Month: August 2019

The Frenchman made the jump to the Premier League this season, but starting off against the league champions doesn’t have him excited

Sebastien Haller​ may be new to the Premier League, but the former Eintracht Frankfurt forward knows enough about his new home to understand that facing Manchester City just isn’t much fun most of the time. 

West Ham splashed the cash to land the 25-year-old in a club-record deal worth £40 million ($50m) plus add-ons in hopes of boosting their attack. 

Having scored 14 times in 27 Bundesliga matches last season, Haller has a track-record of bringing goals at the club level, but with his side set to open Premier League campaign against Pep Guardiola’s league champions, he’s hoping he can just get a touch on the ball. 

“What a sh*t game to start with!” he joked to the Mirror. “I go there for a lot of money, now first game City! Why?

“There are better games to build your confidence! Hopefully I will touch the ball! We will see.”

City finished 46 points clear of West Ham in the Premier League last season – winning both games between the two sides

Guardiola’s side have netted 17 times in their last four visits to London Stadium, and Haller is under no illusions over what his new club will have to do to find a win in their opener. 

“What can I say?” he added. “Everyone needs to be prepared. They are the Champions from the League, the Cup, from even the Cup that I don’t know the name of.

“So yes, it will be difficult. We will need to make a crazy game. It is probably best for the team to get a game like that because we will need to be focused 100 per cent.”

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West Ham finished 10th in the Premier League last season and will be looking to make a push for a European place this time out, while City are defending a title they won by just one point over Liverpool.  

The Manchester outfit also claimed both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, sweeping England’s domestic trophies in historic fashion. 

Following Saturday’s showdown the two sides won’t face each other again in the league until February of next year.  

The Gunners defender has been linked with Monaco and could still move with the European transfer window open throughout August

Unai Emery admits he has told Shkodran Mustafi that he can find a new club.

Arsenal’s head coach has used the German defender sparingly during pre-season, with Calum Chambers now ahead of him in the pecking order.

Chambers and Sokratis are expected to start at St James’ Park on Sunday when Arsenal get their Premier League campaign underway at Newcastle, just as they did against Barcelona at the Camp Nou last weekend during the Gunners’ final pre-season game.

Mustafi had to make do with a place on the bench against Barcelona and with David Luiz arriving from Chelsea on deadline day, the 27-year-old is set to fall even further down the pecking order in north London.

And as he prepares to go into his second season in charge at the Emirates, Emery admits he has told Mustafi that he can leave – with a departure still possible this month while the European transfer window remains open.

“I spoke with him when we finished last season,” said the Spaniard. “I spoke with him when we started pre-season and I spoke with him also two weeks ago saying maybe there was the possibility he can leave.

“We decided to be more competitive in each position, at centre-back with David Luiz, with another player in the middle with (Dani) Ceballos, with Kieran Tierney, with (Nicolas) Pepe.

“I think being more competitive we can respond better in the season. Some players maybe they can play less with that situation and can leave.

“But it’s one decision taken with the player, with the club, with the team. At the moment he [Mustafi] is here and really if we need, he plays with us. I have confidence he will do well.”

Mustafi, who has been linked with Monaco in recent weeks, has come in for some stinging criticism at times during his Arsenal career due to a series of high-profile errors that have cost the team at key periods.

His mistake during the hame game against Crystal Palace towards the end of last season, which gifted Wilfried Zaha a goal, was seen as the final straw by many.

The former Valencia man was booed at times during the pre-season tour to the United States and it was a similar story when he was introduced in the second half of the Emirates Cup game against Lyon.

Emery admits it is not an ideal situation and insists he will do all he can to try to keep Mustafi’s confidence up in case he is needed.

“We have a big responsibility,” said Emery. “The responsibility is to give them the best possibility to be with us with confidence.

“Some supporters can believe in or like one player more than another player, that’s normal.

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“But inside I want to be strong and to create a big squad with a big, competitive, winning mentality and above all, one with confidence in each other.

“If he [Mustafi] needs to play, he can help us with confidence.”

The Beautiful China culture and tourism campaign made a stop in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, on Thursday.

