Editor's Picks

Connected consumers can make or break

Opinion | Foreign perspectives
2011-12-24

COMPANIES have often grappled with the "ownership" of their brands. Ultimately, the brand is simply what it represents in the minds of consumers. Stro...

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China Super League faces long road before it can score

Opinion | Foreign perspectives
2011-12-23

COME January, and the fans of Shanghai Shenhua can be forgiven for being sanguine about a very fulfilling New Year. It is not always that their club gives them much reasons to cheer, but they will be hoping that the...

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Business Books TOP FIVE US

Opinion | Book review
2011-12-24

1.THAT Used to Be Us How can America emerge from its economic, political and energy morass? Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum | FSG 2011 | 400 pg. | ISBN: 9780374288907 2.Change Anything "Six...

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Brave new world of Internet contains forces of control

Opinion | Shanghai Daily columnists
2011-12-24

MIDDLE-AGED people may still remember how people once fantasized about the advent of information age. According to prophets, breakthroughs in communication would usher in a brave new world where people could access...

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Party: Members must be atheists

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-21

MEMBERS of the Communist Party of China (CPC) shall not believe in religion, which is a principle to be unswervingly adhered to, a senior official has said. The Party would suffer "pernicious" consequences if members...

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Total makeover urgent for foundering football

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-23

CHINESE soccer fans witnessed another year of fiascoes, but this time, they accept it more philosophically, since both layers and fans feel nothing unusual for they've tasted so many failures in recent years and some...

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China's cultural commodities project soft power globally

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-22

AS Christmas approaches, Westerners are busy shopping for gifts to give to family and friends on the most important holiday of the year. A "Chinese" Christmas, for most Western families, is not something new: many...

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Officials' banqueting binges lead to soaring liquor prices

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-21

CHINESE liquor is soaring in price, led by Moutai. Xinhua reported last week that a bottle of standard Moutai liquor, with 53 percent alcohol, sold for 500 to 600 yuan (US$80-95) three or four years ago. Now it is...

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Let buyer beware in real estate uproar

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-20

ON October 22, more than 400 angry home owners convened in front of the Shanghai office of China Overseas Land and Investment Ltd, demanding a refund after prices dropped on their recently purchased properties in the...

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Back wages loom as migrants go home

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-20

FORTY-YEAR-OLD migrant worker Li Yongfen felt optimistic after hearing of a construction contractor sentenced to 10 months in jail and fined 20,000 yuan (US$3,148) for refusing to pay his workers. The case rekindled...

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Unregulated e-bikes can be a terror on the roadways

Opinion | China Knowledge@Wharton
2011-12-19

ELECTRIC bikes, or e-bikes, are pouring on to China's bicycle lanes and streets. While bicycle ownership in China is much higher, at 470 million, there's no denying the popularity of e-bikes, whose numbers have...

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National postgrad exam misses top students

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-19

AFTER graduating from college this July, 24-year-old Zhang Chen did not find a job, but instead moved to Beijing to prepare for the national entrance exam for postgraduate education programs, which is scheduled for...

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Pride goeth before decline

Opinion | Book review
2011-12-17

IN their new book, "That Used to be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back," Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum trace the roots of America's creeping decline to the end...

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Business Books TOP FIVE US

Opinion | Book review
2011-12-17

1.CHANGE Anything "Six sources of influence" make you overspend and overeat. You can beat them...but willpower is the wrong weapon. Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler...

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BRICS power new world economic order

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-17

WITH chilly winter winds rattling deadwood in the United States, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests endured for almost three months. The movement bears the hallmarks of a festival, with participants setting...

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Punish everyone on wrong side of road in ticketing blitz

Opinion | Foreign perspectives
2011-12-16

THE recent school bus accident in Xuzhou, in which 15 young and promising young lives were snuffed out, appears to have been caused by a pedi-cab traveling in the "wrong" left road lane. It seems high time that...

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Today's model citizen makes consumption a spiritual quest

Opinion | Shanghai Daily columnists
2011-12-16

AS 2011 approaches its end, in freezing cold and pervading haze, enthusiastic shoppers are heading to one shopping mecca after another, scouring for discounts, bargains, and "free" iPads. There have been warnings...

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Ode to the splendor of China old and new

Opinion | Foreign perspectives
2011-12-15

I have been in China now for over two months and I am surprised and sometimes a little embarrassed that so many Chinese people I meet scoff at my liking for Lao Tzu and the principles of Tao and Confucianism. "The...

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Western stagnation, trade barriers threaten poorer nations

Opinion | Foreign perspectives
2011-12-15

PROTRACTED economic stagnation in rich countries continues to threaten the development prospects of poorer countries. Globalization and economic liberalization over the last few decades have, of course, helped...

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What culture should we develop?

Opinion | Chinese perspectives
2011-12-14

EDITOR'S note: Now China is supposed to develop, expand and project its culture. But what exactly is "culture"? And is this development an unalloyed good? Does China's tradition exist in official written history...