This was an interview I did with CEO of Focus Media, Jiang Nanchun, for our first edition of Enterprise. Each month, I’ll conduct an interview with a Chinese business leader. I did this interview in Chinese and then translated it into English. Below, find both versions.

Q&A with Megan Shank
Bring the Noise, Bring the AD

According to Jiang Nanchun, CEO and founder of Focus Media, the only things his company lacks are flaws and competitors. Since its founding in 2003, Focus Media, an audiovisual advertisement network that installs LCD screens with targeted ads in office buildings and shopping centers, has bought out a host of worthy opponents and won a slew of accolades — most recently at the 2007 China Business Journal Entrepreneurial Competitiveness Awards where Focus Media was named “Most Competitive Chinese Company to List on the Foreign Stock Market” (it listed on the U.S. NASDAQ in 2005). Jiang, a 35-year-old Shanghai native, tells Newsweek Select’s Megan Shank his company maintains leadership in the industry by taking trends seriously and investing in research and education for its staff. Here he speaks about why his company thrives, the challenges it faces and the people he admires. Excerpts:

MS: Why can digital media succeed in China?
JNC: There are a lot of Chinese, offices are cramped, and office buildings are tall. The hospital, the office building–it’s normal to wait five minutes for an elevator. In the U.S., there are more elevators than people. You don’t have to wait for the elevator. So there’s no way to do that kind of business there. At the same time, Chinese are lustful consumers and fervent and diligent workers, so they need this kind of information.

MS: Do you enjoy living in such an ad-infested world?
JNC: The Chinese have always grown up in a noisy environment. If you give me a quiet environment, I’m not accustomed to it. Moreover, people will feel disengaged and bored while they wait for the elevator. Idleness is idleness–why not check out the newest mobile phone or car? So, if you ask me if having so many ads in our lives is good or bad, I believe there are too many ads, but, in fact, there were many ads before Focus Media existed. What we want to do is find suitable times and spaces to place ads and create a good communicative relationship with consumers. We want to increase advertisements’ effectiveness.

MS: After merging so many companies, what new challenges do you face?
JNC: We wanted to bring all of the excellence of the acquired company into our own, let the team continue and become one entity. The greatest challenge lies with (our) people. As soon as many in our staff make money, they lose their hunger, they lose their passionate initiative. This has become a problem. So we have to be clear why we do this. I also do not do this for money. I start working at 8 a.m. every morning and conclude at 2 a.m. in the morning — that’s more intense working than many other workers. I want influence. To change something in this industry with something we do gives me a feeling of merit. We want to develop this. When employees say we’ve made enough money and have no will to fight, it’s time for them to retire and allow another person with fight still in them to continue the work.

MS: Do you think you have monopolized the digital media market in China?
JNC: It’s a big domain. We can only say that in the digital advertising industry, we are leaders. For example, in regards to elevator televisions, we stand at 98% of the market, as to free media, we are at above 90%, Internet at 20% and phone advertisements at 50%.

MS: Which competitor is your greatest threat?
JNC: We’ve already bought out our greatest competitors and merged them into our company. We have no direct competitors now. What we want to do is research new digital media services. For example, in ten years, no one will watch elevator televisions–everyone will watch mobile phones. We want to do what’s going to replace what we do now. We want to replace ourselves instead of being replaced by someone else.

MS: What’s your competitive strategy?
JNC: We’re not undertaking any competitive strategy. We want to enter a whole new market, for example, in regards to the Internet, do we want to do it ourselves or to buy a company that does it? We’ve realized that purchasing companies that do something is faster than learning to do something ourselves. For example, no one had done digital television (in China) before. We always do what’s done first–never second. We want to be the leader by a long stretch–in a way that no one could catch up to us in five years. That’s our style.

MS: How did the U.S. subprime debt crisis affect your company?
JNC: We don’t do business in the U.S., so we don’t have any relation to the subprime debt crisis. Well, can it affect the entire world’s markets, or maybe possibly affect export businesses? But it can’t affect advertising, so it’s of no relation to us. Maybe companies will consider the domestic market, in which case, doing advertisements, we profit.

MS: Any plans to expand overseas?
JNC: At the current moment, we don’t have any plans to expand abroad. We don’t have the conditions to become an international company, so generally we adopt a league model with international companies. They pay us, and we teach them how to do it in their own country. Afterwards, they give us 1% of their business’s income. After they do very well, we won’t rule out the possibility of a M&A. But currently the Chinese market is already big enough. Within five years we don’t need to even consider operating outside of the country.

MS: How can you adapt to the market’s development?
JNC: We’ve researched consumers and clearly see the market. We will broaden technology and master the future. We’ve communicated with and understand what the advertisers want. We’ve brought together the best research team–technological developers and advertisement development researchers–to create our own team.

MS: Who do you look up to or admire?
JNC: I adore a lot of people, including the CEOs with who were my classmates. There’s a lot of things to study. These people include CEOs of the companies I merged into Focus Media and include my competitors. As a leader, it’s imperative to understand new things and to immediately copy them so that others cannot surpass you. If you don’t appreciate and study (what others have done) then you will fall behind. Ma Yun (CEO of Yahoo’s Alibaba), Niu Gensheng (Mengniu Company–ed.note: China’s biggest domestic milk company) and several others and I often meet up and share viewpoints. Our generation of CEOs really knows how to study.

很喧闹，很广告

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数字化媒体为什么会在中国成功?
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分众是否已垄断了大陆的数字媒体行业？
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For Newsweek Select’s January 2008 edition; this copy was only printed in Chinese, but I post the English version.

A Carbon-friendly Stay

China is now the fastest growing emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide, but one new hotel in Shanghai wants to change that–with style. URBN Hotels Shanghai, the first carbon-neutral boutique hotel in China, is sure to be a timely hit with both the earth- and fashion-conscious traveler.

Green action: Working under the approval of the UN, URBN will measure its carbon footprint and purchase carbon credits by investing in green energy development and emission reduction projects in China. Guests have the option of purchasing carbon credits from the hotel to offset their flights.

Decor: Stylish modernist rooms with a Chinese flair make use of second-hand materials such as such as wooden floorboards from condemned old houses and slate bricks from recently demolished factories. The bed, sunken entertainment area, raised desk, window seat and chaise lounge are all constructed with the same beautifully burnished wood that seamlessly flows from one element to the next.

Dining: A team of Aussies behind the wildly successful local café chain Wagas serves up higher order yet still unfussy fare such as grilled prawns with salsa Verdi. An extensive wine menu makes matching your dish with the perfect glass a cinch.

Relaxation: Even diehard environmental activists need to forget the world sometimes. Book a massage or an acupuncture session or sign up for a taiji or yoga class. You could also simply soak in your room’s Japanese-style plunge bath. Afterwards, refreshed and renewed you’ll be ready to take on–or save–the world again.

By Megan Shank

FOR NEWSWEEK SELECT JAN. 2008

Sending out an SNS

By Megan Shank (Shanghai)

No other culture in the world emphasizes building guanxi (connections) as China’s does. Recently, the foreign powerhouse social networking sites (SNS) Facebook and Friendster have engendered themselves as part of that experience here.

Only a five-year-old phenomenon, today there are hundreds of SNS sites, which collectively possess 194 million profile users worldwide. With more than 162 million people online, China’s not a bad place to start looking for new friends.

Within the past two months, Friendster introduced both simplified and traditional Chinese character pages as well as new user services. The company’s vice president of marketing, David Jones tells Newsweek Select the Chinese edition comes as part of a concerted effort to build on the company’s dominant position in the Asia Pacific region, where Friendster already has 25 million registered users. In addition to Fan Profiles, where entertainers like Malaysian singer Karen Kong just debuted her first Mandarin album, new widgets allow Chinese users, such as the music site yobo.com, to create buttons for their audiences’ pages. Open apps allow young IT geeks to, as Jones envisions it, “build gems that could be a hit around the world, and they could make money doing it.”

Friendster is currently the number one site in the Philippines and number two in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, according to the web information company Alexa. However in China, the company hasn’t yet escaped Facebook’s shadow. Although both companies decline to release the current number of their registered Chinese users, Facebook, not Friendster, makes it as one of China’s top-100 visited sites, according to Alexa.

During the first week of December, it was reported that the Chinese billionaire, Li Kashing used an entity independent of his companies to invest $60 million in Facebook while maintaining rights to invest another $60 million, giving him an ownership of 0.4 percent. Not long ago, in November, both China site Zhanzuo and Facebook emphatically denied a rumored $85 million cooperation.

Li representatives wouldn’t comment on the December deal, and Facebook’s spokesperson could not be reached at the time of writing, but Lee Lorenzen, founder and CEO of the first Facebook-only VC–Altura Ventures–who has recently drawn skepticism for claiming Facebook’s future worth at $100 billion dollars, says that he believes Li will serve as a valuable advisor to the company’s founder Mark Zuckerberg on how to work within the Chinese marketplace. “There is much more than just localizing the site that will need to be done and Mr. Li’s blessing of Facebook as the world’s most popular social operating system will help China to view it as a site that has a strong local investor,” Lee says.

Looking ahead, Tianwang.com, the student-focused search engine, which announced its own negotiations with Facebook in mid-November, might be announcing “interesting” news in mid-January, Tang Jingcao, the company’s COO tells Newsweek Select. “It’s essential for Facebook to keep grabbing new users,” says Tang, who sees his company as an important part of that process, “we provide a place they can do that.”

But even if Facebook can nab the users, in China an online company’s impressive numbers don’t automatically equal impressive profit. None of the major online companies, including Microsoft, MSN, Google and Yahoo, have made any real money here. Interfax recently reported that after two years of service via cooperation with TOM Online–another Li investment venture–Skype has more than 51 million users in China but has not yet found a suitable business model to break even.

Local SNS companies both defend the loyalty of their plugged-in pals and disdain what they deem as arrogance on the part of Western corporations that believe they can so effortlessly crack into Chinese cliques and change the culture of how friendships are won. “We discovered in talks with Facebook that they don’t understand China,” says Zhang Fan, Zhanzuo’s CEO. “It’s because foreign companies don’t understand their new customers’ habits and limitations,” adds Tang. “Look at Taobao and eBay. Chinese customers aren’t willing to spend money on selling fees where with eBay these fees still exist.”

And yet, in certain circumstances, it has been proven unnecessary for a local company to be revolutionary or adopt a different model in order to achieve commercial success. China’s first SNS, Xiaonei, is nearly a carbon copy of Facebook–from the simple blue and white format to the wall posts. Yet in late 2006 the Chinese Internet consortium Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI) bought the site for an undisclosed but rumored to be very large sum and merged the company with OPI’s own college social network 5Q.

