Dashing the China Dream

This photo shows the construction of new high-rise apartments that will house villagers near the city of Anshun, Guizhou province in February 2014. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Chinese – whether it is national strength, cultural renewal or more modest personal goals. For many of those living in the vast countryside, the dream is a life in a city and some of the benefits that go with it.

But a major plan for urbanization seems to be saying to those would-be urban residents dreaming of better retirement, health and education services, they can pretty much forget about it.

Vice Minister of Public Security Huang Ming told reporters this week that the tight controls on who lives where under the hukou, or household-registration, system, won’t be abandoned anytime soon, at least not in the biggest and most attractive cities.

“I wouldn’t say there’s no hope in getting a hukou,” Mr. Huang said at a news briefing Wednesday, referring to strict population controls in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. “I think there’s hope, just not as high as other big cities, especially not as high as smaller cities.”

China has raised hopes with its plans for urbanization, which it sees as a way to boost economic growth. It aims to have about 60% of its more than 1.3 billion people living in urban areas by 2020 and will let some 100 million people move into the nation’s cities by that time.

Still, the plan projects only about 45% of the population would have full rights as urban residents by then, meaning they are eligible for city pensions and medical coverage as well as education for their children.

The government has stressed it will keep a tight grip on cities with populations of more than 5 million.

Mr. Huang said this is necessary due to practical considerations. Cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou  are already seeing huge strains on their resources and the environment. Their populations need to be slimmed down, he said.

The ministry is drafting detailed measures on hukou reforms, which will be submitted for government approval as soon as possible, Mr. Huang said. He didn’t give any specifics but he said political leaders will focus on easing hukou controls in smaller cities.

Some smaller cities have already eased their hukou controls to attract more rural laborers. But these efforts have been only partially successful because many people prefer to move to larger cities where the jobs and services are considerably better.

The hukou system was set up in 1958 as a social-management tool that tied all social benefits to one’s place of birth, dividing people into urban and rural categories and preventing people from pouring into big cities with better resources.

More than 21 million people lived in Beijing as of the end of last year and a little over 60% have a hukou , according to the municipality’s statistics bureau.

The public reaction to the plan and Mr. Huang’s remarks was one of disappointment.

“It sounds like there’s no hope” to get an urban hukou one day, one user said on his Sina Weibo microblog account.

“Time to wake up,” said another.

The advice from the vice minister?

“If you want to realize your city dream, then dream about small and mid-sized cities – that’s more realistic. If you want to choose especially large cities, [you’ll have to] … have patience.”


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New U.S. Ambassador Talks the Talk, Aims to Walk the Walk

The new U.S. ambassador in Beijing looks like he plans to walk the walk.

Not long after getting off a flight from Honolulu on Monday night, Max Baucus was greeting the local press corps, kicking off  his remarks with an energetic  quote from Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu and saying “a journey of a 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”

“Brave words,” added the 72-year-old former senator and long-time outdoorsman from Montana—a place where you can get in a lot of practice tramping around.

He quickly picked up the travel theme again, saying: “I hope to get out of this office and out of Beijing.” Mr. Baucus said his goal is to visit all of China’s provinces and regions, adding: “I’m eager to listen and learn.”

The six-term Democratic senator concedes he is hardly a China specialist, but he has made eight visits to the country—and his first official one was in 1993. More importantly in his current post, he is well versed in trade and financial issues, including his key support for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

Just to be safe, Mr. Baucus said he talked to two of his predecessors, Gary Locke and Jon Huntsman, for a little bit of guidance. The new ambassador said he has met President Xi Jinping and noted the Chinese leader referred to common interests between the U.S. and China outweighing the differences.

Mr. Baucus called U.S.-China ties “one of America’s most important bilateral relationships.”

“I want to be part of managing this relationship,” he said. “We simply must get it right.”

The man tapped by President Barack Obama to replace Mr. Locke outlined some of his goals in the job. At the top of the list is managing the already-strong economic relationship between the world’s two biggest economies, and Mr. Baucus added that he would look to ensure a level playing field for American businesses in China.

He also spoke of aiming to “partner with China” in dealing with global challenges and working with Beijing to support the laws, norms, values and rights that underpin global society.

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The ambassador noted that he got some of his taste for travel — and global affairs –as a young student when he took a year off from Stanford University to hitchhike around the globe.

Perhaps more importantly for his new job, Mr. Baucus has done a lot of walking in the Senate corridors. In a career that took him to the head of the Senate Finance Committee, he made plenty of  allies on Capitol Hill. His Senate confirmation for the Beijing post sailed through in a 96-0 vote.

The new ambassador also seemed to have taken on a little bit of quiet diplomacy. Nowhere in his remarks did he mention how Beijing’s gritty pollution might cut into his walking plans.

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Asia will become the industrial printing market has growth potential area

According to the latest study on the global market for industrial printing report released by SmithersPira shows, Asia is fast becoming the growth potential of industrial printing market in the area, the strong momentum of development. By 2018, Asia will account for the global printing industry market share of 43%, while in 2013 this figure was only 38.8%. In addition, in Western Europe and North America, industrial printing market prospect is a good.

China’s Luxury Boom Moves to the Web

China’s luxury boom is going online.

As the overall sector struggles amid a government crackdown on ostentatious spending and gift-giving, the urge to splurge online is growing strong, according to a study by consulting firm KPMG.

KPMG found in a survey of 10,200 online consumers in China that the respondents spent an average of 1,397 yuan (US$229) on their most recent purchase of a “luxury or premium” item, with one in six saying they spent more than 2,000 yuan on that purchase. The researchers didn’t define “luxury or premium,” letting survey respondents interpret the label themselves.

Almost three-quarters of survey respondents said they preferred to shop online because they could land a better deal, while 55% said they preferred it because it’s less time-consuming. Another 47% said it guarantees authentic American or European origin of goods.

Chinese consumers outspent American shoppers online last year for the first time, and by 2015, the country’s online shopping market is projected to reach $540 billion, or 7.5% of all retail transactions in the country, the consulting firm said in its report.

Cosmetics were the most popular items bought online, with 53% of respondents saying they bought products in that category. Women’s shoes and women’s clothes ranked second and third.


