Home owners' duty

Editor,

With interest I read the article about homeowners in your paper on January 6.

I purchased property in the Wangjing area of Beijing a year ago and see myself faced with the problems you were highlighting.

The developer, nearly (or already) bankrupt, doesn't take care of the area anymore, and the management it relies on doesn't have the resources or capability to do so either.

As you mentioned, property management cannot be blamed for all the shortcomings. The fact that many owners do not pay the management (or gas, water and electricity) fees won't make things better.

Our buildings are around three years old, but now look as if they are over 10 years. Water is leaking into basements, and pipes break during the winter flooding apartments regularly. The staircase close to my apartment has had a large wet spot for over two month now, indicating constant leakage.

So what is left to do? Without knowing the actual law situation, I would like to see awareness among homeowners that owning property also comes with responsibilities, whether they actually live there or not.

In my opinion the government should not play an active role here, but should ease and promote the path to owners' self-management of the area.

I'm learning my lesson the hard way, apparently along with many others as well. In case someone asks me how I would revise my priorities for housing purchase, I typically suggest research on the developer, property management and neighbourhood. None of them were on my list when I purchased 18 month ago.

Bernd Petersen, Beijing

Laws on housing

Editor,

Mr Liang Hongfu wrote an excellent analysis on December 27 (Guarding against real estate oligarchy), but the final sentence was weak. "If we really can't avoid it, let's hope that this oligarchy will have a stronger sense of social responsibility." Excuse me, but is it enough to hope that factory owners will spontaneously acquire a stronger sense of social responsibility, and no longer pollute? Or to hope that manufacturers of CDs will no longer make a quick profit by counterfeiting intellectually protected property? If laws, fines, and even prison sentences are needed to strengthen the sense of social responsibility of these groups, then consider what needs to be done in the area of real estate.

Michael J. Sloboda, Hong Kong

Endearing movies

Editor,

I totally agree with the article "Bring back endearing films with good plots" (December 29).

Over a decade ago I studied Chinese cinema in my postgraduate course at La Trobe University in Australia. Films that stick in my memory are Xie Jin's "Woman Basketball Player No 5," Chen Kaige's "Yellow Earth" and "Farewell My Concubine" as well as Zhang Yimou's "To Live" and Tian Zhuang Zhuang's "Blue Kite." Lately I have become very disappointed with the quality of Chinese films with the exception of "A World without Thieves." Zhang Yimou's big-budget "Hero" lacked the depth of his earlier movies.

Last week I saw "The Promise" with my Chinese wife. She loved the colour and special effects, but when I confessed that I really didn't understand what the story was about (assuming that as a Chinese she could enlighten me) she replied that she didn't know either.

Ken White, Liaoning Province

(China Daily 01/11/2006 page4)