NORTHWEST COUNCIL NEWSLETTER .#2, July - October, 1981

CHINA FINE-TUNES ITS ECONOMY

Lynn Feintech, a China special- shift emphasis to agriculture in ist who heads the political analysis order to assure that the population department of the Bank of America, is adequately fed. Emphasis was spoke about China's foreign trade also placed on the development of policy at a luncheon meeting on May light industry because it promises 19th. The luncheon at Tuck Lung to employ more of China's ur9an Restaurant was sponsored by the masses at lower cost than the ini- World Affairs Council of Oregon and tially planned development of heavy the Northwest China Council as their industry. The continuing limited contribution to World Trade Week. development of heavy industry has been directed toward development of According to Ms. Feintech, the the infrastructure. adoption of the 1978 modernization plan was a watershed in the history The modernization plan has of the People's Republic. Admitting placed new stress on effective man- that the Cultural Revolution had agement and increased productivity. been devastating, the plan was the To further these goals, there has first effort to integrate China into been some relaxation of central the world economy and to align China control over managerial functions. with the and Western This has been combined with experi- Europe. ments in market-oriented socialism, the use of incentives and encour-· The initial emphasis of the agement to individual enterprises 1978 plan, Ms. Feintech said, was on within guidelines established by development of heavy industry. But the government. While not imple- it was soon realized that China mented universally, decentraliza- lacked the physical infrastructure tion and market-oriented socialism to support swift, extensive develop- resulted in dramatic increases in ment of heavy industry, and the low productivity, Ms. Feintech said. priority given to technical educa- tion for 13 years had caused a since 1978, China has found shortage of skilled managers and itself plagued with som~ of the technicians. The allocation of re- West's economic iilnesses--double- sources to heavy capital construc- digit inflation, high ur9an unem- tion also resulted, Ms. Feintech ployment, and deficit spending. said, in budget deficits and an un- The emergence of these new problems favorable balance in international has made the leadership cautious. payments.It became necessary to Unwilling to permit supply and de-

1 mand principles to control the di- purchases from China increase. Un- rection of the economy, the govern- fortunately Ms. Feintech did not be- ment has attempted to freeze capi- lieve a marked increase in imports tal construction and prices, and likely as there is political res is- there are indications that central l;oilce to unlimited importation of control over management is being those products China is particularly reasserted. Nevertheless, the days capable of exporting to the united of pendulum swings in economic pol- States, such as textiles and pro- icy which characterized recent Chi- cessed foods. nese history are gone. In spite of the problems in the Ms. Feintech observed that the Chinese economy, continuing imbal- inadequacy of the infrastructure, ance in foreign trade, the risk of a budget deficits and the imbalance weak military system, and resistance of international payments provide to new economic trends by many lead- a partial explanation for the can- ers who became established during cellation of several major con- the Cultural Revolution, China is struction projects during the past fine-tuning its economy, and econo- two years. Budget problems and the mic planning is continuing to em- imbalance of payments also explain phasize development in a politically China's interest in compensation stable environment. trade arrangements. Harold C. Pope The poverty of China and the need to feed its people help ex- plain why 2/3 of U. S. exports to SPECIAL EVENTS China consists of bulk agricultural products rather than the advanced technology China was expected to purchase. The preeminence of agri- cultural products among American "SOLAR ENERGY: THE CHINESE exports to China will continue for EXPERIENCE at least five years, increasingly supplemented by the sale of techni- Saturday, September 12, 8:30 a.m.-- cal products to aid agricultural 4:15 p.m., Portland Hilton Hotel, production. 921 SW Sixth.

The balance of payments result- $10.00. ing from trade between the United States and China has heavily favored Co-sponsored with the American Sec- the United Stat~s. China may not tion of the International Solar En- continue trade with the United ergy Society (as part of their Sixth States at the present level, or per- National Passive Solar Conference, mit it to increase, unless American September 8--12; 221-2811).

The Northwest China Council, along with the branch, is Northwest China Council Newsletter planning a day-long session on solar Published by the Northwest Regional energy in China which will feature China Council, sponsored by the World some of the world's foremost experts Affairs Council of Oregon and The in the field. It will be open to Asia Society China Council. participants in the five-day confer- 1912 S.W. Sixth, #252 ence as well as the general public. Portland, Oregon 97201 (503) 229-3049 The day will begin with the Editor: Jeffrey Barlow author of The Golden Thread, a his- Published quarterly. tory of solar power, Ken Butti, who will present China's early use of the sun as energy. Felipe Tsengfei

