the Forbes list of“Future Women in the Mix in Asia: 12 to Watch” in 2013.

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/04/01/etiquette-in-china-how-to-behave-now-that-were-rich/feed/ 0 The Inside Scoop from Novelist Wang Xiaofang http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/12/the-inside-scoop-from-novelist-wang-xiaofang/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/12/the-inside-scoop-from-novelist-wang-xiaofang/#comments Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:03:56 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3677 Take a peek into the opaque world of China’s officialdom with best-selling author Wang Xiaofang. Even though new “house aunties”, “house sisters” or “watch brothers” crop up at least once a week, the inner workings and doings of Chinese officialdom are about as clear as Beijing’s “pristine” sky on a sunny winter day. Wang Xiaofang, once a bureaucratic hotshot himself, not only had the opportunity to see it from the inside, he also decided to share his experiences with the world. And it is so much more than just the corruption (yawn, yawn…)! There is factional infighting, political horse-trading, mean accusations and the equally cynical a** kissing.

While we wait impatiently for a Chinese version of the “House of Cards”, let’s hear from best-selling author Wang Xiaofang, who can surely tell us all about it….

DATE: Mar 14 (Thursday)
TIME: 5-6:30pm
VENUE: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Liangmahe Nanlu 4 – 荷兰王国驻华大 使馆 – 北京, 中 华人民共和国北京市亮马河 南路4号, phone: 85320200
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 65 RMB on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: at fcccadmin@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Wang Xiaofang was born in 1963 in Shenyang and was Shenyang Deputy Mayor Ma Xiangdong’s private secretary from 1997 to 1999. Ma became infamous for gambling away millions of RMB, all of which came from public coffers, in Macau casinos. He was later sentenced to death for his crimes. Wang Xiaofang was found innocent of any involvement in his boss’s misdeeds and left the civil service in 1999 to begin a career as a writer. He has published thirteen political novels in China. His novels have always been bestsellers in China, and “The Civil Servants Notebook,” which has been translated by Eric Abrahamsen and published by Penguin in 2012, is his first book to be published in English. Although Wang has been hailed by some as an “anti-corruption” writer, others have criticized him for using his earlier insider position as the “Mayor’s Secretary”—this is literally the title of one of his novels—to profit from official corruption in China.

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/12/the-inside-scoop-from-novelist-wang-xiaofang/feed/ 0 Egypt and Syria: Impact on the Region and the Role That China Can Play http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/10/egypt-and-syria-impact-on-the-region-and-the-role-that-china-can-play/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/10/egypt-and-syria-impact-on-the-region-and-the-role-that-china-can-play/#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:50:18 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3670 David Schenker, a former advisor to the US Secretary of Defence, will examine regime change in Egypt and how the policies of the Muslim Brotherhood have impacted on minority and women’s rights.  He will also assess whether the changing balance of military and civilian rule may actually serve the ambitions of Al Qaida, and heighten the terrorist threat. On Syria, David will discuss what a post-Assad Syria might look like, and which of the many factions in the country are likely to benefit from a new political landscape. He will also look at this historic regional change through a China lens. What role could and should China play in the region?

DATE: Mar 18 (Monday)
TIME: 10:30am-12pm
VENUE: Royal Norwegian Embassy – 1, Dong Yi Jie (enter from 3rd ring road South direction) – 挪威使馆，朝阳区三里屯东一街1号
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 80 RMB on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
David Schenker is the Aufzien fellow and director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute. Previously, he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defence as Levant country director, and was the Pentagon’s top policy aide on the Arab countries of the Levant. In that capacity, he was responsible for advising the Secretary and the Pentagon’s leadership on the military and political affairs of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. He was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defence Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service in 2005.

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/10/egypt-and-syria-impact-on-the-region-and-the-role-that-china-can-play/feed/ 0 China’s Silent Army: How China is Building its Global Power – From the Ground Up http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/10/chinas-silent-army-how-china-is-building-its-global-power-from-the-ground-up/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/10/chinas-silent-army-how-china-is-building-its-global-power-from-the-ground-up/#comments Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:13:59 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3662 From the iron ore mines of Perú to illegal logging camps in the Siberian forests and a giant dam in Sudan, Juan Pablo Cardenal will discuss how China is changing the developing world.

As China hunts for natural resources and leverages its position as the world’s banker, Chinese firms are leaving heavy social and environmental footprints in many parts of the world. Cardenal will tell stories he gathered in 25 countries over two years of research for his recently published book “China’s Silent Army: The Pioneers, Traders, Fixers and Workers Who Are Remaking the World in Beijing’s Image”.

DATE: Mar 13 (Wednesday)
TIME: 10-11:30am
VENUE: Delegation of the European Union, 15 Dongzhimenwai Dajie
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 80 RMB on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Juan Pablo Cardenal was the Shanghai correspondent for Spain’s El Mundo in from 2003-2007 and Beijing correspondent for the daily El Economista until 2010/11. He is now based in Hong Kong as a contributor for El País and other international media.

