The morning talk show Fei Yu Xiu is a ritual for many Beijing and Shanghai listeners, who think of the two hosts as friends. Chen Nan reports

Many Beijing and Shanghai radio listeners know the show Fei Yu Xiu, hosted by Xiao Fei and Yu Zhou. Their ebullient voices have told amusing stories and covered colorful topics every morning during the week, for the past five years.

“I do three things in the morning, turn on the computer, log on to MSN and tune in to Fei Yu Xiu,” says Xu Binyu, a 29-year-old office worker based in Beijing. “It has been a habit for me to listen to the radio program since I was at university. The two DJs are like friends. I feel relaxed when I listen to their conversation.”

The program has millions of listeners who write e-mails and comment on the program using the Internet. One dedicated group of fans, students from Tsinghua University’s Media and Broadcasting Department, even plans to do a documentary on the show.

The program, called Easy Morning, in English, is one of China Radio International’s (CRI) Easy FM programs, and runs from 9 am to 11 am.

The bilingual program has a wide range of listeners, from students to white-collar workers, and foreigners living in Beijing. Real fans tune in from 8 am when the two DJs do an hour of news broadcasting.

“It’s news like other radio programs but they also introduce some interesting, even weird news collected from around the world. But most importantly, their way of broadcasting news is funny and informative,” Xu says.

For the next two hours, they choose a topic, either recommended by the listeners or planned by themselves, and interact with listeners via short messages. Sometimes, they invite guests, from singers, bands to movie stars, to do a talk show from 10 am to 11 am.

“Short messages sent from the listeners are crucial because we can interact directly with them,” says Yu Zhou, an English-major graduate from Hunan province. “All the attention we’ve received has really encouraged us.”

Yu says one of the reasons she came to Beijing is that she wanted to get away from the rainy weather in her hometown, “I like sunshine. It makes me laugh,” she writes on the program’s website to introduce herself.

When she took an internship at CRI, she fell in love with radio. “I felt nervous when I did a live show for the first time. But I felt excited as well,” she says.

The 29-year-old DJ is never afraid of making mistakes on live shows. “I will laugh and make fun of it. That is the best way to get me closer to listeners, who want something real and natural.”

Xiao Fei became a radio person because of his love for music. Graduating from Beijing Film Academy, the Beijinger wanted to form his own band. But when he got his radio program, he realized that he could find a balance between living with music every day and having a regular job.

“Things didn’t turn out exactly as planned, but I really feel grateful that I am on the program. I love music and film. It’s lucky that I can have them all in the program,” he says.

Unlike Yu, who expresses herself in a straightforward manner, Xiao Fei, whose English name is Felix, is both serious and illogical at the same time. They attribute their success to the right timing and good chemistry.

“We talk like friends and we discuss an interesting topic, which could be anything in our lives, from our eating habits to dealing with relationships. All those things, either troublesome or pleasing, happen in our lives, which makes our program special,” he says.

Besides Fei Yu Xiu, each of them has their own program on the weekend. B Side Story, hosted by Xiao Fei, and Easy Weekend, hosted by Yu.

“It’s like the name of the program, B Side Story. We show another side of ourselves, quiet, deep and sentimental,” Xiao Fei says.

“Everybody has more than one aspect to their personality, and so do we. It’s like having two different souls for me, hosting different programs which are interesting and challenging,” Yu adds.

Having been on the air so long together, the pair say they’ve grown up with their listeners and this influences the program format.

“Lots of changes have happened in our lives. Some listeners have become wives and mothers, while others have graduated and found jobs. We have experienced many things as well,” Yu says. “The program belongs to me and Xiao Fei, as well as those listeners. We take part in the changes and talk about them on the program, which is key to keeping Fei Yu Xiu fresh and popular over the years.”

When celebrities require something special to wear they turn to Guo Pei, the nation’s foremost haute couturist. Joy Lu reports

Guo Pei, China’s doyenne of haute couture, is on first-name terms with many of the country’s stage and screen celebrities. “(Zhang) Ziyi said she wanted a qipao,” Guo says, referring to the film actress, a member of the China delegation to Greece who needed an outfit to initiate the torch relay before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. “I told her it was a bad idea.”