2 Wu, Vice-Chairman of the Qinghua Chinese have viewed each other University Thermal Engineering De- through history is ,now available' partment (Qinghua is widely known for loan ttrough the Northwest China as the H.I.T. of China), will Council. follow with a discussion of contem- porary Chinese solar applications. Produced by the national China After lunch, Christopher Szecsey, Council, this entertaining presen- Director of International Programs tation makes use of Chinese and at the Farallones Institute Rural American images from newspaper car- Center, Occidental, California, toons, magazines, and movies. It will speak on appropriate technology was developed by Donald Gillin a,f in rural South China. The closing Vassar College and is narrated by panel will feature Bing Chen of Irv Drasnin (who made the 1972 CBS the University of Nebraska, Felipe production, "Misund~rstanding Wu, and Douglas Balcom, well-known China") . solar engineer, Los Alamos Labs. The show can be used in class- Hore information will be sent es (high school or college), semin- to those on the China Council mail- ars and worksbops on China, and ing list. Plan to combine the other public meetings. Its use conference with lunch at Artquake, can be accompanied by an introduc- happening at the same time, on the tion by a China Council board Mall. member or associate, and it is also very effectively supplemented by comments from native Chinese. CHINA COUNCIL NEWS CHINA RESOURCES NATIONAL CHINA COUNCIL NEWS

Robert Oxnam, Program Director WING LUKE MEHORIAL MUSEUM of the national China Council, has 414 Eighth Avenue South 'just,been selected as the new Pres- Seattle, 98104 ident of The Asia Society, the 206-623-5124 China Council's parent organization. Hours: Furthermore, we are losing a valued friend and advisor in Terry Tuesday-Saturday, 11:00 a'.m.-4:30 p.m. Lautz, who helped us establish the Saturday, noon-4:00 p.m. Northwest China Council and since 1978 has actively helped with China The following is excerpted from education in Oregon. He will be the Wing Luke brochure: moving to Hong Kong where he will ,work for the Yale-China Association. The Wing Luke Memorial Museum was founded and dedicated in 1966 to Richard Bush, who has worked Seattle's first person of Chinese with Terry as a Program Associate ancestry to be elected to public of- for the China Council, will be our fice in the Northwest (Seattle City new contact. Councilman) •

The national China Council is The Wing Luke Museum has as its located at 1785 Massachusetts Ave., sole purpose to bridge the cultural NW, Washington, DC 20036; 202-387- gap between Asian and non-Asian peo- 6500. ple. It is the only predominently Asian Folk Arts museum on the West SLIDE-TAPE PRESENTATION NOW AVAILABLE Coast and features a collection, ex- hibits, research center, tours, and A 34-minute slide and taped various cultural and educational cassette show on how Americans and lecture series.

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J The museum has a c~llection of tion, with the goal of incorpora- Chinese and Asian textiles and arti- ting the concepts and information facts which is expanding rapidly. they learn into their college It has an archival resource center courses and sharing what they find containing personal histories, with teachers throughout Oregon. photographs and documents to record These are not Asian studies tea- the history of Asians in the Pacific chers, but instructors in such Northwest, especially the Chinese. areas as business, journalism, Eng- In addition, the resource center has lish, etc., who are involved in the literary materials available for Community College's long-term pro- loan, including narrative slide ject of "internationalizing curri- files, books for elementary schools, culum" by including global studies textile catalogues and scripts for in regular courses. Korean, Philippine and Chinese folk art. The group will be led by Mathilda Harris, director of the With a permanent collection International Studies program at which has a heavy emphasis on Chi- MHCC, and an associate of the China nese artifacts, the needs of the Counc i1.. Asian community are being met by per- sonal Loa.n-cexhLb Lt s , wh i eh ~dlow< Te5 prepare the.facL(l ty- fo r," the exhibits to be changed frequent- this immersion into another cul- ly and the museum to work .with dif- ture, the Northwest China Council ferent segments of the Asian com- assisted with an eight-day ori- munity. (An exhibit which can be entation. Jane Larson, China Coun- seen through July is "Chinese Crea- cil coordinator, contracted with tion Legends".) Mt. Hood to organize the program, and many China Council board and Community services which are associate members made presenta- offered through the museum iriclude tions: Linda Walton, "Chinese translation, refer~al to assistance History Before 1840;" Jeffrey Bar- agencies, English lectures, bi- low, "Chinese History, 1840--Pre- lingual materials, and an apoliti- sent," "Life in Hong Kong," and cal meeting place. "Group Dynamics in Another Cul~ ture: Focus on Taiwan and Hong The CHINESE FLOATING ART AUC- Kong;" Mary Bernson, "Global Stu- TION held in November is the most dies and China: Available Re- popular event. At that time 200 of sources and Specific Needs;" Will- the best Northwest artists and ert Rhynsburger, "Geography in a craftsmen contribute artwork to be Human Context: Taiwan, Hong Kong, auctioned off at a gala evening. and China;" Thomas Webb, "The For- eign Trade of Taiwan and Hong Memberships are an important Kong" and "Chines~ Food Preparation source of funding and members are and Consumption;" Gary Scott, "Pol- granted the use of the facility for itical Structure and Participation community meetings, discounts on in Hong Kong and Taiwan" and "Con- educational and art series, and in- temporary Political Issues in Hong vitations to all museum openings. Kong, Taiwan, and China;" Stevan Harrell, "The Culture and Society SUMMER IN HONG KONG AND of Taiwan;" Anthony Polsky, "Hong TAIWAN: MT. HOOD "GOES EAST Kong Journalism: Public Opinion and the Media/The Experience of Being a Western Reporter in Hong This summer, sixteen Mt. Hood Kong;" Angela Palandri, "An Intro- Community College (MHCC) faculty duction to the Chinese Language" are m a kin g a 46·-day "G r0 up Pro jec ts and "Traditional Chinese Litera~ Abroad" trip to Taiwan and Hong ture and Its Modern Outgrowth in Kong. They'll be studying Chinese Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China;" values and the impact of moderniza- Harold Pope, "Hong Kong Education;"