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In Beijing, Gray Is the New Orange

Take a look at the above photo. In Beijing, this is what orange looks like.

China’s capital on Friday raised its color-coded warning system for air pollution to orange from yellow for the first time since establishing it in October. The system’s  four color-coded alerts, in order of increasing yuckiness, include blue, yellow, orange and red.

Beijing worked up to its orange alert. The city’s Ministry of Environmental Protection on Thursday issued a yellow alert for only the second time since October, according to the official Xinhua news agency. A yellow alert is issued when city authorities either forecast an air-quality index of above 300 for the next 24 hours or an AQI of between 201 and 300 for the next three days or more.

What is 300 like? Well, take a look at that photo again, taken Friday morning from a flight into Beijing. China Real Time kept the kids out of school and noted how days like this always make our hands feel dirty.

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By comparison, the AQI in hardly sylvan New York as of this writing was 70 , which is considered “moderate.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says an index of above 300 is “extremely rare” in the U.S. and typically occurs during events such as forest fires.

Issuing an orange alert is a complicated affair. It is used only when authorities forecast an AQI of above 200 for at least three consecutive days, with at least one day above 300.

Chinese government air-monitoring stations recorded an average AQI reading of 302 on Friday night, while a similar station at the U.S. embassy showed a reading of 378. Beijing’s AQI rose above 300 on Thursday and remained near or above that level on Friday.

The China Meteorological Administration and the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued a joint weather and pollution forecast for the first time on Thursday. The agencies said the northern Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, along with midwestern region of Shandong province, will experience AQI readings of above 300 from Friday to Sunday.

When an orange alert is issued, authorities require workers to halt construction and order factories to temporarily reduce emissions by 30%. Fireworks and outdoor barbecuing is also banned. Children and the elderly are advised to stay indoors, and residents are encouraged to use public transportation instead of cars.

Beijing’s municipal government has been taking measures to fight air pollution amid growing public pressure. The city ratified a long-term plan in January that sets limits on air pollutants for the first time and imposes higher fines on polluters, although it scrapped some of the plan’s harsher penalties at the last minute.

The city in October adopted an emergency-response plan for air pollution that includes implementing alternate driving days for cars with even- and odd-numbered license plates during a red alert. That alert, however, will be issued only when authorities forecast an AQI of above 300 for at least three consecutive days.

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Xiaomi President: Supply Chain an Obstacle to Reaching Sales Goal

The startup that has rocked China’s smartphone market is aiming to sell 40 million phones this year. The only limitation, according to Xiaomi President Lin Bin, is how fast the company can make the phones.

In an interview, Lin said Xiaomi’s biggest obstacle to more than doubling phone sales in 2014 from 2013 will be how quickly the company ramp ups  production of its phones.

“When we began producing phones two and a half years ago we were making only tens of thousands a month, but now we’re at three million a month. This speed shows the limits of the supply chain,” he said.

“It’s not Xiaomi,” he said. “Hardware and software are different. Hardware needs a ramp-up period.”

He added, “I believe what we achieved last year means we can get to 40 million phones this year. This is something that we are working hard with suppliers to make happen.”

Last year Xiaomi sold about 18.7 million handsets, compared with 7.2 million in 2012.

The closely held company is well-known in China for releasing its phones for sale online in limited batches. Analysts say that element of scarcity adds to demand for its Android-powered gadgets, but Xiaomi has said that tactic is partially the result of an inability to make as many phones as people want.

“This is one thing people complain about. People say that [our limited sales of phones] is intentional, but actually it’s not,” he said.

Xiaomi has jumped to a 6% market share in China in the fourth quarter of 2013 on the back of its low-priced but competitively equipped smartphones, according to research firm IDC, making it No. 6 in the market. It has contributed to intensifying competition in a market dominated by Samsung Electronics005930.SE -0.39% and where AppleAAPL +0.37% holds a significant share of the high-end part of the market.

Lin said another bottleneck for the company, which was valued at around $10 billion during its last round of fundraising last year, has been ensuring the company has hired enough people to deal with repairs and service. Though he said only about 2% of phones usually require maintenance, given ballooning sales, the company in 2014 will continue to expand its investment in building out maintenance and services.
Lin spoke as the company prepares to begin selling its phones in Singapore, its third market outside of mainland China after Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Addressing the new expansion, Mr. Lin, said the company was “just getting started,” but that successful sales in Taiwan and Hong Kong proved that the company’s model also works in developed markets where carrier subsidies make consumers less sensitive to the pricing of phones.

Still some have warned that sales in Singapore could get a slower start, due in part to the increasing prevalence of faster phones that run on Singapore’s newer fourth-generation network. Calling its pricing in Singapore “very aggressive,” IDC analyst Melissa Chau said it could still face obstacles.

“In Singapore, we’re pretty much getting into 4G and their phones are not 4G, so their expansion into other markets isn’t going to be that straightforward.”


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China Goes Big in Olympic Men’s Aerials

China has four men taking part in the freestyle skiing aerials competition at the Sochi Olympics on Monday night, more than any other country apart from Belarus, which also has four.

Jia Zongyang, Qi Guangpu, Wu Chao and Liu Zhongqing, the relative elder statesman of the team at 28 years old, carry Chinese hopes for aerials gold after the women’s team fell just short once again, picking up silver for the third Olympics in a row.

China has topped the podium in the men’s event before. Han Xiaopeng won gold in the men’s aerials at the 2006 Olympics in Turin to become the first man to win a gold for China in the Winter Olympics. Chinese women have fared much better than men at the Winter Olympics, winning 10 ½ of the 12 golds China has bagged since 2002 (Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won gold in the pairs figure skating in 2010, hence the half.)

Liu won bronze in aerials four years ago in Vancouver, but his form has been mixed ahead of Sochi. Since mid-December, he has won two World Cup events, finished second in another and dropped to 12th and 25th in two more.

In Qi, China has the reigning men’s aerials world champion. The 23-year-old is, along with Liu, among the favorites to win a medal in Sochi on Monday night. He was only 16 when he joined the World Cup circuit and has improved steadily since, all the way to a first-place finish in the latest World Cup event in Lake Placid last month.
However, like Liu (who finished second in Lake Placid), Qi has struggled for consistency. Prior to his victory in Lake Placid, he finished 19th in Val St. Come, Canada.