“At that time,” says OPI’s CEO Chen Yidan, “China’s two biggest SNS services were 5Q and Xiaonei–each held about 30% of the market. If anyone wanted to be the top dog, anyone could only grab about that much.” Although no independent statistics can confirm whether or not the merging of the two companies has yet achieved their targeted 75% of the market as it tossed off smaller Chinese SNS sites in the wake, currently Xiaonei has more than 18 million registered student users from 2,200 schools.

However, like Facebook, which Zuckerberg emphasized to Newsweek in August is not just a service for college students, Chinese SNS companies are looking to make broader connections. Tianji.com, a site targeting Beijing and Tsinghua University graduates, currently has a user base of professionals with an average of three to 15 years of job experience. This user base might be attractive to those looking beyond the school gates to the greater world–especially with site’s recent effort to undertake cooperation with vidaeo.com, a European SNS site.

Either prospective students have found greater diversions in their new professional lives, or they’re not prepared to leave their childhood web-grounds, even as they enter the workforce. According to Alexa, Tianji’s traffic rank in China still hovers at a dismal 931, while Xiaonei’s is 45. EAs Xiaonei makes plans to move in on the professional market this year, which Chen estimates is as much as three to five times greater than the student one, sites like Tianji might feel the squeeze–and it won’t be coming from their new friend’s hand.

Representatives from Chinaren, owned by Sohu, also point out that as the range of web users expands in China, the Internet will no longer merely be the realm of while collar professionals and students but also working class people. Foreign sites like Friendster and Facebook have no power when it comes to marketing their brand to these new audiences. “Many of today’s new web users can’t even think of the name of their own website, don’t tell me they’re going to learn how to navigate a foreign site,” says the company’s CEO Zou Dan.

During the 2008 Olympics, in hopes of bolstering their image, Chinaren plans to go primetime as a sponsor under parent company Sohu . As the Chinese gear up for the greatest competition they’ve ever hosted, how appropriate the official Olympic song, “Forever Friends,” may double as the theme for a match of a very different sort. Come what may, none of these SNS companies want to share the gold–or their friends.

With Maggie Zhou (Beijing)

I INTERVIEWED TIAN HAOJIANG IN CHINESE FOR OUR NOV. 2007 LAST WORD. THEN I TRANSLATED THE CONTENT INTO ENGLISH.

LAST WORD
TIAN HAOJIANG

During the Cultural Revolution, 15-year-old Tian Haojiang furtively rooted through an underground Beijing bookshop and discovered his first book of poems — a collection authored by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai. Covertly, Tian set about memorizing lines that endowed new color to a life washed gray by militarism and marches. Today, after years of hardship and ultimate success in recreating himself as a world-renown opera singer, Tian channels the poet in the title role of the Chinese opera, “The Poet Li Bai,” which made it debut in the U.S. before playing for audiences in Beijing and Shanghai in mid-October. Newsweek Select’s Megan Shank speaks with Tian about his art, his audiences and his aspirations.

What were the particular challenges of this role for you?

This is one of the most difficult roles that I’ve ever done. I feel pressure because I’m singing in Chinese and I have to rethink my tones, my throat and my larynx after 25 years of singing mostly in Italian and French. It’s a big challenge for me. Also, Beijing is my hometown, so people have big expectations, and people know Li Bai and can recite his poems. They have his image in mind.

How did you work with and sculpt that image?

The composer, director, designer, librettist and I wanted to bring not just a romantic poet, not just a man of another space and another time. We wanted to bring a fuller man. During the creation period, when we sat together, when we had a cigarette or a cup of wine, we felt that Li Bai was there with us. And for the premiere in Central City, Colorado, with its blue skies and its beautiful clouds and its moon so big with the mountains so high, we almost felt we could reach the heavens, and Li Bai could reach us.

Why pick “The Poet Libai” as your return to China show?

It wasn’t me that decided–it was the Beijing International Music Festival’s decision. But I feel that China has been waiting for this opera. We’ve already worked for more than two years on it, and there’s been a little news of it here and there. Everybody was already talking about it. And Chinese audiences have been looking forward to seeing a work produced via collaboration of artistic greats like Guo Wenjin, Lin Zhaohua and Li Yiming. It’s difficult to put together an opera. It involves a lot of people, a lot of money and a lot of time. And because the opera hadn’t been performed in China, there were a lot of question marks floating around–we didn’t know if it could succeed.

What’s been the response from Chinese audiences?

In the West, the media really loved the stage design and the direction of the work. They felt it was simple and refined, the music clean and natural. They found it balanced and restrained. In China, I think at bare minimum people accepted it. This is a new opera, and I think it has vitality. It should become a classic work.

Using a Western method–opera–to introduce a Chinese story–Li Bai’s–to foreigners, and using the Western method and Chinese story in presentation to Chinese audiences here — it seems as though it would be tough to ingratiate yourself with everyone.

We all have happiness, sadness, indignation, jealousy, love and hate. These are actually humanity’s most natural desires. On the stage, we are opera singers, we are actors. We use our most honest, most natural methods to take these human emotions and use them in the role. We take the part and give it to the Western audiences, we take it and give it to the Chinese, and it resonates with everyone.

You once said that The Poet Libai is “The most important opera of my career. An opera has never made me think so much.” What have you been you thinking about?

I think my experience and Li Bai’s has some similarities. Li Bai was a poet, but as I see it, he was first a human. His life was full of ups and downs and he experienced much in his lifetime. He wanted to serve (as an official for) his country, he was jailed and punished and sent into exile. He also had his poetic, romantic times. My parents were both musicians, and we suffered persecution during the Cultural Revolution. I went to music college in China, also for opera, and went to America where I became a very ordinary person without a cent to my name. I struggled with my career, and I worried about China. The farther I moved from it, the more I felt concern. So for so many reasons, when I play the role of Li Bai, I can completely enter this part. It’s because I’m looking at myself.

Average Chinese people I’ve spoken with say the desire for financial security prohibits pursuit of the arts, but it doesn’t seem to have stopped you from chasing a career in singing. How did you dare to dream so big?

From then to now, I’ve had a feeling of risk. Because our contracts are one opera with one opera house instead of a steady set down position, we must always strive for a spot. Whether I’m on or off the stage, I can’t let up even for a minute. But I feel I have a sense of mission–that I need to absorb as much as possible and experience as much as possible and move forward as far as possible. I also feel there is a sort of responsibility awaiting me to undertake it. I don’t what it is. I don’t know what I can do, but I feel a calling is awaiting me.

What sort of prospects await this generation’s artists? Can you compare them with your generation?

As an artist, I believe experience is quite important. After passing through 10 years of the Cultural Revolution, China produced a group of world-class artistic talent, including film directors, writers, painters and musicians. Today’s generation is much different than ours. Today’s is a generation of commerce, of consumerism. The current generation faces the risk of making art commercial and turning people’s hopes into mere consumerism. Many people want to make money, to enjoy themselves, but people are unclear about what the spirit of the world requires. I believe this will directly affect a generation of Chinese artists, and it greatly troubles me.

Naturally, I don’t hope for another Cultural Revolution. Instead I want to train the next generation. This is very important. We should follow a concept that asks how we can truly develop them into real artists, but it’s quite difficult because of the environment being as it is. My ideal would be to have a school tucked within a mountain range in a very quiet place by a clear still lake surrounded by pines where people can quietly study art. This is a dream of mine. Artists should draw their creation from nature’s embrace. Right now, we’re doing too much to devastate the world.

LAST WORD
TIAN HAOJIANG

在文化大革命期间，当时15岁的田浩江偷偷地去了北京的一家地下书店中淘书，在那里他发现了人生中的第一本诗集—-è¯—äººæŽç™½çš„ä½œå“é€‰é›†ã€‚åŽæ¥ä»–å¼€å§‹æš—åœ°é‡Œé»˜è®°ä¹¦ä¸­è¯å¥ï¼Œä½¿é‚£æ—¶å……æ»¡äº†æ”¿æ²»è¿åŠ¨å’Œæ–—äº‰çš„ç°æš—ç”Ÿæ´»å› æ­¤è€Œå¢žæ·»äº†äº›è®¸è‰²å½©ã€‚å¦‚ä»Šï¼Œåœ¨ç»åŽ†äº†å¤šå¹´çš„ç£¨éš¾ä»¥åŽï¼Œä»–æœ€ç»ˆèŽ·å¾—æˆåŠŸï¼Œå¹¶ä¸”æˆä¸ºäº†ä¸€ä¸ªä¸–ç•ŒçŸ¥åçš„æ­Œå‰§æ¼”å”±å®¶ã€‚ 他还在中文歌剧—-《诗人李白》中扮演主角，惟妙惟肖地再现了这位诗人的形象，，并在美国进行了首演。在十月中旬这出歌剧又同北京和上海的观众见面了。日前田浩江接受了《新闻周刊 中文月刊》单梅兰的采访，并且谈到了他的艺术、他的观众和他的渴望。

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è¿™æ˜¯æˆ‘è¡¨æ¼”è¿‡çš„æœ€å›°éš¾è§’è‰²ä¸­ä¹‹ä¸€ã€‚æˆ‘æ„Ÿåˆ°æœ‰ä¸å°‘çš„åŽ‹åŠ›ï¼Œå› ä¸ºè¿‡åŽ»çš„25年中，大部分时间我都是用意大利语和法语表演，但是这次我是用中文演唱，我需要重新考虑表演时的音调、音色和发声等（ok)。而且北京是我的家乡，所以人们也会抱有很大的期望，他们了解李白并且可以背诵他的诗歌。在他们的脑海里，已经有了李白的形象。

