Spring has yet to warm the hearts of China's auctioneers. Instead, a chill wind is blowing through the art market. In contrast to recent years, the spring auction season, which began in early February, has been a cause for concern rather than celebration.
Along with China, India is another emerging market for Western art collectors. But unlike the Westerners, Chinese collectors show little interest in southeast Asian art. Experts believe this is a result of a strongly nationalistic streak among Chinese collectors. Extremely expensive art works are often bought as by officials in search of guanxi, or connections and networking, rather more than as collectors' items.
Sources of high-end art works have gradually dried up, leaving auctioneers with depleted resources and facing grave difficulties in the collection of items for auction. To collect more high-end work for the next season, some have been forced to travel overseas.
Prices of Chinese art works could be set higher if exhibitions, cultural centers, and the curation and planning of shows was improved.
The new government has sounded the anti-corruption warning bell within two weeks of taking power, vowing to build a "clean" government.
The government's latest anti-graft campaign is notable for its determination to delegate and limit administrative power, instead of cracking down on corruption case by case, said Liu Shanying, a political researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In clearing up a situation where corruption is rampant, there is general recognition that at some point an amnesty will have to be granted, but there is much debate over the appropriate timing. If it happens too soon, there is a danger that corrupt officials will just keep their heads low and hope the new campaign will blow over.
Having been selected as a parents' representative at his son's primary school in Shanghai, Wang Huan was invited to make a speech at the opening ceremony for the new semester. As the owner of four companies, Wang, 40, is used to public speaking and handled his duties well. His performance won warm applause from the audience, including his 39-year-old wife and young son.
Wang Jun, who runs a marriage guidance consultancy in Yancheng city, Jiangsu province, is an experienced marriage counselor, but when people ask about her job, she always replies that she is a "doctor".
Wang Jun, 46, came to Beijing from a small town in Fengyang county, Anhui province, in 1994. He opened a hair salon with his wife in a residential area in Dongcheng district and made around 40,000 yuan ($6,458) a year. Two years later, their son was born in the capital. the cities, Jiang Xueqing reports in Beijing.
During the rapid process of urbanization, the government must take measures to avoid damaging the countryside, a decline in agricultural output and the marginalization of farmers, said Chen Xiwen, deputy director of the Party's leading group on rural work.
Instead of entering a university after his graduation from high school next year, Kieran-Jack Costello will travel to China alone and spend a year exploring the world's most-populous country.
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