Chinese student abused for praising 'fresh air of free speech' in US

Nationalists in China seize on remarks by Yang Shuping, accusing her of ‘demonising’ it in backlash fuelled by state-run media
By Tom Phillips in Beijing

Yang Shuping was speaking at her graduation from Maryland University. She moved to the US from China five years ago. 

A Chinese student has faced abuse from nationalists in China after she used her graduation address at a US university to celebrate “the fresh air of free speech”.
Yang Shuping, a psychology and theatre graduate from Yunnan province, came to study at the University of Maryland five years ago, as a dramatic clampdown on civil society and academia began back home under Xi Jinping.
During the speech at her graduation ceremony on Sunday, Yang recalled her delight at the US’s cleaner skies, saying “every breath was a delight”, and having the freedom to speak out.
“I have learned [that] the right to freely express oneself is sacred in America … I could even rate my professors online,” she said. 

“My voice matters. Your voice matters. Our voices matter.”
In her eight-minute address, Yang said she had been inspired to see her American classmates vote and take part in political protests. 

Another inspiration was a performance of an Anna Deavere Smith play about the 1992 LA riots, in which racism, sexism and politics took centre stage.

“I was shocked, I never thought such topics could be discussed openly … I have always had a burning desire to tell these kinds of stories, but I was convinced that only authorities owned the narrative, only authorities could define the truth,” she said.
“Freedom is oxygen. Freedom is passion. Freedom is love. As the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said: ‘Freedom is a choice’.”
In one-party China, where there has been an intensifying offensive against free speech since Xi took power, the comments proved extremely contentious.
After a video of her speech was posted online by a Communist party newspaper on Monday and went viral, the backlash began.
Some attacked Yang, who is from Kunming, one of China’s least polluted cities, for depicting it as smog choked, even though her comments on China’s air quality appeared to be largely a political metaphor, not a reference to the environment.
In a social media post, Kunming’s government defended its “fresh and sweet” air and said the city was spring-like throughout the year.
Others accused Yang of denigrating China in online posts. 

“She has demonised China with the nonsense she has talked,” one person wrote.
Another said: “She has an incredible ability to lick feet. Don’t worry about coming back to China. Our motherland doesn’t need a bitch like this.”
A third called on internet users to dig up dirt on her family through a type of online campaign known in China as a “human flesh hunt”.
“Studying in the US costs a lot of money, so where is it coming from? She must come from a rich family. What on earth does her family do?” they asked.
State-run newspapers fanned the flames of the controversy. 

The party-controlled, nationalist Global Times quoted an anonymous student as saying that publicly talking about free speech was “immature and mean”. 

The student accused Yang of spreading “radical opinions”.
The People’s Daily, another Communist party-run newspaper, accused Yang of “bolstering negative Chinese stereotypes”.
A second student, who also declined to give their real name, was quoted as saying: “What you gave is not free speech, but rumour mongering and favour currying … Your freedom cannot stand, either factually or morally.”
The University of Maryland stood by Yang, describing her as a “top student”.
“The university proudly supports Shuping’s right to share her views and her unique perspectives, and we commend her on lending her voice on this joyous occasion,” it said.

Chinese Soft Power

Shocking pictures show the residents of China's Bound Feet Women Village -- where more than 100 pensioners suffer the agonizing effects of the 1,000-year-old practice

The process involves breaking bones and toes in feet and then tightly wrapping them with material.
It began in the early 600s and was a sign of wealth and high status in the country for centuries.
By JOSEPH CURTIS

These are the shocking images that show pensioners in China suffering the painful effects of the 1,000-year-old practice of foot binding.
More than 100 women aged 70 and older partake in the custom in the village of Liuyi in the Yunnan Province, with the location dubbed the 'Bound Feet Women Village' as a result.
The custom involves tightly wrapping the feet of young girls to change their shape and was popular among wealthy women who did not have to work, and therefore 'did not need to use their feet'.
It also became a sign of beauty and affected limbs became known as lotus feet in the country.

These images show the horrific effects of the ancient Chinese tradition of footbinding, when girls aged four to nine would have their toes and bones broken before their feet were tightly bound in material in a process that was supposed to show wealth and high status. Pictured is a woman's foot in Liuyi Village, where more than 100 elderly women who have undergone the process live

This bound foot shows dry and cracked skin and toes mashed together. It belongs to 100-year-old Luo Pu, who lives in Liuyi, known as Bound Feet Women Village due to the high proportion of women who live their who have experienced the process, which dates to the early 600s and was banned in 1912.