The event was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and Mongolian authorities.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of China-Mongolia diplomatic ties. The event aimed to boost culture and tourism exchanges and cooperation on both sides, and show the Mongolian people what China has to offer, according to the organizers.

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More than 1,500 people attended the event, including government officials and tourism business representatives from the two countries.

Chinese tourists paid 27,200 visits to Mongolia over the first three months of 2019, while Mongolia was the seventh biggest source of inbound tourists to China.

Conservation of Buddhist artworks at the Mogao Caves is encouraging similar efforts at home and abroad

Editor’s note: As the People’s Republic of China prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary on Oct 1, China Daily is featuring a series of stories on the role regions have played in the country’s development and where they are today.

When asked in front of foreign visitors what it takes to sustain the love for his job after three decades, mural restorer Yang Tao said it is all about having “peace of mind”.

“You need to be in a state of tranquility, to guide a stable hand to mend the lines and reconnect the dots,” said Yang, 52, who works at the Mogao Caves near the major Silk Road hub of Dunhuang, Gansu province.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to some of the best examples in the world of Buddhist murals, sculptures and writings located in nearly 500 grottoes. They cover a large expanse of Chinese history, including the golden age of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Yang’s approach to repairing and preserving the iconic works of art for future generations reflects the serious conservation efforts undertaken in Dunhuang in recent decades.

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Zhao Shengliang, director of the Dunhuang Academy of China, said the achievements helped to continue the site’s historic role bridging relations between the East and West.

“In the past 70 years, our direction and role to protect, research and promote the grottoes have not changed. We are carrying forward that tradition and culture,” Zhao said.

As a pioneer in cultural relics conservation, management and research, the academy boasts state-of-the-art preservation and restoration technology, such as environmental monitoring devices and digital imaging equipment.

Young Chinese are driving the country’s performing arts industry, Chen Meiling reports.

Young Chinese are showing interest in the performing arts-theater, drama, dance, music, to name a few. Live entertainment is in demand as the country’s youth are more willing to pay for it than the previous generations, experts say.

The total revenue of this market in China, including from the ticketing, sponsorships, derivative products and business sites, was over 27.07 billion yuan ($3.83 billion) in 2018, up 3.47 percent year-on-year, according to a recent report released by the China Association of Performing Arts, based on data from cultural authorities, major theaters and ticketing companies.

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More than 60 percent of consumers of performing arts are from the post-1990 generation, while 15 percent are from those born after 1995.The average expense per consumer per deal was about 1,200 yuan, far more than that in sports, film and other culture-related consumption, the report says.

“When per capita income in China rises, more young people can afford to watch a performance. They are also well educated at school, which helps with their appreciation of the arts,” says Yan Yugang, an associate professor at the Communication University of China. “Besides, more new theaters and stadiums were built to provide spaces for such events.”

The weekly entertainment show Happy Camp has gathered renowned singers, including Singaporean singer-songwriter JJ Lin, Malaysian singer Fish Leong and Chinese pop star Cai Xukun to stage a summer music festival, which will be released on Aug31. The show’s five versatile hosts – He Jiong, Xie Na, Li Weijia, Wu Xin and Du Haitao – will also cooperate with these singers in performing hit songs.

The show, launched by Hunan Satellite TV station early in July 1997, has enjoyed great popularity among Chinese audiences over the past two decades mainly because its production unit always tries to keep abreast with the times.

Multiple forms, including debate, a talk show and a singing contest have been integrated into the program in recent years. He says it’s arduous to keep innovating and making changes, but they would like to spare no effort to present a refreshing Happy Camp for its longtime audiences.

In 2017 the show adopted a new feature in which all the celebrity guests play games to win donations for left-over children or promote agricultural products for impoverished farmers, exploring the possibilities for entertainment shows to integrate charity into their programs.

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Orange alert issued as powerful Lekima churns its way toward Zhejiang province

A strong typhoon is forecast to either hit the coastal areas of East China’s Zhejiang province or move northward along the coast on Saturday, according to China National Meteorological Center.

