Danwei Model Workers

Observations on the mainland media

The Danwei Model Worker Award is granted by Danwei editors to blogs that we feel are especially worth reading. See the full list for more fascinating material.

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Fang Kecheng's blog 绝版青春 ("Youth out of print")

Fang Kecheng (方可成), a graduate student in journalism at PKU, keeps a blog with a focus on Chinese media and social issues.

Fang started his blog on Ycool in 2006 and moved to a standalone server on October 4, 2008. A redesign earlier this month (compare to the earlier version). The new layout makes the blog's top-level categories prominent: Observations on China, Civil Society, Media, life, Film, music, and books, and Travel.

From the subject matter alone, it's easy to see why Fang's blog appeals to us at Danwei. His well-sourced, carefully-argued posts make it a required RSS subscription.

Fang may be familiar to Danwei readers from his compilation of a list of countries that have "hurt the feelings of the Chinese people." Other recommended posts:

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From 2008
Books on China
The Eurasian Face : Blacksmith Books, a publishing house in Hong Kong, is behind The Eurasian Face, a collection of photographs by Kirsteen Zimmern. Below is an excerpt from the series:
Big in China: An adapted excerpt from Big In China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising A Family, Playing The Blues and Becoming A Star in China, just published this month. Author Alan Paul tells the story of arriving in Beijing as a trailing spouse, starting a blues band, raising kids and trying to make sense of China.
Pallavi Aiyar's Chinese Whiskers: Pallavi Aiyar's first novel, Chinese Whiskers, a modern fable set in contemporary Beijing, will be published in January 2011. Aiyar currently lives in Brussels where she writes about Europe for the Business Standard. Below she gives permissions for an excerpt.
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From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ Korean history doesn't fly on Chinese TV screens (2007.09): SARFT puts the kibbosh on Korean historical dramas.
+ Religion and government in an uneasy mix (2008.03): Phoenix Weekly (凤凰周刊) article from October, 2007, on government influence on religious practice in Tibet.
+ David Moser on Mao impersonators (2004.10): I first became aware of this phenomenon in 1992 when I turned on a Beijing TV variety show and was jolted by the sight of "Mao Zedong" and "Zhou Enlai" playing a game of ping pong. They both gave short, rousing speeches, and then were reverently interviewed by the emcee, who thanked them profusely for taking time off from their governmental duties to appear on the show.
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