Newsreel about China from the 1930s
China Books blog presents a short clip from the Internet Archive's collection of Universal Newsreels; this one's about a National Day athletic meet in Nanjing during the 1930s.
« June 2007 | Main | August 2007 »
July 31, 2007
Alibaba to IPO
Reuters reports:
Alibaba.com, China's largest e-commerce company, confirmed on Monday that it is making preparations for an initial public offering, as it seeks to raise capital to expand its international presence.
July 30, 2007
Interview: HiPiHi founder Hui Xu
CScout China visits HiPiHi headquarters in Haidian:
How are you going to make money?
....Subscription to HiPiHi will be free, although there will be products/services for sale within the world. We haven't yet decided whether there will be a HiPiHi currency as in SL yet - a lot depends on market regulations - but of course there will be trading."
Will you be "policing" the site?
As a platform provider we will not be policing HiPiHi as such. HiPiHi is a free world where users can do and create whatever they want - user-generated content is the key to HiPiHi. There will also be no age limit as to who can enter HiPiHi. Having said that, there will be technical restrictions to ensure that everything in HiPiHi complies with Chinese regulations - no pornography, gambling, violence or politically sensitive material. There will also be adult zones where access will be tightly controlled...."
Taobao has cats up for adoption
Ding Shiying is an 80-year-old Beijing woman who takes in abandoned cats. She's got over two hundred of them right now, up from the 140 she had in 2004 when That's Beijing profiled her. To find homes for them all, she's taking advantage of Taobao, the online auction house. Five yuan apiece.
From Han Han's blog.
From Han Han's blog.
An Arcadian Home for Artists
Showing off the real China at the Olympics
In a Global Times opinion piece, People's Daily senior editor Ding Gang wrote that China should take pride in what it is rather than worrying about foreign tourists catching glimpses of Beijing's imperfections.
Caijing: Zheng Xiaoyu's final hours
Jonathan Ansfield at CDT presents a report that puts the kibosh on online rumors about Zheng Xiaoyu's last words:
In its latest issue, Caijing magazine ventures beyond the hype, examining how the government might streamline consumer safety regulation in the wake of Zheng's death. Ace reporter Luo Changping (罗昌平) opens, most revealingly of all perhaps, by counting down the waning moments in Zheng's life. The lede, apparently an exclusive account, tries to lay to rest at least a couple questions: How was Zheng executed? And what were his real "last words"?
To blog to dream
At GVO, John Kennedy introduces the Dreamblogue, "a project undertaken by two American teachers to provide educational opportunities for people in China":
Lonnie B. Hodge, the elder of the two, US army veteran, past recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts and resident of Asia for nearly two decades, has played a very active role in China's English-language blogging community since he started OneManBandwidth in 2004, supporting not just top blogger and photo contests, but also charity initiatives being played out across the country, all on top of maintaining a business column and drawing on life experiences (and a PhD) in decoding life as a teacher and business consultant in today's China on everything from cancer to censorship to corruption on campuses.
Macao visa slowdown to deter Mainland gamblers
In June Danwei reported rumors from Macao that the Mainland authorities had slowed down visa processing for Mainlanders in an attempt to control the growth of the gambling industry there, which relies on Mainland tourists for its growth. Today's Financial Times confirms the rumors:
The number of mainland Chinese visitors to Macao fell by 16.5 per cent last month after neighbouring Guangdong province brought in visa restrictions in May.
Celebrating the PLA's 80th birthday
Blogging journalist Clifford Coonan visited the exhibition at Beijing's Military Museum to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (which falls on August 1):
It was a baking hot day for the opening of the Our Troops toward the Sun exhibition, but that didn’t stop thousands of people showing up for this impressive display which allows visitors to drive a tank, see Chairman Mao Zedong’s punch-bag or check out a model of a hydrogen bomb. Visitors seemed to particularly enjoy examining in detail the new uniforms of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Gone are the old-school, Long March-inspired, one-size-fits-all uniforms…
The post includes photos of the exhibition.Inside dope from the Politburo?
Edward Cody of The Washington Post reports:
Li Changchun, China's senior propaganda official, went to President Hu Jintao recently suggesting a ban on the July issue of the magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu.
The scholarly monthly had published a long and daring article by a Communist Party professor saying that the party's monopoly on power was the 'root cause' of many of the ills afflicting modern-day China, including corruption and peasant unrest.
Although Hu has generally shown a restrictive attitude toward free speech, he counseled tolerance this time, the report said, advising Li that it is healthier to have such debate out in the open than to let it ferment under the surface. The magazine remains on the stands...
... After a meeting of top Beijing propaganda officials, for instance, the capital's newspaper editors and television news directors last week were handed a list of newly off-limits subjects, Beijing journalists reported. The list included food safety as well as riots, fires, deadly auto accidents and bloody murder cases, they said.
July 29, 2007
How Harry Potter was translated online in two days
ESWN translates a report from YWeekend:
When did the "Harry Potter 7 Bar" begin to prepare for the translation team? Xiao Wang said: "Since July 2, the three or four core members had been working separately to make posts on the Internet for volunteer translators. During the earlier recruitment process, we came across another translation team. I spoke to the person in charge over there, and we decided to coalesce into a single team....On an average day, about 30 people leave their QQ numbers to join. About 200 volunteers have contacted me. We had to give tests to these people. The test material came from English-language paragraphs about Harry Potter taken from overseas websites. Those paragraphs do not appear in the Harry Potter novels themselves....We set up a work schedule of based upon division of labor. Basically, there are four or five people per group. The translation in each chapter has to go through translation, editing, proof-reading and final review. This is to ensure the quality of the translation."
