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NZ, China in bid to end tour scams

New Zealand's government tourism agency is working with Chinese authorities to raise awareness of potential souvenir scams aimed at Asian tourists, a senior official said on Wednesday.

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Coming to a screen near you

A gleam of hope may have lit up the eyes of independent mobile application developers in response to the news that 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio has officially earned his seat at the cool kids' table by selling his news-aggregator app, called Summly, to the tech giant Yahoo! for a reported $30 million in cash and stock.

Inside story

The small fry

Insurance a cure for medical woes

An inflamed pancreas was the jab in the side Zhao Zhiqiang needed to realize that health insurance was a good idea.

What's in a name?

There's a tradition in China, whereby children are often named after major events. For example, many women in their 50s who were born just after the Korean War (1950-53) have the name Kangmei, which means "Anti-United States", while many men bear the name Yuanchao, which means "Aiding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea".

Family farms planting seeds for prosperity

Cao Xinyun, 59, is the only male worker on his watermelon farm. In a tent he erected for temporary employees, 10 elderly women were drinking tea and eating sunflower seeds.

Falling sales paint a bleak picture for China's art market

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.

Local versus global

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.

The challenges facing the market in China

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.

The potential of China's art market

Prices of Chinese art works could be set higher if exhibitions, cultural centers, and the curation and planning of shows was improved.