In Mainland China, A Growing Demand For Female Bodyguards

With mainland China now having more than a million millionaires- and roughly 30% of them being women- there has been a steady growth in demand for bodyguards, particularly female bodyguards.

Female bodyguards in mainland China can earn more than their male counterparts and are reportedly highly sought after because they can assume other roles such as nanny, secretary or personal assistant. While the average annual wage in mainland China is around US$1500, a female bodyguard can earn the equivalent of US$100 a day. Potential clients (or their families) also believe a the presence of a female bodyguard is less likely to lead to gossip or innuendo about an affair than having a male bodyguard.


The intensive months-long course from Tianjiao Special Guard Consultant Ltd of Beijing is among the first in China to offer training to women. Tianjiao's recently enrolled class was China's first all-female bodyguard class, featuring 20 women- nearly all of them university graduates. The course instructs enrollees on the finer points of martial arts, business etiquette, surveillance and evasive driving as well as intensive physical training on the torrid southern Chinese island of Hainan.


Highlights of the course also include having a bottle broken over the trainees head to build up endurance. The top trainee to finish the Tianjiao Consultant course will also be move on for further training at the International Security Academy in Israel. According to recent reports from Israel National News, the pool of 20 potential recruits had been whittled down to five by the end of January.

A couple of random things I noticed while compiling this blog entry. One is that for the most part, the women seen in desert fatigues in the articles and video about the Tianjiao firm are pretty easy on the eyes. You would think there would be a few genuinely intimidating bruisers in there given the nature of the profession they seek to enter. My first thought was 'Ah! This is probably a Potemkin academy where they trot out the attractive women and keep the bruisers and fierce-looking women in hiding until the cameras go away'.

There probably is something to that, but Tianjiao head Chen Yongqing also points out that they get an increasing number of clients who are celebrities. And at some high end red-carpet event, which bodyguard would stand out more- a smaller, attractive woman in a dress or gown or Yao Ming in drag?

Maybe I'm over-thinking things, but I'm also at a loss to explain the German and Norweigan flag patches you'll see on some of the uniforms. I mean, did the academy get such a sweetheart deal on surplus uniforms from those two nations that they forgot to remove the insignias? Or were the women divided into two different groups at some point in their training and the two flags a way of differentiating the groups? Or one flag indicates instructor and another indicates trainee?

The presence of cameras along the beach in that one photo above also seems to indicate that this is juicy fodder for some sort of reality show- perhaps Wipeout meets Who Wants to Be Protect a Millionaire?

For some reason, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that some now-retired People's Liberation Army Special Operations Unit veterans concocted the whole physical training regimen in Hainan as a way of getting attractive 20-something women to pay them to run around in swimsuits and get put through the wringer while getting yelled at the whole time with the added bonus of some network or producer paying them to film attractive 20-something women in swimsuits getting put through the wringer and yelled at [just saying wish I thought of it first, that's all- NANESB!].

Still- does anybody remember my earlier observation about women in the American or Israeli military clad in BDUs? Since the Battle Dress Uniform of the United States Army is meant to be uniform (as opposed to accentuating a woman's figure) if a woman can look good in that, she can look good in anything.

I was starting to think the same thing about some of the trainees in what looked like the German or Norweigan desert camo uniforms.


If they can look presentable in those European military hand-me-downs, imagine how good some of them would look in...say....a silk cheongsam or qi pao [Hooray! Another completely gratuitous chance to post pictures of Cheongsam-clad ladies- NANESB!]. And since much of their clientele is in the entertainment industry, it wouldn't be that farfetched for them to be wearing one of those at some high profile event like a movie premiere or wedding.

Come to think of it, in these uncertain times, I'm beginning to think I could use some additional protection myself.

Happy Chinese New Years! Year of The Dragon Begins Today

Well now! SOMEBODY has been paying attention to what I like

Monday marks the beginning of the Chinese New Years, although there were many parades and festivals in Chinatowns throughout the West over the weekend to mark the unofficial start.


With the Year of the Rabbit passing by quicker than one can say 'I, for one, welcome our Chinese overlords' in Mandarin, January 23rd marks the beginning of the Year of the Dragon on the lunar calendar. The mythical dragon is considered an auspicious symbol that represents power, wealth and success in Chinese culture.


Manufacturers of luxury goods are seeking to take advantage of the dragon symbol and the status it represents by selling watches, designer handbags and even $15,000 hand-engraved cellphones to well-heeled consumers in China.

Chinese Actress Gong Li (left) on the red carpet sporting a noticably different variant of the cheongsam with a plunging neckline and raised collar

And of course, what would Chinese New Years be without the Chinese gown known as the Cheongsam (or qi pao). As demonstrated above, they're available in a wide variety of colors and lengths....and wearers.

It's no Chinatown dragon parade, but I do hope you at least enjoy the scenery.