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作曲家、导演、设计师、 歌词作者 å’Œæˆ‘ä¸€èµ·å¸Œæœ›å‘ˆçŽ°ç»™å¤§å®¶çš„æŽç™½ä¸ä»…æ˜¯ä¸€ä½æµªæ¼«è¯—äººï¼Œä¹Ÿä¸ä»…æ˜¯æ¥è‡ªå¦ä¸€ä¸ªæ—¶ç©ºçš„äººã€‚æˆ‘ä»¬å¸Œæœ›å¸¦ç»™å¤§å®¶çš„æ˜¯ä¸€ä¸ªæ›´åŠ ä¸°æ»¡çš„äººç‰©ã€‚åœ¨åˆ›ä½œçš„æ—¶å€™ï¼Œå½“æˆ‘ä»¬ååœ¨ä¸€èµ·ç‚¹ä¸Šä¸€æ”¯çƒŸï¼Œæˆ–è€…å€’ä¸Šä¸€æ¯è‘¡è„é…’çš„æ—¶å€™ï¼Œæˆ‘ä»¬ä¼šæ„Ÿåˆ°æŽç™½å°±åœ¨æˆ‘ä»¬çš„èº«è¾¹ã€‚å½“è¿™ä¸ªå‰§ç›®åœ¨ç¾Žå›½ç§‘ç½—æ‹‰å¤šå·žçš„Central Cityæ­Œå‰§é™¢é¦–æ¼”æ—¶ï¼Œå°ä¸Šè¡¨çŽ°å‡ºæ¥çš„è“å¤©ã€ç™½äº‘ã€æ˜Žæœˆå’Œå³»å²­çš„æ•ˆæžœä½¿æˆ‘ä»¬æ„Ÿåˆ°æˆ‘ä»¬å‡ ä¹Žå¯ä»¥åˆ°è¾¾å¤©å ‚ï¼Œè€ŒæŽç™½ä¹Ÿèƒ½å¤Ÿåˆ°è¾¾æˆ‘ä»¬ã€‚

为什么选择《诗人李白》作为回国的首演歌剧呢？
ç”°æµ©æ±Ÿï¼šè¿™ä¸ªä¸æ˜¯æˆ‘ä»¬é€‰çš„ï¼Œæ˜¯åŒ—äº¬å›½é™…éŸ³ä¹èŠ‚é€‰çš„ã€‚ä½†æˆ‘è§‰å¾—ä¸­å›½ä¹Ÿåœ¨ç­‰è¿™ä¸ªæ­Œå‰§ï¼Œæˆ‘ä»¬å·¥ä½œäº†ä¸¤å¹´å¤šï¼Œæ–­æ–­ç»­ç»­æ€»æ˜¯æœ‰ä¸€äº›æ–°é—»ï¼Œå¤§å®¶éƒ½åœ¨è°ˆæŽç™½ã€‚å¦å¤–ï¼Œå› ä¸ºéƒ­æ–‡é”¦ï¼Œæž—å…†åŽï¼Œæ˜“ç«‹æ˜Žéƒ½æ˜¯ä¸­å›½å‡ºåçš„è‰ºæœ¯å®¶ï¼Œå¤§å®¶å¾ˆæœŸå¾…è¿™äº›äººèšåœ¨ä¸€èµ·ä¼šå‡ºä¸€ä¸ªä»€ä¹ˆæ ·ä½œå“ã€‚è¦åšä¸€ä¸ªæ­Œå‰§æ˜¯å¾ˆéš¾çš„ï¼Œè¦æ¶‰åŠå¾ˆå¤šçš„äººï¼Œå¾ˆå¤šçš„é’±ï¼Œè¦å¾ˆå¤šæ—¶é—´æŽ’ç»ƒï¼Œè€Œä¸”è¿™ä¸ªæ­Œå‰§æ²¡æœ‰åœ¨ä¸­å›½æ¼”è¿‡ï¼Œæ‰€ä»¥æœ‰å¾ˆå¤šé—®å·ï¼Œä¸çŸ¥é“æ˜¯å¦å¯ä»¥æˆåŠŸã€‚

中国观众有怎么反应？
田浩江：在西方，西方媒体很喜欢它的舞台设计，也喜欢导演的手法，觉得很简练，音乐干净而且很自然，很平衡，没有什么可炫耀的，也没有什么做作的东西。在中国，我能感觉到这个歌剧至少在很多方面让观众接受了。这是个新的歌剧，我认为这个歌剧是有生命力的，应该可以成为经典作品。

用西方的方式把中国的东西介绍给外国人，和用西方的方式向中国人介绍中国的东西，有时是不讨好的做法。
ç”°æµ©æ±Ÿï¼šæˆ‘ä»¬éƒ½æœ‰å–œæ‚¦ã€æ‚²ä¼¤ã€æ„¤æ€’ã€å«‰å¦’ï¼Œæœ‰çˆ±ã€æœ‰æ¨ã€‚è¿™å…¶å®žæ˜¯äººç±»æœ€è‡ªç„¶çš„æ¬²æœ›ã€‚åœ¨å°ä¸Šæˆ‘ä»¬æ˜¯æ­Œå”±å®¶ï¼Œä¹Ÿæ˜¯æ¼”å‘˜ã€‚ç”¨ä½ æœ€çœŸå®žï¼Œæœ€è‡ªç„¶çš„æ–¹å¼ï¼ŒæŠŠäººçš„æƒ…æ„Ÿæ”¾åœ¨è¿™ä¸ªè§’è‰²é‡Œé¢ï¼ŒæŠŠè§’è‰²æ‹¿ç»™è¥¿æ–¹çš„è§‚ä¼—ï¼Œæ‹¿ç»™ä¸­å›½çš„è§‚ä¼—ï¼Œéƒ½ä¼šå¼•èµ·å…±é¸£çš„ã€‚

ä½ æ›¾ç»è¯´è¿‡ã€Šè¯—äººæŽç™½ã€‹æ˜¯”我歌剧生涯中最重要的一部歌剧，从来没有哪部歌剧让我想那么多。”ä½ ç©¶ç«Ÿæƒ³åˆ°ä»€ä¹ˆå‘¢ï¼Ÿ
田浩江： æˆ‘è§‰å¾—æˆ‘çš„ç»åŽ†å’ŒæŽç™½æœ‰ç›¸ä¼¼ä¹‹å¤„ã€‚æŽç™½æ˜¯ä¸€ä¸ªè¯—äººï¼Œä½†æ˜¯å¯¹æˆ‘æ¥è¯´ï¼Œä»–é¦–å…ˆæ˜¯ä¸€ä¸ªäººï¼Œä»–çš„ç”Ÿæ´»ç»åŽ†å¾ˆåŽå·ï¼Œç»åŽ†è¿‡å¾ˆå¤šä¸œè¥¿ï¼Œä»–æƒ³èµ°ä»•é€”ï¼Œä¹Ÿåè¿‡ç‰¢ï¼Œä¹Ÿè¢«å¤§èµ¦è¿‡ï¼Œæµæ”¾è¿‡ï¼Œä»–ä¹Ÿæœ‰ä»–è¯—æƒ…æµªæ¼«çš„æ—¶å€™ã€‚æˆ‘çš„çˆ¶æ¯äº²éƒ½æ˜¯éŸ³ä¹å®¶ï¼Œæˆ‘æ‰€å‡ºèº«çš„çŽ¯å¢ƒåœ¨æ–‡åŒ–å¤§é©å‘½å—è¿‡è¿«å®³ã€‚æˆ‘ä¸Šè¿‡éŸ³ä¹å­¦é™¢ï¼Œåœ¨ä¸­å›½ä¹Ÿæ˜¯ä¸€ä¸ªä¸“ä¸šå”±æ­Œçš„ï¼Œåˆ°äº†ç¾Žå›½å˜æˆä¸€ä¸ªå¾ˆæ™®é€šçš„äººï¼Œä¸€åˆ†é’±éƒ½æ²¡æœ‰ï¼Œç„¶åŽåœ¨äº‹ä¸šçš„è¿‡ç¨‹ä¸­æœ‰å¾ˆå¤šæŒ£æ‰Žã€‚æˆ‘ä¹Ÿéžå¸¸å…³å¿ƒä¸­å›½ï¼Œå°¤å…¶ç¦»çš„è¶Šè¿œå°±è¶Šå…³å¿ƒã€‚æ‰€ä»¥ï¼Œå‡ºäºŽç§ç§åŽŸå› ï¼Œæˆ‘æ¼”æŽç™½çš„æ—¶å€™å¯ä»¥å®Œå…¨è¿›å…¥è¿™ä¸ªè§’è‰²ï¼Œæ˜¯å› ä¸ºæˆ‘çœ‹åˆ°äº†æˆ‘è‡ªå·±ã€‚

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ç”°æµ©æ±Ÿï¼šæˆ‘ä»Žè¿‡åŽ»åˆ°çŽ°åœ¨éƒ½ä¼šæœ‰å±æœºæ„Ÿã€‚å› ä¸ºæˆ‘ä»¬çš„åˆåŒéƒ½æ˜¯ä¸€éƒ¨æ­Œå‰§ï¼Œä¸€ä¸ªæ­Œå‰§é™¢ï¼Œä¸æ˜¯ç»ˆèº«åˆ¶çš„å·¥ä½œï¼Œæˆ‘ä»¬å¿…é¡»å¾—åŽ»äº‰å–ã€‚å¯¹äºŽæˆ‘ä»¬æ¥è¯´ï¼Œåœ¨èˆžå°ä¸Šï¼Œèˆžå°ä¸‹ï¼Œæ¯ä¸€åˆ†é’Ÿéƒ½ä¸å¯èƒ½æ”¾æ¾ã€‚ä½†æˆ‘è§‰å¾—è‡ªå·±æœ‰ä¸€ç§ä½¿å‘½æ„Ÿï¼Œå°±æ˜¯å°½å¯èƒ½å¸æ”¶ï¼Œå°½å¯èƒ½ç»åŽ†ï¼Œå°½å¯èƒ½å‘å‰èµ°ã€‚æˆ‘ä¹Ÿè§‰å¾—æœ‰ä¸€ç§è´£ä»»åœ¨ç­‰ç€æˆ‘åŽ»æ‰¿æ‹…ï¼Œæˆ‘ä¸çŸ¥é“æ˜¯ä»€ä¹ˆã€‚æˆ‘ä¸çŸ¥é“æˆ‘èƒ½åšä»€ä¹ˆï¼Œä½†æ˜¯æˆ‘è§‰å¾—æœ‰ä¸€ç§å‘¼å”¤åœ¨ç­‰ç€æˆ‘ã€‚

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田浩江：我觉得作为一个搞艺术的人来说，经历是非常重要的。经过10年的文化大革命，中国出了一批世界水平的艺术人才，包括电影导演，包括作曲家，包括画家，包括音乐家。今天的时代和我们那个时代有很大的区别，今天是一个商业的时代，是一个物质的时代。但是这个时代有一个危险，会使艺术商业化，会使人的欲望物质化。很多人就想着赚钱，享受，精神世界需要什么很多人不知道。我认为这会直接影响到一代艺术人才，这是我很大的忧虑。

我当然不希望出现另一个文化大革命。所以我们培养下一代，这个很重要。我们应该用”什么把他们培养成为了真正的艺术家”è¿™ä¸ªç†å¿µæ¥åŸ¹å…»ä»–ä»¬ã€‚ä½†è¿™ä¸ªéžå¸¸éš¾ï¼Œå› ä¸ºå¤§çš„çŽ¯å¢ƒæ˜¯è¿™æ ·ã€‚æ‰€ä»¥æˆ‘æœ‰ä¸€ä¸ªç†æƒ³ï¼Œåœ¨ç¾¤å±±å³»å²­ä¸­ï¼Œåœ¨ä¸€ä¸ªå®‰å®‰é™é™ï¼Œæ¸…æ¾ˆè§åº•çš„æ¹–è¾¹ï¼Œæ¾æŸçŽ¯ç»•çš„åœ°æ–¹æœ‰ä¸€ä¸ªå­¦æ ¡ï¼Œå¤§å®¶åœ¨é‚£é‡Œå®Œå…¨æ²‰æµ¸åœ¨è‰ºæœ¯ä¸­åŽ»ã€‚è¿™æ˜¯æˆ‘çš„ä¸€ä¸ªæ¢¦æƒ³ã€‚æžè‰ºæœ¯çš„äººåº”è¯¥æ˜¯ä»Žå¤©åœ°è‡ªç„¶çš„æ‹¥æŠ±ä¸­è¯žç”Ÿçš„ï¼Œæˆ‘ä»¬çŽ°åœ¨åšäº†å¤ªå¤šçš„äº‹æƒ…åŽ»æ¯æŽ‰è¿™ä¸ªä¸–ç•Œã€‚

I WROTE THIS FOR OUR NOV. 2007 EDITION.

