China Archives - Page 6 of 112 - understand-culture

Notices Before the Holiday

On June 30, 2026, People’s Daily published a commentary by Pan Jiangping of Huangping County in Guizhou. “Every holiday,” it said, citing media reports, “some grassroots officials fall into helplessness. Higher units send out notices in a rush before the holiday and require all kinds of materials to be reported on the first day after it ends.”

The author warned that rushed tasks before holidays, and orders forcing all staff to work overtime at their posts during them, wear down officials and drain their will to work.

Adjusted Days Off

On November 4, 2025, the General Office of the State Council announced the public holidays for 2026. The Spring Festival holiday runs from Sunday, February 15, to Monday, February 23, nine days in all. In return, Saturday, February 14, and Saturday, February 28, are working days.

The system is called tiaoxiu, adjusted rest. In 2026 it also turns Sunday, January 4, Saturday, May 9, Sunday, September 20, and Saturday, October 10, into working days.

Learn to Play the Piano

On March 13, 1949, Mao Zedong set out the working methods of Party committees. Point five reads: “Learn to ‘play the piano.’ In playing the piano all ten fingers move. It will not do for some to move and others not. But if all ten fingers press down at once, there is no tune.”

“The Party committee must keep a firm grasp on its central work,” he went on, “and at the same time carry out work in other fields around it. We now manage many fields. The work of every region, every army and every department must be attended to. We must not pay attention only to part of the problems and drop the rest.”

Other Tasks Assigned by the Leader

The general office of the General Affairs Department of Beijing Normal University published the duties for ten management positions, from news and publicity to finance to information systems. Each list ends with the same line: wancheng lingdao jiaoban de qita gongzuo, “complete other work assigned by the leader,” or a near variant.

Similar lines close many other Chinese job postings. The line names no task, so it covers any task that arrives.

When the Ruler Calls

The tenth book of the Analects describes how Confucius behaved toward his ruler. “When the ruler commanded his presence, he did not wait for his carriage to be yoked but set off at once.” (君命召，不俟驾行矣)

The Vocabulary of Linshi

临时 (linshi) Just at the moment, at the last minute. Also temporary. The Guoyu dictionary gives the example: “It was agreed, and then at the last minute she changed her mind.”

临时抱佛脚 To clasp the Buddha’s feet at the last minute. To make no preparations and scramble when the matter arrives. The Handian dictionary cites an early example from the Tang poet Meng Jiao: “In old age he clasps the Buddha’s feet.”

特事特办，急事急办 Special matters handled specially, urgent matters handled urgently. In 2022, the news magazine Banyuetan called this “always an important means of grassroots governance.”

随机应变 To change according to the situation.

Temporary Trains

The Spring Festival travel season of 2026 ran from February 2 to March 13. In January, the Yangzi Evening News reported that railways in Jiangsu would run 247 pairs of chunyun linke, temporary passenger trains for the festival rush. Of these, 116 pairs ran within the Yangtze River Delta and 131 pairs ran farther.

According to the report, 168 pairs of the extra trains used overnight time slots on the tracks.

Forty Inspections a Semester

In October 2019, Xinhua reported on the burden of inspections on schools. A school in Chongqing had received nearly forty inspection visits in one semester. A principal said that after a state assessment of balanced school development began in 2017, preparing for inspections had become the school’s central task. Another principal spoke of “endless inspections from above, endless summaries to write and endless forms to fill in.”

Xinhua wrote that inspections and activities unrelated to teaching had entered the schools and “overloaded the teachers and even affected teaching.”

One Cry to Startle Everyone

In his first three years on the throne, King Zhuang of Chu issued no orders and spent his days and nights in pleasure. His minister Wu Ju came to him with a riddle. “There is a bird on the hill. For three years it has neither flown nor sung. What bird is it?” The king answered: “For three years it has not flown, but when it flies it will soar to the sky. For three years it has not sung, but when it sings it will startle everyone.”

Months passed, and his pleasures grew worse. Only after a second warning, from the minister Su Cong, did he end them and take up government. The Records of the Grand Historian says that he then executed several hundred men and promoted several hundred.

The Long March Map

In January 2013, Cao Zhiwei, a member of the Guangzhou political advisory body, showed the mayor a chart of the approvals needed for an investment project. The project had to pass through 20 departments and collect 108 official seals. From approval of the project to the end of the approvals took 799 working days. Investors called the chart the “Long March map.”

According to the report, streamlining could cut the process to 232 working days, a reduction of 71 percent.