But even if Liu and Qi fail to live up to expectations, China still has Wu and Jia.

Wu, a 26-year-old from the northeastern province of Jilin, finished ninth and eighth at Lake Placid and Val St. Come. Jia, a 22-year-old from Liaoning province, has gone off the boil in 2014, finishing in 25th place in Lake Placid, 15th in Val St. Come and 23rd in Deer Valley on Jan. 10.

But Jia has an impressive overall record in World Cup competitions, with nine wins from 30 competitions. If he can replicate last year’s form, he’ll be a medal contender in Sochi.
With such strength in depth in this event, it would be disappointing if China doesn’t add to its medal tally tonight. The country has five medals so far in Sochi, including three golds.

Belarus has a rich history in men’s freestyle aerials, winning more medals in the event than any other nation. Alexei Grishin won gold in Vancouver and bronze in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, and even at the age of 34, he could upset China’s medal chances. This is his fifth Olympics. His compatriot, Anton Kushnir, is also a threat to China’s hopes.

Switzerland and Russia both have three skiers in the event, while Ukraine and Kazakhstan have two each. Australia, Canada and the U.S. all have one skier taking part. The competition will miss 2010 silver medalist and inventor of the “hurricane” maneuver, Jeret Peterson. The American skier committed suicide in 2011.

The first qualification round starts at 5:45 p.m. Sochi time, which is 9:45 p.m. in China. There will be three final rounds, the third of which starts at 10:12 p.m. Sochi time.

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‘House of Cards’ Does Its Homework on China

Not since counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer stormed the Chinese consulate in the fourth season of “24” has there been a major story line about China featured on a mainstream U.S. TV series.

U.S.-China relations are front and center in the new season of “House of Cards,” which has scheming U.S. Vice President Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, backchanneling with a corrupt Chinese businessman. The show’s 13-episode second season was simultaneously released Friday on Netflix Inc.’s online-video-streaming service in the U.S. and on Sohu.com Inc.’s service in China. The first episode of the new season had racked up more than 3.5 million views in China by Monday afternoon.

The show deserves kudos for the unusual authenticity of its China story line, which has plot points ripped straight from the headlines. Chinese cyber-theft, currency manipulation, a trade dispute involving rare-earth minerals, and escalating tensions between China and Japan in the East China Sea all make an appearance in the show, rendered in the kind of detail that will ring mostly true with China watchers.

“When we created the story lines, we were certainly keeping our eye on what was happening (in China), and the happy result, I believe, is a story line that earns its relevance by resonating with the headlines,” Kenneth Lin, one of the writers on the show, told China Real Time by email.

The attention to detail even extends to a Chinese foreign ministry news briefing early on in the show, which replicates the real thing almost exactly, from the familiar blue backdrop to the terse and irritated tone. The only inaccuracy – it has the Chinese spokesman delivering his comments in English, which almost never happens – was likely introduced for expedience.
How did they get so many details right? By doing their homework, according to Mr. Lin, who said the writers spoke beforehand to a variety of China experts, including Columbia University political scientist Xiaobo Lu.

Mr. Lu told CRT he met the “House of Cards” writers on campus a year ago to discuss Chinese politics, society and U.S.-China relations. After watching the entire season “I thought, overall, the writers were successful in putting in the China storyline with a mix of sensational fiction and possible reality,” he said.

“House of Cards” isn’t the most popular U.S. TV show in China (the first season only has 23.5 million views when compared with No. 1 ranked “Nikita,” whose first season has almost 270 million views). However, the new season of “House of Cards” was the most-watched American show on Sohu between Sunday and Monday, and ranked fifth overall for drama after four Chinese programs during that period. Viewership will likely rise once Sohu finishes adding Chinese-language subtitles to every episode (the Chinese video service is adding them at a rate of two episodes per day).

Chinese Internet users largely seemed to embrace the prominent role their country plays in the show’s second season, though one user of Sina Corp.’s Weibo social media platform took the show to task for misrepresenting China in a crucial manner. “The most irritating thing: Chinese representatives aren’t nearly so young or handsome,” he wrote.


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What Would Lincoln Do?

Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday we mark this holiday weekend, had less leadership experience than almost any earlier president. George Washington and Andrew Jackson had been generals, several other presidents had been governors, and all the Southerners had owned plantations. They had run organizations and managed men. President Lincoln, by contrast, was a former state legislator, a one-term congressman and the senior partner of a two-man law firm; he kept his most important papers filed away in his hat.

And yet Lincoln filled the office of president so effectively that he regularly tops historians' rankings of great presidents.

It helped, of course, that he was one of the greatest writers in the American canon—certainly the greatest ever to reach the White House (Jefferson at his best could be equally good, but his range was narrower). Leaving aside such extraordinary talents, which of Lincoln's principles of action can guide his successors?
Cite precedent. Lincoln the lawyer was ever mindful of precedents, while Lincoln the unhappy son who never bonded with his hard-driving, un-bookish father was always looking for paternal surrogates. He found both precedents and men he could look up to in America's founding fathers.

Lincoln's mature career—from the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 until his death in 1865—was, among other things, a long effort to show that his positions on the issue of slavery were those of the founders. (Lincoln wanted slavery contained and ultimately extinguished; so, he said, did they.) He hammered away at this theme in his Peoria speech in 1854, the three-hour-long oration that first laid out his ideas; he returned to it repeatedly in his 1858 debates with the Illinois Democrat Stephen Douglas ; and he spent half the Cooper Union Address, his New York City command performance in 1860, showing that "our fathers, who framed the government under which we live," agreed with him. "As those fathers marked [slavery], let it be again marked," he said, "as an evil not to be extended."

Lincoln wanted to wrap himself in the founders' aura—gilt by association—and he believed that they had been right about human nature, liberty and equality. He wanted to be on their side, and he wanted them on his.
Make your case. The histories of kingdoms and empires are often court histories—who whispered what to whom. So, dismayingly, is much modern political reporting: Who got to the chief of staff? How did the senator learn about this? If Saint-Simon, the chronicler of the Sun King's Versailles, were alive today, he would have a column or a talk show.