4 and Ellen Laing, "Introduction to border from Los Angeles to El PaSo. Chinese Art." (Mr. Leong speaks fluent English, Spanish, and several Chinese dia- The group was also given a lects.) He subsequently moved to seminar on the preparation of cur- New York Life Insurance Company. riculum materials and a one-day workshop on culture shock and Fifteen years ago he returned cross-cultural communication. A to Portland and resumed his activity variety of films, slide shows, and with Portland's Chinese Consolidated videotapes were also seen. Benevolent Association. Mr~ LeoQg's brother-in-law helped him get re- Upon their return, they will acquainted in the Association. Peo- utilize their research and infor- ple began to remember George Leong. mation for training global studies He became the English language sec- K-12 teachers in the Portland area. retary to a former president of the Association, worked on several com- mittees, eventually becoming presi- INTERVIEW dent himself.

It, is easy to see why GEORGE LEONG Mr. Leong is the spokesperson for the group sanctioned to speak for George Leong is co-president of the Chinese~American community. He the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent is articulate and proud of his her- Association (C.C.B.A.), a spokesman itage, a mix of East and West. group for the Chinese-American com- George Leong recognizes that, in- munity. It was formed in the late deed, the United States is a melt- 1890's to act as a liaison for the ing pot, but as he said, teasing, Chinese community as a whole to the "don't just melt away". He en- wider Portland community and as ~ visions the newly restored Chinese focus of community activities for Benevolent Association Building as the Chinese-American population. a symbol of the Chinese community Mr. Leong granted the China Council in Portland. It was restored be- an interview over a very pleasant cause the Chinese community cared lunch in the new Marco Polo Gardens enough to raise the support for the Restaurant. restoration. A grant helped to fund the restoration, but as . George Leong is a Portland na- Mr. Leong says, if the donation is tive whose parents came from China. for benevolence, the community will As the oldest son of a traditional give. He said that the building is family, he was given a classical a legacy that the elder generation Chinese education in can give to the next generation .. (Canton) from the ages of ten to Mr. Leong hopes that the building fourteen. Part of that training was and the language school will help received at a Christian school in the young Chinese-Americans to pre- the East Hills section of Caiton. serve an interest in their roots This classical training gave and the five thousand year old ci- George Leong a deep interest in Chi- vilization of China. nese culture and a high regard for education. When asked for advice for the next generation, he said, "Work Returning to high school in hard, produce good children, give America, Mr. Leong was drafted. something back to the community, After completing his service, and retain some Chinese language Mr. Leong worked his way up the cor- ability." It is evident that porate ladder. He served as a trou- Mr. Leong lives by those words, his ble shooting manager for the Nation- actions consistent with his beliefs. al Dollar store chain. He estab- lished the chain along the Mexican Christine Richardson-Barlow