Georgia Company Offsetting the Trade Imbalance With China, One Pair of Chopsticks at a Time

In a rather curious bit of role-reversal, a Georgia company is exploiting a shortage of wood in China and abundant resources in southern Georgia to export chopsticks to Asia.

“Right now we are making about two million pairs of chopsticks per day but we are increasing," says Jae Lee, president of Georgia Chopsticks. "End of this month, we’ll have seven machines coming in, so it’ll increase to like four million per day. End of this year, we’ll produce 10 million per day.”

Lee, a Korean-American, says the global market for chopsticks is huge because about one-third of the world’s population uses them. Japan alone goes through about 23 billion pairs of the disposable utensils each year.

Most chopsticks are made in China, where several hundred manufacturers turn out 63 billion pairs annually. But they are running short of wood.

Wood is something the U.S. town of Americus - where Georgia Chopsticks is located - has plenty of.

“Rural Georgia and the cities of rural Georgia, they’re blessed with tons of natural resources," says David Garriga, who heads the local economic development council. "The Pacific Rim, especially areas of China and Japan, they’ve run out of wood, but we have an abundance of it.”

The sweet gum and poplars that are abundant throughout southern Georgia are ideal for the production of chopsticks. The straight, pliable and lightly colored wood doesn't require bleach or chemicals to modify their colors.

Every pair of chopsticks made at Lee's Cochran, GA based company is exported to Japan, China or Korea where they are sold in supermarkets. Sumter County Chamber of Commerce head David Garriga said that he has been contacted by other businesses from the Pacific Rim interested in doing business in and around Americus, GA. The most recently available figures list the unemployment rate in Sumter county in the neighborhood of 12.5% (contrasted with Georgia's 9.7%).

In recent years, there has been something of a trend where businesses from China and elsewhere in the Pacific Rim have been looking to do business in the Southeastern USA. While labor costs are higher than in China, this is offset by lower costs for the property, utilities and certain tax credits that Chinese entrepreneurs are taking advantage of. Industrial real estate in the USA can be fetch not even 25% the costs in China while maintaining a presence in the USA also helps them respond more rapidly to any number of supply-chain issues.

Korean model in cheongsam

While exporting chopsticks to the People's Republic of China is somewhat ironic and good news for the people of Sumter county, Ga, I feel that the trade imbalance with China hasn't truly been adressed until the United States begins exporting cheongsams to mainland China.

Happy Chinese New Year's From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

I'm a tad late with this, thanks in large part to my not being Chinese, but Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) began on Feb 3rd.

And you know what that means, right? Well....aside from several consecutive days of dragon parades, festivities, family reunions, feasts and decorations throughout many parts of Asia (including our largest creditor) as well as Chinatowns throughout the world- that means 'tis the season for some seasonally appropriate Eye candy from the Far East, of course!

If you're not familiar with the choengsam or qi pao, I was able to provide a fleeting introduction during last year's Chinese New Years. Now granted the model for the garment last year was nothing short of absolutely stunning, but the angle of the photo failed to adequately highlight what I thought was the best part of the cheongsam.

This time around, I was able to find one that did, as you can see above, the vertical slit which can allow the wearer to show some leg if she's so inclined. And in this case, I think we're just a little better off for her doing so.



In case you're wondering, this is the year of the rabbit. Supposedly those born in the year of the rabbit are calm, sociable, level headed and gregarious.

If you're curious about your Chinese Zodiac, you can check here (scroll down for your date of birth). I remember a few years back having lunch at a rural diner in upstate New York. They had these placemats which a pretty detailed chart showing the years and personality traits of the Chinese Zodiac- this stood out because this wasn't a Chinese restaurant, the owners weren't Asian and it was nowhere near the Chinese New Years.....they apparently were out of kid's activity placemats or thought it was important that we started studying up on our Chinese Zodiac at a reasonably young age.

Happy Chinese New Year From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Well now, it's been a fairly eventful convergence of holidays and events these past few days, with the Winter Olympics getting underway, Truck Day, the NBA All-Star weekend and Valentine's Day. And we still have Mardi Gras and Presidents Day to boot!

But it's also worth noting that Chinese New Year has begun. 2010 marks the Year of the Tiger (and thus inviting obvious references to Tiger Wang for the rest of 2010) on the Lunar calendar.

And in the interest of promoting awareness and cultural harmony with America's largest creditor, I would like to point out that the white, form-fitting traditional silk garment that the lovely creature depicted above is wearing is called a Cheongsam or Qi Pao (I think the difference between the two comes down to a matter of the length of sleeves or collar, but don't quote me). Despite pre-dating the Generalissimo by several centuries, these garments were considered ostentatious relics of Chaing Kai Shek's China and were banned under Chairman Mao Tse Tung. However, they still retained a degree of popularity in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and ethnic Chinese communities overseas and have gradually come back into acceptance on the mainland in recent years.