 

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/10/chinas-silent-army-how-china-is-building-its-global-power-from-the-ground-up/feed/ 0 The Australian model of capitalism with Chinese characteristics http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/05/the-australian-model-of-capitalism-with-chinese-characteristics/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/05/the-australian-model-of-capitalism-with-chinese-characteristics/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:35:20 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3656 Australian journalist George Megalogenis will discuss what Australia has learnt from Asian economies generally and China’s economic model in particular. He will also share his thoughts on how China’s model could benefit from a close study of the Australian experience.

DATE: Mar 19 (Tuesday)
TIME: 10-11:30am
VENUE: Australian Embassy, 21 Dongzhimenwai Dajie, Sanlitun, 北京市朝阳区三里屯东直门外大街21号
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 80 RMB on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com until Mar 18, noon
If you are planning to bring a recording device, please say so so in your reservation note. Unannounced recording devices will not be allowed in. Please bring your passport or photo ID.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
George Megalogenis is an author, commentator and journalist.  He was recipient of the 2003 Melbourne Press Club Quill award for Best Columnist. He has 27 years’ experience in the media, including over a decade in Australia’s federal parliamentary press gallery. He is a regular panellist on ABC TV’s The Insiders. He is the author of Faultlines, The Longest Decade and Quarterly Essay 40: Trivial Pursuit – Leadership and the End of the Reform Era. His latest book, The Australian Moment won the 2012 Walkley Foundation Non Fiction Book Award.

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/05/the-australian-model-of-capitalism-with-chinese-characteristics/feed/ 0 How 2nd-4th Tier Consumers Hold the Key to Not Only China’s, but the World’s Economy http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/04/how-2nd-4th-tier-consumers-hold-the-key-to-not-only-chinas-but-the-worlds-economy/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/04/how-2nd-4th-tier-consumers-hold-the-key-to-not-only-chinas-but-the-worlds-economy/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:51:35 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3651 With 200 million households belonging to the consuming classes, China’s second to fourth tier cities are arguably the most important consumer segment in the world. But they are tight-fisted. What are the desires, concerns and behavioral trends of Chinese consumers in lower tier markets? What are new forms of consumption driven by e-commerce, m-commerce and social media?

Join a talk with Mr. Kunal Sinha, Chief Knowledge Officer at Ogilvy & Mather China, who takes a critical look at the influences that have impacted people in lower-tier cities across three provinces: Liaoning, Hunan and Sichuan.

DATE: Mar 14 (Thursday)
TIME: 2-3:30pm
VENUE: Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business 长江商学院, Oriental Plaza, 1 East Chang An Avenue (Tower E2, 20F) 中国北京市东长安街 1 号东方广场东 (E2座，20层), phone: 85188552 (website), English map, Chinese map
ENTRANCE: free to members, 80 rmb to non-members
REGISTRATION: at fcccadmin@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Mr. Kunal Sinha is the Chief Knowledge Officer at Ogilvy & Mather China based in Shanghai. With more than two decades of experience in the advertising field, particularly in knowledge management, consumer insight and trend analysis across Asia and China, Kunal is the lead researcher and co-author of the most recent book, “China Beyond – Change & Continuity,” an in-depth study of lower-tier Chinese markets. Kunal is an 11-time winner of the WPP Atticus award for original thinking in marketing services and was listed in the millennium edition of Who’s Who in the World. He has spoken at numerous universities including Harvard University, Cambridge University, London Business School and Peking University, etc. He is a prolific writer of academic papers, blogs, columns in business and trade media, and four books including the award-winning “China’s Creative Imperative”.

]]> http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/04/how-2nd-4th-tier-consumers-hold-the-key-to-not-only-chinas-but-the-worlds-economy/feed/ 0 China Development Bank — the most powerful bank in the world? http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/04/china-development-bank-the-most-powerful-bank-in-the-world/ http://www.fccchina.org/2013/03/04/china-development-bank-the-most-powerful-bank-in-the-world/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:19:37 +0000 manager http://www.fccchina.org/?p=3646 Few people outside of China have even heard of it, but China Development Bank may be the world’s most powerful financial institution in the world, argue award-winning Bloomberg News reporters Henry Sanderson and Michael Forsythe. The bank, led for the past 15 years by Chen Yuan, son of one of the PRC’s founding fathers, is the enabler of the government’s policies both at home and abroad, having invented the system of local finance that helped China weather the global financial crisis and lending billions of dollars in Latin America, Africa and Asia to power the global expansion of China’s biggest companies and to secure energy supplies.

DATE: Mar 21 (Thursday)
TIME: 10:30am-12:00pm
VENUE: Embassy of the Czech Republic. 2 Ritan Lu, Jianguomenwai
ENTRANCE: free to FCCC members, 80 RMB on the door to non-members
REGISTRATION: email fcccadmin@gmail.com

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Henry Sanderson has been a Beijing-based reporter for Bloomberg News since April 2010. Prior to that, he was a reporter for the Associated Press in Beijing and Dow Jones in New York. He is a graduate of the University of Leeds (with a BA in Chinese and English literature) and Columbia University (with an MA in East Asian Studies).

Michael Forsythe has been a reporter and editor for Bloomberg News since 2000. Prior to that, he was an officer in the United States Navy for seven years. Since returning to Beijing in 2009, Mike has focused on policy and politics. He is a graduate of Georgetown University (with a BA  in international economics) and Harvard University (with an MA in East Asian regional studies).

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