Last month was elected the new mayor of Paris (in fact Bertrand Delanoe was reelected) and soon it will be turn of London. In a time of local elections, you can read what is at stake when managing cities: a somehow oriented comparison between Paris and London (The rivals - The Economist, Mar 13th 2008) and an analysis of citizens' participation in local development by Benoit Vermander on eRenlai.

Le dos de mon père

eRenlai consacre son focus du mois au thème de la paternité. En chinois, le magazine et le focus ont titré: 父親，不只有背影 , ce qui signifie "Un père n'est pas seulement un dos" (la traduction - de mon crû - n'est sûrement pas la meilleure, mais j'ai voulu garder la dimension involontairement comique de l'histoire).

En effet, le titre chinois fait référence à un texte apparemment incontournable des études secondaires à Taiwan : Dos (背影, voir le texte original en chinois) de Zhu Ziqing (朱自清) (1925). Le narrateur raconte sa relation avec son père qui connait des déboires professionnels et affectifs : jeune garçon puis adolescent, il voit la déchéance financière de son père qui doit payer les funérailles de sa mère et pour cela hypothéquer la maison familiale. Un jour, le fils doit se rendre a Nanjing et le père décide de l'accompagner. S'ensuit une scène poignante durant laquelle le père du narrateur décide d'acheter des fruits pour que son fiston ait de quoi grignoter pendant le trajet. Le narrateur verse alors de chaudes larmes en évoquant la silhouette grassouillette de son père qui doit descendre un parapet pour aller acheter les fruits. Le texte s'achève ensuite sur la décrépitude du père qui devient acariâtre a la fin de sa vie et passe son temps à accabler de reproches son entourage.

Mon chinois n'est peut-être pas assez bon pour saisir toutes les subtilités littéraires du texte (il me faut en effet faire un effort d'imagination assez considérable pour percevoir l'aspect dramatique et poignant de la situation), mais je crois que je peux ressentir ce que tente de décrire le narrateur quand je me réfère à mon expérience personnelle : dire au-revoir a quelqu'un et avoir l'impression que c'est la dernière fois que l'on voit sa silhouette s'éloigner de dos. Ne dit-on pas en français que "partir, c'est mourir un peu"?...

Chers amis,

eRenlai ayant connu une forte hausse de sa fréquentation, nous avons changé de serveur et le site est encore plus rapide qu’avant. Lors de ce transfert, le site a connu quelques interruptions, veuillez nous en excuser.

Certains d’entre vous le savent déjà, Ricci/Renlai participe à l’organisation d’une conférence internationale sur « les Ressources Culturelles du Développement Durable » (le 25 avril à Shanghai), Monsieur Jacques Chirac sera l’intervenant principal. Le programme détaillé en anglais ainsi que le formulaire d’inscription sont en ligne.

Ce mois-ci, réfléchissez avec nous sur le sens de la paternité : pères et fils nous font partager leurs réflexions et leurs souvenirs.

Hubert Kilian vient tout juste d’être papa, il nous raconte son expérience. Chao Chin-chih évoque, lui, les joies et les peines d’élever son enfant seul.
Etre parent, c’est aussi éduquer. Ainsi, Bob soutient que nous sommes tous des « parents intérimaires » tandis que Darren Schell témoigne de son expérience de professeur d’anglais à Taiwan.

Par ailleurs, vous pouvez écouter et lire des paroles d’enfants sur leur papa ou les tendres souvenirs de Gao Lao.


En cette période électorale (Taiwan, France, Etats-Unis…), Li-Chun commente le débat entre les deux candidats à la présidentielle taïwanaise: Air-conditioned Democracy. Quant à Benoît et Bob, ils analysent respectivement l’acte de voter et la participation citoyenne dans le developpement local. Dans une toute autre partie du monde, Aurélie Kernaleguen présente le problème de la déforestation en Nouvelle Zélande.

Sans oublier notre toute nouvelle homepage où vous pourrez regarder des éditoriaux filmés de Bob et Mei. Il s’agit encore d’un coup d’essai alors n’hésitez pas à nous faire part de vos remarques !

Dear Friends,

Due to the growing success of eRenlai, we just changed server, and this caused some disruptions. Now, the website runs even more rapidly than before…

As many of you already know, Ricci/Renlai is involved in an international conference on “Cultural Resources for Sustainable Development”, Shanghai, April 25, former President Jacques Chirac being the main speaker. Full program and registration forms are now online.

Go to our monthly focus and reflect with us on the meaning of fatherhood. Fathers and children share their memories and their testimonies:

Hubert Kilian just had a baby, he tells us about his experience as a young father. Chao Chin-chih speaks about the joys and sorrows of being a single father.

Being a parent is also being an educator, Bob claims that “we are all surrogate parents” while Darren Schell tells his experience as a teacher in Taiwan.

Also read and listen to children’s words about their father and Gao Lao’s sweet memories.

