EDITOR'S LETTER

EDITOR'S LETTER

Migration mythos, lottery lore, China culture chic, and ready-to-order relics

Summer is a time for vacations, getaways, and changes to the status quo, but the whole of China has been on the move for quite some time. The Chinese people—spurred by the changes of the economy and society at large—have been picking up stakes and seeking their fortunes all over the country and overseas. Years ago, this modern exodus would have been unthinkable, but China's modern economic miracle has made this all possible, albeit with some unforeseen and some might say unavoidable consequences.

To start, migrant workers from around China have been crowding into the already bursting city centers, looking for a better paycheck and a better life. China's middle class, on the other hand, are looking to escape the rat race in the cities, and many of China's quieter areas are seeing an inf l ux of young Chinese people hoping to make their home and their money far from the noise and madness of the big cities. The next logical step in the wealth gap is to get out of China altogether; from the upper middle class to the super rich, parents and the uber-wealthy are looking for new passports—from the US to Greece and from Australia to Portugal. Learn more in “China on the Move” (see page 28).

Speaking of the super rich, winning the lottery is the best shot most of us will ever have, and China's legal gambling circuit is a great place to start. “Feeling Lucky?” (see page 36) by Carlos Ottery takes a look at this oft-overlooked world of government sanctioned gambling and beyond. Legal or not, China has a reputation for loving gambling, and this piece tries to understand why. Carlos even hit the betting shops himself, but seeing as how he's still working here, it didn't go as well as hoped.

But, if you want a real risk, there's probably no better place to start than China's antique market in “The Antique Hustle”(see page 42). China, a nation with more tangible history than most, has an almost unbelievably huge market for phony antiques and bogus artifacts that can fool China's most learned experts. Part of the problem is in a missing generation of appraisers and experts, whose modern equivalents lack the real world experience to know when they're being scammed. Be it terracotta fi gurines that trick entire government bodies or jade dressers and stools that fool unlucky buyers, buying antiques in China is a little more complicated than simply picking them up in Panjiayuan.

Guoxue(國學) is, in one fell swoop, a philosophy, a fashion, and an education; it's a way of looking at the world through the eyes of an ancient China to achieve modern peace and success. More importantly,guoxuefi lls a spiritual and ethical hole in modern China, but is looking to China's past to solve its current problems effective? The revival of this pursuit, the idea that centuries old knowledge has practical life lessons to teach, is broad in scope, sometimes just added to a corporate seminar for a bit of fl air and sometimes a lifestyle that encourages sham science and mistreatment of women. For more, check out “We Don't Need No (Western) Education” (see page 48).

If you're still in the mood for a little culture after that, check out some excellent photos of traditional papermaking in Kaleidoscope (see page 18), or perhaps head on over to our new section, Objectif i ed (see page 74), to learn a little bit about the odd objects you see in China every day such as therapeutic walnuts and tea pets. If your tastes run toward the more macabre, sidle on over to Made in China (see page 24), which discusses the history of poison and poisonings in the Middle Kingdom, or, as ever, check out Agony Ayi (see page 94) for a dose of unabashed misanthropy. If you just want to relax with a good read, we have some vivid fi ction from author Qiao Mai (蕎麥) in Dragon's Digest (see page 12), or just dance with somedamain Group Think (see page 70). Don't forget to check out our website at theworldofchinese.com and our new digital version for the iPad. With that, from all of us here atTWOC, we wish you happy reading.

Managing Editor

Tyler Roney