She understood that Zhang wanted an outfit identified with China, but in the West, the traditional gown has become associated with hostesses at Chinese restaurants, Guo says.

The outfit Zhang finally received was a shoulder-baring, white, gown, with phoenix and auspicious clouds embroidery forming a top-to-bottom band in the front. The trim fit was like a qipao, but the typical collar and short sleeves were substituted with what looks like du dou, halter-like underwear women used to cover their chest.

The dress was a great success. Interestingly, when people complimented the actress on it they called it a qipao, and Zhang told Guo this when she phoned her from Athens.

It has taken a long time for Guo to be accepted. She worked for 10 years in prt–porter fashion design, before opening Rose Studio in Beijing, in 1997, when haute couture was an unfamiliar concept.

Bespoke tailoring was considered inferior to many of the items sold in department stores at that time. Clients often asked her why the clothes she sold at Rose Studio were more expensive than brand name items.

What sustained her, she says, was her passion for couture.

A ready-to-wear designer has to guess what will appeal to the general consumer, she says, but haute couture is easier because “you only need to think about one customer, her needs, her taste and her style”.

It also allows her free rein on her creativity: “I can design something very arty and far removed from reality.”

Guo admits she has not been a shrewd businesswoman. It is the usual bespoke tailoring rule to ask only for a deposit first, but Guo insisted on the full amount upfront.

“I had bad memories,” she says. “And I didn’t want people to pick my designs only for the sake of getting a discount.”

Even so, her own rule sometimes worked to her disadvantage. Time and again, the perfectionist went over budget to realize her ideal design: “I can’t help it, because they’re my creations.”

The way she put her heart into each piece of clothing eventually won her a group of loyal clients. Today, Rose Studio boasts more than 1,000 regular customers, who buy up to 30 to 40 dresses a year.

Many of them treat clothing designed by Guo as a kind of museum piece.

“They don’t give them away even if they don’t fit anymore. Because the dresses are designed to reflect them, they think of the dress as part of themselves,” she says of her clients.

Her knack of making clothes that reflect individuality has made her a star among entertainers.

At the annual Central China Television (CCTV) New Year’s Gala, hosts and performers wear Guo’s designs. There are even rumors she has a contract with CCTV.

“Actually, they all came to me as individual clients,” Guo says.

Celebrities at public events insist on a unique design because they don’t want to be seen wearing the same as anyone else, or compared with another star who has the same outfit.

For one CCTV New Year’s Gala, Guo was asked to create dresses for three hostesses – Dong Qin, Zhou Tao and Liu Fangfei – who would stand side-by-side on the show.

“They have different personalities and qualities and are beautiful in different ways. The dresses they wore were meant to enhance that. There’s no way to compare,” Guo says.

Her success has inspired many fashion design students to pursue a haute couture career. Guo advises them to be humble.

“You can’t think of yourself as an artist, but as a service provider.”

Even though she’s among the most sought-after designers in China, Guo still agrees to late night meetings to suit the needs of clients.

“This has happened with Dong Qin. She’s a close friend so I can reveal her name,” Guo says. “After a rehearsal for the CCTV New Year’s Gala, she called at 11 pm and said she needed to discuss the dress with me. The actual meeting would probably extend to 2 am. But I said: ‘OK, come.’”

China’s ascendancy has prompted new interest in Chinese fashion elements. But they can be tricky for a Chinese designer: Phoenixes, dragons and double-happiness symbols are common.

“In my recent collection, my inspiration came from blue and white porcelain. I wanted to show the low-profile, subdued nature of Chinese culture,” she says.

She disagrees with a rigid approach to Chinese elements. The hand embroidery that often features in her designs has long absorbed Indian, French and Russian influences.

Imagination and artistry abound in the fashion industry, but what makes a design stand out? Guo’s answer is simple – the soul.

