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Winter vacation is coming next week, yet Shen Yiqian is upset. For her, the month-long winter break means more study, no fun. Her mother has already set up a demanding schedule: English, piano and painting lessons.

Chinese kids are sorely tested. All this extra schooling aims at making the seven-year-old more competitive in a demanding, fast-paced society.

For her winter-break studies Shen will be rewarded with a Japanese cartoon TV drama on DVD and a short trip to scenic Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

“I have no choice,” says her mother Wu Lihua, an accountant. “People around me have all made detailed and early plans for their children. I just can’t let my daughter lose at the starting line.”

It’s fair enough to want to give your child an edge. Children of today like Shen won’t confront basic living problems in their future. But their parents can pay scant attention to their psychological needs for rest, fun and a largely worry-free childhood.

Parents are pushing their children too hard to excel academically at very early ages, says Professor Yang Xiong, director of the Institute of Youth and Juveniles with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“Parents, many of whom are white-collar workers with good educational backgrounds, place excessive expectations on their children,” he says.

“Some kids are even deprived of a happy childhood since they are trained and supposed to be ‘geniuses.’ Yet a wise approach is to let children be children.”

He warns that though kids today, overwhelmingly in one-child families, are smarter or more knowledgeable than those in the past, they are also facing new problems such as lack of sleep and free time, anxiety over performance and pleasing their parents and even retrogression in their daily-life abilities and skills.

“It’s sad that some primary-school students still don’t know how to tie their shoes or take a bath on their own,” says Yang. Because of all the attention focused on them, he says, “they are also likely to become selfish and self-centered.”

Education these days is overwhelmingly exam-oriented. “Teaching for examination and learning for examination” has been the motto for years, and it’s difficult to change the mindset. The system is much criticized for turning out good test-takers but relatively few well-rounded students who are curious, inquiring and who take the initiative. Passive, not active learners.

The concept of “quality-oriented education” or quality education has been around since the 1980s and Chinese educators have tried to gradually put it into practice since the 1990s, encouraging students to think for themselves and be creative.

Turning out well-rounded, physically and emotionally healthy people is a slow process. Parents push their children to score high, and teachers still focus on the tests.

‘Quality education’

The exam score based on academics is still the only standard method to select students for college admission. Though a university degree no longer guarantees a good job and high salary, it can help, and parents still want to send their children to prestigious colleges for a bright future.

To fully embrace “quality education” in a rat-race era, however, means a new mindset and probably lower test scores.

In principle, quality education covers five aspects: academics, arts and music, moral and value education, physical education and physical labor. The physical labor part is dropped nowadays, and academics is emphasized.

Until that changes, extreme pressure, stress, distress and duress are a matter of course.

Quality education remains a goal, and children’s television can help achieve it through learning and entertainment. It can also promote healthy intellectual, emotional and physical growth.

Children’s TV in China dates back to the late 1950s. But teaching based on quality education will be incorporated into the 2008 programming by Haha TV, the dedicated children’s channel in Shanghai.

Haha TV, formerly a series of TV programs, became a separate channel as of this month. It targets children and teens 14 years old and younger.

Cong Haiying, an official from Shanghai Education Commission, says this is the first time some condensed content and requirements of quality education have been televised in a systematic and easy-to-understand way.

Yang Wenyan, channel director and veteran TV producer, describes today’s children, mostly from single-child families, as curious, emotional and capricious. She also sees depression and dissatisfaction.

“The fact is that they are getting too much homework and are asked to compete at the very beginning,” she says. “They have little chance to interact with society or nature.”

It seems that parents have only one mantra for their children: You must win. That pushes Yang and her team to promote healthy, meaningful learning and child development. It can also help parents understand children’s brain development and cognitive growth, and why enormous work loads and demands can be counterproductive.

“The primitive form of children’s TV like singing and dancing shows will be replaced by a format with more scientific planning,” says Yang. Most programs are developed with experts and psychologists from the Shanghai Education Commission and East China Normal University. Scientific research on children’s physical, neurological and emotional development goes into the planning.

