I posted a picture a few days ago of a notice that my dorm put up informing us that smoking indoors will be ban on March 1, 2017. A short three days after the ban came into effect I found myself at Ellen's Bar not believing that a smoking ban was ever implemented. All tables still had ashtrays and many of those ashtrays were very recently used. Ellen's also continued to advertise and serve hookah as if there wasn't a ban on indoor smoking. Ellen's actually seemed more smokey than usual, perhaps people were trying to stick it to the man by smoking inside. In data provided by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government by 4pm on March 1st they received 295 indoor smoking complaints, a small amount compared to the 24,152,700 people who live in Shanghai of which 8.5% (2,052,980) smoke in public and 23.3% (5,386,052) smoked overall. Furthermore, the maximum punishment for individuals is a still relatively small 200RMB (28.97USD) ticket. For reference, one bag of coffee is about 60RMB at Carrefor. Restaurants face a much higher potential fine for permitting customers to violate the ban, 20,000RMB (2897.28USD). Perhaps Ellen's gets a pass because it is a bar, not a restaurant, but I am not sure how you would make that distinction because Ellen's, like a restaurant, serves food and doesn't check IDs. Interestingly, a report by the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission stated that 78% of the 34,400 survey respondents knew of the indoor smoking ban and 95% of those respondents supported it. These numbers might be inflated because the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission is a government entity so respondents might not have been willing to state their disagreement with the government's policies to the government. I will continue to monitor the smoking ban though it seems like indoor smoking will continue to be China legal.
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Today my friend and her friend wanted to go to Yu Garden to buy stuff and I decided to come along to buy myself a proper name seal. Originally I didn't want a name seal, I thought they were a bit touristy, but after my Mom and I saw the seal exhibit at the Shanghai Museum I knew I needed one. Seals in a large part of Asia are serious business. In mainland China and Taiwan, seals are legally and functionally the same as a written signature. Some Chinese prefer them since seals are harder to copy than signatures. I have also noticed that organizations, like the International Education Office of East China Normal University or the Huawei Store, use seals to represent the organization instead of the signature of a representative. From what I read Japan and South Korea take seals even more seriously, placing legal requirements on seals (regulating the size and content of seals) and demanding people register their seals with the government. Prices for seals in China can vary from 20RMB to 2000RMB depending on size, stone, and quality of the craftsmanship. I went for a 200RMB seal that included a decorative seal made of a harder stone, a nice box, and some ink. The guy carved my Chinese name (马杰瑞) into my pig seal (I Chinese zodiac animal is the golden pig) right in front of me. Interestingly enough, after carving he actually damaged the sides of the seal a bit as a form of primitive anticounterfitting. While a skilled and scummy artesian could copy the carving on a seal, they would find it difficult to copy damage pattern on the sides of the seal. I got to play with my new seal a bit when I got back to my room and it feels way more satisfying to stamp something than to sign my name. My seal has some weight so it makes a lovely "thud" sound whenever you press it down on the paper. The major question is what can I do with my seal? As I mentioned, in China I can use it instead of my signature. I also read that in some common law jurisdictions, I believe including my home state of New Jersey, sealed contracts are more binding than unsealed contracts. Wikipedia (source of all truth) says that seals can serve as a form of alternative consideration, making deals that aren't contracts contracts, because sealing something requires extra effort on the part of the parties. From wihat I read, normally in these jurisdictions people who want to take advantage of this just write "seal" or "l.p." since most people in modern America don't have formal seals. I believe that, in theory, I should be able to use my formal seal in place of writing "seal" if I so choose. More research is needed before I accidentally invalidate the contract to by my first house by being a weirdo who insists on using a stone seal for some reason. Regardless of legal standing, my seal is still cool and I am very glad I now own one.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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