May 15, 2006
Parts of Shanghai remind us of the American South ...
This is from the New York Times obituary for Rosa Parks:On Montgomery buses, the first four rows were reserved for whites. The rear was for blacks, who made up more than 75 percent of the bus system's riders. Blacks could sit in the middle rows until those seats were needed by whites. Then the blacks had to move to seats in the rear, stand or, if there was no room, leave the busThis is from the website of Shanghai Racquet Club and Apartments:
1. AYI's must present a valid Bus Pass on entering the bus on each journey, no pass = no ride...2. AYI's will be requested to take up the rear seats of the bus.
3. AYI's will travel "sub load" and are required follow the instructions of the bus driver if asked to vacate the bus to accommodate members.
Note: 'Ayi' means aunt, but is often used in the Mainland to refer to domestic workers and baby sitters.
This discrimination is probably more class-based than race-based, making the Rosa Parks analogy a little specious. And one could argue that a private company with private buses can write whatever rules they want, no matter how elitist they might be. Still, it's a stupid, archaic rule and it makes the Racquet Club look really, really bad. We hope some of the Club's more progressive members have already mentioned this to Club management. Still, it looks like the policy remains. If you would like to tell the club how you feel about this matter, several phone numbers can be found here. And plenty of email addresses can be found here.
Let's hope this problem doesn't require a Rosa Parks moment to get fixed. It would be very easy for the Racquet Club to change its backward policies.
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This part is so ridiculous:
"no pass = no ride".
Not being a member of course, but I reckon I could stroll on with my white face and they would assume I'm ok to be there. And rear seats????????
Now for an unpoopular part:
I am positive that the people who couldn't care less about this would be Chinese members, and the people that would never make an ayi give up their seat are foreign members.
I don't see anything ridiculous about requiring a bus pass for anyone, members and ayis alike - it's a private bus (although the equation was unnecessary). Nick, maybe you could stroll on the bus with your "white face," but that has nothing to do with the Raquet Club's policies - that's just China in 2006. As for your "unpopular part": in general, you're probably right. Again, that's present-day China.
I do fully agree with Shanghaiist that #2 is straight out of the segregated south. Unlike #1 and #3, it doesn't serve any legitimate purpose.
While newsworthy - I believe this rule has been changed. The SRC members I know (expats)were totally up in arms about this policy by management and were completely opposed to it. It is my understanding it has since been reversed.
I thought this incident was first reported by danwei.org.
http://www.danwei.org/trends_and_buzz/yo_ayi_get_to_the_back_of_the.php
Perhaps that is why the author said "Danwei informs us," links to the Danwei post and quotes the entire thing.
In Xinzhuang at the end of line 1 the Korean International School and a Chinese school share the same campus. There are two gates leaving the campus, one that the Korean School uses and one that the Chinese school uses. The Korean gate leads out to a dirt road that is rendered impassable when the rain comes down (also next to a disgusting trash heap and consruction site); the Chinese gate exits onto a nice paved road. One of our part-time teachers tried to leave by the Chinese gate when their day was finished (say 1:00 - no students around) and it was raining and the guard turned him away, saying he had to leave by the much-worse Korean gate. The guard even opened the gate for Chinese that wanted to leave but when my friend tried to walk through stopped him and started screaming in Chinese that only Chinese could use that door. Turns out it's not even just a xenophobic guard - it's Xinzhuang educational department's mandate that only Chinese can use the nice paved exit. If we're going to discuss racism in China (or classism), I think I might start with the Chinese themselves.
I just noticed that the offending web page has been modified.
Not to push the story (the original Danwei article was knee-jerk journalism with no context; the Chinese press was much more responsible about it), but here's a Youtube guide to the Shanghai Racquet Club:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qHYMEcMSe3U
Gives you a bit of an idea just how "American South" the place is.
this project is owned by dutch financial giant ING Group, responsible person for this project is: George.Jautze@ingrealestate.com write and let him know what a disgrace their group are for this utterly stupid policy
Dutch Giant To Announce Property Fund – Pre Release Information
Dutch Giant ING Group subsidiary ING Real Estate will announce the launch of the ING Real Estate China Opportunity Fund next week. A US$300 million fund to invest in property developments in China with partners including Forte, Gemdale, Vanke, Raycom, Cosco, Greenland and Beijing Capital Land.
What will not be announced are the various troubles the Group has faced in recent months in China:
1. An embarrassing investigation by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and the National Reform and Development Commission in 2005 into alleged financial irregularities related to previous investments.
2. Tax irregularities in reporting to both Chinese and Dutch authorities related to short falls in declaration of unearned income from China owned assets with an alleged Group policy of ‘no surprises’ from the Chief Financial Officer.
3. A Rosa Parks moment when the Chinese media picked up on a story of racism at ING Real Estates core asset, Shanghai Racquets Club and Apartments, where local Chinese passengers were required to sit at the back of the bus.
4. A derisory investment track record of 6% rental returns on core rental asset in Beijing and Shanghai.
5. ING Groups dismal investment track record elsewhere in China:
ING fund loses half its assets
23 January 2006
The joint venture fund run by Dutch banking group ING lost more than half its assets in the fourth quarter of 2005, as the country’s fund management industry as a whole dropped 1.2%, its first decline in five years, the Financial Times reported. The ING-China Merchants Securities fund, the country’s third largest investing in short-dated bonds, saw a 56% drop in value from US$3 billion to US$1.4 billion.
Ends…
For further information contact Robert Lie, Director of Mismanagement and Strategic Misdirection: (852) 92262255, (852) 28463083