![]() Beginning in March 2012, China’s PPI was in negative territory for 54 consecutive months. In fact, China’s PPI has been negative for the better part of the last decade. More striking, China’s producer price index (PPI) fell by 2.5% year on year in March – its sixth consecutive month of decline. In the first quarter of 2023, China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose by only 1.3% year on year – down from 1.8% in the previous quarter. There is plenty of pessimism about China’s economic prospects nowadays, with many warning – not without reason – that China has entered a deflationary period. And with the right policies, China can do even better. While that hardly matches the robust growth of the pre-pandemic period, it did exceed market expectations. ![]() ![]() BEIJING – According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the economy grew by 4.5% year on year in the first quarter of 2023. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() After she was done eyeing him up and down, she let a small smirk appear on her face. ![]() He talked like a soldier yet he was in a tight, black, long sleeved shirt with black pants…and no shoes. She turned to look at him, he was cute, black and blue layered hair it was short but not that short. “Did you break a famous pirate named, Lenegis, out of prison during lunch today?” He asked beside her. But this guy… this guy peaked her interest. She wasn’t interested in anything of the sort at the moment. She was used to men coming to sit down and asking to buy her a drink no matter how cute they were she would always kick them to the curb. A man came in and sat by her, at first it was irritating. She was sitting in a bar, rather crummy one at that. That is what led to now being asked about it. The jail didn’t even notice until hours later! She thought of that as an achievement. Maybe…allegedly, really! She would never admit to it, but when asked she couldn’t help but smile. A friend, she might have been breaking a friend out of the local jail. She wasn’t stealing she was just taking back something. ![]() ![]() ![]() In this respect, Swinnerton sees Gissing as another school of critics have seen him - as a "proto-feminist" (Chase 231). Through her, as Swinnerton shows, Gissing analyses the causes of women's inadequacies, and lends his support to the growing call to remedy them by education and training. But he does admire the novel's central character, the spirited Rhoda Nunn, who has decided to dedicate herself to preparing single women to lead an independent and meaningful life. He would certainly have understood why some find Gissing misogynistic (see Chase 231 and 243, notes 1 and 2). He is quite harshly critical of Gissing's The Odd Women, finding the choice of title heavy-handed, the women characters "mostly repulsive" (106), the men no better, and the ending depressing. His book on George Gissing is a very much a critical biography. ![]() The author of many novels, he was also an essayist, literary critic and biographer, and, for many years, associated with major publishers - first with Dent, and then for much longer with Chatto and Windus. ![]() Frank Swinnerton (1884-1982) was a prolific writer. ![]() ![]() It had depth and was plain amazing till the freaking end. It was riddled with ups and downs but you can’t help but feel everything with these characters. This wasn’t the typical third-act conflict type of book. I drank every damn page like it was my only source of water. The diversity in this book was amazing to see! The writing was □□□□□□□□□□. I can go on and on about how beautifully written this masterpiece was. I read this so slowly because I knew when it would be over I’d be a wreck. You know when you read a book and you feel like if you don’t read it in one sitting then you’ll enjoy it less because the rush of the newness leaves and its appeal dies down? Yeah, this was □□□ that. Update: I just read the bonus chapters and ugh I’m in dire need of my very own Nate, please and thank you <3 ![]() |