Word: liao
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...Tang dynasty so interesting. During this period, trade along the Silk Route was at its height, and foreigners, like this Central Asian carrying a cornucopia-shaped wine vessel, were welcomed and valued at the cosmopolitan capital, Xi'an. When the Tang dynasty disintegrated, the northern Khitan tribe established the Liao dynasty around Beijing. It is represented here by two extraordinary gilded funeral masks - you can tell which one is the woman by her headgear and earring. The renovation gives the Cernuschi more exhibition space - the area for special shows is currently devoted to a collection of celadons (green-glazed pottery...
...banded together to mend clothing. Today that circle has grown into a 110-woman collective housed in a new, two-story concrete building. The clatter of 60 gleaming sewing machines plays syncopated rhythm to the strains of Chinese music from the stereo and the gossipy talk of the workers. Liao Zhureng, 30, who manages the workshop, rarely needs to exhort the women since they are paid by the piece...
Life has grown sweeter in Longzhao. Women who once made $10 a month can now take home $30 to $40, while their husbands earn similar paychecks building houses and factories, thanks to the construction boom, or working at jobs once limited to large collectives, like raising pigs and ducks. Liao's husband builds houses. With their combined income of $670 a year, they were able to buy a three-room duplex for $1,700. The collective chipped in about $300, and the couple will pay the balance over several years. Liao does not begrudge the debt, since it symbolizes better...
...with free enterprise come the whims of the customer. The garment factory's profits, normally about $30,000 a year, fell to $15,000 in 1984, when the collective overestimated the demand for army-style clothes. "We have to be much more responsive to the market," admits Director Ru, Liao's boss. After the relative freedom of laboring in the fields, some workers have trouble adjusting to the tyranny of the assembly line. "You can't just go out to the well whenever you want, but I am getting used to it," says Liao...
...economic success. Environmental degradation robs the nation of up to 12% of its GDP, according to the World Bank, and each year 300,000 Chinese die prematurely of respiratory ailments. "The rest of the world doesn't understand how big China's environmental problem is," says Sheri Liao, head of the Global Village of Beijing, an NGO dedicated to environmental education. "But they need to pay attention because our problem is becoming their problem...