She says her best designs are an expression of her life experiences: What lasts after what is transient has passed.

“A dress touches people’s hearts. It’s like an opera. You don’t understand the language. Still, you feel moved,” she says.

The suspended 10-m-tall installation Glacier, and Lili (pictured), a giant figure who appears to be living in some future time and space, are wowing visitors to the Yintai Center, in Beijing, near the World Trade Center.

It is created by Tim Yip, the art director who won an Oscar for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He also claimed the British Academy Film Award for Best Costume Designer, in 2001, for the same movie.

The works are part of the ongoing exhibition Positivity

For his work Glacier, Yip wanted to make viewers reflect on the problem of global warming by creating a floating, melting iceberg.

The giant iceberg is suspended in the central hall of the shopping center, with its peak at the third floor level. Melted water drips into an ice pool below.

To design the lighting for the piece, Yip watched a lot of films with close-ups of glaciers, studying the effects of water and sunlight.

“When the sunlight hits icebergs floating in the sea it is refracted it’s so beautiful,” Yip says.

A lamp illuminates the droplets falling into the pool, while 100 other lights are used to show off the work to best effect.

Viewers can stand beneath the work, watch the lighting effects and listen to the “bang … thud” of the melting ice.

“For Glacier, there were a number of difficulties,” the 43-year-old Yip says. “Firstly, whether it would end up looking like ice or not, and then whether or not the materials needed to make the ice would be hazardous, at the shopping center.

“Finally with the ice model and installation being so large, it was necessary to dismantle it piece by piece, transport it to the building, before reassembling it with great care to make it look as natural as possible.”

The Lili installation is found in a corridor that leads up to the third floor. It begins with a 36-cm tall figurine, that is repeatedly enlarged until it is a fiberglass model three-times larger than life, sitting on a chair.

It looks upward and brims with strength, Yip says, capturing the moment when someone looks up when they inhale.

“When you make small sculptures,” Yip says, “It’s quite easy to keep a handle on the overall feel. But as it’s being enlarged, you need to step back to figure it out because it looks very different up close.”

“Her clothing is made of various materials, including muslin, velvet and lace … the whole process was funny and enjoyable,” Yip says.

PARK CITY, Utah – They gained movie stardom playing wholesome young girls, but when fans see Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart in upcoming “The Runaways,” they will find a new side — a wild one — to the teen actresses.

The movie, about the all-girl teenage rock band of the same name co-founded by Joan Jett in the 1970s, debuted here at the Sundance Film Festival late Sunday to solid reviews, and it hits movie theaters this coming March.

When it does, there is little doubt “Runaways” will have audiences buzzing because Fanning and Stewart take them back to the era that made “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” a cliche.

To see “Cat in the Hat” star Fanning, 15, snort drugs, or Stewart, 19, the lovelorn Bella Swan in the “Twilight” movies swig whiskey from a bottle and sling a guitar over her shoulder, may be a challenge for some audiences.

But the real test will come in their portrayal of a lesbian affair between the two lead characters, Jett (Stewart) and lead singer Cherie Currie (Fanning).

“I didn’t even think about it. I still haven’t even thought about it.” Fanning told Reuters in a joint interview with Stewart.

“She’s blocked it out,” Stewart chimed in, with a laugh.

“No, no,” said Fanning. “It was just another thing that was in the story.”

The tale of “The Runaways” is as old as rock itself and deals with a rapid rise to stardom, fan adoration that follows, and a descent into drug and alcohol abuse that, for Currie, ended a career, and for Jett, proved an obstacle to overcome.

The Runaways were formed by guitarist Jett and drummer Sandy West in 1975. They were joined by Micki Steele on bass, Lita Ford on lead guitar and Currie — all in their teens.

Svengali-like manager Kim Fowley pitched them as the first all-girl rock band, and his savvy marketing — along with some real talent — gained them ever-increasing popularity in nightclubs. With hits like “Cherry Bomb,” their fame grew.

TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY

But the price of fame can be high, and soon the girls slipped into a haze of booze and pills. Band members began changing, and after about four years, they broke up.

