Society

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Society

Poverty Aid through Better Transport

China’s Ministry of Transport recently released a five-year plan to alleviate poverty by building more roads. The plan states that the central government will invest RMB 848 billion in building expressways， highways and country roads in less developed regions from 2016 to 2020. According to the plan， 16，000 km of expressways and 46，000 km of national highways will be built in poor areas during the five-year period. Grade 2 highways will be extended to more county seats and paved roads will connect more than 45，500 rural communities. In addition，31，600 km of roads will be renovated in rural areas to boost local mining，tourism and manufacturing. A total of 150 passenger depots in county seats and 1，100 in towns or townships will be rebuilt to ensure shuttle services cover all towns， townships and administrative villages.

The proposed program covers 1，177 counties （including cities and prefectures of the same administrative level） in worse-off regions， including some old revolutionary bases， frontier areas and those with large ethnic minority populations.

Chinese Writer Wins Hugo Award

Hao Jingfang， author of Folding Beijing，became the second Chinese writer to take home a Hugo Award when she won the Best Novella award on August 20 at the 74th World Science Fiction Convention in the United States.

Folding Beijing tells of a father’s struggle to send his adopted daughter to school in a futuristic dystopian Beijing divided into three areas according to social class.

Hao began writing sci-fi fiction after graduating with a degree in physics from Tsinghua University in 2006.

In 2015， Liu Cixin became the first-ever Asian writer to win the Hugo Award for his

Three-Body Problem， the first part of a trilogy. The translator of the English edition， sci-fi writer Liu Yukun （Ken Liu）， also translated Folding Beijing.

Established in 1953， the Hugo Awards acknowledge the best works of science fiction or fantasy and are seen as the highest honor bestowed in this genre. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback， founder of the American science-fiction magazine Amazing Stories.

500,000

In the past

decade China

has trained more than half a

million social

workers and

seen the founding of more than 4,700 private

social service

organizations.

First Charity Law Enacted

The first Charity Law of the People’s Republic of China took effect on September 1. Adopted at the annual legislative session last March，the new law eases restrictions on fundraising and the way charity groups operate. It also promises tax benefits for charitable activities and tightens scrutiny on the internal management of charity groups.

The charity sector in China has been dogged by scandal in recent years， notably blogger Guo Meimei’s false claim on social media to be working with a charity organization whose proceeds financed her extravagant lifestyle. In spite of this， annual donations to registered charities in China have soared from RMB 10 billion to RMB 100 billion over the past decade.

The introduction of the new law is another step by China to boost the growth of the charity sector， experts said.

Chinese Universities Better Rated Globally

Tsinghua University and Peking University have for the first time broken into the top 100 global university rankings. On the 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities（ARWU） list， Tsinghua is 58th and Peking comes in at 71st. A total of 41 Chinese mainland universities rank among the top 500， nine more than in 2015.

Harvard University retains its crown for the 14th year， followed by Stanford， University of California Berkeley， University of Cambridge， and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Zhejiang University， Shanghai Jiao Tong University， Fudan University， and University of Science and Technology of China are ranked between 101 and 150， an improvement in last year.

Since 2003， ARWU has presented the world top 500 universities annually， selected from more than 1，200 universities globally based on transparent methodology and thirdparty data.

ARWU has been recognized as one of the most trustworthy global university rankings， with a focus on the quality of teaching and research. It adopts six objective indicators， including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals，the number of Highly Cited Researchers，the number of articles published in Nature and Science journals， the number of articles indexed in the Science Citation Index， Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index，and per capita performances. Activity

Hypermedia Dance Performance Whales，Stories of Giants

Date: October 1， 2016

Place: Ningbo Cultural Plaza Poly Grand Theater

Price: RMB 80/160/230/300

Inspired by legends of Mexico and Chile， the performance integrates 3D technology with dance and gives viewers a chance to immerse themselves in an ancient story expressed in a modern way. It was winner of the Best Dance Performance Award of the European Fair of Performing Arts for Children in 2015.

2016 Fashion Rocks China

Date: October 14， 2016

Place: Shanghai Oriental Sports Center

Price: RMB 380/580/880/1280/2580

Having debuted in London in 2003， “Fashion Rocks”presents a stage where music and fashion collide. “Fashion Rocks” has brought top fashion brands and the world’s leading musical artists in concert on the catwalk.