As of 5 pm on Thursday, Typhoon Lekima was 630 kilometers from southeast Wenling city, Zhejiang province, with wind speeds reaching 208 kilometers per hour at its center.

It’s estimated that Lekima will travel northwest at a speed of 20 km/h and enter the East China Sea on Friday morning. It is expected to make landfall at a coastal area in Zhejiang province on Saturday morning.

The National Meteorological Center renewed its orange alert at 6 pm on Thursday.

Orange is the second most severe in China’s four-tier color-coded weather warning system.

The center also said that Lekima, the ninth typhoon of the year, strengthened into a super typhoon on Wednesday night but will be downgraded by the time it reaches Zhejiang.

Heavy rains will fall on Taiwan, central and eastern Zhejiang, Shanghai, eastern Jiangsu, eastern Shandong and Liaodong peninsulas, through Sunday.

Meteorologists suggest potentially affected areas strengthen safety inspections of coastal dikes, rivers and lakes and be prepared to prevent urban floods, landslides and other geological disasters. Ships and offshore platforms should be evacuated in advance, and tourist attractions near the sea, islands or mountains should be closed.

Huang Ming, Party chief of the Ministry of Emergency Management, led a video conference on Thursday in Beijing to organize preparations for the typhoon.

He said that monitoring should be enhanced to issue early warnings. Also, residents－especially those living in old communities, construction sites, tourist attractions and places easily affected by geographic hazards－should be transported to safe shelters.

Zhejiang’s flood control authority issued an emergency notice on Thursday to raise the typhoon response to Level 3. In Taizhou, one of the province’s coastal cities, nearly all fishing boats docked at the port.

In Xiangshan of Ningbo, a traditional fishing hub in Zhejiang, over 2,700 fishing boats have returned to shelter with 8,184 fishermen brought onshore, according to the local fishery administration.

Shanghai’s flood control department also issued an emergency notice to lower the water level in rivers and check drainage networks, pumping stations and related facilities.

The notice reminded all districts to check underground spaces including garages, shopping malls, construction sites, and entrances and exits of rail stations to reinforce advertising billboards, air conditioners and decorations on high buildings, particularly in commercial and crowded places, to withstand strong winds.

Jiangsu has issued warnings to brace for strong winds, rainstorms and temperature drops since Friday.

The provincial meteorological administration said large-scale indoor and outdoor activities should be suspended and precarious buildings should be demolished or repaired to ensure safety. People are also advised to stay at home.

Ma Zhenhuan and Cang Wei contributed to this story.

An exhibition displaying traditional Chinese woodblock printing techniques will soon open in London.

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About 200 exquisite works from Shizhuzhai (Ten Bamboo Studio), an art museum in the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou, are touring the world and will be showcased in The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts from Aug 10 to 19.

Announced by the exhibition’s co-curator, Beijing-based Ancient Books Preservation and Conservation Association,it will also move to Asia Home, an art gallery in London from Sept 21 to 30.

A symposium and workshop on Chinese woodblock printing will gather experts from China and the UK for partnered events during the second stint of exhibition at the British Library.

Woodblock prints first appeared in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and reached peak popularity in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), where they represented traditional Chinese aesthetics.

The United States’ labeling of China as a currency manipulator is unlikely to compel the International Monetary Fund to intervene, as it concluded recently that China’s currency practices are in line with its economic fundamentals, according to experts.

On Monday, the US Treasury, following an earlier pronouncement by US President Donald Trump, applied the label to China after the yuan depreciated, escalating the US-China trade friction.

The yuan now trades at about 7-to-1 against the dollar. That’s in line with China’s economic fundamentals, and the IMF is therefore unlikely to impose sanctions on Beijing, according to Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

Hufbauer said that Trump believes the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) engaged in currency manipulation because it failed to support the yuan despite ample cash reserves, apparently creating a new standard overnight.

“The IMF defines currency manipulation as deliberate intervention to weaken a currency in support of larger exports,” he told China Daily. “China’s yuan was weakened by market forces in response to Trump’s latest tariff threat－and there’s nothing deliberate about China’s action.”