The movie focuses on Currie, her dysfunctional family and her relationship with Jett, and it serves as both a tragic tale about the price of fame and a triumphant story of Jett’s career. She went on to major success with The Blackhearts.

In its review, Daily Variety called it “a conventionally enjoyable making-and-breaking-of-the-band saga.”

But the brief affair between Jett and Currie will likely get the major share of media attention when the film hits theaters, much as did the gay encounters between Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in romance “Brokeback Mountain.”

Stewart said that focus is off-the-mark. “The fact they made out when they got crazy back in the day…of course people are going to want to know about stuff like that, but what’s more interesting is how much they love each other,” she said. “It’s not really a romantic relationship. It’s a friendship.”

Indeed, Sundance audiences buzzed about the story of an all-girl band rising to stardom in male-dominated rock music, as well as the performances and the soundtrack, which includes hits of “glam rockers” such as David Bowie.

Fanning, who captured hearts as a child actor in movies such as “I Am Sam,” said what drew her to “The Runaways” was portraying a “real person and real-life things that happened.”

“I wasn’t familiar with the band before. It really opened my eyes to a whole new thing, a whole new time.”

Jett told Reuters it was “surreal” seeing the girls play the parts on-screen, and even though the real story took place in the 1970s, it should resonate with today’s audiences.

“People get that sense of the misfits and the outcasts, and I think that’s the draw…overcoming adversity and not letting other people tell you who you’re going to be in life and to follow you’re own dreams,” she said.

NEW YORK – Actors James Earl Jones and Tom Hanks top the list of the most trusted celebrities, according to a poll released on Monday.

In the Forbes.com survey conducted by E-Poll Market Research Co. Americans were asked who they rated highest on trustworthiness, awareness and appeal.

Jones, 79, has spent more than 50 years in a long career on the stage and screen in films including “Field of Dreams” and “Patriot Games.” He is known for his deep, assuring voice and was the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies.

But he was also one of the first guests in the long-running children’s television series “Sesame Street” and has provided voices in Disney family blockbusters like “The Lion King.”

Michael J. Fox, the former “Family Ties” actor who has been an activist for Parkinson’s disease after disclosing more than a decade ago he had been diagnosed with the disease, came in third.

“A premium was put on likability, reliability and credibility,” said Forbes staff writer Lacey Rose about the qualities Americans associated with trustworthiness.

“The stars on our list tend to be endearing characters on screen and off. With private lives that are kept precisely that, they have earned, and maintained, the respect of their fans,” she added.

A celebrity’s public image can often affect their star power or lucrative sponsorship deals. The recent sex scandal involving Tiger Woods caused the golfer to lose some of his sponsorship deals.

U.S. television host Mike Rowe came fourth on the list, followed by Morgan Freeman, who portrays former South African President Nelson Mandela in the film “Invictus.”

At No. 6 was actress Sally Field who plays the family matriarch in the television series “Brothers and Sisters” after beginning her career in the 1960s sitcom, “The Flying Nun”, followed by director Ron Howard at No. 7.

Rounding out the list was actor Will Smith, comedian Bill Cosby and Denzel Washington.

Girlfriends of Tiger Woods’s wife Elin Nordegren have reportedly revealed what happened prior to the golfer crashing his car on Thanksgiving Day.

According to The Daily Beast, Nordegren’s friends gave a minute-by-minute account of what took place before Woods smashed his truck into a tree outside his Florida home.

The day before Thanksgiving, the model had apparently learned of the National Enquirer story that would detail her husband’s affair with Rachel Uchitel. The sports star supposedly then persuaded his partner to phone Uchitel, and Nordegren became convinced that the relationship between the two was platonic.

The next day, the Swede found out further details of the upcoming article and argued with Woods that night. To end the fight, Woods apparently took an Ambien and went to sleep. His spouse began looking through his cellphone and found a text message to Uchitel that allegedly said, “You’re the only one I’ve loved”.