Lincoln could play inside baseball, making deals and manipulating colleagues, when he had to. But he understood that democracies are ultimately ruled not by such little maneuvers but by the people. "Public opinion in this country," he said bluntly in 1859, "is everything." That means that everything depends on wooing, shaping and educating public opinion. That, in turn, requires leaders to put themselves out there. It helps, of course, if their arguments are clear and their programs sensible. But even the most brilliant philosopher statesman has to make his case.

Humor helps. Lincoln had an immense stock of jokes and stories, some of them off-color. He often used them to distract people he knew he couldn't immediately satisfy. Leonard Swett, one of his Illinois cronies, recalled him receiving visitors in Springfield, Illinois, after he had won the Republican nomination in 1860: "He told them all a story, said nothing, and sent them away."
But Lincoln's humor worked at a deeper level to keep everything in proportion. One of his favorite jokes—his last law partner, William Herndon, said he heard Lincoln tell it "often and often"—was about a bold, clever fellow who breaks wind while carving a turkey at a party "so that all the people heard it distinctly." The hero of the joke manages to get the turkey carved in the end.

But the ludicrous situation, with its vulgar twist, served to remind Lincoln and his auditors that life is full of mishaps and (even worse) embarrassments. No one should be surprised, aggrieved or affronted by this; one must simply carry on, jauntily if possible. This is an important lesson for the many frustrations and crises of politics.

Principles first.Lincoln grew up in a major political party that had a shorter life span than he had. The Whig Party came together in the early 1830s to combat Andrew Jackson, the man who had transformed the Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison into the Democratic Party of today. Jackson had a personality—combative, tempestuous—but he also had principles: small government, sticking up for the common man (the latter continues to be a watchword for today's Democrats).

The Whigs had vivid leaders of their own— Henry Clay and Daniel Webster —and principles too: They wanted a central bank, protective tariffs and economic development. But time was not kind to the Whigs or their principles. Clay himself cut tariffs after the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33, and the charter of the Second Bank of the United States expired in 1836, never to be renewed. The Whigs were reduced to trying to win presidential elections by running war heroes. Two of them— William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor —won, in 1840 and 1848. But the third, Winfield Scott, was crushed in 1852. The Whig Party was dead on its feet.

But a new issue was stirring. John Stuart, a former Whig congressman who had been Lincoln's first law partner and mentor, said to him one day, "Lincoln, the time is coming when we shall have to be all either Abolitionists or Democrats." "My mind is made up," Lincoln answered, "for I believe the slavery question can never be successfully compromised."

Lincoln had been in one party whose principles had leached out of it. He would never be in that position again. In 1860, he ended the Cooper Union Address with this ringing appeal to his fellow Republicans: "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

Be inclusive. Principles are not disembodied things; they require men who will make them real in this world. Lincoln had a wide embrace for allies.

This was partly a necessity of a new party. The Republican Party, which coalesced in 1854-56, included longtime abolitionists, Whigs, Democrats and Know Nothings (who disliked slavery but disliked immigrants only slightly less). Lincoln worked with men who possessed all these back-stories. He also worked with men of different temperaments. His secretary of state, William H. Seward, was genial and good-humored. His treasury secretary, Salmon P. Chase, was sharp-elbowed and forever submitting his resignation. His first secretary of war, Simon Cameron, was ethically challenged (Lincoln saved him from a congressional investigation).

Doris Kearns Goodwin, surveying Lincoln's cabinet, coined the term "Team of Rivals." It might be better to say that Lincoln ignored the rivalries to focus on whatever he could have in common with these often talented, always contentious men. Lincoln expressed his rule of thumb in his Peoria speech in 1854: "Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong."

Look to the past, speak out, laugh, stand firm and stand together. What worked for Lincoln might work for you.

Hangzhou Royal Printing Co., Ltd is a leading printer in east China, mainly dealing with books, magazines , catalogues printing and packaging .

Our production inludes paper box (cardboard box,gift box,cigarette box,wine box, daily goods box, retail packaging, cosmetic box), paper bags (gift bags, shopping bags, wine bags, marketing bags, handbags) and printings of brochures, catalogs, magazines, books (hard cover and soft cover), children’s books, art books, cookbooks, journals, diaries, ring binders, presentation folders, notebooks, calendars, placemat/3D placemat、 postcards/3D Postcards, greeting/gift cards , leaflets, booklets, decals ,and etc. We are certified with SGS , Our products are widely exported to more than 30 countries including Australia, Europe, USA and Africa.

The Value of Annoying Co-Workers

James liked his job in the admissions office of a large university. It was interesting, decently paid, useful work, he told me at the holiday gathering where we'd met. The only problem: His co-workers agitated his every last nerve.

There was the social butterfly who spent her days flitting from desk to desk; the workaholic who obsessed over every last detail; the malcontent who subtly belittled anyone who spoke up in a meeting; the passive-aggressive assistant who would only answer calls if you were on her good side that week; and the boss, a hopeless narcissist who inevitably made himself the focus of every task. James came to dread going into the office. (For reasons of privacy, I've changed his name, as well as the names of others cited here.)

You rarely get to pick your co-workers, which makes it nearly impossible to predict whether you'll be happy at any new job. While exploring life in the modern workplace, I've heard people grumble again and again not about their job but about their office mates. They were thrown in among the autocrats and the aristocrats; the passives, the aggressives and the passive aggressives; the suck-ups and the backstabbers. This may be why so many of us could relate to the NBC sitcom "The Office," with its universal message: The office would be a fine place to work, if it weren't for everyone else.

But not all "disrupters"—the personality types who make it harder to get work done—harm office life or even productivity.

Take narcissists. Sure, they're terrible listeners and apt to gobble up all the credit. But they also can be charming, engaging and charismatic. They can attract and inspire followers and be terrific mentors and leaders—which is why so many bosses are narcissists. In a 2006 study of more than 100 CEOs, researchers at Penn State found that executive narcissism can actually be motivational. The key to working for such a boss is learning to share praise, making your own contributions subtly known and ensuring that the narcissist doesn't rule your work life.