HEALTH
Quit Drinking; Try Herb

By Megan Shank (Shanghai)

To date, the West has predominantly treated alcoholism with pharmaceuticals –many with nasty side effects –and complete abstinence from alcohol. Yet many alcoholics hesitate to seek treatment because they don’t want to completely stop drinking and are wary of using synthetic drugs to kick their drinking habit. American researchers hope that within six months a Chinese herb encapsulated in a potent supplement form patented by Harvard’s McLean Hospital will hit the American market and alleviate the situation.

Scott E. Lukas, director of behavioral psychopharmacology at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, and his team have been studying the effects of kudzu on binge drinkers. In a recent outpatient study this year, after being treated for four weeks with a concentrated extract dose of kudzu, a group of 17 alcohol dependent subjects on average cut their consumption in half and increased days of abstinence in between drinking days.

The research is building on evidence that potent forms of ancient Chinese medicine may play a role in fighting the modern epidemic of alcoholism. Kudzu has been researched for more than a decade for its ability to both alleviate drunkenness and limit binging while initial studies of Chinese sage, or danshen, have also recently been taken up by Western researchers. “Kudzu had a profound effect,” Lukas tells Newsweek Select via phone from his Boston office. “The finding that I’m really excited about is that subjects more than doubled the days of abstinence in a row.”

McLean’s report is currently under review by the Journal of Psychopharmacology. The product’s quick placement on the market is possible because supplements are not required to undergo U.S. Food and Drug Administration scrutiny. Instead consumers are advised to use at their own risk. And although there has been some contention in the medical community –including a 2000 study by the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Prescott, Arizona, which disputed kudzu’s effectiveness for alcohol treatment — researchers involved in the new work say these herbs may at least prove to be as effective as the current pharmaceuticals on the market and have less side effects.

“We did animal studies side by side of Kudzu and the recently released drug Acamprosate. Kudzu is better both in terms of dose level and in drinking reduction,” says David Lee, director of the Bio-Organic and Natural Products Laboratory at McLean.

This all encourages new ways of looking at treating problem drinking, says David Overstreet, professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a member of Skipper Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies. UNC-CH supplied the earliest and most comprehensive kudzu animal testing. “Many people don’t want to have to stay abstinent for the rest of their lives. We’re beginning to think with certain medicines that might be possible,” says Overstreet.

Italian researchers also intend to begin testing their own answer to the Chinese cure–a concentrated form of Chinese sage (danshen)–as soon as toxicologists release reports within the next two to three months about whether or not the substance is safe for human guinea pigs. In August, researchers at the University of Cagliari publicized results claiming that administration of concentrated forms of the sage to alcoholic rats drastically reduced the animals’ craving and consumption.

“These rats are the result of selective breeding that started 25 years ago when we started to breed rats with a preference for alcohol and those that avoided alcohol with each other,” Giancarlo Colombo, a lead researcher in the animal study, tells Newsweek Select via phone from his Cagliari office. “One hundred percent of the alcohol-preferring rats prefer alcohol –a convincing demonstration that alcohol dependence has a strong genetic base.” Although administration of danshen didn’t make the rats quit, it “markedly reduced their consumption,” Colombo says. Hundreds of rats participated in the study with consistent findings.

While abstinence hasn’t largely been enforced for problem drinkers in China, and neither danshen nor kudzu has been used to limit drinking, Xu Lieming, head of Shanghai Chinese Medicine Hospital’s liver diseases department, says that danshen has properties that support the liver and kudzu has been used in many traditional folk medicine “drunkenness dispeller” teas to help drinkers recover from the effects of intoxication and assist with alleviating of hangovers. Kudzu was a favorite of the Ming Dynasty’s Li Shizhen, a pioneer in Chinese medicine research, for its wide range of treatment abilities and its gentleness.

Today, Lukas and Lee are exploring other kudzu formulas mixed with additional Chinese herbs that combine extra benefits such as liver protection. Unlike the current supplement, they would put the new formula into the wheels of the FDA process to make it a more valid treatment in the eyes of the U.S. government and consumers.

In the meantime, Lee, who has received U.S. Federal Grant money to explore Chinese medicinal herbs and practices in the treatment of addiction, hopes for better research cooperation between the U.S. and China, the place of his birth, where such alcohol research has not been systematically undertaken. In that aim, he’s meeting with officials from the Technology and Health Ministries in late November to pitch his kudzu, along with other Chinese-inspired ideas for treating diseases and disorders.

While this is all very encouraging, involved parties agree that results are still preliminary and that alcoholism is a tricky disease with no simple answer. “It’s premature for us to call it a cure. To me, it’s a method of harm reduction,” Lukas says. “There are too many sub-types and reasons why people drink; there’s never going to be a panacea for every problem.”
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Enough is Enough

In May 2005, McLean released the results of a study in which they tested 14 alcohol dependent binge drinkers within a simulated home. Each subject received kudzu for one week of the experiment and a placebo for another. Results showed that kudzu treatment did not prevent them from drinking, but it did slow down how fast they drank and decreased the amount drank by half. While on the placebo, subjects drank just as much and just as fast as they had originally.

Researchers were thrilled, but they couldn’t explain it. Now, with further research completed this year, Scott E. Lukas, director of behavioral psychopharmacology at McLean Hospital says, “What it (kudzu) was doing was allowing the alcohol to take effect faster and lasting longer, but it doesn’t make the blood alcohol higher.”

He makes the analogy that if someone sees a chocolate cake and is only permitted a tiny slice then most likely the person will want another tiny slice and then another. On the other hand, if the person is given a large slice at the beginning, the person usually won’t ask for seconds. Kudzu works to make problem drinkers–who have long lost their ability to recognize when “enough is enough”–feel that the “cake”–or drink–before them is all that they can handle.

WE RAN THIS FAST CHAT IN THE SEPTEMBER 2007 EDITION.

Fast Chat
Ken Carroll, co-founder of ChinesePod

At the eye of a perfect storm of torrential iPod sales and raging interest in Chinese study stands Ken Carroll, co-founder of the online Chinese language training service ChinesePod. After founding several traditional English language training schools in Shanghai, Carroll decided to tackle a newly in-demand market: Mandarin Chinese training. Launched in 2005, ChinesePod now boasts more than 250,000 unique hits per day with more than 100,000 registered users — 2/3 of which live abroad — and has set a new standard for Web 2.0 business. Newsweek Select’s Adam Feeney caught up with Carroll at his Shanghai office.

So how did you come up with this business concept?
Hank Horkoff and I had talked about collaborating on a web-based language learning initiative. The web offered obvious advantages — scale, plus low-cost distribution, mainly. The problem was, however, the software. Learning exclusively from a piece of software isn’t much fun. It didn’t seem we could create the kind of value proposition we needed through software alone.

Then, in March 2005, Hank came to my office wielding an iPod, and talking about podcasting. The phrase ‘podcasting’ had been coined just seven months before that. He was convinced that it could be used to teach languages. The problem was that you can’t charge for podcasts themselves, of course (they are just mp3 files distributed over the net), so his idea was to split the service — make the podcasts free and distribute them through iTunes and other means. This gave them a viral quality and we could then charge for premium services that we built around the free stuff. Thus the business model was born. It was seriously original and I wish I could say I had thought of it.

What did you like about podcasting?
It enabled us to bring the teacher’s recorded lessons directly to the learner. It was much more personal than any software could be, though I was not at all convinced that we could build a viable business around it. However, by summer 2005, I went into the studio and tested out the some short mobile audio lessons. I immediately began to like it. The more I did of it the more appealing it appeared to be from a user perspective. Eventually it dawned on me that we had a business model and a value proposition.

What incentive is there for users to upgrade to premium subscription services?
You cannot learn a language like Chinese just from listening to the audio alone–you have to see the characters, you have to do exercises. You also need some kind of organizational framework to help you with your studying.

What’s the advantage of not advertising on your website since advertisement revenue is a major source of income to most Web 2.0 businesses?
We want to give our users as clean of an experience as possible. We feel like ads clog the experience and give the users a less direct connection to our service.

Even the way you spread the word about your own service is more of a viral than an ad-driven phenomenon.
Right, we don’t spend money on advertising. We don’t want to build large overhead or expensive sales distribution channels–we want to be more nimble than that. We found that, if we invested in making great content that was interesting and relevant to our users, and if we made it easy to share with others, then people would pass it on. It’s about the economics of free–if your product is digital, if you can package it and sell it digitally, then you have a massive advantage over your non-digital competitor. We wanted to use the free architecture of the Internet to attract as many users as possible, and then to find ways to convert them into paying customers.

How do you plan to keep up the buzz?
The key is to keep doing firsts: the first Chinese podcast; one of the first “Web 2.0″ business models; high profile users. We created about 30 lessons about traveling during the Olympics. We try to bring drama into the podcasts and make them more entertaining.

(note: I’ve been hopelessly neglecting the site and am prepared to post a lot of backlog stuff during this week and next.)

FOR THE OCTOBER EDITION OF NEWSWEEK SELECT AS PART OF OUR WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM PACKAGE.

