Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2014)
ASIA / PACIFIC January 6, 2014 THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5 AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File China formalizes easing of one-child policy ICONIC IMAGES. Ten images were chosen by The Associated Press as the top 10 news photos representing the top stories of 2013. One of the images is of a Bangladeshi woman survivor (top photo) who was lifted out of the rubble by rescuers at the site of a building that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Thursday, April 25, 2013. Another is of survivors (bottom photo) of Typhoon Haiyan (also known as Typhoon Yolanda) riding motorbikes through the ruins of the destroyed town of Guiuan in the Philippines on November 14, 2013. AP presents top 10 photos of the year By Santiago Lyon AP Director of Photography ow to sum up an entire year of news in just 10 photos? The very notion is daunting when considering that The AP’s award-winning team of hundreds of staff photographers, freelancers, and photo editors sends out some 3,000 photos every 24 hours — over 1 million photos a year — to our subscribers around the globe. Photo editing is, of course, a subjective process of comparison and selection. It involves aesthetics, journalism, impact, and memory. In the end, I chose 10 representative photos from some of the biggest stories of 2013. In the 10, we see a woman being removed, alive, from a deadly building collapse in Bangladesh. We see a mother carrying her eight-year-old daughter through the wreckage after a tornado levelled sections of Moore, Oklahoma. A family in Australia takes shelter in the water under a bridge as wildfires rage around them. A victim of the Boston Marathon bombing is rushed to safety after losing the lower part of his legs in the blasts. Gay-rights activists are protected by police in Russia after being beaten at the hands of anti-gay demonstrators. A nun’s face lights up as white smoke billows from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel indicating that a new pope has been elected. A protester gets a face full of pepper spray from Brazilian police. A Syrian man covered in bandages leaves the hospital after being injured in fighting. A devastated landscape in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan (also known as Typhoon Yolanda) struck. Hundreds of mourners line up to see the body of Nelson Mandela as it lies in state in South Africa. The choice of these photos is meant only to represent the broader spectrum of human experiences captured in all the other images. Every experience is, in some way, a valid one. Santiago Lyon is vice president and director of Photography at The Associated Press. H 2UHJRQ,PPLJUDWLRQ$WWRUQH\ -LPP\1DPJ\DO &DOOWRGD\WRGLVFXVV\RXUFDVH BEIJING (AP) — China formally allowed couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child, the first major easing of its three-decade-old restrictive birth policy. First announced by the ruling Communist Party’s leadership in November, the decision was officially sanctioned last month by the standing committee of China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Implemented around 1980, China’s birth policy has limited most couples to only one child, but has allowed a second child if neither parent has siblings or if the first child born to a rural couple is a girl. Demographers and policymakers have estimated the easing would benefit some 15 million to 20 million Chinese parents — mostly in cities — and result in 1 million to 2 million extra births per year in the first few years, on top of the 16 million babies born annually in China. They say the easing is so incremental that the extra births are not expected to strain resources such as healthcare and education. China has credited the restrictive policy with managing its population growth and improving the economy, but RULE RELAXED. A woman leads a child while holding a doll as they walk near a mural depicting a child eating in Beijing. China formally allowed couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child, the first major easing of its three-decade-old restrictive birth policy. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) critics say it is a violation of human rights. China is the world’s most populous country with 1.35 billion people. Mao’s birthday marked with controlled tribute BEIJING (AP) — China’s leaders bowed three times before a statue of Mao Zedong on the 120th anniversary of his birth in carefully controlled celebrations that also sought to uphold the market-style reforms that came after his death. The approach underscores the delicate balancing act the Communist Party leadership — installed in 2012 — has to perform in managing perceptions of Mao’s legacy. As heirs of the authoritarian one-party political system imposed by Mao and his party comrades, the current leadership has a strong interest in venerating his memory in a bid to bolster their legitimacy. But they have also pledged to undertake market reforms needed to rejuve- nate a slowing economy, measures that would have been anathema to Mao. President and Communist Party chief Xi Jinping and other top leaders paid tribute to the founder of the communist state with a visit to his mausoleum on Tiananmen Square in the heart of the capital, Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The leaders “revered” Mao’s embalmed body which lies in state in the mausoleum and “jointly recalled the glorious achievements of comrade Mao Zedong,” Xinhua reported. In a sign of the relatively understated approach the party is taking with the anniversary, there was no mention of Mao’s birthday on the front page of the party’s flagship People’s Daily. On page seven, the paper hailed Mao as a brilliant “proletarian revolutionary, strategist, and theorist,” in a full-page commentary — accompanied by an editorial that the “best commemoration” of Mao would be to keep advancing economic reforms. The celebrations avoid specific discussion of Mao’s central role in China’s worst post-war tragedies: the 1959- 1963 Great Leap Forward and the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, in which millions died from starvation and Retirement SUBDUED CELEBRATION. A plainclothes security guard (center, with sunglasses) monitors tourists as they pass by former Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s portrait displayed on the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China. With his image gracing bank notes and staring out from the gate, Mao re- mains a constant presence in China 120 years after his birth, revered as a hero who founded the communist state and restored national pride — even as China moves ever further from his vision of a communist society. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File) persecution. The People’s Daily noted only that the party regarded Mao’s mistakes in his later years as those made by a “remarkable revolutionary and Marxist.” The run-up to the anniversary included dozens of symposiums, exhibitions, concerts, and television specials. Mao remains a strong symbolic presence, though not nearly as ubiquitous as he was during his lifetime. Thou- sands of Chinese tourists line up daily to view his embalmed body at the mausoleum, which has also undergone renovation. His image graces almost all bank notes from 1 to 100 yuan, and Chinese studios crank out a steady flow of movies and television series based on highly sterilized versions of his life and the party’s history. Living S mith T ower 515 Washington Street Vancouver, Washington 360.695.3474 4VQQPSUBOETFSWJDFTSFMBUJOHUP t"HJOHt%JTBCJMJUJFTt7FUFSBOT • Studio & One-Bedroom Apartments • Federal Rent Subsidies Available • No Buy-In or Application Fees • Affordable Rent includes all Utilities except telephone & cable television • Ideal urban location near shopping, bus lines, restaurants, and much more! t "buse reporting t Transportation t In-home support t 1VCMJDCFOFöUT t 0UIFSSFMBUFEJTTVFT t )PVTJOHSFTPVSDFT t .FBMT t -FHBMSFTPVSDFT t .FEJDBSFIFMQ t $BSFHJWFSTVQQPSU ZZZQDPJ\DOODZFRP *UHHQ&DUG1DWXUDOL]DWLRQ)LDQFp9LVD 6SRXVH9LVD(PSOR\PHQW%DVHG3HWLWLRQV '$&$,QYHVWPHQW%DVHG3HWLWLRQV 6:0HDGRZV5RDG6XLWH/DNH2VZHJR25 Mark your calendar! The Year of the Horse begins January 31, 2014. Our special issue celebrating the Lunar New Year will be published on January 20, 2104. Toll Free 1-855-673-2372 TTY 711 www.ADRCofOregon.org