But the images suggest the feet are anything but, with toes shown contorted around each other while the skin itself appears dry and cracked.
Binding was often performed on girls aged between four and nine during winters, when the cold temperatures were more likely to numb feet against pain.
It involved breaking and mutilating toes and bones, while toenails were also cut very short before the bandages were applied.
The custom is believed to have started sometime in the 600s, although the exact origin remains unknown.

Several origin stories exist for the process, with many involving dancing. Women who have undergone foot binding continue to dance, with women in Liuyi wearing 'Three Cuns Golden Lotus' shoes for their Bound Feet Women Dancing Team. Bound feet were often called lotus feet

The Bound Feet Women Dancing Team are pictured here practicing martial arts as part of their routine, with each wearing their special lotus shoes

One explanation offered is that a Chinese emperor fell in love with a dancer whose feet were bound with silk, while another claims an emperor's favourite concubine had a clubfoot and so asked him to make foot binding compulsory for all girls so her feet would not be considered ugly.
Dancing appears to be part and parcel of the process, as women in Liuyi who have had foot binding performed have formed their own dancing teams.

The process was carried out on young girls, usually during winter when their feet were supposedly more numb to the pain due to the cold weather. Three youngsters are pictured here with bound feet in Imperial China before the practice was outlawed. 

New satellite images show inside China’s ghost cities

By Gus Lubin

China still has a startling number of vacant real-estate developments, judging from new satellite analysis by DigitalGlobe and Business Insider.

Chinese ghost cities have made headlines for nearly a decade, with huge new real-estate developments sitting mostly empty for years. 

Some see them as a sign China is heading for a real-estate crash. 

Others see them as just the typical style of urban expansion for a giant state-run economy.
While some ghost cities are reportedly filling in, the problem isn’t going away. 

A recent Baidu study of phone data gave clear evidence of 50 cities with areas of high vacancy. 

And just this fall China's richest man called Chinese real estate "the biggest bubble in history."
We looked inside some ghost cities with the latest in satellite technology, including time-lapse images, to show what’s making progress and what isn’t. 

See the highlights below.
Chenggong District, Kunming, Yunnan Province,  was labeled a ghost city back in 2012, with reports of 100,000 vacant apartments. 

Five years later, the city still looks very empty — yet skyscrapers are still being built.

Chenggong has big plans, evident in an extensive road grid. 

But the roads are still mostly empty, and many city blocks are still farmland.

A closer look at some of Chenggong’s mostly vacant skyscrapers. 

Note the paved road that transitions to dirt as it moves to the left.

Chenggong, like other ambitious Chinese developments, has dramatic architecture — in this case surrounded by farmland.

Chenggong has several big new university campuses. 

This has sat mostly empty and unfinished for a while, according to DigitalGlobe.

Erenhot is a notorious ghost city in Inner Mongolia. 

Check out our time lapse of one development there: just dirt in 2013 …

... streets full of McMansions in 2015 …

... still-empty streets full of McMansions in 2017.

Ordos, another notorious ghost city in Inner Mongolia, is reportedly adding people but still has lots of unsold housing and unfinished construction. 

This beautiful stadium, for instance, has been sitting unfinished for a long time, according to DigitalGlobe.

Another cool building in Ordos sits dormant, no longer under construction and not in use, according to DigitalGlobe.

Dongsheng District (named by Baidu as a partial ghost city), Ordos City, has large developments like this one sitting dormant. 

The skyscrapers are apparently finished, but the construction equipment is gone, so it appears that work has stopped on the site, DigitalGlobe says.

This development in Dongsheng is up and running but appears to have very few residents.

Ghost city or future city? 

The giant Meixi Lake development, Hunan, looks eerie today, with skyscrapers going up by the dozens and not a lot of residents. 

Then again, prices are still rising in the area, and, according to DigitalGlobe, construction is still going rapidly.

Once called a ghost city, Zhengdong New Area, Henan is reportedly doing quite well. 

Still, the city is building new skyscrapers by the dozens.

Another shot of Zhengdong. 

Will people move in? 

Time will tell.