The Environmental Armory

By Megan Shank (Dalian)

It’s always been pretty clear that in order to mitigate climate change and to alleviate the effect of global pollution that all countries will have to play a role. But when it comes down to precisely how China should contribute, the opinions become more muddled.

Business leaders at the 2007 Summer World Economic Forum called for China’s increased investment in renewable energies, while scientists mentioned carbon caps. Technocrats framed innovation as the great competitive opportunity of our era, and legal experts demanded protection of intellectual property to encourage said trends for ecological innovation. Sociologists said that the only way for peasants to stand up against unclean industries in their regions is via empowerment through a more firmly entrenched democratic process, while NGO leaders said industry has to take on the responsibility to change. Whether it was support for increased energy efficiency or new mindsets regarding consumerism, enhanced corporate responsibility or state-led action, government officials, NGO leaders, businesspeople and innovators presented a dizzying diversity of ideas for fighting pollution and mitigating climate change.

In other words, it’s not just China’s skies, rivers and lakes that are lacking clarity — so is any straightaway answer or solution to the problems plaguing China’s environment, and, in turn, the world’s. “There is no silver bullet,” said Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

This doesn’t deter people like Zhang Yue from thinking that he might have a fairly lethal weapon against pollution and climate change. “We’re going to change the world. A company no one thought to cast a second glance is going to change the world,” Zhang Yue, President of the Changsha-based BROAD Air Conditioning Company, tells Newsweek Select.

Where Zhang Yue’s greatest concern lies is not with the possibility that his company will go on being unseen; rather, it’s with what people can’t see within the enclosed environs of their homes and offices. Pollution isn’t just an outdoor phenomenon, he says. Indoors, much of China’s air pollution is intensified, which has led to all sorts of health threats. Additionally, current inefficient use of energy to cleanse and cool air indoors is creating even greater air pollution outdoors. He outlines his BROAD’s principles as seeking to save energy while creating pollution-free air indoor environments via using only innovative means and products and observing basic moral principles like respecting intellectual property and not compromising on environmental issues. Perhaps it’s this clarity of mission that has garnered BROAD not only national recognition as a pioneering leader but also international acclaim as a green company. Zhang Yue has kept his company private to avoid investor pressure to manipulate what is already a good, green, and profitable, methodology.

But BROAD is a stand out. China currently lacks a greater framework for such clear corporate vision and distinctly ethical business policy. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t efforts underway to change that.

“It takes time to build an independent voice and to get the corporate people involved, but I think universities are a good place for it to happen,” says C.S. Kiang, Chairman of the Environment Fund at Peking University.

Three years ago, Peking University, in cooperation with Tsinghua University’s School of Business Management, sponsored a workshop on corporate responsibility. At that time, of the top 500 Chinese companies, only three participated via submitting an annual report, which details the firms’ environmental practices. This year the number is five times that amount — and although it’s still only a tiny fraction of the total companies, C.S. Kiang is optimistic about next year’s numbers.

FirstLight, a global executive education institution, has also taken up the charge of encouraging corporate responsibility as part of their training course on global enterprise. Harvey Chen, CEO of the company, sees these voluntary training courses as a way ahead, but says that in order for momentum towards real facilitation of change, the government has to provide the correct incentives.

“There has to be a structure set up to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior,” says Harvey Chen. “That’s what I see that’s missing.”

Considering that 70% of China’s energy use is by industry, and much of its greenhouse gases are generated from that use, rewarding factories and other labor-intensive institutions that cultivate efficient energy use practices is a start, says Zhang Yue. And the changes aren’t so painful.

“For example, look at this kind of room,” Zhang Yue says gesturing around a hall in the Dalian Exhibition Center. “If the air vents were put on the floor rather than on the ceiling, this room would use four times less energy to get the same job done.”

In other words, the old argument that sound ecological decisions hinder industry is moot. In its place is a new official mantra that has seemingly been taken up by several party officials who attended the forum: Further construction and business activity must be eco-friendly, but they will not impede development; technology and innovation are key to competitive strength, and good ecological practice creates an attractive arena for investment and adds to a city’s competitive advantage. In other words, saving the world will save you money.

Before his speech on Friday, September 7, Wen Jiabao, premiere of the State Council, visited various Dalian industries and schools where he stressed the importance of innovation and ecology in all development. Among the industries he visited was DHI*DCW Group Co. Ltd., a seaside heavy equipment manufacturing group. Wen Jiabao advised the company to take care of the soil, the coastline, and the sea and to make sure that resources were being used as efficiently as possible.

Possible market-based incentive programs, at the provincial level and among consumers, could be as simple as tax breaks in buying energy-efficient cars, says Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission.

“We must set up a framework to provide incentives to energy saving and clean technology,” he said at a forum meeting. Swarmed by journalists after the meeting’s conclusions and pressed for details on how it could be accomplished, Zhang Xiaoqiang spoke of how China needed to: “increase our self-reliant innovation ability and build a new innovative nation.” China needs to rely on its innovation to move forward to stimulate the economy and to serve as a custodian for the environment, he said.

But some of that innovation is already in place and simply waiting for the government to move forward. Although the 2006 Renewable Energy Law established significant goals for China’s renewable energy industry, implementation rules have yet to be set down and companies are still waiting to see the benefits. However, once companies are allowed to move forward, experts say, there’s no stopping the explosive growth of the industry. China possesses the resources, the know-how and, increasingly, the will.

Despite this encouraging trend, however, renewable energy can only provide an increment of the total energy that China requires.

“Renewable energy is an exciting industry to look at in China,” says Joanne Lewis, a Senior International Fellow at the Pew Center for Climate Change who specializes in Chinese renewable energy. “But in terms of the climate issue, in the next few years, it can only have a small dent. In the near term, for wind, solar, biomass, you’re still looking at only 1-2% of China’s overall electricity capacity.”

All the more important, says Zhang Xiaoqiang, to develop and propagate use of clean coal. He says further efforts are likewise being undertaken to create better resources of hydropower and nuclear energy as well. But, as history as shown, hydropower dams have dislocated some of the most marginalized people, and, in some poorer regions where industry goes unchecked by greedy local government, toxic nuclear waste has withered local crops and floated fish belly up in slimy rivers.

At a BBC debate during the forum, Wu Qing, a member of the board for the Beijing Cultural Development Center for Rural Women, said that without the elimination of poverty and the empowerment of democratic rights, peasants have no ability to demand higher standards from the industries that their local governments allow into a region. People need more rights in choosing their local representatives; people need a more independent press to serve as a watchdog for them, she says.

“What does democracy mean? It means the participation of people. Bottom up and top down–they should meet somewhere. But it takes time because now the leaders at the top will not accept that because our culture is family-oriented, and at home, daddy’s in control,” says Wu Qing.

Some of the kids, however, are acting up. In May, blogger Zhezi spread word about the scientific finding that the Xiamen Haicang PX plant–constructed just 4km outside of city rather than the internationally advised 70km and a producer of p-Xylene, a carcinogen known to cause fetal birth defects–could potentially harm residents. It led to a mass demonstration in Xiamen. Around the same time, a young girl, “Little Thin Girl”, posted photos on the Internet of a florescent-algae-infested Lake Tai in Jiangsu Province’s Wuxi, and the Internet bloomed. To date, neither issue has been resolved.

In his speech at the WEF, Wen Jiabao was candid about the challenges facing China, including the structural tensions, inefficient growth patterns, depletion of resources and environmental degradation. But, he claimed, to resolve them, China is:

“…putting into practice the scientific thinking on development and pursuing an innovation-based model of development. We are committed to a comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable path of development that puts people’s interests first.”

The weapons against global climate change and pollution have all been declared. Now it’s time to see who leads the battle–and how they choose to marshal it.

An interview with Chi Heng’s founder Chung To for Newsweek Select’s October 2007 edition

LAST WORD
Doing the Right Thing

Recently awarded the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, Chung To has fought HIV-AIDS for nearly a decade via his Hong Kong-based charity Chi Heng. In addition to working with male sex workers, Chi Heng has also reached out to AIDS orphans in China’s interior, offering more than 4,000 children educational fees and care packages as well as mentorship. After finishing up his orphan summer camp, he speaks with Newsweek Select’s Megan Shank.

M.S.: Why have you made the decision to fight AIDS with so many different projects — why not just focus on one element?
C.T.: The guiding principle is that we help the most vulnerable. Orphans and male prostitutes (MSM), though different groups, are the most vulnerable and the most stigmatized in this AIDS epidemic. We provide direct services for both — summer camps for the kids and outreach programs for the MSM community, and encourage public awareness of both groups as well. For example, we display the orphans’ drawings at the Shanghai Museum of Art and teach a course about MSM and homosexuality at Fudan University.

In supporting these seemingly disparate groups, what’s the impact in raising support for your cause?
In China, it’s easier to garner support for orphan work because MSM work is more taboo. In fact, when some potential supporters of orphan work find out about our MSM work, they pull out completely. Some people think we should drop MSM work, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. Doing the right thing is much more important than doing the popular thing.

How does your sex worker program operate in China when prostitution is illegal?
Some government people have tried to interfere. One time a policeman came to me and said, “Why are you so sympathetic to these sex workers?” I tried to think of an argument that would be more acceptable to him: we are just working at the source of HIV. If these MSM are infected with HIV, they will pass it on to clients who are not common working people but big bosses, entertainers, politicians, and if these leaders get sick they will harm the Chinese economy.

Describe your first trip to an AIDS village.
I’d dealt with AIDS for some time, but I’d never seen such big suffering in such a small place — you have three generations affected. The middle generation died — and died without dignity and without sufficient medicine and treatment — and for the younger generation to lose the love and care of the parents… I was shocked, but it motivated me to do something.

When you first started the AIDS Orphan Project, you had 127 orphans. Now you have 4,000. How many more orphans out there in China require such care?
In 2005, New China News Agency said there were 76,000 AIDS orphans and that by 2010, there will be 260,000. UNICEF just came out with new numbers saying there are about 500,000 children in China who have been orphaned by the disease, are HIV-positive or are living in households with at least one HIV-positive parent. Sometimes I get depressed. I try to remember that even if there are 10,000 starfish dying in the sun and I can float one back out, it’s still significant to that one starfish. To those 4,000 kids, life has changed for the better.