In order to prove that the two were still in contact, Nordegren posed as the athlete, texting, “I miss you!” and asking: “When are we seeing each other again?” Uchitel responded, before Nordegren phoned her back and reportedly started a heated row.

Woods’s wife later told one source that she became enraged and woke up the US golf pro by screaming at him. The insiders added that Nordegren said she hit him on the chest and arms with her fists, and then finally chased him from the house while wielding a golf club.

Shoeless, he is said to have ran into the car and barrelled out of the driveway before careening off a fire hydrant and smashing into a tree.

In one of the coldest weekends this winter, classrooms where applicants sat for an entrance exam to postgraduate courses were hot spots.

The three-day examination starting Saturday attracted a record number of applications. Most applicants finished their tests yesterday, but some take additional tests today.

The fever for the exam – where 1.4 million appeared – reflects a sluggish job market amid the global economic downturn, experts said.

“When the economy is down, people hide in schools and wait till the world is warmer,” said Ge Xiaoling, professor of mechanics at East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai.

Enterprises shed 8 percent of the jobs during the hard times, with unemployment hitting a six-year high in cities, according to the Society of China Analysis and Forecast 2010 published last month by Social Sciences Academic Press.

The job losses in cities have hit college graduates the most, the report said.

The crisis is compounded with more than 6.3 million students graduating from universities nationwide this year, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE).

Many, especially fresh college graduates, consider graduate school a buffer zone to put off the pressure on jobs.

Economics, management, law and computer sciences are the most sought-after courses.

A third of college students who graduate this year believe further studies would translate into better career options, according to a recent poll, Xinhua News Agency reported.

“I will get more credits in my job application after another three years in school,” said Zhu Shujun, a senior student at Jiangsu Polytechnic University.

“It means more time to prepare for my accountancy exam and get more internships.”

Yang Hui, 24, an administrative employee in Shanghai, said failure to get a good job has pushed her to apply for a higher degree.

“I don’t like my current job but I am not qualified enough to get the job I really want,” said Yang.

“I hope people will find me more capable after graduate school.”

But getting into graduate school is not easier than getting jobs.

The candidates are competing for 465,000 seats, which means only one in three examinees would succeed.

“This is even harder than the college entrance exam,” said Ma Li, 22, after finishing the morning session on the second day at University of International Business and Economics (UIBE).

“Now, we have to do everything on our own, like collecting information on schools and looking for exam materials,” said Ma, who wants to major in finance, which he thinks offers better job prospects.

Working while preparing for the exam is even more grueling, said Zhu Jiajia, 24, a lecturer in English at Shanghai Institute of Technology. “I sleep only five hours a day,” said Zhu, who started preparing for the exam in the summer.

However, whether the postgraduate degree is worth the effort has generated debate even among employers.

“All my postgraduate students have found jobs at a salary of around 7,000 yuan ($1,025),” said Ge Xiaoling, professor of mechanics.

There was a higher employment rate for postgraduate students than undergraduates last year, said Yang Yong, who is in charge of recruitment at a top university in Beijing.

He said only one out of 20 law graduates of the 2009 class found a job in Beijing courts while 12 of 52 postgraduates got a job.

But bachelor-degree holders can also be competitive and team players, said Su Qixin, learning specialist at Unilever’s HR department.

There is a worrying increase in the number of elderly people diagnosed with HIV and AIDS, with the highest infection rate among prostitutes and their clients, senior health officials have revealed.

Although no official figures are available, Hao Yang, deputy director of the Ministry of Health’s disease prevention and control bureau, said cases involving men and women aged 60 and over have risen by several hundred since 2007, particularly in southern China.

In the southern metropolis of Guangzhou alone, infections among people aged 50 or older are up to more than 100 a year, officials said.

The revelation highlights a possible oversight in AIDS prevention policies, which for many years have focused on younger age groups and migrant workers, experts said.

Of the 320,000 HIV-infected people in the country, 70 percent are 20 to 49 years old, the health ministry said last October. However, Hao told China Daily: “Old people have not been a priority in HIV and AIDS prevention and control campaigns, but they should be paid more attention.”

