Education, Internet and taxes concern top political advisors

• Source: Global Times
• [08:05 March 15 2010]
• Comments

By Fu Wen

The annual CPPCC meeting wrapped up business Saturday in Beijing. As usual, members proposed a variety of new programs and changes to current laws or policies.

In the end, 1,977 members, or 88 percent of them, handed over 5,430 new proposals.

More than 50 percent of the proposals involved the economy while 859 proposals touched on education.

Here are 10 of the most interesting, and unusual proposals from members, selected by the Global Times.

Housework fee

Zhang Xiaomei, president of Beauty Magazine

"Husbands should pay wives for doing housework," Zhang said.

She believes that housework influences a woman's personal development and it should be recognized with wages.

Stop using huangse to mean porn

Wang Quanshu, chairman of CPPCC Henan Provincial Committee

Wang said that people should not use the word Huangse, which stands for the color yellow, to mean pornog-raphy.

He said yellow has many positive attributes in China. For example, Chinese people are considered descendants of Emperor Yan and Huang and the Yellow River is also regarded as the nation's mother river.

Close private Internet cafés

Yan Qi, president of Taoranju Catering Group

"Close all the Internet cafés and replace them with government owned ones," Yan suggested.

Yan said that the private Internet cafés corrupt teenagers who go there to play online games and watch adult videos.

Rename Teachers' Day

Zhang Shuhua, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

"Rename Teachers' Day to Education Day to restore respect for education," Zhang proposed.

Zhang said the spirit of Teachers' Day has changed and that many teachers use it as an opportunity to take bribes from parents.

Cancel English lessons

Zhu Shizeng, president of Jilin Huaqiao Hospital in Jilin Province

"Foreign language education should be canceled for primary school students," Zhu said, noting that English education in China has been overblown and that traditional Chinese education is ignored.

Zhu called for more traditional Chinese education to develop students' self-confidence and love for the country.

Longer Spring Festival holiday

Tao Huacheng, engineer at China North Industries Group Cooperation

"The Spring Festival holiday should be extended from 7 to 14 days for family reunions," Tao said.

Tao believes the holiday is the most important festival and the current 7-day holiday is too short for family reunions.