“Haha Games” offers funny physical games that take into account children’s physical shape and abilities. The program’s “happy sports” spirit conforms to local teaching guidelines for physical education.

Children’s TV

Parents too can learn from “Happy Scampering” about the cognitive growth and development of children through age seven. Specialists in preschool education are program advisers.

Programs will also encourage children to become readers and get interested in traditional Chinese festivals and customs.

“This is my favorite show,” says 12-year-old Chen Qinian of “Haha Games.” “My classmates and I seldom miss it. It has taught us how to play football and basketball. That is so cool.”

Program highlights include a children’s drama about campus life titled “Together We Bond” and a pantomime about building healthy parent-child relationships.

The four-month “Happy Art” teaching program by Norwegian cartoonist Oistein Kristiansen helps children from three to 12 years old express themselves and build constructive imagination through doodling, cartoon drawing, painting, paper craft and other expressions.

“We will apply bright and mild colors in the studio to help children’s eyesight,” says channel director Yang. “There will be no sharp edges of furniture on the sets and our camera gets down to the child’s height to make them comfortable.”

The channel will also sponsor a national doodling contest, a children’s charity dinner and summer camps for kids to get to know about nature and Chinese society and culture.

China’s economy is up against a triple threat of weakening global growth, possible domestic overheating and the catastrophic impact of recent severe weather.

It should still record high growth this year, according to analysts and economic organizations.

China was fighting strong economic headwinds as soon as 2008 started. Overseas, there’s little dispute that the world economy is slowing as the impact of the U.S. sub-prime crisis ripples throughout the world. Then there are volatile international financial markets and spiraling energy and food prices.

Domestically, China was hit by the worst snowstorms in half a century this winter, while it was fighting to prevent domestic economic overheating and curb inflation. The weather caused at least 111.1 billion yuan (15.43 billion U.S. dollars) in losses, inflicting severe damage on farms and households, forests and the power grid.

To make things worse, consumer prices surged. The consumer price index (CPI) accelerated from 6.5 percent in December to 7.1 percent in January, the fastest pace in more than 11 years, on ballooning food prices.

Can China maintain steady growth this year? That is likely to be a key topic at the country’s annual national congress, to be held next month, which is expected to work out measures to achieve prosperity.

Here are some views on the outlook for 2008 by economists and organizations in China and abroad.

On the positive side:

- Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said during his visit to China last week that although there had been some impact from the sub-prime crisis on China, the IMF still expected the economy to expand by 10 percent this year.

- The World Bank lowered its 2008 economic growth forecast for China from 10.8 percent to 9.6 percent earlier this month. It said that the economy would decelerate this year but still maintain high growth, since China seemed able to resist the negative impact of weakening global growth.

- Li Pumin, the spokesman with the National Development and Reform Commission, said that China had gotten stronger over the past 30 years of opening up and its economic fundamentals were not hampered by snowstorms in the southern region. He didn’t give any specific figures.

- Xie Fuzhan, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that the United States and China were two major engines of the world economy. The decelerating U.S. economy would no doubt have a negative impact on the world economy. So the slowing in the Chinese economy, which had been on the verge of overheating, would be what Chinese decision makers had expected, he said.

- Fan Jianping, an economist with the State Information Center, a government think tank, echoed Li, saying that there had been no change in the fundamentals of the economy. He said that growth could still hit around 10.5 percent for 2008. He added that the impact of the weather would be transient and limited and could hopefully help cool the economy.

On the negative side:

- Wang Jian, a macro-economic analyst with the National Development Reform Commission, said that China faced the risk of “stagflation”, a period of inflation combined with economic stagnation.

- Ha Jiming, China International Capital Corp. Ltd. chief economist, said that the economy would keep growing rapidly in the next eight to 10 years but with fluctuations, which would be most likely to occur in 2008 and 2009.