Given the country’s limited capacity for epidemic monitoring and reporting, the rise in infections among elderly men could even be much worse than doctors think, he said.

Due to constantly improving conditions, the Chinese are living healthier and longer, which Hao explained means more seniors, particularly men, are staying sexually active longer.

“Some of them turn to prostitutes but they face a high risk of HIV/AIDS. A great number do not use condoms,” he said.

Outside an AIDS support clinic in Guangzhou, 70-year-old Zhong Ping – not his real name – was seated with dozens of others waiting to see a doctor.

He was diagnosed as HIV-positive last year and told China Daily he thinks he was infected after sleeping with women at a “sauna” in 1999. “I didn’t use any protection,” he said.

Alongside him in the queue at Guangzhou No 8 People’s Hospital, the only hospital in Guangdong with a special AIDS unit, were parents with babies and small children, a prisoner in shackles escorted by a police officer, a young pregnant woman, and a couple in their 70s.

Sex has overtaken intravenous drug abuse as the most common method of HIV transmission in China. Of the 48,000 new cases reported in 2009, about 70 percent were infected through heterosexual or homosexual sex, according to China National Radio.

Cai Weiping, director of the infectious disease department at No 8 People’s Hospital, warned that the deadly virus is spreading fast among the country’s elderly population.

“I am seeing more elderly patients year by year,” he said, adding that seven of the 39 people hospitalized with HIV at his unit last year were aged 58 or above, with the oldest being 73.

“The oldest patient we have tracked is a 94-year-old man. Study of his development has found he was most likely infected by sex,” said Xu Huifang, director of HIV and AIDS Control and Prevention under the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control.

The situation in the southern metropolis is being echoed in most other regions of the country, said Hao at the Ministry of Health. However, both Hao and Xu declined to reveal the exact size of the elderly HIV positive population.

Some experts have put the nationwide rise in cases down to the improved blood screening programs introduced since 2006, when hospitals began to give all patients blood tests before surgical procedures, such as cancer and heart operations.

“As older people are more prone to major diseases than youths, they are more likely to receive a HIV test, meaning they have a higher chance of testing positive,” said Wang Ning, deputy director of the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Control and Prevention.

The fact that the majority of China’s 740,000 HIV and AIDS patients are aged 20 to 49 shows they are “still the biggest hit groups, rather than the elderly”, he said.

However, other experts disagree and instead blame the rise in infection among older people on abundant and cheap commercial sex, as well as an increasingly active gay community.

Campaigners have urged health officials to roll out more safe sex awareness programs targeting the elderly. Most programs and events currently only target young adults on college campuses or at nightclubs, they said.

We hope to send out a message to the Chinese public that the gay community is here and it’s healthy, sexy, trendy,” he told METRO in an interview on Sunday.

Zhang explained that the inspiration to throw the first Mr Gay China Pageant on the Chinese mainland came from a friend of a friend, who was a producer for the Mr Gay Hong Kong Pageant. Recognizing the company’s ability to hold such a bold event, the pieces soon fell into place. And as word began to spread, so did the pressure, as well as support and make it happen.

One contestant, 26 year-old Emilio Liu, told METRO he did not think it was possible at first: “When Ben first asked me about [the pageant] I accepted as a joke,” he said. “I accepted because I never thought something like this would happen in China.”

Zhang said he received a total of about 12 applications, and had asked some people like Liu because they were friends. The eight finalists, he said, are from all over China.

“Six are based in Beijing, but none are from Beijing,” he said. “We’ve got contestants from Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Tianjin, Chengdu, Liaoning, and Harbin.”

The winner will compete in the final competition in Oslo, Norway in February. The Worldwide Mr Gay Pageant includes 32 delegates worldwide. The pageant’s objective, according to a press release from Gayographic about the event, is to use a “beauty competition” to raise the self-esteem and visibility of gay men internationally.

