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).

Trivial Matters trailer: Youtube video of the promo for Trivial Matters, a slacker/stoner/sex comedy from Pang Ho-cheung that comes to screens on 20 December. Subtitled in English and Mandarin. via Kaiju Shakedown.

Unmasking the demons of charity: The China Media Project presents a case study by David Bandurski and Martin Hala on the breakthrough report on the Project Hope charity scandal that Minjian Zhai Minglei made in 2002 for Southern Weekly:

Despite the surgical hand of Southern Weekend's editorial committee, Zhai Minglei received hundreds of letters praising the paper's coverage of the issue. Soon after, CCTV's "Eastern Horizon", a news talk show, ran an interview with Xu Yongguang, the top official at Project Hope. Xu acknowledged there had been a few hiccups at the Project, but said the Communist Youth Development Foundation was looking at nationwide changes to the program. The news program had also interviewed Zhai Minglei, who spoke about endemic institutional problems at Project Hope. This part of the interview was removed before the segment aired, meeting the same fate as similar comments in Zhai's article. China's media minders were not interested in casting the story as anything more than an isolated case of corruption. The local official Tang Chunxu would remain the scapegoat.

My short march through China: Gary Rosen writes for Commentary magazine about his experiences as a "media friend" on a press tour of China:

For the Chinese government, every visitor, even the casual tourist, represents an opportunity to make a positive impression—to let the world know of China's progress under the sage guidance of the Communist party. But American journalists fresh off the plane are potential troublemakers and have to be handled with special care. Predisposed to criticize government policy and to distrust official pronouncements, they have to be brought around gently to the desired image of a dynamic, prudently modernizing China. There are several ways to try to shape the experience of "media friends" so as to bring about this result: through flattery and bonhomie, with creature comforts and small luxuries, and, most of all, by regulating the sort of contacts they make during their short stay.

Can we just rename our city Starbucks?: At Shanghaiist, Peijin Chen critiques the mini-soap opera advertisements that Starbucks is showing on Shanghai's subways:

"It's a new medium," says Director John Xiao Qi. A film with strong elements of a commercial isn't a compromise, he reasons, as "It's easier for the audience to accept the message because of the setting."

We've seen this "film" several times, and there's nothing subtle about it—most of the scenes take place in Starbucks, with the logo ever present. Furthermore, where do you get off saying that "the audience can accept it more because of the setting."

More at the Wall Street Journal.

Trainspotting: At Spot-On, Jonathan Ansfield writes about class and China's railways:

The atmospherics of hard sleeper have not changed much in the past decade. Except what once was considered pure passé now seemed unintended kitsch, as it is when you return to Grandma's house after a long-time absence. Embroidery embedded in mayonaisse green. Rounded windows with lace curtains, showing silhoutted scenes of bare-bellied goddesses at river's edge. Aisle carpeting in a jazzy piano theme, all keys and notes. Over the loudspeaker, breathy Chinese pop played longer and louder than I had ever remembered.

Interviews with Y.R. Chao: Pinyin News introduces a book-length series of interviews that Rosemary Levenson conducted in 1974 with linguist, composer, and author Yuen-ren Chao:

In case any readers are not familiar with Chao (1892-1982), he was the finest linguist ever to come out of China. He was also a supporter of romanization; he was even the lead creator of an ingenious if somewhat complicated romanization system for Mandarin: Gwoyeu Romatzyh. But there's no way a few short sentences could do justice to the depth and breadth of Chao's learning. To get a better idea of the man, read the introduction to the work - and then read the rest!

The transcripts are on the web here.