Your organization does not build orphanages or provide foster care.
We don’t have enough social workers, so what we do instead is emphasize local community. We give resources to the children and the grandparents. We don’t hire caretakers, which allows us to expand. We provide art therapy, summer camp, home visits and counseling, winter clothes, school supplies and vocational training. Of those that we’ve helped 200 are already in university, and 33 of them came back to work with us this summer. They tutor the young kids in math and English and encourage them. They say, “I’m an AIDS orphan, as are you, but I’ve gone on to university. Don’t give up on life; you can do it too.” This message is so much more empowering coming from them than it is coming from me. Some local schools wouldn’t allow them to do it there, so they improvised with the tutoring and therapy outdoors, in homes, or in a church. They nurtured their own social responsibility.

If the phenomenon of impoverished people selling blood cannot be stopped, what can be done to minimize HIV-AIDS transmission among that group?
We receive letters from people in places like Qinghai saying, “We know you work with AIDS orphans, you should come to our area.” The government now is trying to stop blood selling, but it’s not easy. Like drug trafficking, despite harsh penalties there are people willing to do it because the reward is so high, but so is the risk. Even if you tell the peasants you may get HIV-AIDS and die in a few years, it doesn’t help. They need money for food tomorrow. The ultimate solution is to end poverty.

When Chi Heng was expanding to the mainland, what were the biggest challenges you faced?
We had a difficult time finding the capable people we needed, so human resources were a challenge, as were problems with government interference.

And now?
We’ve grown from a grassroots organization with no paid staff, no office and one 100-HKD fax machine to seven offices in mainland China with 20 paid staff and hundreds of volunteers. The next step is to grow further. If I were the cook of a family restaurant, maybe I can only serve 50 people per night but hundreds more are lined up outside. I should become an executive chef and teach other chefs how to cook. First, I’ll write down the recipe. Next, I’ll recruit some management trainees who are young and inexperienced. I hope they not only follow my ideas but also improve on what we already have. Many restaurants end up better than they were in the past because the second- or third-generation cook adds more to the recipe.

TO COMPLEMENT A STORY BY THE AMERICAN NEWSWEEK THAT WE TRANSLATED FOR OUR JULY PUBLICATION, WE HIRED A WRITER TO DO A LOCAL STORY ON TRANSGENDER ISSUES. SHANGHAIIST ALSO WROTE SOMETHING ABOUT TRANSGENDER TODAY FOLLOWING A BIT OF NEWS FROM SHENZHEN. I EDITED AND TRANSLATED OUR STORY.

Society
When He or She Becomes She or He
By Gubo

On June 2, butterflies flocked upon the sofas, on the walls, and on the stairs of a Beijing luxury apartment’s bar and lounge. Everywhere the butterflies, of various sizes, patterns and colors — all lifelike and vivid–decorated the room. Han Bingbing wore a knee-length white dress with a golden and black-trimmed winged butterfly pinned to her chest. She also wore a smile as she gracefully shuttled between several guests who had come for her company’s first fashion show. That day, she used a countless array of butterflies to not only express to her guests the beginning of her new company, but also to express the beginning of her new life’s journey — breaking out of her cocoon as a butterfly.

The day that Han Bingbing really turned into a butterfly was March 11, 1999. Previous to that day, her name was Xuan Xiaoman, and her ID card’s sex was “male.”

Han Bingbing was born in a small town of less than 70,000 at the Daxing Anling Forest. When she was 7 years old, her mother passed away leaving behind Han Bingbing, her father and her three big brothers and two big sisters. When she was little, Han Bingbing got on very well playing with the girls and thought she was the same as them. She loved all little girls’ games and disliked all boys’ play with their toy knives, guns, clubs and sticks. “I never thought there was any difference between me and the girls. I felt I was a girl encased in a boy’s casing.”

At the age of 12, Han Bingbing was admitted to the Hulun Buir Art School where she studied folk dance for four years. During that period, she said the boys didn’t treat her any differently than they treated the girls. After graduating from the art school, Han Bingbing couldn’t bear her boy’s body. She moved far from home and plunged herself into various jobs all over China. Once, she went south where she worked the stage at a nightclub. She was especially good at drag performances of the Drunken Beauty and Yang Liping’s Peacock. Singing, dancing — whatever the girls could do, she could master too. Wearing a skirt, applying lipstick — the girls did it, and she loved it all too. She once even tried out being an actress, but ultimately she didn’t succeed. “It’s hard to place someone like me, it’s hard to gain acceptance.”

In 1998 in Shanghai, Han Bingbing met two women who had successfully undergone a sex change operation from male to female. And from them she first heard Dr. Chen Huanran’s name. In China’s medicine world, Dr. Chen Huanran has been given the title “China’s master of the sex change operation.” From the 1990s onward, of China’s more than 300 sex changes, 70% to 80% were performed by Dr. Chen Huanran, as have been more than 90% of the sex change operation cases in Beijing. After she learned of this option, Han Bingbing told herself if she wanted to live a life she enjoyed, then she must undergo this change. She recalls that before she entered the surgery room, it was just that smooth and natural, “From start to finish, I knew I was a woman at heart. I wanted a body to match.”

Not all who seek out Dr. Chen Huanran are able to undergo the operation to fulfill their heart’s desire. He or she must first pass a series of strict inspections and attain a variety of institutional evidence. That evidence includes the hospital’s proof of a clean bill of mental health, a verification compiled from the diagnosis of psychologists, mental health experts and clinical doctors’ of the transsexual diagnosis, the Public Security Bureau’s verification of a criminal-free record, and an agreement signed by parents or relatives to the surgery, etc. Only then can Dr. Chen Huanran accept the request to a sex change operation. He says every year he receives 1,500 to 2,000 inquiries, but only 30 people annually reach his operating table.

However, he points out that these days in China there still isn’t a set of transsexual-oriented law policy, and the pre-operation inspection procedure isn’t standardized. Under this lawless, prohibition-free situation, many unregulated hospitals don’t even ask for any sort of certification prior to surgery. This makes Dr. Chen Huanran very anxious. He points out that a sex change operation is not just lopping off breasts and cutting out Adam’s apples and surgically removing the reproductive organs. It also involves rebuilding a person’s new sexual organs and restoring the person to that second sex. It requires making sure, from head to toe, that every part of the body adapts to the new sex — a truly complicated operational procedure that requires at least half a year to several years time to complete.

Although sex change surgery technique has already reached quite an advanced level in China–among those techniques the first-rate ability to recreate world-class male to female operations with lifelike, seamlessly precise female reproductive organs and breasts–China currently only has 20 to 30 hospitals in big cities that have the capability for the surgery. And doctors who have received training from the Health Department only number in the dozens. Dr. Chen Huanran says he has more than once come across unqualified sex change applicants who instead went to unregulated hospitals for the surgery and after its failure returned to him seeking a remedy.

Dr. Chen Huanran sympathizes with these people’s plight. Financial ability, parental concern, social prejudice all present a wall blocking the transsexual from making the change. Some may find alternative ways to endure, and perhaps others reach out to similar people at bars or nightclubs to vent about the inequities life has presented to them. A small portion — the most extreme — might commit suicide. In front of these walls, many bash their heads, and the blood flows.

Dr. Chen Huanran also evenly addresses that he has faced criticism from all walks of society, which forced him, at one point, to abandon these operations. That was until a Buddhist monk said to him in 2004, “The Buddha only asks for the people’s spirit to be happy and full of peace.” It was only from this innermost turmoil that he emerged.

Actually, even a sex change can’t guarantee a transsexual’s happiness. Dr. Chen Huanran says he knows that half or more of the people who change sex face the huge pressures of adjusting to their new identity, a lack of pardon from their families and a general ignorance and fear among the general populace.

Han Bingbing says that many of her friends hide out by day and only dare to come out at night. But she believes that the more this is the case, the more people will misunderstand people like her, the more people will look strangely upon transsexuals. She says the reason that the famous transsexual dancer Jin Xing has achieved such success is because she is open about who she is. She doesn’t care about what other people may think of her. Han Bingbing also believes that those friends of hers who dress up their bodies while keeping their minds cloaked in a man’s way of thinking face difficulty in finding a place in society because “being able to wear a bra or a skirt doesn’t stand for anything.”

Recently, Han Bingbing adopted a daughter. As soon as she mentions returning home from work to change her daughter’s diaper and bottle feed her, Han Bingbing’s face lights up. Then she carefully touches up her make-up in the mirror and gives the Newsweek Select photographer a mature and confident smile. Although strange elements surround her life, with the support of her family and friends and on the road to professional success, she feels pride and confidence in her new identity. She says, “When god made me, he made a mistake. I only had an operation to fix that.”

INFO BOX
The Road towards Change

1970s
After an accident, a disabled person receives a sex change operation from Professor Song Ruyao (deceased), but there was no public record of the event at the time.

1983
In Beijing, Zhang Kesha undergoes an operation to become a woman. She becomes the earliest recorded transsexual in Chinese history.

1995
Beijing Number Three Hospital attempts to perform an exchange transplant of a man and woman’s genitals but without success.

1997
Dr. Chen Huanran opens the first Chinese website dedicated to transsexuals. (transexroad.com)

2001
The Gender Remodeling Center of the Chinese Academy of Medical Science is established. Dr. Chen Huanran is appointed director.

December 2003
China’s first successfully made male transsexual obtains a wedding license with his girlfriend in Chengdu.

May 2004
Sichuan transsexual Zhang Lin and boyfriend Yang Qicheng marry and release their full names to the media. It attracts a frenzy of attention.

October 2004
A new “Marriage Registration Rule” puts forth the stipulation that a marrying couple must be one male and one female. Transsexual people need only register under their new sex to marry and will not face discrimination.

December 2004
Harbin transsexual Liu Xiaojing receives “best media impression” at the “Manmade Beauty Contest” in Beijing.

August 2005
An art film about transsexuals’ love life, “Privacy” shows at underground theatres around China. Lead actress Lily Chen plays a transsexual who was thrown out of the local 2004 Sichuan “Miss Universe” pageant.

March 2006
Anhui native Huang Ningqian uses the Zhejiang Internet site “Red Bride Channel” to become China’s first transsexual looking for a spouse online.

April 2006
Xishuangbana Jinuo minority transsexual Mi Namu Zha enters the first round of finals for the Miss Yunnan Minority pageant.

May 2007
Image stylist Jimmy announces he wants a sex change. It causes an online uproar. According to Sohu.com, 53% of netizens support him in his decision, while 17% oppose it. The situation has yet to be resolved.

Country Sex Change Tendency Male Female
USA 1/100,000 1/400,000
Australia, New Zealand 1/24,000 1/150,000
Singapore 35.2/100,000 12/100,000
China, including Taiwan 1/50,000–1/100,000 1/50,000–1/100,000
Source: transexroad.com

1. Dr.Chen Huanran believes that, no matter what, a person has the right to decide what sex they are. Even if that choice violates what their natural anatomy has presented the individual with, psychology is what ultimately defines a person’s gender.