A survey of confidence among China’s banks, conducted by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), found that 63.9 percent believed the economy would continue growing rapidly without overheating in the second quarter.

“The Chinese economy will continue expanding, but overheated growth won’t occur in the ensuing months this year,” Ou Minggang, deputy editor-in-chief of Chinese Banker magazine, told Xinhua on Friday.

The survey, which covered bankers from 2,850 institutions nationwide, was released on Thursday. It found that only 4.1 percent of the bankers believed the economy would overheat in the second quarter, according to the central bank.

The index of bankers’ confidence rose to 28.1 percent for the first quarter of 2008 from 24.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, but it was less than half the 60.6-percent level in the first quarter of 2007. The PBOC said that most bankers had concerns over industrial conditions.

The survey found that 62.4 percent of the bankers said that monetary policy was “tight” — an all-time high and 8.4 points higher than in the last quarter.

“This reveals that the government’s tight monetary policy has shown its effect in practice and on bankers’ psychology. The uncertainty over the global economy has also affected Chinese bankers’ confidence,” said Ou.

He added that it had become more difficult for enterprises to get loans, which also reduced some bankers’ outlook for their banks’ growth potential and profitability.

The PBOC on March 18 raised the bank reserve ratio by 50 basis points, effective March 25, the second rise this year. The ratio was raised in line with tight monetary policy and was intended to lead to rational credit growth.

This effort dampened — at least temporarily — expectations that the PBOC would further raise interest rates to cool economic growth.

China’s inflation rate has continued to accelerate, meanwhile, with the consumer price index up 8.7 percent year-on-year in February, the biggest jump in nearly 12 years.

A 50-city quarterly survey by the PBOC, also released on Thursday, found that in the first quarter, 49.2 percent of the 20,000 respondents said prices had become intolerable.

Hope may be fading for many, but as rescue work continues a week after the quake, a victim was successfully pulled alive out of the debris. Many thought 33-year-old Tang Xiong, a doctor at Central Hospital in Beichuan, would not make it. But it was his wife’s support, buried with him for most of the time that kept him going.

At ten past nine, Sunday morning in Beichuan County, Tang Xiong was successfully pulled out from the rubble by firefighters.

Medical experts from Beijing and Liaoning joined hands in a thorough examination of Tang. And they say his condition is fundamentally sound.

And this lady, Xie Shouju, is Tang’s better half. She says that it was when they were about to go to work Monday afternoon when the earthquake struck.

Xie Shouju, Tang Xiong’s wife, said, “In just a split second I grasped my glasses and rolled over to the sofa. All the cement tiles then fell down. Thanks to the sofa the tiles couldn’t hurt me and created a limited space for me to move. But at that time I didn’t know my husband was buried down there as well. I thought he had already left for work, and he would come to save me. But after a while I heard him yelling for help, and the sound came from right beside me, about a-sofa-and-a-wall away. In the first couple of days, it was he who shouted for help. And I stayed cool, saving energy. He would check with me every couple of hours to see if I was still sober. And later on it was I who shouted for help. Just like that, we shouted in turn.”

Yes, it was just like that. With support and faith in each other, the couple survived a seemingly hopeless and endless darkness. After days buried in the debris, the couple were finally rescued.

Xie Shouju said, “This miracle wouldn’t have happened if there were no the Party, no country, no PLA soldiers, no firefighters and seismologists coming to our rescue.”

Firefighters paid a visit to Tang in the hospital. Finally seeing their rescuers, Xie Shouju couldn’t express more of her gratitude than giving the heroes a very big hug.

Four-year-old Alex Hua Tian took up horse riding in Beijing’s suburbs and 14 years later became a history maker in the equestrian world.

He was the first Chinese rider registered by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) and the first Chinese rider to compete in three-day eventing at an international equestrian event, which includes dressage, jumping and cross-country competitions.

On Sunday, the 18-year-old Eton College student became the first Chinese eventer to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games and the youngest rider to take part in this event at the Olympics.

