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China high-speed rail

High speed rail first emerged in Japan in the 1960s, named Shinkansen, and later European countries started to build the network all over the continent. High speed rail greatly reduces the time spent on journeys and brings economic and social benefits. Having noticed these advantages, in the 1990s, the Chinese government also started to develop high speed rail technology. With years of study and experiment, in 2008 the high speed rail between Beijing and Tianjin was put into operation. After the success of this first trial, the development went on rapidly. By the end of 2009, the rail between Beijing and Guangzhou started operating, which symbolized the actual commencement of high speed era of China. Nowadays, many Chinese people even prefer high speed rail than airplane because it is a lot cheaper and more comfortable and there is no big difference in time cost. In short, it has deeply changed life of Chinese people.
High speed rail is a combination of a great deal of technologies so that it can carry hundreds of passengers at a speed of over 300km/h safely. First, the track for high speed rail has to be much more stable and durable than regular railway, and in cold area, weather conditions were taken into consideration during construction. Second, the heart of high speed rail, power unit, is complete electric. Therefore, it is not only environmental-friendly, but also powerful and easy to control. Also, the power unit is located on each bin, which increases flexibility in train formation and improves power performance even more. The electricity comes from the catenary built above the track which carries high voltage to power the train. Third, the wheel is also an important part of the rail. Several years ago, China had to import wheels from European countries because they had years of experience in manufacturing wheels that are capable of super high temperature, large forces, and fatigue. A small deficiency in the wheel may lead to a catastrophe. The manufacturing process is so complex that they made it confidential. After a great number of experiments, Chinese researchers figured out the material that are suitable for high speed rail wheels, and now the train runs at over 300km/h with the wheels manufactured by ourselves. Finally, the control of high speed rail is also crucial in daily operation. Due to its speed, the braking distance of the train is about 2-3km, so the reaction to emergencies must be fast enough. In this situation, not only the following train is affected, many others have to change their schedule as well. This requires the control center to perform necessary data process ability. These are all great achievements accomplished by Chinese researchers within the recent 30 years and I am very proud of them.

1* The most damaging one letter word:-

I -avoid it.

2* The most satisfying two letter word:-

We -use it.

3* The most poisonous three letter word:-

Ego -kill it.

4* The most used four letter word:-

Love -value it.

5* The most pleasing five letter word:-

Smile -keep it.

6* The fastest spreading six letter word:-

Rumour -ignore it.

7* The most enviable seven letter word:-

Success -achieve it.

8* The most evil eight letter word:-

Jealousy -distance it.

9* The most powerful nine letter word:-

Knowledge -acquire it.

10* The most essential ten letter word:-

Confidence -trust it.

Student: Nikhil Scaria

Magazine Journal – International Trade of Copyright
Culture lies in different works. These works become intangible assets in a country. These assets are legal copyrights under the law of respective countries. What’s the story next? For the past centuries, the story ended here. However, for the past decades, with the expansion of globalization, the story has experienced astonishing growth across the world, especially between the United States and a great deal of Asian countries.
Therefore, now, the story is that intellectual properties in the form of copyright are traded under different countries. These intangible assets construct an intangible bridge that connects and delivers diverse cultures to another country, which leads to a stronger globalization of mind and horizon. With the international trade of intriguing copyrighted works, people’s conversations are no longer limited to ideas raised from their homelands, but also prevailing cultures from thousands of miles away. It is no more surprising to hear K-Pop on the streets of Los Angeles; it is no more surprising to hear a group of American friends talk about the new episode of a Korean drama on Netflix; and it is also not surprising to see an english-version Monkey King lying on the shelf of a county public library.
Nevertheless, when it comes with merits, international copyright trade can simultaneously come with some problems because it is more sophisticated than pure import and export of products. The main difficulty involved in this kind of trade lands on the disunity of copyright law among different countries. Each country has its own unique standard regarding copyright protection, therefore, when a conflict arises internationally, the primary questions would be which standard involving parties should use and who owns the jurisdiction of this copyright. The problem turns even trickier when conflicts are between the United States and Asian countries since their legal systems differ completely, common law system for former and civil law system for latter, besides distinct law doctrines. As a result, the debates are stretched much longer before the actual violations are determined. These hot potatoes are expected to burn future international copyright trades if no proper resolutions are established. Current barriers are accumulating stumbling blocks for cultural exchange that future trades can be a lot more difficult. Recent observations revealed that countries have constantly paid higher attention and enhanced their own copyright laws to avoid potential legal loopholes. Besides protecting the existing copyrighted works themselves, another important purpose is to protect the cherished incentives of various creators. The unborn creative ideas are the hidden support or bottom deal for future international trades.
As will be readily seen, disunity presents a significant inefficiency and consequently magnifies costs during copyright trades. News media has already reported numerous international disputes regarding copyright violations, alleging unlawful actions of copyright piracy. Thus, cooperation among different authoritative states is a compelling theme for future copyright trade. Several cooperative methods can be gone under consideration: negotiating and signing official treaties between states, establishing international copyright laws enforced by an independent third party, and each state imposing harsher sanctions on copyright violations. Exploration and negotiation are key elements for achieving macroscopic victory in the international trade of copyrighted works.