2. For a man to transition to become a woman costs some 40 to 200 thousand RMB. For a woman to transition to become a man, it will cost twice that and often more. Additionally, there is expenditure of hormone therapy pre and post surgery.

Society
当他（她）变成她（他）

撰文／顾波（北京）

今年 6 月 2 æ—¥ï¼ŒåŒ—äº¬è¥¿å¤§æœ›è·¯ä¸€æ‰€é«˜çº§å…¬å¯“çš„ä¼‘é—²é…’å§é‡Œï¼Œæ²™å‘ä¸Šï¼Œå¢™å£ä¸Šï¼Œæ¥¼æ¢¯ä¸Šï¼Œæµ·æŠ¥ä¸Šï¼Œåˆ°å¤„éƒ½ç‚¹ç¼€ç€è‰²å½©æ–‘æ–“ï¼Œç²¾å·§é€¼çœŸï¼Œå¤§å°å„å¼‚çš„è´è¶ã€‚å¯’å†°å†°èº«ç©¿åŠè†ç™½è‰²è£™å­ï¼Œèƒ¸å‰åˆ«ç€ä¸€åªé‡‘ç¿…é»‘è¾¹çš„è´è¶ï¼Œé¢å¸¦å¾®ç¬‘ï¼Œè½»ç›ˆçš„ç©¿æ¢­åœ¨å‡ åä½å˜‰å®¾ä¹‹é—´ã€‚å½“å¤©æ˜¯å¯’å†°å†°ä¸ºè‡ªå·±çš„æœè£…å…¬å¸é¦–æ¬¡å¬å¼€è®¢åˆ¶è§é¢ä¼šçš„æ—¥å­ã€‚å¥¹ç”¨äº†æ— æ•°çš„”蝴蝶”，除了是向所有的来宾说，这是她公司的一个新开始之外，也表达了她的人生也展开了一个新的旅程—-ç ´èŒ§æˆè¶ã€‚

1999 å¹´ 3 月 11 日是寒冰冰真正变成”蝴蝶”çš„æ—¥å­ã€‚åœ¨é‚£ä¹‹å‰ï¼Œå¥¹çš„åå­—å«å®£æ™“æ›¼ï¼Œèº«ä»½è¯ä¸Šçš„æ€§åˆ«ä¸€æ å†™çš„æ˜¯”ç”·”。

寒冰冰出生在大兴安岭林区一个人口不到七万的小镇。七岁那年，母亲去世，留下父亲、冰冰和三个哥哥、两个姐姐。小时候，寒冰冰和女孩子玩得特别近，觉得自己和她们是”同类”。女孩玩的游戏她都爱玩，男孩子的刀枪棍棒一切都不喜欢。她说：”我从来不觉得自己跟女孩子有什么区别。我觉得我就是个套在男孩套子里的女孩。”

12岁时，寒冰冰考上海拉尔的呼伦贝尔艺术学院，跳了4å¹´æ°‘é—´èˆžã€‚åœ¨é‚£æ®µæ—¶é—´ï¼Œå¥¹è¯´ç”·ç”Ÿä¹Ÿæ˜¯åƒå¯¹å¾…å¥³ç”Ÿèˆ¬å¯¹å¾…å¥¹ã€‚ä»Žè‰ºæ ¡æ¯•ä¸šä»¥åŽï¼Œå¯’å†°å†°å†ä¹Ÿä¸èƒ½æŽ¥å—è‡ªå·±çš„ç”·å„¿ä¹‹èº«ï¼Œå¥¹è¿œç¦»å®¶ä¹¡ï¼Œå¼€å§‹äº†å››å¤„é—¯è¡ã€‚å¥¹æ›¾åˆ°å—æ–¹çš„å¤œæ€»ä¼šç™»å°æ¼”å‡ºï¼Œå°¤å…¶æ“…é•¿åä¸²è´µå¦ƒé†‰é…’å’Œæ¨ä¸½èçš„å­”é›€èˆžã€‚å”±æ­Œã€è·³èˆžï¼Œå¥³å­©å­ä¼šçš„ï¼Œå¥¹éƒ½æ‹¿æ‰‹ã€‚ç©¿è£™å­ã€æŠ¹å£çº¢ï¼Œå¥³å­©å­åšçš„ï¼Œå¥¹éƒ½å–œæ¬¢ã€‚å¥¹ä¹Ÿæ›¾ç»è€ƒè¿‡æ¼”å‘˜ï¼Œä½†æ˜¯æœ€ç»ˆæ²¡æœ‰æˆåŠŸã€‚å¥¹è¯´ï¼š”æˆ‘è¿™æ ·ï¼ˆæ€§å€¾å‘ï¼‰çš„äººä¸å¥½å®šä½ï¼Œä¸è¢«è®¤å¯ã€‚”

1998 年，寒冰冰在上海认识了两位成功由男孩变成女孩的朋友，也第一次听到了陈焕然医生这个名字。陈焕然在中国医学界被称为”华夏第一变性大师”，自 1990 年代以来，中国 300 多宗变性手术中，70% 到 80% 都是由他操刀的。而在北京的变性手术里，超过 90ï¼… ä»¥ä¸Šç”±ä»–æ‰§è¡Œã€‚è‡ªæ­¤ä¹‹åŽï¼Œå¯’å†°å†°å‘Šè¯‰è‡ªå·±å¿…é¡»è¦è¾¾æˆè¿™ä¸ªè½¬å˜ï¼Œè¦è¿‡ä¸€ä¸ªè‡ªå·±å–œæ¬¢çš„ç”Ÿæ´»ã€‚å¥¹å›žå¿†åœ¨è¿›å…¥æ‰‹æœ¯å®¤ä¹‹å‰ï¼Œä¸€åˆ‡éƒ½æ˜¯é‚£ä¹ˆçš„é¡ºç†æˆç« ï¼Œ”我自始至终都知道自己是女孩的心态，喜欢的也都是男孩。我想要一个合法的身份。”
å¹¶ä¸æ˜¯æ¯ä¸ªæ¥æ‰¾é™ˆç„•ç„¶åŒ»ç”Ÿçš„äººï¼Œéƒ½å¯ä»¥åƒå¯’å†°å†°é‚£æ ·èƒ½å¤Ÿå®žçŽ°æ”¹å˜æ€§åˆ«çš„æ„¿æœ›ã€‚ä»–ï¼ˆå¥¹ï¼‰ä»¬å¿…é¡»é€šè¿‡ä¸€ç³»åˆ—ä¸¥æ ¼çš„æ£€æŸ¥å’Œæ¥è‡ªå„æœºæž„çš„è¯æ˜Žï¼Œæ¯”å¦‚åŒ»é™¢å¼€å…·çš„æ— ç²¾ç¥žç—…å²è¯æ˜Žï¼Œç”±å¿ƒç†åŒ»ç”Ÿã€ç²¾ç¥žç—…ä¸“å®¶å’Œä¸´åºŠåŒ»å¸ˆè”åˆä¼šè¯Šå¾—å‡ºçš„å¼‚æ€§ç™–è¯Šæ–­ï¼Œå…¬å®‰å±€å¼€å‡ºçš„æ— çŠ¯ç½ªè®°å½•è¯æ˜Žï¼Œçˆ¶æ¯æˆ–è‡³äº²å®¶å±žç­¾å­—çš„ç»è¿‡å…¬è¯çš„æ‰‹æœ¯åŒæ„ä¹¦ç­‰ç­‰ï¼Œé™ˆç„•ç„¶åŒ»ç”Ÿæ‰ä¼šæŽ¥å—è¿™äº›äººçš„å˜æ€§æ‰‹æœ¯è¦æ±‚ã€‚ä»–è¯´çŽ°æ—¶æ¯å¹´æŽ¥åˆ°çº¦ 1,500 到 2,000 宗查询，但真正能做的一年不到 30 个。

ä¸è¿‡ä»–æŒ‡å‡ºï¼Œä¸­å›½è‡³ä»Šè¿˜æ²¡æœ‰ä¸€å¥—ä¸Žå˜æ€§æœ‰å…³çš„æ³•å¾‹æ³•ä»¤ï¼Œæ‰‹æœ¯å‰åŽçš„è€ƒå¯Ÿæ ‡å‡†ä¹Ÿéƒ½æ˜¯å„åœ°è€Œå¼‚ã€‚åœ¨”æ³•æ— ç¦æ­¢å³å¯ä¸º”çš„æƒ…å†µä¸‹ï¼Œå¾ˆå¤šä¸æ­£è§„çš„åŒ»é™¢æ ¹æœ¬ä¸è¦æ±‚ä»»ä½•è¯æ˜Žã€‚é™ˆç„•ç„¶å¯¹æ­¤æ„Ÿåˆ°éžå¸¸å¿§è™‘ã€‚ä»–æŒ‡å‡ºï¼Œå˜æ€§æ‰‹æœ¯å¹¶éžåªæ˜¯éš†èƒ¸ï¼ŒåŽ»å–‰ç»“ï¼Œåˆ‡æŽ‰ç”Ÿæ®–å™¨å®˜é‚£ä¹ˆç®€å•ã€‚å®ƒè¿˜åŒ…æ‹¬é‡é€ æ–°çš„ç”Ÿæ®–å™¨åŠæ•´å¤ç¬¬äºŒæ€§å¾ï¼Œå¦å¤–è¿˜é¡»ä»Žå¤´åˆ°è„šï¼Œè®©èº«ä½“å…¶ä»–éƒ¨ä½ä¸Žæ–°æ”¹é€ åŽçš„èº«ä»½ç›¸äº’é€‚åº”ï¼Œè¿™æ˜¯ä¸€é¡¹ååˆ†å¤æ‚çš„æ‰‹æœ¯å·¥ç¨‹ï¼Œéœ€è¦è‡³å°‘åŠå¹´åˆ°å‡ å¹´çš„æ—¶é—´æ‰èƒ½å®Œæˆã€‚

