Letters and Blogs

Help the poor to spur growth

Comment on "Hu: stable, fast growth tops economic agenda" (China Daily website, Nov 29)

In Germany we discuss fueling the economy by distributing money in the form of consumer coupons redeemable within 1-2 months, as this might be the best method to get the needed quick results.

Maybe this could help the Chinese economy too: Distributing money to migrant workers currently laid off in masses, thus helping the economy and social welfare at the same time.

Holger

on China Daily website

Good idea, Holger. The most serious social issues currently in China are extremely expensive housing, education and medical care.

Therefore, social welfare in the form of coupons or something like that should be provided in those three areas. Well, who are the actual victims of this crisis? Instead of the rich, the poor suffer the most.

Richard

on China Daily website

We can't deny the truth that farmers make great contributions to China's development while their living standers are really low compared with urban residents.

If the rural people can have more money, they can certainly be a driving force to revive the economy.

Sunshine

on China Daily website

When professors turn pop stars

Once red-hot Lecture Room on CCTV 10, a show that invites scholars to provide lectures notably on Chinese history and culture, is losing its luster among viewers.

Lecture Room has had a bumpy ride. Initially, almost no viewers paid attention to it. The producer then reversed the course, inviting sharp, articulate and humorous scholars to address audiences on academic topics in layman's terms.

The efforts got paid: the number of viewers mushroomed, and the speakers catapulted to national fame. Speakers Yi Zhongtian and Yu Dan are labeled as "super boy and super girl in academia" respectively. "Super girl" originally referred to winners in a hit singing contest held by Hunan TV.

Here serious scholars border on stars in shows. They publish books, go on a national tour, meet ardent fans, and have hefty pay. This is when things turn sour. Many professors vie to get in the Lecture Room in an attempt to raise profile and prestige. Sadly some of them are too obsessed with love affairs or sexual orientation of historic figures when doing the show, using sensational, vulgar tidbits and other stuff that appear in gossip columns to appeal to audiences.

You can expect audiences to be infatuated with these things, but you cannot expect them to always be so.

Lecture Room did play a part in imparting knowledge, but it is amusing itself to death by belittling the dignity of academic research.

Wang Ting

Via e-mail

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(China Daily 12/02/2008 page9)