Yaxin Chen

Gender Inequality in Chinese Society
“How do you balance your role as a wife and your role as an employee?” This is a typical question women face during a job interview in China. Interestingly, there is never the same question for men asking the balance between being a husband and being an employee. Under the harmony claiming women and men are standing in an equal position, society implicitly presses women to do a multiple-choice question related to their desired role. Ironically, although it is called multiple choice, there is never an “s” following behind the word “choice”, simply meaning that women only are allowed to choose one and give up the rest.
Being a wife or a mother becomes a disadvantage or even a defect, making women less competitive in current society. Just because women possess the ability to be pregnant and have children, it does not indicate that they lose the ability to fulfill their works successfully. However, many people tend to wear monocular glasses for seeing only one side of the matter, and then use that one side to generalize. Therefore, as time goes on, this ideology has planted a seed in everyone’s heart. People acquiesce in its existence and admit its correctness. The transformation from responsibility to liability boosts fear among women, especially for those younger ones. They are willing to shelve their special ability for exchanging a better opportunity in their career path. This phenomenon does not merely reveal current gender inequality problems, but also carries imbalances in more social aspects such as population ageing and corresponding measures forcing gender inequality to fall into a worse status.
Undeniably, there are still a great amount of excellent wives and mothers working diligently in their workplaces. Nevertheless, the phenomenon of women suffering from unequal treatment when applying for jobs will not be erased by these cases. Disapproving voices may come out saying that women make their own choices. Yes, women are ostensibly free to make their own choices under the hint of society. Let’s take a step back, should this unsettling multiple choice really need to exist? Instead of focusing on “how to balance women’s roles”, what is the so-called balance and is there a true balance? Or is it just employers finding an excuse for refusing women or seeking a promise claiming their “loyalty” towards job positions? Innumerable problems that are pulled out by one single problem are worth pondering.

Yaxin Chen

J. Xia

The Great Depression in 1920s had a disastrous influence on Canada. Suffering from the Great Depression, Canadians faced the problem such as unemployment, starvation and increasing suicide rate. In order to save Canada from the Great Depression, Canadian government did lots of change and published lots of policies. The government’s policies such as creating work campus or deportation were not very effective, but Canadian government was successful in its attempts to deal with the Great Depression to the extent of distributing pogey, rising tariffs and signed treaty with the U.S.

First, at that time, the job insurance was not existed yet, so the government decided to distribute pogey to their citizens. The pogey is the money that was distributed by the government to those people who did not have a job and income to support their life. During the Great Depression, the rate of unemployment rose a lot and numerous workers lost their jobs so they had no income to make their families survive. The data showed that 1 in 5 Canadians had to depend on the pogey to survive. Whereas, the pogey was lower than the lowest wage in the country and if people wanted to get the pogey, they had to wait for a long time and admit that they had no ability to gain money by themselves in public. This request was ashamed for most men so they stop to get pogey from the government and tried to gain money by themselves. Although someone doubt that the way was too cruel, it is a right method to stimulate people to find jobs instead of depend on the government. Therefore, distributing pogey was a right decision made by the Canadian government.

Second, the government rose the tariffs in order to improve the economy in their own country. The Great Depression in Canada was influenced by the increasing tariffs in the America so their goods such as wheat and newsprints could not be exported. Therefore, after Bennett became the Prime Minister in 1930, he made a decision which was increase Canadian tariffs as well. After increasing the tariffs, Canadians would buy the goods that were produced by their own country instead of buying foreign goods. As a result, it is another way to improve and protect Canadian’s own economy during the Great Depression.

Last but not least, after King became the Prime Minister again in 1935, he promised that he would equalize the distribution to different provinces and set better services in those poor provinces. His most influential decision was to signed treaty with the United States. Promising a much-desired trade treaty with the U.S., the Mackenzie King government passed the 1935 Reciprocal Trade Agreement. Some experts said it marked the turning point in Canadian-American economic relations and reversed the disastrous trade war of 1930-1931, lowing tariffs, and yielding a dramatic increase in trade, and it revealed to the prime minister and the president that they could work together well.

In brief, the Canadian government did a lot since the Great Depression happened in 1920s. The Prime Minister changed twice and both of them did certain contribution for the recovery of Canada. The government was highly attended and got lots of pressures. To the extent of distributing pogey, rising tariffs and signing treaty with the U.S. was the effective way that Canadian government succeed to deal with the great depression.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources:

1. notebook
2. https://historymanilya.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/bennetts-during-the-great-depression/