At one of the Olympic qualifiers in Bialy Bor, Poland, last week, Hua passed the Olympic qualification standards after finishing second, fifth and seventh, respectively, on FBW Chico, Jeans and Castlebanny Prince. The confirmation of his Olympic berth by FEI will arrive soon, his father Hua Shan said.

“His mother called me from (Poland) and she was so excited she couldn’t speak a complete sentence and cried,” Hua Shan said.

“Alex was of course quite happy but kept cool as usual. He told me the horses had been wonderful.

“We all believed that Alex could qualify for the Olympics but we didn’t expect it to come so soon. The average age of Olympic event riders is around 35 and what he has achieved at such a young age is really amazing.”

As host country, China was automatically allocated six berths in equestrian events - four in jumping, one in dressage and another in eventing. Even so, Chinese riders and their four-legged partners need to satisfy the minimum standards at specified events that take place between Jan 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008.

“We were very happy to hear the news but not that surprised,” Chinese Equestrian Association director Cheng Qing said.

“Hua Tian is such a talented rider and has already shown that he is capable of qualifying for the Olympics. All he needs now is more match experience.”

Hua’s Chinese sponsor Jiang Fengcan, who is also the owner of the horses, said he was proud of his decision to back the youngster.

“I was a little bit nervous before he qualified for the Olympics but now I am relieved,” he said.

“I have known Hua Tian for years and always believed he would make history at the Olympics.”

According to the rules, an eventer can take just one horse to Olympic competition and Hua needs to choose from the three qualified horses.

“As horses can easily get hurt during the dangerous cross-country competition, we will protect them and they will only participate in dressage and jumping before the Olympics,” Hua said.

World-class team

Thanks to Guangdong province businessman Jiang’s 30 million yuan ($3.8 million) sponsorship Hua has backing from top professionals in the industry, including four seasoned grooms, one physiotherapist, one physical trainer and one veterinarian.

The world’s leading event riders have coached Hua since he was 10 years old, including Clayton and Lucinda Fredericks.

Clayton is currently the world’s No 1 event rider, the 2005 World Cup champion and president of the international Event Riders Association. His wife, Lucinda, has won the four-star eventing competition at the British town of Badminton.

Other veteran dressage and jumping riders, who have competed at previous Olympics, have also joined the team.

“We should thank the Fredericks for their great efforts in helping Alex achieve his Olympic dream,” Hua Shan said.

“They are working so hard at coaching Alex and sometimes they have to change their own Olympic preparations in order to meet Alex’s schedule, because they understand that he is making history,” Hua Shan said.

The outlook of China’s foreign trade in the second half of 2008 would be positive despite a sharp decline in first half trade surplus, Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

The country’s trade surplus fell to 99.03 billion U.S. dollars in the first six months, down 11.8 percent from the same period last year, according to customs statistics.

Imports rose 30.6 percent year-on-year to 567.57 billion U.S. dollars, while exports jumped 21.9 percent to 666.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Export growth in the first half was 5.7 percentage points lower from a year earlier, which further slowed in June by 10.5 percentage points from May.

Gao said a main reason for the export fall was the government policies to cut exports of high-polluting and energy-consuming items.

The slowing export growth, however, reflected weaker global demand and could cool the country’s economy growth, analysts said.

Gao said the ministry would further study the difficulties in some export industries and aid them “at a proper time.”

He also announced at the conference the China Import and Export Fair, or the “Canton fair,” would run between Oct. 15 and Nov. 6 in Guangzhou in the southern Guangdong Province. The fair was considered a “barometer” of the country’s foreign trade.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 10.4 percent in the first half. The growth rate was 1.8 percentage points lower than the first half last year, or 0.2 percentage points lower than the first quarter of this year.

The outlook of China’s foreign trade in the second half of 2008 would be positive despite a sharp decline in first half trade surplus, Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

The country’s trade surplus fell to 99.03 billion U.S. dollars in the first six months, down 11.8 percent from the same period last year, according to customs statistics.