5 down to the countryside shares a BOOKS IN THE NEWS similar concern with being marriage- able with the narrator of "Little Brother's Wedding," by virtue of Mao's People: Sixteen Portraits of both being women, but their stories Life in Revolutionary China and experiences vary widely. by B. Michael Frolic Harvard University Press As the author states in the introduction, the narratives show a Mao's People is a book on China nation struggling to modernize for both the general reader and the while facing obstacles to that specialist. It is the result of goal. Tradition is shown to die several trips to China and more than hard in rural China and elitism re- two hundred interviews of refugees mains in spite of the Cultural Rev- conducted in Hong Kong by the au- olution which sought to narrow the thor. Mr. Frolic states in his gap between the leaders and the led. introduction that he originally planned a book on the rural-urban The sixteen stories do combine gap in China, but as he re-read the to form a picture of China that interviews he had gathered he became permits some generalizations. Dai- convinced that the stories in the ly life goes on despite political interviews gave a picture of China upheavals. Most people in the sto- not shown in other works. ries were more concerned with per- sonal survival politically and ec6- Mr. Frolic has selected sixteen nomically than with the ongoing interviews showing a wide range of campaigns. economic class, experience, and age to present a view of China in total- More than any other selection, ity. His pook is without question "Kill the Chickens to Scare the compelling. Each section is .intro- Monkeys" shows the capacity of hu- duced with a brief background on mans to survive immense social up- recent political events in China, heaval and to maintain, against ex- with these events then reflected in treme odds, a sense of humanity and the interviewee's story. understanding. This is the story of a mid-level office bureaucrat The format lends itself to the and the power struggles reflected many personal tales because it gives in his office in Beijing as the broad explanation as well as indi- shifts in policy switched lines for vidual detail. It is one thing to the bureaucrats in power. Some read of the May 7th Cadre Schools were caught in major contradtic- instituted in late 1968 to re-edu- tions between their personal lives cate city cadres and anothe~ to and political stances but most man- hear the story of the $1,000 pig aged to sit low and stay quiet un- and the ineptitude of the cadres in til the line was clear. Frolic trying to "out-peasant" the peasants sees a veneer of ideology in the at their own game. The cadre, al- lives of his interviewees, a veneer though now a refugee in Hong Kong, that he says is thin. That is not still felt that the May 7th schools as evident to the casual reader. were a "good thing." He said that More evident is endurance, humor, as he worked at the school, the pet- and a hopeful belief in solutions ty quarrels and political struggles to problems, even the challenging were taken over by the four seasons pFoblems facing China today. of the year and the timeless pattern of nature. Christine Richardson-Barlow

Some stories cover an individ- ual's entire life and the sixteen portraits portray a cross-section of Chinese society. The city girl sent

6 CALENDAROFEVENTS

July 1 - 31 "CHINESE CREATION LEGENDS": Exhibit at Wing Luke Museum, 414 Eighth Ave. South, Seattle, 206-623- 5124. Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 11:00 AM - 4:30 PM. Saturday, noon - 4:00 PM.

23 - "TEACHING ABOUT EAST ASIA AND RUSSIA AND EAST August 21 EUROPE": a four-week, 3-credit course, Univer- sity of ~lashington, Summer School, first two weeks taught by Michael Robinson, East Asia Resource Center; second two weeks by Edith Clarke, Russia and East European Center. For information, call 206-543-2320.

August 16 - 19 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,Pacific Coast Branch, will have two Drograms on China: Panel on Economic Change in Modern Rural China, with Leonard Adolph, Oregon State University, and David Deal, hhitman College (August 18, 2:30 PM); and Panel on Sung Dynasty China, with Portland State University history professor Linda Walton (August 19, 10:00 AM). For information, write Dana Bruns, History Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403. In Eugene.

September 1 - 2 UNITED NATIONSCONFERENCE ONALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF ENERGY: Focusing on Third l"iorldcountries, including China; this is the follow-up meeting to the August Nairobi international conference. In Seattle. For information, call Pat LaDonne, Metro Center YMCA, 206-447-8426.

12 * "SOLAR ENERGY:THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE": A one-day conference co-sponsored by the Northwest China Council and the International Solar Energy Society, American Section. 8:30 AM - 4:15 PM, Portland Hilton Hotel, 921 SW Sixth. $10.00 registration fee. Features such Chinese and American solar energy experts as Felipe Tsengfei Wu, Ken Butti, and Bing Chen. Part of the Sixth National Passive Solar Conference, September 8 - 12 (registration information: 221-6560). See article this issue (SPECIAL EVENTS).

* China Council sponsored. Please inform the Northwest China Council well in advance of upcoming China events. Next calendar will list items for months of October, November, and December. Write us at 1912 SW Sixth, #252, Portland, OR 97201, or call Jane Larson, 229-3049.

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SOURCES CHINA HONG KONG. TAIWAN

Consulate of the People's Republic Co nsu La t e of Great Britain Coordination Council for North of China 3701 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 312 American Affairs--Taiwan 1450 Laguna Los Angeles, California 90010 607 Third Avenue San Francisco, California 94115 Seattle, Washington 98104 213-385-9381 Consul General: Hu Dingyi 206-682-4586 vice Consul: Xie Heng

415-563-4885

7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This issue was prepared by Jeffrey Barlow, Jane Larson, Harold Pope, Christine Richardson-Barlow, and Laurie Wasson.

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