Another classic disrupter is the passive aggressive type—the office scorekeeper. Greg, a graphic designer at a magazine and a family friend, told me that he habitually did better layouts for editors who took a personal interest in him. He'd frequently hand in shabby pages for colleagues he spotted going out for drinks who hadn't invited him along. "I did not ever want to be perceived as looking vulnerable or weak," he said. "Why should I do for other people when they don't do for me?"

Scorekeepers don't play fair, which makes them tricky to get along with. But Pat Heim and Susan Murphy, authors of "In the Company of Women," argue that scorekeeping can have an upside, if used to encourage cooperation and motivate co-workers—a sort of "do for others what they do for you" philosophy.

Then there is the office gossip. A 2012 study at the University of Amsterdam found that gossip makes up a whopping 90% of office conversation—but isn't as detrimental as you might think. The researchers concluded that such behind-the-back chatter may be essential for group survival. They found that gossip can make offices run more smoothly and improve productivity, helping to keep underperforming workers in line while fostering camaraderie.

Consider Sascha—a friend's daughter who worked as an assistant to a busy orthopedist in a Manhattan hospital. Sascha had been enduring a painful divorce and was overwhelmed with personal obligations. Her co-workers were losing patience, but she figured they would have to understand.

They didn't. Sascha began to overhear her name whispered in the hallways; she'd enter the break room for coffee, and chatter would halt. But instead of calling her co-workers out, she listened. She tried hard to get her work done despite her personal struggles. "I was wrong in assuming that my co-workers were my friends, or even that they shouldn't talk about me," she told me. "I needed someone to give me a kick in the ass, and, well, they did."

Finally, there are the obsessive, workaholic types—disrupters who live for order. They may be annoyingly rule-bound, but they set high standards, communicate well and make great operators, mentors and team members. As a 2011 study from the Rouen Business School in France reported, workaholism often can be constructive, inspiring co-workers to be more original and dedicated.

Adapting to personality types at work need not mean abandoning your principles. Even the most annoying co-workers often have something to teach. You also need to figure out if you yourself are a disrupter. James realized that he was the office enabler, the one who needed everyone's approval all the time. That revelation let him separate himself more from his job—making him not just a better worker but a better co-worker too.

—Dr. Drexler is an assistant professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and the author of "Our Fathers, Ourselves."

Hangzhou Royal Printing Co., Ltd is a leading printer in east China, mainly dealing with books, magazines , catalogues printing and packaging .

Our production inludes paper box (cardboard box,gift box,cigarette box,wine box, daily goods box, retail packaging, cosmetic box), paper bags (gift bags, shopping bags, wine bags, marketing bags, handbags) and printings of brochures, catalogs, magazines, books (hard cover and soft cover), children’s books, art books, cookbooks, journals, diaries, ring binders, presentation folders, notebooks, calendars, placemat/3D placemat、 postcards/3D Postcards, greeting/gift cards , leaflets, booklets, decals ,and etc. We are certified with SGS , Our products are widely exported to more than 30 countries including Australia, Europe, USA and Africa.

Australia Jobless Rate Soars

SYDNEY—Australia's unemployment rate rose to the highest level in more than a decade, highlighting the impact a mining slowdown is having on the resource-rich economy.

The jobless rate rose to 6% in January—a level last recorded in July 2003—eclipsing a peak of 5.9% reached in 2009 during the depths of the global financial crisis.

The weak employment figures raised fresh doubts about the strength of the economy. They follow a string of more upbeat data, including sharply rising house prices and a recovery in business sentiment and retail sales, that had buoyed hopes for an economic turnaround in 2014 following a yearlong slowdown. The central bank has been trying to spur the nonmining segments of the economy by cutting interest rates eight times over the last two years to a record-low 2.5%.
Australia's jobless rate has been creeping up as thousands of workers in the once-booming resources sector have lost jobs as companies adjusted to lower commodity prices. The latest layoffs came this week at mining services company Forge Group Ltd. FGE.AU +11.59%  which cut 1,300 workers after calling in insolvency specialists, having run into trouble on two Australian power projects.

For Joe Powell, managing director of online job search agency Seek, that is hurting business in some of Australia's biggest states that rely on resources to power their economies.

"In Western Australia, job ads are off about 48%, and in Queensland they're off about 44%, so the mining sector has definitely taken a hit," Mr. Powell said.

Coal-rich Queensland alone lost nearly 12,000 jobs in January, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while the jobless rate in Western Australia—home to some of the country's biggest iron ore projects—rose to 5.1% in January from 4.6% a month earlier. A year ago the unemployment rate in Western Australia was as low as 4%.

The job losses have spread to sectors such as auto manufacturing and the airline industry, hurt by fierce competition and a strong Australian dollar.

Toyota Motor Corp. 7203.TO -1.99%  said Monday it would stop producing cars in the country in 2017, resulting in the loss of at least 2,500 jobs. It joins Ford Motor Co. F +0.53%  and General Motors Co. GM -1.01%  who are planning similar departures in the next few years. Flag carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. QAN.AU +1.69%  said recently it would cut 1,000 jobs to help stem losses.

Economists had expected unemployment to rise in January. Surprisingly, though, the number of people employed fell 3,700 in the month, compared with an expected 15,000 increase. Thursday's jobs data showed the participation rate remained close to an eight-year low of 64.5% as disgruntled workers gave up looking for work.

"The labor market remains the weak spot of the economy," Citi economists said in a research note Thursday. "There has been no employment growth over the past 12 months."

Still, some economists said the data were out of step with other more positive indicators. Business confidence rose in January for the first time in four months, signaling firms may be more willing to take on new workers in coming months.

States that are less dependent on the resources industry, such as New South Wales, remained steady or saw improvements in their jobless rate during the month.

"Sydney is performing pretty well, Melbourne is performing reasonably strongly," said Chris McDonald, general manager of the Australian arm of global job search engine Indeed.com. Both of those cities are on Australia's east coast, away from mining centers such as Perth where employment is "off the boil," according to Mr. McDonald. Pockets of strong jobs growth include IT and banking, with the number of vacancies for software developers doubling between December and February, he said.