Imports rose 30.6 percent year-on-year to 567.57 billion U.S. dollars, while exports jumped 21.9 percent to 666.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Export growth in the first half was 5.7 percentage points lower from a year earlier, which further slowed in June by 10.5 percentage points from May.

Gao said a main reason for the export fall was the government policies to cut exports of high-polluting and energy-consuming items.

The slowing export growth, however, reflected weaker global demand and could cool the country’s economy growth, analysts said.

Gao said the ministry would further study the difficulties in some export industries and aid them “at a proper time.”

He also announced at the conference the China Import and Export Fair, or the “Canton fair,” would run between Oct. 15 and Nov. 6 in Guangzhou in the southern Guangdong Province. The fair was considered a “barometer” of the country’s foreign trade.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 10.4 percent in the first half. The growth rate was 1.8 percentage points lower than the first half last year, or 0.2 percentage points lower than the first quarter of this year.

Typhoon Nuri continued to intensify as it maintained its course towards south China on Wednesday, according to the meteorological station in southeast China’s Fujian Province.

The eye of Nuri, the twelfth tropical storm this year, was 700 kilometers south of Xiamen City at 8 a.m., packing winds of up to force-13, or 144 kilometers per hour, in the center, said the station.

Nuri was moving towards southeastern coastal areas at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour, and would enter the South China Sea on Thursday.

Fujian’s seashores were hit by gusts of up to force 8 (51 kilometers per hour) on Wednesday morning. The observatory forecast heavy rain in most areas in the province in the next two days.

Fujian and neighboring Guangdong Province in south China had been dominated by lingering heat with temperatures rising to 37 degree Celsius. The observatories expected the impending typhoon to cool the air.

The meteorological station in Guangdong forecast heavy rain in the eastern part of the province from Friday to Saturday.

The Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday night issued an urgent notice requiring fishery and agricultural departments in Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangxi and Guangdong, to keep the public informed and help fishing vessels avoid risks.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Sunday during his visit to Baghdad that it was the right time for the two countries to promote bilateral ties.

“We feel that it is the proper time to visit Iraq and go deeper into better relations between Iraq and Egypt,” Abul Gheit told reporters after holding talks with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari.

The two sides have agreed to reopen the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad, Abul Gheit said, adding that he had visited several locations to select a suitable one for the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad.

For his part, Zebari said that both countries could benefit from strong ties and that Egypt could help Iraq to develop its infrastructure.

“We can both make advantage from our better relations and Egypt can also take part in helping us in rebuilding infrastructure and agriculture,” Zebari told a joint news conference together with Abul Gheit.

Meanwhile, Abul Gheit revealed that Egyptian Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi, who accompanied him, had met with Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, and both sides agreed on enhancing cooperation in the fields of oil and gas.

The landmark visit is a sign that Arab nations are trying to restore normal ties with Iraq after over five years of U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

In July 2005, an Egyptian top diplomat Ihab al-Sherif was kidnapped and killed by suspected al-Qaida militants in an attempt to prevent Arab and Islamic countries from holding diplomatic ties with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

Iraq has been urging world countries to establish ties with it, particularly calling on the Arab world to name their ambassadors and open their embassies in Baghdad.

Sunni Arab countries had been reluctant to restore close ties because of the ongoing warfare, and have been cool to the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.

The United States repeatedly encouraged Arab allies to strengthen their ties with Iraq as a way of countering the growing influence of Iran and reinforcing its Arab identity.

When the government offered an emergency loan to insurer American International Group in September, eyebrows shot up at the $85 billion price tag. Now it looks like pocket change.

The size of the AIG lifeline swelled to more than $150 billion on Monday, a record for a private company. But the head of the broader financial rescue package was cool to other companies reaching for a piece of the bailout pie.