The IMF defines currency manipulation in Article IV of its rules and requires a vote by its executive board. The US has its own standards, defined in a 1988 law, expanded by former president Barack Obama as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, and codified in 2015.

“Trump’s declaration is not consistent with any of the previously announced standards,” Hufbauer said. “Trump is toying with the idea of countervailing currency intervention－selling dollars to buy yuan－but that seems unlikely. The Fed is not likely to go along, and the Exchange Stabilization Fund controlled by the Treasury does not have the big bucks needed to move currency markets.”

In July, the IMF said the US dollar was overvalued by 6 percent to 12 percent based on near-term economic fundamentals, while China’s yuan was seen as broadly in line with fundamentals.

“Some estimate that a 10 percent appreciation of the dollar, relative to a trade-weighted current basket, reduces US exports by about 1 percent of gross domestic product, or about $200 billion annually,” he said.

Usha Haley, the W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business and a professor of management at Wichita State University, concurred that China did not manipulate its currency.

“A counter-argument to Trump would be China has just responded to these new rounds of tariffs,” she told China Daily.

“The first rule of successful negotiations should be understanding the other party and its interest, and it appears neither side understands the other.

“When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled,” she said. “In this case, the trade dispute between China and the US is hurting both parties and the global economy.”

In a statement on Monday, PBOC Governor Yi Gang said: “As a responsible big country, China will abide by the spirit of the G20 Leaders Summit on the exchange-rate issue, adhere to the market-determined exchange-rate system, not engage in competitive devaluation, not use the exchange rate for competitive purposes and not use the exchange rate as a tool to deal with external disturbances such as trade disputes.”

Currency manipulation is based on two assumptions: First, that a nation can lower the international value of its money by acquiring foreign currency reserves, and second, that a weaker currency gives a nation an unfair trade advantage.

A reserve currency, typically the US dollar, is used to set international prices for gold or commodities such as oil and natural gas. That leads other nations to hold the reserve currency to purchase such goods and to maintain a steady exchange rate.

China’s yuan, or renminbi, became a world reserve currency on Oct 1, 2016. The yuan makes up 10.9 percent of the IMF’s special drawing rights currency basket, behind the dollar and euro.

Adjusting reserve levels can allow a central back to avoid wild fluctuations in its currency by affecting the exchange rate and increasing demand for the country’s own currency, boosting its value.

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As a major cultural and tourist destination, Dunhuang’s Mogao Caves suffer from what many other attractions will envy-too many visitors.

The crowds heading to the iconic repositories of ancient Buddhist art constantly threaten the fragile cliff-side environment on the fringe of the Silk Road oasis, according to Zhao Shengliang, director of the Dunhuang Academy, which manages and studies the site and its relics.

To mitigate the impact of human activity on the grottoes in Gansu province, which face the Gobi Desert, the academy has sets limits on visitor numbers. Two ticket categories are sold every day. The first type is limited to 6,000 tickets and allows holders to access eight of the 492 grottoes containing major Buddhist art, while the second category allows up to 12,000 visitors to enter four of the caves. More than 100 of the caves at the UNESCO World Heritage Site are suitable for public access on a rotational basis as part of conservation measures.

Wang Xiaowei, director of the site’s monitoring center, said the caves are at full capacity during the peak summer holiday season.

“In line with protective measures for the site, we take a preventive approach that encompasses tracking the natural and human impacts,” Wang said.

From high humidity levels to ground movements generated by visitors’ footsteps, center staff members are on alert for any risks to the condition of the relics, which are monitored via a central command room. Command room staff can order the closure of specific grottoes to prevent any negative impact on the artifacts.

Faced with the physical and geographical limitations of the site, the academy is pushing ahead with a major digital-imaging drive to archive the Buddhist relics so that more people can access and appreciate them. Building on the groundwork of the late 1990s and collaborations with international cultural institutions, the digital archiving of 221 caves has seen completed, according to Wu Jian, director of the academy’s cultural relics digitization institute.

Five teams of four imaging professionals record the Buddhist art with advanced photography equipment before the images are processed by another specialist team at the academy. Viewers can easily access the results online, including English-language versions, Wu said.

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