In a time of elections (Taiwan, France, the US…), Li-Chun comments the debate between the two presidential candidates in Taiwan: Air-conditioned Democracy. Bob analyzes the act of voting and Benoit Vermander evokes the issue of citizens’ participation in local development. Another topic, another part of the world: Deforestation in New Zealand by A. Kernaleguen.

And have a fresh look on our homepage where you can now watch Bob’s and Mei’s video editorials. This is still a trial version, thanks for your comments!

Fathers and children

This month, Renlai/eRenlai focuses on family, education and more precisely, on fatherhood.

Here is a special thanks to two English teachers in Taipei: Natalia and Darren. The first helped me to record some of the kids she's teaching, the second kindly answered my questions... Listen to children words about their daddy and discover how Darren educates children with martial arts...

Or read my own reflection about fatherhood:

Fathers, where are you?

With the multiplication of single-parent families, it is more and more common to see children being raised by their mother. In fact, after a divorce or a separation, children are most of the time left to their mother’s care. Among my friends, I know only one who lived with her father instead of her mother after they got divorced. I was myself raised by my mother, only seeing my father from time to time. I think I got used to living with an absent father as well as most of my friends. That didn’t mean that they were not seeing their fathers or didn’t have a good relationship with them, it is just that the father could be less present without maybe disrupting drastically the run of events… It seems like the absence or the disinvolvement of fathers is a common representation of fatherhood.

Do fathers have a different linkage to their offspring than mothers? It is true that for biological evidences, the mother is more able to develop an intuitive relationship to her child. But for the father? As the father is first deprived from the feeling of osmosis felt by some women, how can he become “aware” of his fatherhood? How does the feeling of being a father grow and be nurtured inside him?

The mysterious link of fatherhood, and sometimes motherhood, is less obvious than what it would seem. In 2005, Belgian directors the Dardennes brothers, shot a movie entitled The Child where they try to capture this link, especially the one of fatherhood. Sonia and Bruno are twenty and they just come to have a child. They have no money, Bruno makes a living from small thieving and swindling. The beginning of the movie is already emblematical of the father’s absence: Sonia goes out of the maternity hospital holding her baby in her arms but Bruno is not there and she starts to look after him. Finally, when they meet, Jimmy, the baby, is a “strange thing” to Bruno who doesn’t show any special care or concern. At this stage of the movie, the main question that the directors also asked themselves was: would Sonia’s great love and affection be enough to make Bruno be aware of his son’s existence? And the answer was “no”. The movie reaches its acme when Bruno tells Sonia he has sold their 9 days-old child. Bruno then justifies himself by saying “We’ll make another one”, relegating his gesture to the most ordinary ones. To Bruno indeed, it doesn’t mean anything to have sold his own child as, to him, having a child didn’t mean anything more than having a baby carriage… The second part of the movie is dedicated to the redemption of Bruno to whom the buying back of the child is just the first step. And he actually has to save another boy in order to also achieve his own redemption.

Enter the focus to read other testimonies

Today is the Lantern Festival in Taiwan

In fact it started yesterday but today is also a big day of celebration. New concerns rise among environmentalists as the lanterns sent into the air at the occasion may be a strong cause of pollution:
"Every year the debris from thousands of burned-out lanterns litters the Taiwan countryside. Some even ignite fires: In 2006, according to press reports, a sky lantern set a field on fire next to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, sending up huge clouds of smoke and forcing officials to temporarily shut a runway." (Herald Tribune, 20/02/08)

The debate opposes environmentalists and authorities who promote the festival as it is a very important source of revenue and economic development. The article also recalls that the lantern Festival is not the only Chinese tradition to be questioned : for example, some alternative solutions are also figured out about the burning of paper money for the ghosts or, in mainland China, authorities had to take some measures to prevent people from burning plastic cellphones or any kind of plastic objects as offerings for the defunt souls... As well, every year, some people show some concerns about the tradition of doing a barbecue during the mid-automn festival.

The "technological" alternatives such as virtually lighting a lantern on internet seem not to be satisfying for the moment... and if we'd just try to invent some new activities more eco-friendly to compete and maybe also to balance the negative effects of these traditions that people still cherish a lot?

Dear All,

In Taiwan, February 28th is a memorial day for the incident that happened in 1947 and led to the death of thousands of civilians. By coming to terms with its memories, a society is able to build up consent and harmony among its members. However it is never easy to achieve a balance between “justice” and “reconciliation”. This is the issue we are exploring this month.

In this line, Bob Ronald distinguishes between a Merciful Justice and a Judicious Mercy. And previously on eRenlai, Brian Mc Coy had explored the topic as experienced by Australian Aboriginal community: A government who can’t say ‘sorry’. Also, watch a photo variation by Liang Zhun on “giving a hand to a friend”.
Among our editorials, Benoit celebrates the coming of his Chinese zodiacal year: The Year of the Rat. Also, have a different look at some of the objects in our everyday life: plastic bags and scooters. Roy Berman draws the map of a floating continent of garbage while I ponder whether or not to buy a scooter…

Bob is also a master in the art of rewriting classic tales: discover his own personal version of the Emperor’s new suit.