è™½ç„¶ä¸­å›½åœ¨è¿™äº›æŠ€æœ¯æ–¹é¢å·²ç»è¾¾åˆ°äº†ç›¸å½“é«˜çš„æ°´å¹³ï¼Œå…¶ä¸­ç”·æ€§å˜å¥³æ€§çš„æ‰‹æœ¯å·²è¾¾åˆ°ä¸–ç•Œå…ˆè¿›æ°´å¹³ï¼Œæ¯”å¦‚å¥³æ€§æ€§å™¨å®˜ã€ä¹³æˆ¿å†é€ æœ¯ç­‰å‡ ä¹Žå¯è¯´å¤©è¡£æ— ç¼ï¼Œä»¥å‡ä¹±çœŸï¼Œä½†ä¸­å›½ç›®å‰å¤§çº¦åªæœ‰äºŒã€ä¸‰åå®¶å¤§åŸŽå¸‚çš„åŒ»é™¢æœ‰èƒ½åŠ›åšè¿™ç±»å˜æ€§æ‰‹æœ¯ï¼Œä¸”çœŸæ­£å—è¿‡ç”±å«ç”Ÿéƒ¨åŸ¹è®­çš„åŒ»ç”Ÿä¹Ÿä¸è¿‡å‡ åäººã€‚ä»–è¯´æ›¾è§è¿‡ä¸å°‘ä¸åˆæ ¼çš„ç”³è¯·è€…åŽ»æ‰¾è¿™äº›ä¸æ­£è§„çš„åŒ»é™¢åšæ‰‹æœ¯ï¼Œå¤±è´¥åŽå†åˆ°ä»–é‚£é‡Œæ‰¾è¡¥æ•‘ã€‚

对于这些人，陈焕然也是很同情他们的处境。经济能力、父母想法、社会成见都是”异性转换”çš„å‡ å µ”墙壁”ã€‚ä»–ä»¬æœ‰äº›å¯ä»¥é€šè¿‡å…¶ä»–é€”å¾„å¿å—ä¸‹åŽ»ï¼Œæˆ–åˆ°è¯¸å¦‚å¤œåº—ã€ç½‘å§ç­‰åœ°æ–¹å¯»æ‰¾ç›¸åŒçš„ç¾¤ä½“ï¼Œä»¥å®£æ³„å¿ƒç†ä¸Šçš„ä¸å¹³è¡¡ã€‚è€Œéƒ¨ä»½æžç«¯è€…ï¼Œåˆ™é€‰æ‹©ç»“æŸè‡ªå·±çš„ç”Ÿå‘½ã€‚åœ¨è¿™å‡ å µå¢™å‰ï¼Œè¿™äº›äººå¾ˆå¤šéƒ½æ’žå¾—å¤´ç ´è¡€æµã€‚

陈焕然坦然说道，他也曾面对过来自社会各界的指责，让他一度萌生放弃做这类手术的想法。直到 2004 年某天一位僧人对他说：”佛祖普渡众生，只求众生心灵快乐安宁。”他才从这种内心的动荡情绪中跳出来。

å…¶å®žï¼Œè¿™äº›äººå³ä½¿å˜äº†æ€§åˆ«ä¹Ÿä¸è§å¾—èƒ½ä¸€å®šè¿‡å¾—å¿«ä¹ã€‚é™ˆç„•ç„¶è¯´ä»–çŸ¥é“è¶…è¿‡ä¸€åŠä»¥ä¸Šçš„å˜æ€§äººé™¤äº†å¾—åˆ°æ–°çš„èº«ä»½ï¼Œä»–ä»¬çš„è‡ªæˆ‘ç”Ÿå­˜èƒ½åŠ›ã€å®¶äººçš„ä¸è°…è§£ã€æ°‘ä¼—å› æ— çŸ¥è€Œäº§ç”Ÿçš„ææƒ§ç­‰ç­‰ï¼Œéƒ½è®©ä»–ä»¬åŽ‹åŠ›é‡é‡ã€‚

å¯’å†°å†°ä¹Ÿè¯´å¥¹ä¸å°‘æœ‹å‹ä¾¿æ˜¯ç™½å¤©èº²ç€ï¼Œåªæ•¢æ™šä¸Šå‡ºé—¨ã€‚ä½†å¥¹è®¤ä¸ºï¼Œè¶Šæ˜¯è¿™æ ·ï¼Œåˆ«äººè¶Šä¸ç†è§£ï¼Œè¶Šæ‹¿å¼‚æ ·çš„çœ¼å…‰çœ‹å¥¹ä»¬ã€‚å¥¹è¯´ä¸­å›½è‘—åçš„å˜æ€§äººèˆžè¹ˆå®¶é‡‘æ˜Ÿä¹‹æ‰€ä»¥é‚£ä¹ˆæˆåŠŸï¼Œä¾¿æ˜¯å› ä¸ºå¥¹è®©äººçŸ¥é“äº†å¥¹çš„èº«ä»½ã€‚æ‰€ä»¥å¥¹è‡ªå·±åœ¨è¿™æ–¹é¢ç»ä¸ä¼šåŽ»ç†ä¼šåˆ«äººçš„çœ‹æ³•ã€‚å¦å¤–ï¼Œå¯’å†°å†°ä¹Ÿè®¤ä¸ºæœ‰äº›æœ‹å‹é‚£ç§ä»¥ä¸ºæ‰“æ‰®å¾—èŠ±æžæ‹›å±•ä¾¿å¯ä»¥é ä¸ªç”·äººçš„æ€æƒ³ï¼Œæ˜¯å¾ˆéš¾è®©ä»–ä»¬åœ¨ç¤¾ä¼šä¸Šæ‰¾åˆ°åˆé€‚çš„ä½ç½®çš„ï¼Œå› ä¸º”光是能穿胸罩穿裙子并不代表什么。”
ä¸ä¹…å‰ï¼Œå¯’å†°å†°é¢†å…»äº†ä¸€ä¸ªå¥³å„¿ï¼Œå¥¹ä¸€æåˆ°ä¸‹ç­å›žå®¶ç»™å¥³å„¿æ¢å°¿å¸ƒå–‚å¥¶ç²‰é©¬ä¸Šè„¸æ”¾å…‰å½©ã€‚å¥¹å¯¹ç€é•œå­ä»”ç»†çš„è¡¥äº†ä¸€ä¸‹å¦†ï¼Œåœ¨ç»™ã€Šæ–°é—»å‘¨åˆŠã€€ä¸­æ–‡æœˆåˆŠã€‹æ‹ç…§æ—¶éœ²å‡ºä¸€ä¸ªè‡ªä¿¡å’Œæˆç†Ÿçš„ç¬‘å®¹ã€‚å°½ç®¡å››å‘¨çš„çœ¼å…‰è¿˜æ˜¯æœ‰äº›å¼‚æ ·æˆä»½ï¼Œä½†æ˜¯åœ¨å®¶äººå’Œæœ‹å‹çš„æ”¯æŒä¸‹ï¼Œåœ¨æˆåŠŸçš„äº‹ä¸šè·¯ä¸Šï¼Œå¥¹å¯¹è‡ªå·±çš„æ–°èº«ä»½æ—¢è‡ªä¿¡åˆè‡ªè±ªã€‚å¥¹è¯´ï¼š”ä¸Šå¸åœ¨é€ æˆ‘çš„æ—¶å€™çŠ¯äº†ä¸€ä¸ªé”™è¯¯ï¼Œæˆ‘åªæ˜¯ï¼ˆé€šè¿‡æ‰‹æœ¯ï¼‰æŠŠè¿™ä¸ªé”™è¯¯çº æ­£è¿‡æ¥ç½¢äº†ã€‚”

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INFO BOX

变性之路

1970 年代
ä¸€ä½å› ä¼¤è‡´æ®‹è€…åœ¨åŒ—äº¬æŽ¥å—äº†å®‹å„’è€€æ•™æŽˆï¼ˆå·²æ•…ï¼‰çš„å˜æ€§æ‰‹æœ¯ï¼Œä½†æ˜¯å½“æ—¶æ²¡æœ‰å…¬å¼€æŠ¥é“ã€‚
1983 å¹´
å¼ å…‹èŽŽåœ¨åŒ—äº¬æŽ¥å—äº†ç”·å˜å¥³çš„æ‰‹æœ¯ï¼Œæˆä¸ºä¸­å›½æœ‰çºªå½•çš„æœ€æ—©çš„å˜æ€§äººã€‚
1995 å¹´
北京第三医院做了一例男女互换生殖器的手术，但没有成功。
1997 å¹´
陈焕然医生开办了中国第一个以变性为主题的网站：中国变性之路（transexroad.com）。
2001 å¹´
中国医学科学院性别重塑中心成立，陈焕然医生任中心主任。
2003 年 12 月
中国首个男变性人在四川成都和女友领取了结婚证。
2004 年 5 月
å››å·å˜æ€§äººç« ç³å’Œç”·å‹æ¨å¯æˆç»“å©šã€‚åŒæ–¹å‡å…¬å¼€äº†å§“ååŠæŽ¥å—äº†ä¼ åª’é‡‡è®¿ï¼Œå¼•äººçž©ç›®ã€‚
2004 年 10 月
新《婚姻登记条例》推出并规定，结婚双方必须是一男一女，变性人只要按新的性别重新办理身份证，即可登记结婚，不受歧视。
2004 年 12 月
å“ˆå°”æ»¨å˜æ€§äººåˆ˜æ™“æ™¶åœ¨åŒ—äº¬äººé€ ç¾Žå¥³å¤§èµ›å¤ºæœ€ä½³æ–°é—»å°è±¡å¥–ã€‚
2005 年 8 月
一部讲述女变性人情爱生活的电影”隐私”åœ¨å„åœ°ä¸‹å½±é™¢ä¸Šæ˜ ã€‚ä¸»è§’é™ˆèŽ‰èŽ‰åœ¨2004 å¹´å‚åŠ çŽ¯çƒå°å§å››å·èµ›åŒºåˆèµ›æ—¶å› å˜æ€§äººèº«ä»½è¢«å–æ¶ˆèµ„æ ¼ã€‚
2006 年 3 月
安徽变性人黄宁倩在浙江都市网红娘频道对外征婚，成为中国第一个网络征婚的变性人。
2006 年 4 月
西双版纳基诺族变性人咪娜穆吒进入第一届云南民族之花小姐决赛。
2007 年 5 月
é€ åž‹å¸ˆå‰ç±³å®£å¸ƒè¦å˜æ€§ï¼Œå¼•èµ·ç½‘å‹å¼ºçƒˆåå“ã€‚æœç‹ç½‘çš„æ°‘æ„è°ƒæŸ¥æŒ‡æœ‰53%支持，17%反对。事件仍未终结。

国家　/　变性倾向 男性
女性

美国 1／100,000 1／400,000
澳大利亚和新西兰 1／24,000 1／150,000
æ–°åŠ å¡ 35.2／100,000 12／100,000
中国（包括台湾省）
1／50,000–1／100,000 1／50,000–1／100,000
SOURCE: 中国变性之路

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