Happy Chinese New Year from beijingkids!
Chunjie falls this year on February 16, and ushers in the Year of the Dog. The Dog is associated with action – it’s all about doing, not thinking. (It may not surprise you to learn that US President Donald Trump was born in the Year of the Dog.) By the end of the year, according to thechinesezodiac.org, you will feel “happy, yet frustrated, rested, yet tired, cheerful, yet dull!” So just another year in Beijing then…
Plenty to See at BISE 2018
January saw the return of the city’s biggest bilingual education event, the Beijing International School Expo. Over five thousand people packed the Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel to learn more about over 60 schools, listen to distinguished educators tackle the burning issues of the day, and find out about other education and development opportunities for their children. Cameras were in attendance from CCTV2, who broadcast live from the event.
Mr. Blue Sky Comes Back to Beijing
One piece of good news arrived at the end of 2017: the city’s attempts to improve air quality finally began to bear fruit. Pollution was lower across the whole twelve months than in any of the last five years. If you doubt it, visit the website of our sister publication the Beijinger, where you can see photographs taken from a Beijing rooftop every day by a local resident, and watch the blue skies increasingly replace the gray.
#MeToo is now #WoYeShi
The fight to put a stop to sexual harassment of women opened a new front in Beijing last month. Luo Qianqian, a former student at Beihang University, went public on Weibo about the abuse she’d suffered at the hands of Chen Xiaowu, a senior academic at the college. Luo used WeChat to find other women who’d had similar experiences, and they presented their evidence collectively. An investigation found Chen guilty, and he was stripped of his post and scholarships. The Ministry of Education has since announced they are developing new policies to protect students.
Photos: the Beijinger, Uni You, Pixabay
This article appeared on p6 of beijingkids February 2018 issue.