The Mr Gay China Pageant will consist of three rounds: the freestyle round, the fashion show, and the underwear questions and answer segment. According to Zhang, the freestyle round is in lieu of a talent segment because they did not want to discourage applicants from applying.

“For the freestyle part they can come and do whatever they want – sing, take off their clothes, dance,” he explained, grinning.

The fashion show will have contestants select garments provided by a German fashion designer David Uble and strut their stuff on the catwalk. In each round, judges will eliminate two to three contestants until the final round, when the audience itself will then elect the first Mr Gay China.

There will be a panel of five judges for the competition, and according to Zhang are men, women, gay, straight and “represent all walks of life and a little bit of local flavor.”

Few participants, however, were completely out to their friends and family.

For contestant Steven Zhang, 30, his father does not know that his son his gay, let alone competing in a national beauty pageant for gays.

“I think this will out me,” he admitted, “whether I like it or not.”

For David Wu, also 30, he is counting on the Mr Gay China Pageant being publicized in certain media channels that his family is not likely to read.

“I don’t believe the Chinese language media will report the competition,” he said, “So I’m not really worried about my parents finding out.”

Emilio Liu told METRO that his mother and his friends know, but his father still does not know.

“If I said, ‘Dad, I’m gay.’ He’d be like, ‘Gay? What is that?”

Li Kang (196 – 265 AD) is not one of China’s best known writers, but this verse surely ranks among the “top 20″ ancient Chinese words of wisdom:

The wind will assault the tallest tree in the woods;

The wave will wash away the dune closest to the sea;

And the populace will attack the one who stands the highest above others’ heads and shoulders…

Li Kang’s verse is often used to caution those who are aggressive or ambitious. A friend quoted it to me when I was studying abroad – we were walking on a beach in Honolulu, Hawaii.

I took it to mean that I should lay low and remain modest, contrary to some of the teachings about individualism I encountered in the West.

A more nuanced interpretation is that people should keep their egos in check and learn to cooperate with those around them; otherwise, they will not survive.

Of course, Li Kang’s verse does not apply only to people.

As the New Year approaches and I reflect on the past 12 months – especially the two weeks I spent in Copenhagen – the verse keeps coming back to me.

In a way, it describes the position that China finds itself in at the moment.

For better or worse, China’s situation is subject to superlatives.

To deal with the international financial crisis and the global economic downturn, the country delivered arguably the largest stimulus package in the world.

As a result, its economy recovered the fastest and has produced the most growth.

Financially, China has the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves. In agriculture, it set a record in grain production, with farmers’ average per capita net income exceeding 5,000 yuan ($783) last year

China has surpassed the United States and Japan as the world’s largest producer and consumer of motor vehicles.

Vehicle sales, which are expected to reach 13 million by the end of the year, have boosted the economy and enriched the lives of many people, urban and rural alike.

Not all the superlatives are positive, however. Our eco-footprint has grown faster than any other country’s, and our greenhouse gas emissions have increased the most.

In some ways, China is like “the tallest tree in the woods” or “the dune closest to the sea”.

In the coming year, we are likely to endure harsher winds and tougher waves because of things we have done or not done.

In fact, storms have been gathering around China since the international climate talks ended with the Copenhagen Accord.

But China is not the only tree in the woods or an isolated dune on the shore.

Other countries can and should help bear the brunt of the wind and waves of climate change. China is certainly justified in resisting the pressure from some developed countries, which have not matched their promises with action when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Still, we must not neglect our duty to our children and our children’s children.

We must redouble our efforts to blaze a trail of sustainable development, which includes reducing reliance on fossil fuels and cleaning up the waterways, the air, and the environment.

It is said that when the late Chairman Mao Zedong met with Deng Xiaoping in 1975, Mao quoted Li Kang’s verse after Deng spoke of the possible opposition he would encounter.

Deng took this to mean that Mao considered him a leader and supported his efforts to clean up the mess of the “cultural revolution” (1966-76).

Whether we like it or not, China is now a world leader.

We must strive to promote sustainable development and a low-carbon economy, regardless of the coming storms.