Danwei Picks is a daily digest of the "From the Web" links found on the Danwei homepage. A feed for the links as they are posted throughout the day is available at Feedsky (in China) or Feedburner (outside China).

Houmen, March 1, 1912

Foreign influence on China's revolution: Inspired by a photograph from 1912, Alan Baumler at Frog in a Well reflects on post-revolution mutinies:

The Europeans "were in the best of humor and joked about what was happening" and much appreciated the view of the burning city from the walls. Although Chinese troops were looting, extraterritoriality still held and no foreigner was molested. I can thing of few things that would reinforce the foreign sense of privilege more than touring a battlezone like it was a play put on for one's amusement.

Yuan seems to have played the whole affair like a violin. While he claimed not be be behind the mutiny, and the looting probably went further than he would have liked it worked to cement his political position. He could portray himself to the foreigners as the one man who could keep order and to the Chinese factions as the one leader who could hold off foreign intervention.

SARFT issues video sharing website licence to minor players: From Caijing's English website:

Three small Web sites have won government licenses for video-sharing services in China, a move seen as a signal that Beijing authorities may be widening the door to popular content.

But China's three leading video-sharing sites--Tudou.com, Youku.com and 56.com--were not included on the latest list of license awardees.

Instead, Caijing learned the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) granted licenses to the minor private sites Ku6.com, Uusee.com and 6.cn.

Talking to Taiwan: From CNN.com:

Negotiators from Taiwan and China launched their first formal talks in almost a decade Thursday, aiming to forge agreements on charter flights and tourism to build confidence between the long-estranged rivals.

Last of the Mongolians: David Treuer reviews Wolf Totem for the Washington Post and doesn't like it very much:

Pedantic or not, in the final analysis, "Wolf Totem" becomes more about race-baiting than wolf-baiting. Summaries of racial characteristics float from these characters' mouths with the greatest of ease (Chinese bad, Mongolian good). Perhaps "Wolf Totem" has been successful in China for precisely the same reason that James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales," not known for elegance or subtlety, were popular in the first half of the 19th century: It's safe and pleasing to look back on a landscape and a life that the nation-state has largely destroyed. One might even locate this cycle of destruction and romantic celebration as an early step in the literature of emerging capitalist nations. So while "Wolf Totem" seems to praise Mongolian life and the wild animals that inform that life, the wolf must die and be replaced with a novel that comes nowhere near the creature in terms of beauty and importance, and instead reads like a 500-page-long metaphor.

Laowai visa complaints: I mean, come on: Fromer Yunnan resident Rachel, blogging from Israel after a trip to China:

Ouch, probably these have been the perfect two years to take a break from China. I couldn`t go five minutes into a conversation with any of the Laowais I`ve met in Bj without them starting to moan about the [visa clampdown], and about how much of a hassle it`s become, being a Laowai in Beijing . I was thoroughly amused then, when dinner with two well travelled Chinese friends had turned into another session of moans about how hard it is to get visas to the U.S., the U.K., Holland, and (of course) Israel.

Seriously, I doubt if the citizens of any western country (Israel least of all) can say anything about visa issuance policies, I mean, come on.

Generally, the change in visa regulation seems like a good sign of China growing up, being more selective and more ruled by law, and the procedure is bound to become clearer and more consistent. Too bad for those of you caught in the middle of this process though.

Quake reporting raises concerns of media ethics: An interesting Xinhua article that examines how a lack of training in media ethics has led to insensitive reporting on the Sichuan earthquake:

Jiang Min, a policewoman in Pengzhou city near the epicenter of Wenchuan, lost 10 relatives, including her two-year-old daughter and her parents, at first became a symbol of fortitude in the face of overwhelming tragedy -- then later became the face of media exploitation....

But in one television report, the reporter pressed her to answer the question, "Why are you still here?" A drawn-looking Jiang was pounded with further questions, such as, "Do you think of your own parents and daughter when you see the rescued old people and the kids?"

...Later, Jiang was interviewed several more times on television.

Is the 'Running Teacher' morally corrupt?: Shanghaiist summarizes what many online commenters are calling "this year's must-see video" - a Phoenix TV discussion of the ethical and moral depravity of "Runner Fan":

Various individuals in the audience, including some in the teaching profession, also stood up to denounce Fan for his actions, and made the claim for themselves that if there was ever an earthquake, they would definitely save their students first, winning great applause from the rest of the audience. It seemed few voices were sympathetic to Fan, but some did stand up to raise the point that if one could not be sure that he would be able to save his students in an earthquake, he should not have the right to point fingers at Fan. Another member of the audience questions, "Suppose Fan had saved his students. Do we make a hero and another modern Lei Feng out of him? In this day and age, have we actually forgotten the fact that a man may have many different sides to him?"