Also, Joel Ciceron has contributed to our database on China and Taiwan’s environmental issues: go to http://csr.erenlai.tv/
(please allow some time for downloading).

We wish you a Happy Chinese New Year. May the year of the Rat be propitious!

L'année de la ratoune

Bonjour à tous,

A Taiwan, le 28 février commémore l’incident survenu en 1947 qui causa la mort de milliers de personnes. Chaque société doit sans doute exercer cet effort de mémoire et de retour sur son passé pour pouvoir créer un consensus et atteindre l’harmonie entre ses membres. Cependant, il n’est pas aisé de trouver un équilibre entre « justice » et « réconciliation » ; c’est là le thème que nous développons ce mois-ci.

Bob Ronald propose ainsi de faire la distinction entre une « justice clémente » et une « clémence judicieuse » : Merciful Justice and a Judicious Mercy. Brian Mc Coy avait également déjà abordé le sujet dans un article qui relate l’expérience des aborigènes en Australie: A government who can’t say ‘sorry’. Ou encore, découvrez une variation photographique de Liang Zhun sur les gestuelles du pardon.
Parmi nos éditoriaux, Benoît célèbre l’arrivée de son signe astrological chinois: l’Année du Rat! Par ailleurs, les objets qui nous entourent ne sont pas aussi anodins qu’ils en ont l’air : saviez-vous qu’il existe des continents flottants faits de sacs plastiques ? Pour ma part, je m’interroge sur les bienfaits de l’acquisition d’un scooter à Taipei…

Par ailleurs, Bob, qui est passé maître dans l’art de réécrire les contes de notre enfance, nous présente sa version personnelle des « Habits neufs de l’empereur ».

En outre, Joël Cicéron nous a aidé à enrichir notre documentation sur les problèmes environnementaux en Chine et à Taiwan: pour en savoir plus, rendez-vous sur http://csr.erenlai.tv/
(Nous vous prions d’être patients en regard des temps de chargements) !

Nous vous souhaitons un joyeux nouvel an chinois. Que l’année du Rat vous soit propice à tous !

"Sorry" at last

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd expressed this week a formal apology for the wrongs committed against Aborigines in the past.

"Mr Rudd said he apologised "especially" to the Stolen Generations of young Aboriginal children who were taken from their parents in a policy of assimilation which lasted from the 19th Century to the late 1960s." (BBC News, 13/02/08)

Previously on Renlai magazine Brian Mc Coy had already discussed this topic through the angle of the "sorry"ceremonies led by Aborigines in Australia: A government who can’t say ‘sorry’

Scooter or no scooter?

I have been living in Taiwan for two years and a half and I am a pitiful pedestrian. As a matter of fact, in Taipei, the pedestrian is not at all the ruler of the street. The true king of the streets (and the sidewalks) in Taipei is the scooter.
At first it could look practical to move about the city on two motorized wheels as a real urbanite! Scooters are fast, not that expensive in Taiwan and easy to park… Easy to park? Really? There are more or less one million scooters in Taipei for its more than 2,600,000 population which means that there is almost one scooter for every three persons in the city! I could verify this number on a smaller scale citing my Taiwanese relatives: my family of four members living in Taipei owns a total of three scooters and two cars!

Moreover, scooters in Taipei are also a notorious danger for pedestrians, bicycles and for themselves! At least half of the people I know have had an accident involving a scooter and it’s astonishing to see how much the radiography rooms are crowded in the hospitals. A friend of mine, a hard-practicing-scooterer, once told me that she has to frequently bypass the security driving rules because of other scooters! For example, Taipei streets have on the largest streets a special place designated on the ground where scooters can wait for the light to become green; according to my friend, there is always one scooter starting to cross while the light is still red, then all the other scooters have also to cross at once so half of the herd is already in the middle of the street and the other half is urging poor you in the middle to do the same… I can still point out that, although everyone shares the same instinct of survival, the herds’ ways of acting are perhaps not the best ones to preserve one’s life and, in this case, they especially do discourage any courtesy between the street users.

Also, in the motorized jungle of the city, the scooters and motorcycles have their own predators: cars, taxis, trucks and buses. A new trend of smoking completely the windshield of four-wheel drives so that the driver cannot be seen from outside just worsens the discrepancy between the hard world of the street person and the safe cocoon of the big car. Apart from the fact that the people outside have no idea if the driver has spotted them or not, it also appears to be a lousy way to drive and to interact with others. If “I” feel good, I do not need to worry about others’ feelings even less about their safety.

For your information: production and sales of cars doubled in 2007 on the Chinese market which is the second biggest in the world after the US.