The “Tong Yi Shou Ge” Concert and Firework
It is not much of a news anymore because the concert and firework were held on 25th and 26th of April. But I think it’s still worth to mention here as these two events were topical lately in Shantou. Even I know about it in UK, well, from my families and news on the net.
Investment Campaign
To begin with, these two majors events are the peeks of recent campaign launched by the government to attract investment in Shantou. As one of the special economic zones and had a high growth in early 1990s, Shantou was famous at the time. But start from late 1990s until now, the economy doesn’t go very well, or I should say the city doesn’t develop as well as it supposes to. There are many reasons for that, which I think might be too lengthy to write down here. However, lately, it seems to be some real actions to aim to revive the concession.
Tong Yi Shou Ge Concert ( TYSG - 同一首歌)
TYSG is a concert held by CCTV. They invite famous singers to the show and have been held in many major cities in China. It has been quite a lot of noises about why TYSG didn’t come to Shantou, because it’s kind of like a symbol for major city and Shantou should have it.
The concert on 25th was mostly sponsored by Yihua Enterprise Ltd., which I heard from my dad that it was a company in Chenghai but now grew to be a group corporate and got listed in stock. It went quite well overall, as the news said, but there are critiques in some online forums as well. I can’t give any comment because I didn’t see it. But personally I am still happy to know the concert come to Shantou.
The Firework
There were 160 thousands firework in the sky of Shantou and lasted for one hour on the 26th. It must be phenomenal, I wished I could be there. The firework was sponsored by Xinda GPS, which I don’t know exactly what it is but looks like part of China Mobile.
I am sincerely happy to see any development, or even just some campaigns like that, in Shantou. The city is not doing as well as it suppose to, as I said. Hopefully efforts like that will bring Shantou a better performance.
Richard.H posted on April 28th, 2007 under: ST event | Tag: Concert, Firework, Investment |
I considered writing about this event but then didn’t because most of my comments would be related to how our city is governed, and they would not be positive, so I did the necessary thing here in China and didn’t write it. Because I want people in China to still be able to read the rest of the site.
We all know why Shantou hasn’t developed along with the other SEZs.
Yes. Some topics remain sensitive and controversial. It’s not our purpose to discuss here anyway. Did you go and see the firework?
No, it was the night before I was going on holiday so I stayed in and prepared - as hinted before, I was annoyed with the whole extravaganza anyway. They were Very loud though. Very. Were probably extremely impressive.
Be bold enough Maggie!
if you have some to say about how to better orgnize our govement, just speak out!
Dont worry about the brazen Internet censorship, they dont scrutinize English blog.
Hi 特区人,
Thanks for comments and I like them all, very well written. As a local shantou people myself I understand the feeling of got no enough mouth to complain about the city’s poor development. But on the other hand, I still hope that it will develop better. This is also one of the reason that I started this blog with maggie, just to contribute our efforts to the city.
Of course more controversial topics will be closer to the problems that shantou is facing now, but that’s not what we want to do here. We still want to show the good side of the city and share experiences of living and traveling. Political or social problems can go endlessly. It’s good to speak them out, but this might be a right place. However, we have a forum (forum.myshantou.net) where we encourage exchanging opinions and talk about any aspect of the city.
Richard.H, you are really an excellent boy!
How can I be aware of this blog’s existence so late!!
I would like to help publicize it continuously.
You are right, we need to be more ’sunshine’ here. Maybe I should apologize for those negative comments.
Anyway, best wishes for you, for Maggie, and for this wonderful site!
Hi 特区人
I still could not understand why so many people compain about the poor development of Swa. But I think it is not important, as if you feel that the city isn`t fit you, you can leave for your better development.
Why do so many complain?
Well…..
I think firstly, because they love this city, when you sincerely love someone, you usually criticize him or her. (think about you and your sweet heart)
Secondly, since we are tax-payers of this city, it’s our civil right to monitor the local government and complain about something, this power is granted by the Constitution.
Thirdly, the government itself needs our ‘complaint’, or it would lose their direction, complaining is an effective way to guide them.
Fourthly, indeed I am not ‘developing myself’ in Swatow right now, but as I said, I love it, so i will keep my critical eyes on it. (but not in this blog, due to the request from Richard.H)
Hope you are sophisticated enough to understand all what i say above.
Hey guys, I appreciate much of your comments. But I don’t want to see too many provoking use of words here. Different opinions generate thoughts and ideas, but the tone is important. I would be more than happy to hear more opinions, but we have our forum where is there for open discussion. Welcome
MyShantou Forum