#technology china

[ithinkapple]

Apple Store, Jiefangbei - About the Artists Just as the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers come together in Chongqing, we brought together Chongqing-born painter Yangyang Pan and award-winning photographer Navid Baraty to celebrate the opening of the new Apple Store, Jiefangbei. See how their work was inspired by the city itself.

[asiantech]

Anti-monopoly probe into Microsoft Windows Office in China

Recently Microsoft Chinese offices were raided by investigators, It seams that China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) has been investigating Microsoft following a 2013 complaint, alleging that Windows and Office are not fully open, resulting in compatibility, bundling and document verification issues. 

“Following the earlier stages of the investigation, we cannot dismiss suspicion of Microsoft’s anti-competitiveness,” SAIC added. 

[dokus]

Ni Hao #9: Transfer of knowledge between China and the West

Duo shao qian? Is what you say when ask what something costs. The currency in China is called RMB (literally the people’s money) or yuan (dollar), one 1/10 of a yuan is jiao (dime) and 1/100 is fen (cent). In this series of articles we bring you highlights from our correspondent who studied Chinese in Beijing and Xi’an. This ninth segment is about the transfer of knowledge between China and the West or how China is learning from the rest of the world on how to solve its own problems. 

In antiquity, the Silk Road was a collection of land and maritime paths that over centuries have been used to transfer goods and new ideas between China and the West. Luxury goods made in China such as silk and embroidery were initially used as tributes to foreign kings and Emperors; later they were traded with foreign merchants.

Important innovations made in China such as paper, printing, the compass, gun power were passed on to the West, usually with hundreds of years of delay (e.g. the secret of silkworm growing, silk production and -weaving). At the same time ideas and innovations from the West penetrated China and were either tolerated, adopted or adapted. China learned via the Silk Road about Buddhism and Islam as well as many innovations made in the West during the industrial revolution.

In modern times, since the opening of China in 1978, China is very much interested in trade and transfer of technology.   Nowadays it does this by buying goods overseas, applying reverse engineering, buying entire companies or inviting Western companies to invest in China to share their technology.  China also obtains knowhow through lots of students who study overseas. 

China has the largest number of overseas students in the world with at the end of 2010 a record 1.27 million Chinese studying overseas. About 285,000 are new students who began their overseas studies recently. The number of Chinese students studying abroad has on average increased by 25 percent every year since 1978.

Ninety percent of all overseas students chose to study in 10 countries, the United States being the top listed destination. Some 135,000 Chinese students arrive in the USA each year. An increasing number of Chinese students go abroad to avoid the highly competitive national college entrance exam (called gaokao). Probably many also go abroad because they are aware that overseas a different kind of education is offered that stimulates individual thinking and creativity.

A 2011 Census on Chinese Overseas Students showed that 20 percent of the students who plan to go abroad are high school students. A majority of Chinese students going to the US pick business and engineering courses and limit their choices to a few universities in the North East or the West.

The result of this focusing on a few universities is that in some colleges or universities one sees the formation of "Chinese classes".  When visiting my old alma mater at Clark University, I was surprised to see in one classroom a Chinese professor teaching a class to only Chinese students...

Of all the students who studied abroad between 1978 and 2010 i.e. over 1.9 million students, only one in three returned to China in that same period. Those who return to China after studying abroad clearly have an advantage. Companies offer higher salaries because those students come with an international education background, a way of innovative thinking, people networking and work experiences. Last but not least Chinese students who studied abroad acquired a foreign language fluency that provides them with a huge advantage over any foreigner trying to do business in China.