Hangzhou Royal Printing Co., Ltd is a leading printer in east China, mainly dealing with books, magazines , catalogues printing and packaging .
Our production inludes paper box (cardboard box,gift box,cigarette box,wine box, daily goods box, retail packaging, cosmetic box), paper bags (gift bags, shopping bags, wine bags, marketing bags, handbags) and printings of brochures, catalogs, magazines, books (hard cover and soft cover), children’s books, art books, cookbooks, journals, diaries, ring binders, presentation folders, notebooks, calendars, placemat/3D placemat、 postcards/3D Postcards, greeting/gift cards , leaflets, booklets, decals ,and etc. We are certified with SGS , Our products are widely exported to more than 30 countries including Australia, Europe, USA and Africa.

The 2014 printing industry is facing down tide? Commercial printing is the exception

In 2013, the printing industry has not the past winter. 2014 start a bit deserted. This should have the Spring Festival time after harvest, but because of the eight paragraph, limit cards and other related policies, so that at the end of 2013 China printing industry business greatly reduced, bankruptcy news many large-scale printing enterprise with the 2013 11-12 month has burst, the printing industry is booming China - in, really started in the winter. It predicts: "printing industry will enter the closed peak in 2014. There will be a large number of bankruptcy." The fact is really so?
Reporter in the interview network printing an enterprise to understand their prospects for commercial printing remained confident: "our performance in 2013 rose by 47% compared with 2012, and there is still much room for growth." The responsible person said, each industry business failure is a very common thing, although in 2013 the printing industry out of business in many peacetime you heart super super enterprises, this is surprising, but careful analysis of the reasons can be found, or cause the closure of these enterprises mostly their business problems, or blind expansion, or play capital burned himself. "On the printing industry pessimistic people, most of all the printing is equivalent to paper media type printing, and pay little attention to other media and functional printing prospects, such as commercial printing, packaging and printing etc.." The responsible person think, commercial printing will have a brilliant future in the next 10 years!

Saying What You Really Mean: The Guide to Talking with Flowers

People will often associate flowers with Valentine’s Day, weddings, funerals, birthdays and other important days. But why do we pick certain flowers for specific occasions? Throughout time, flowers have been used by various cultures to associate meanings, sometimes based on their natural therapeutic properties. Only much later in the 18th century Victorian era did flowers virtually turn into a whole language unto themselves. The Victorians had strict and extremely chaste moral codes that prevented them from saying anything that could even remotely be considered anything less than respectable. To get around this, they presented bouquets of flowers or plant clippings to each other to communicate delicate emotions that could otherwise not be expressed outright. Many women owned small books, similar to a pocket dictionary, which explained the hidden meaning of flowers. Although modern culture is far more open and outspoken, we still use flowers today as a nostalgic or romantic way to convey our thoughts and emotions.

Ambrosia means that your Love is returned
Amaryllis: means pride
Anemone: means forsaken
Aster: is a symbol of love
Azalea: means control
Begonia: means beware
Bells of Ireland: means good luck
Bittersweet: means truth
Bluebell: means modesty
Bouquet of Withered Flowers: means love is rejected
Cactus: means endurance
Camellia (Pink): means longing for you
Camellia (White) means you are adorable
Candytuft: means disdain
Carnation (General): means fascination
Carnation (Pink) means I'll never forget you
Carnation (Red) means admiration; My heart aches for you
Carnation (Purple) means quirky
Carnation (Solid Color) means yes
Carnation (Striped) means no; complete refusal
Carnation (White) means sweet and lovely; innocence
Carnation (Yellow) means you have disappointed me
Cattail: means peace and prosperity
Chrysanthemum (Red) means I love you
Chrysanthemum (White) means truth
Chrysanthemum (Yellow) means slighted love
Crocus: means joy
Daffodil: means you are the only one for me
Daisy: means innocence, loyal love, and purity
Dandelion: means faithfulness and happiness
Dead Leaves: means sadness
Fern: means magic, confidence and shelter
Fern (Maidenhair) means to share a secret bond of love
Forget-Me-Not: means true love and memories
Gardenia: means you are lovely
Geranium: means stupidity
Gloxinia: means love at first sight
Grass: means yielding
Heather: (Lavender) means admiration and/or solitude
Heather (White) means protection; Your wishes will come true
Holly: means defense
Hyacinth: (General) means hastiness
Hyacinth (Blue) means certainty
Hyacinth (Purple) means please forgive me; sorrow
Hyacinth (White) means you will be in my prayers
Hyacinth (Yellow) means jealousy
Hydrangea: means understanding
Iris: means faith, hope, wisdom and valor
Ivy: means fidelity and friendship
Ivy (Sprig of White Tendrils) means affection
Lily: (Orange) means hatred
Lily (White) means virginity and purity; majestic
Lily (Calla) means beauty
Lily (Day) means flirtatious
Lily (Tiger) means pride
Lily of the Valley Sweetness: means you have made my life complete
Magnolia: means dignity
Marigold: means cruelty; grief
Mistletoe: means kiss me
Moss: means maternal love and charity
Orange Blossom: means innocence and eternal love
Orchid: means beauty and refinement
Palm Leaves: means victory and success
Peony: means happy life and marriage
Petunia: means resentment and/or anger
Pine: means hope and/ or pity
Poppy: (General) means imagination
Poppy (Red) means pleasure
Poppy (White) means compassion
Poppy (Yellow) means wealth and/or success
Primrose: means I can't live without you in my life
Primrose (Evening) means fickleness
Rose (Bridal) means happiness in love
Rose (Christmas) means to feel/have anxiety
Rose (Dark Crimson) means to be in mourning
Rose (Hibiscus) means delicate beauty
Rose (Leaf) means to have hope
Rose (Pink) means please believe me
Rose (Red) means I Love You
Rose (Tea) means that I will always remember
Rose (Thorn-less) means love at first sight
Rose (White) means innocence and purity; heaven sent
Rose (White and Red Mixed) means unity
Rose (White-Withered) means that you made no impression
Rose (Yellow) means jealousy
Rosebud: means an innocent heart
Rosebud (Red) means pure and lovely
Rosebud (Moss) means that someone is confessing their love
Roses: (Bouquet of Mature Blooms) means gratitude
Roses (Single Full Bloom) means I Love You and I will always love you
Roses (Garland or Crown of) means to beware of virtue and to be rewarded of Merit
Roses (Musk Cluster) means harm
Snapdragon: means deception
Spider Flower: means elope with me
Sweetpea: means good-bye
Tulip: (General) means to be a perfect lover; fame
Tulip (Red) means to believe me or someone declaring their love
Tulip (Variegated) means beautiful eyes
Tulip (Yellow) means that there is hope and a bright future visible in your smile
Violet: means modesty
Violet (Blue) means to be fully faithful
Viscaria: means will you have this dance with me?
Zinnia: (Magenta) means long lasting affection
Zinnia (Scarlet) means enthusiasm
Zinnia (White) means benevolence
Zinnia (Yellow) means to remember me everyday