The new AIG package includes a $40 billion chunk of the $700 billion financial bailout. It’s the first time money from the big rescue bill has gone to any company other than a bank.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, burning through cash and bleeding jobs, are prodding the government for more help. The leaders of the House and Senate have urged Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to get some of the $700 billion to the Big Three.

The automakers, covering all their options, are also pushing to get help as part of a new, multibillion-dollar stimulus package for the economy if Democrats push it through Congress when a lame-duck session convenes next week.

President-elect Barack Obama has said his transition team would explore options to provide relief to the auto industry, and President Bush’s press secretary said Monday the White House would “listen to” Congress if they try to help automakers.

Any money would be on top of the $25 billion in loans that Congress passed in September to help retool auto plants to build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Neel Kashkari, the interim head of the $700 billion bailout program, was cool to the idea of funneling the money to companies beyond banks and AIG.

“This morning’s action with AIG was a one-off event necessary for financial stability. It is not the establishment of a new program,” he said at a financial conference in New York.

In a separate development late Monday, the Fed granted the request of credit card company American Express Co. to become a bank holding company.

Although the new status will subject the company to greater regulatory scrutiny, American Express will also gain access to the Fed’s emergency lending program. The company, which last month announced plans to slash its global work force, has been hard hit by the credit crisis as even the more affluent consumers the company caters to struggle to pay off their debts.

The original Fed loan to AIG was $85 billion, and the Fed added a $38 billion loan in October. But that has not been enough to firm up the company, which is so big and interconnected to other firms that its failure would devastate the economy.

Under the new plan, the Fed will provide $60 billion in loans. The Treasury will provide $40 billion to buy up preferred stock. And the government will spend close to $53 billion to buy up mortgage-backed assets and other AIG contracts on debt.

Total package: $153 billion. And AIG has also taken advantage of a federal plan to buy up short-term debt routinely issued by companies, known as commercial paper.

The $40 billion going to AIG will buy preferred shares of company stock, giving taxpayers an ownership stake. In turn, restrictions will be placed on executive pay at the firm.

The Fed stepped in with an $85 billion loan in September because the company is so big — linked to mutual funds and retirement products held by millions of Americans, not to mention ties to U.S. mortgages — that its failure would have devastated the economy.

“The bailout continues, and essentially exemplifies the notion of `too big to fail,’ said Anthony Sabino, a professor of law and business at St. John’s University. “But the question must be asked: Where does it end?”

AIG also came under fire for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a California retreat just days after the Fed loan was announced in September.

In other bailout news Monday, mortgage finance company Fannie Mae said it may have to tap a $100 billion government lifeline as early as next year after posting a massive third-quarter loss.

Fannie Mae, seized by federal regulators more than two months ago, posted a staggering loss of $13 per share for the July-to-September quarter, compared with a loss $1.56 a share, for the same period last year.

The company’s net worth — what it owns minus what it owes — fell to $9.4 billion at the end of September, from $44.1 billion at the end of last year. If that number turns negative, Fannie Mae said it would be required to tap Treasury for help.

The new package for AIG was unveiled as the insurer issued new, bleak quarterly results. It lost $24.5 billion in the third quarter after turning a $3.1 billion profit in the third quarter of 2007.

Under the restructuring, AIG also gets easier terms on the Fed loans, reducing the risk AIG will have to sell off assets at firesale prices to pay back the government.

“This is a very big deal for AIG. It essentially plugs two of the biggest holes that the company had,” said Rob Haines, analyst at CreditSights.

Fed officials expressed confidence the money would eventually be repaid to taxpayers, and presidential press secretary Dana Perino said it would also be good for the fragile U.S. economy.

The federal help “will allow AIG to continue to restructure themselves in a way that will not hurt the overall economy. AIG is a large, interconnected firm,” she said.

AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy called the plan a “win-win.”

“It sends a strong signal to our policy holders, to government, to regulators around the world, to our business partners and counterparts that AIG is in fact on the road to recovery,” he said.