Hangzhou Royal Printing Co., Ltd is a leading printer in east China, mainly dealing with books, magazines , catalogues printing and packaging .
Our production inludes paper box (cardboard box,gift box,cigarette box,wine box, daily goods box, retail packaging, cosmetic box), paper bags (gift bags, shopping bags, wine bags, marketing bags, handbags) and printings of brochures, catalogs, magazines, books (hard cover and soft cover), children’s books, art books, cookbooks, journals, diaries, ring binders, presentation folders, notebooks, calendars, placemat/3D placemat、 postcards/3D Postcards, greeting/gift cards , leaflets, booklets, decals ,and etc. We are certified with SGS , Our products are widely exported to more than 30 countries including Australia, Europe, USA and Africa.

10 powerful women in China this year

The Forbes' World's 100 Most Powerful Women has more Chinese nationals this year. As real estate tycoon, technology magnate, or nongovernmental organization leader, these nine ladies fight on different battlefields, while changing the world together.

The followings are the most powerful women in China this year:

Yang  Lan

World ranking: 100

Company: Sun Media Group

Title: Co-owner

Category: Media

Age: 45

Marital Status: Married

Children: 2

 Jennifer Li

World ranking: 98

Company: Baidu, Inc.

Title: CFO

Category: Media

Age: 45

Marital Status: Married

Children: 2

Solina Chau

World ranking: 80

Organization: The Li Ka Shing Foundation

Title: Director

Category: Philanthropy/NGO

Age: 51

Sun Yafang

World ranking: 77

Company: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Title: Chairwomen

Category: Technology

Age: 58

Peng Liyuan 

World ranking: 54

Title: First lady

Category: Politics

Age: 51

Marital Status: Married

Children: 1

 Zhang Xin

World ranking: 50

Company: Soho China Ltd.

Title: Co-founder and CEO

Category: Real estate

Age: 48

Marital Status: Married

Children: 2

Wu Yajun 

World ranking: 48

Company: Longfor Properties Co., Ltd.

Title: Chairwoman

Category: Real estate

Age: 49

Marital Status: Divorced

Cher Wang

World ranking: 46

Company: HTC Corp.

Title: Co-founder and Chairwoman

Category: Technology

Age: 55

Marital Status: Married

Children: 2

 Margaret Chan

World ranking: 33

Organization: World Health Organization

Title: Director-General

Category: Philanthropy/Nongovernmental organization

Age: 66

Marital Status: Married

Children: 1

Hangzhou Royal Printing Co., Ltd is a leading printer in east 

China, mainly dealing with books, magazines , catalogues printing 

and packaging .

Our production inludes paper box (cardboard box,gift 

box,cigarette box,wine box, daily goods box, retail packaging, 

cosmetic box), paper bags (gift bags, shopping bags, wine bags, 

marketing bags, handbags) and printings of brochures, catalogs, 

magazines, books (hard cover and soft cover), children’s books, 

art books, cookbooks, journals, diaries, ring binders, 

presentation folders, notebooks, calendars, placemat/3D placemat

、 postcards/3D Postcards, greeting/gift cards , leaflets, 

booklets, decals ,and etc. We are certified with SGS , Our 

products are widely exported to more than 30 countries including 

Australia, Europe, USA and Africa.

WeChat is hogging the limelight this Chinese New Year

Popular messaging service WeChat is hogging the limelight this Chinese New Year — by giving the traditions typical of this festive period a facelift.
As technology has altered the way people in China carry out certain traditions during Chinese New Year, at no point is it clearer that Weixin, the version of WeChat available in the country, has emerged as a frontrunner in the wave of change.
The Weixin team came upon a brilliant idea of taking the Chinese New Year tradition of gifting money into the digital era. Basically, rather than (or, perhaps, in addition to) giving red envelopes of money to family and friends, Weixin users could tap into digital payments and send monetary gifts of up to CNY100 (around $16.50) per go to others on the chat app.
State media Xinhua reports (hat/tip Tech in Asia) that the first two days of Chinese New Year saw more than five million people across China taking part in Weixin’s online red envelope activity, with more than 20 million red envelopes handed out, according to data from Tencent, the company that owns WeChat.
At its peak, 585,000 people took part in gifting red envelopes over a mere five minutes on Weixin, with 121,000 red envelopes being claimed. The messaging service has an estimated 500 million plus registered users in China alone, while it has 270 million active users worldwide.
It is customary to send New Year well-wishes to your friends on the eve of Chinese New Year — and this year, a whopping 10 million messages were sent in one minute at peak on the eve of Chinese New Year via Weixin. The number of messages sent this year on the chat app was double that of last year, showing that more people are flocking to the app instead of sending cards or SMS-es.

Chinese New Year is a time steeped in tradition, and the fact that Weixin has managed to make its presence so strongly welcomed by users speaks volumes about its ability tostraddle the space between old and new.
As WeChat moves into verticals such as m-commerce, it wouldn’t be any surprise if the app soon disrupts other traditions next year. Who knows, we may just get to see Chinese New Year grocery shopping or delivery, or the booking of transportation back to people’s hometowns, done entirely via WeChat in the future.


Hangzhou Royal Printing Co., Ltd is a leading printer in east China, mainly dealing with books, magazines , catalogues printing and packaging .Our production inludes paper box (cardboard box,gift box,cigarette box,wine box, daily goods box, retail packaging, cosmetic box), paper bags (gift bags, shopping bags, wine bags, marketing bags, handbags) and printings of brochures, catalogs, magazines, books (hard cover and soft cover), children’s books, art books, cookbooks, journals, diaries, ring binders, presentation folders, notebooks, calendars, placemat/3D placemat、 postcards/3D Postcards, greeting/gift cards , leaflets, booklets, decals ,and etc. We are certified with SGS , Our products are widely exported to more than 30 countries including Australia, Europe, USA and Africa.

Why '4-Stars' is the new '5-Stars' for China hotels

A five-star rating may be the holy grail of the hospitality industry, but top-end Chinese hotels are actively working to rid themselves of this prestigious ranking.
This comes as the luxury hotel sector struggles with shrinking revenues following the government's decision last year to ban officials from spending money at five-star hotels as part of its broader austerity drive.
In 2013, 56 five-star hotels sought to downgrade their ratings to four stars, state press agency Xinhua reported, citing Chen Miaolin, vice president of the China Tourism Association.

Jade | Blend Images | Getty Images
Chen, who is also the chairman of the New Century Tourism Group, parent group to 64 hotels, said he had instructed his five four-star New Century Hotels to bench plans for an upgrade to five stars under pressure from declining turnover.According to Chen, the hotel industry faced a 25 percent decline in revenue in 2013, with 20 of more hotels closing down each month. There are around 4,000 star-rated hotels in the mainland, of which 680 are five-star, he said.
With the lunar new year around the corner, the Communist Party of China (CPC) issued a notice discouraging excessive spending and gifts before and during the week-long holiday, Xinhua reported.As a result, government and state-owned enterprises are no longer throwing their year-end parties in five-star hotel ballrooms, but opting for the office canteens instead."High-end restaurants and hotels are really suffering, as nearly 60 percent of our turnover used to come from governmental departments and state-owned enterprises," Yang Xiaowei, a sales manager at Lijingwan International Hotel in Beijing told Xinhua.
The average revenue that hotels generated from their catering businesses plunged 17.2 percent last year, according to the China Tourist Hotel Association.

Hangzhou Royal Printing Co., Ltd is a leading printer in east China, mainly dealing with books, magazines , catalogues printing and packaging .

 Our production inludes paper box (cardboard box,gift box,cigarette box,wine box, daily goods box, retail packaging, cosmetic box), paper bags (gift bags, shopping bags, wine bags, marketing bags, handbags) and printings of brochures, catalogs, magazines, books (hard cover and soft cover), children’s books, art books, cookbooks, journals, diaries, ring binders, presentation folders, notebooks, calendars, placemat/3D placemat、 postcards/ 3D Postcards, greeting cards , leaflets, booklets, decals ,and etc. We are certified with SGS , Our products are widely exported to more than 30 countries including Australia, Europe, USA and Africa. 

British banker stirs up storm by mocking Singapore’s ‘poor’

 A British expat in Singapore stirred up an Internet storm after his Facebook posts mocking the "poor people" using mass transit went viral, hitting on the city-state's touchy issues of anti-foreigner sentiment and a growing wealth divide.The storm began after Anton Casey, a wealth manager at Crossinvest Asia, posted two photos of his son on Facebook. One showed his son on the subway and was captioned "Daddy, where is your car and who are all these poor people?" and the other showed his son in a silver Porsche with the caption, "Ahhhhhhhhh, reunited with my baby. Normal service can resume, once I have washed the stench of public transport off me FFS!"(Read more: As Singapore gets richer, more people left behind)Although Casey has since issued a public apology, deleted his Facebook account and hired a public relations firm, the Internet storm, which has included alleged death threats, has continued, even sparking a response from a government minister.Many online commentators urged that Casey's permit to remain in Singapore be revoked and others urged that he be charged under the city-state's sedition laws, which prohibit promoting racial tensions.Local media websites reported Casey's employer has said in a statement that the comments were in "poor taste," and that it is investigating the matter and "will take appropriate action."
"Like many Singaporeans, I am terribly upset and offended by what he has posted. Deeply offensive, wrong, and unacceptable," said K Shanmugam, minister for foreign affairs, said in a Facebook post.
"I am glad the community has come together to condemn what he has said," Shanmugam added. "At the same time, I hope that Singaporeans will not attack or flame his family because of his actions. We, Singaporeans, can be bigger than that."

Singapore workers are unhappiest in Asia: surveyWednesday, 22 Jan 2014 | 6:31 PM ET
The Asia Squawk Box team discusses a new survey that shows Singapore's work force is the unhappiest in Asia. Paul Krake, Founder, View from the Peak: Macro Strategies, also weighs in.
Casey's controversy came as the city-state is already facing tensions over its future. Singapore has one of the biggest wealth gaps in the developed world and foreigners make up around 39 percent of its population, up from around 25 percent in 2000.As the island-state has become more crowded - pushing up property prices and increasing waits for public transport - the government has faced growing opposition to its liberal immigration policies and it has announced a slew of measures over the past year to limit the influx of foreign workers.Some tensions overflowed last month when a mob of approximately 400 foreign workers were involved in the city-state's first riot since 1969. Ten police officers and four civil defense officers were injured.
The government may already be planning to address the tensions sparked by the contrast between its wealthy, who often engage in conspicuous consumption at odds with thriftier local values, and its more ordinary citizens who feel squeezed by a rising cost of living.In the upcoming budget, higher taxes on cars, property and possibly personal income could be on the agenda as the city state takes steps towards a greater redistribution of wealth.
In Singapore, the top individual income tax rate is 20 percent – much lower than in many other developed economies. In Japan for instance, the highest income tax rate is 50 percent.


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Singapore sees rare riot after fatal car crash
Singapore experienced its first major outburst of public violence in four decades following a fatal traffic incident involving a foreign worker.
Singapore's Gini coefficient – which measures the degree of inequality within a country where zero is complete equality and one is maximum inequality – rose to 0.478 last year, the highest among advanced economies, apart from Hong Kong.
It also ranks as the world's seventh most expensive city in Expatistan's Cost of Living index, which is compiled from prices submitted by users of its online cost of living calculator. High living costs are a major concern for the young, a survey published last week by Singapore Polytechnic found.
There's also likely to be supportive measures for those on lower incomes, analysts said. Earlier this month, Singapore, which has resisted setting an official poverty level, set its first minimum wage: an entry-level wage of S$1,000 for its cleaners.

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