July 28, 2007
China quality control: darkness before the dawn
Dan Harris at China Law Blog responds to Paul Midler's article on "Quality Fade":
There is such a thing as quality fade in China and we are always telling our clients to prepare for the fourth shipment. In our experience, quality fade tends to happen disproportionally on the fourth shipment, probably because it is at this point that the Western importer is feeling comfortable enough with its Chinese manufacturer to place a large order and the Chinese manufacturer is feeling comfortable enough to cut corners.
Despite my agreeing that quality fade is a reality in China, overall, I think the product situation in China is slowly improving and will continue to do so.
Three ways of looking at Wang Xiaobo
Three translators at Paper Republic take a go at the first chapter of Wang Xiaobo's Golden Age.
Individual translations: Eric Abrahamsen, Brendan O'Kane, Feng37.
Individual translations: Eric Abrahamsen, Brendan O'Kane, Feng37.
'Quality Fade': China's great business challenge
Paul Midler writes on quality at Knowledge@Wharton:
Numerous news stories this past month have focused on concerns about the quality and safety of certain Chinese exports. In this opinion piece, Paul Midler, founder and president of China Advantage, a services firm that provides outsourcing and supply chain management to U.S. and European companies, discusses what he calls "quality fade" in China, which he defines as "the deliberate and secretive habit of widening profit margins through a reduction in the quality of materials."
See a response from China Law Blog.July 27, 2007
The massacre of "Nanking" in Chinese cinemas
Beijing Newspeak looks at why Ted Leonis's documentary Nanking has been widely unavailable:
I brought up this point at work and another Xinhua journalist titillated me with the words, "Here's some inside information for you …", going on to claim the government has played a hand in playing down the film - although I have no idea to what extent. Apparently, it welcomed interest from overseas about the events of 1937 but seeing as there are already a few films on the subject by Chinese directors, it didn’t want to give "Nanking" too much coverage.
Festival-goers ordered to wear fur or face fines
Jane Macartney reports for the Times that the Chinese government is ordering Tibetan performers to wear furs:
China's response to his order was not without irony. Officials had been pursuing a policy of trying to discourage Tibetans from wearing their traditional dress as a way of stemming the trade in skins. But the priority for authorities in Yushu county was to counter the Dalai Lama. So they told locals that they must wear skins.
The Minister of Crap Made in China
The Huffington Post has a published a 'letter' from the Chinese government official currently serving as Minister of Crap Made in China.
19 tons of crystal meth ingredients
From the IHT:
Chinese and U.S. authorities are investigating whether a breakdown in security at their ports allowed an illegal shipment reportedly carrying more than 19 tons of a chemical intended for methamphetamine cartels to reach Mexico, the Mexican attorney general said Thursday.
The shipment led to what has been touted as the world's largest seizure of drug money and the arrest of Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon, who is accused in the United States and Mexico of supplying pseudoephedrine to Mexican cartels who then used the drug to make methamphetamines.
PSB: Forced labor, prositution on the rise
Wang Zhuoqiong of The China Daily reports:
Yin Jianzhong, a senior official of the anti-trafficking office of the Ministry of Public Security, said: 'Forced labor and sexual exploitation are the two new outcomes of human trafficking in China and the number of such cases is rising.'
Philandering former Shanghai mayor
sacked from Party
The China Daily reports:
Chen Liangyu was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and dismissed from all government posts yesterday, the CPC Central Committee said.
The former Shanghai Party chief's case has been handed over to prosecutors, a CPC Central Committee press release said.
According to the press release, Chen's crimes include granting huge loans from the Shanghai social security fund to private companies, taking bribes and trading power for sexual favors.July 26, 2007
Greenpeace gone wild
Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap reveals the shaky foundation for Greenpeace's Toxic Tea Party:
More significant, where those sites still exist, they are mostly filled with domestically generated e-scrap - NOT imported material. To be sure, much needs to improve in Guiyu - but it is much better than it was twenty-six months ago, when Greenpeace's Toxic Tea Party took place.
Blogging summer floods
John Kennedy at GVO rounds up some online reporting about flooding across China. Includes photos and links to video.
Terms to normalize relations with Vatican
The China Daily plays its traditional role of government mouthpiece:
The Vatican must sever 'diplomatic relations' with Taiwan and stop interfering in China's internal affairs if it wants to normalize ties with Beijing, a leading Chinese Catholic leader said yesterday.
You wanna know who has the power in China?
The So I'm Going To China blog presents photo-evidence of the supremacy of The Commissioner of Putting In Manholes.
July 25, 2007
JPMorgan Chase to open bank in China
Bank Business Review reports that JPMorgan Chase Bank has received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to establish a locally incorporated bank in China. This is the first time that the commission has granted a foreign bank approval to incorporate in Beijing.
U.S. Treasury Sec. to highlight environmental worries to China
The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is coming to China at the end of this week to discuss the usual complaints about currencies, market access and piracy.
His agenda includes visiting Qinghai Lake, China's biggest lake which is shrinking by the year. Apparently the visit is intended to highlight environmental concerns.
Chinese cops and FBI swoop on pirates
Mure Dickie of The Financial Times reports:
An 'unprecedented' joint crackdown on software piracy by Chinese police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has led to 25 arrests and the seizure of counterfeit software worth $500m, the FBI said on Tuesday.
Microsoft ... said ... 'Countries around the world are expected to experience a significant decrease in the volume of counterfeit software as a direct result of this action.'
N.Y. high schoolers blog from China
From New York's Daily News:
Eleven students from Bronx Lab High School are headed for mainland China. They'll live with students from Shanghai's Luwan High School and teach classes on American culture to their counterparts on the other side of the world. For their once-in-a-lifetime, two-week experience, the New Yorkers will be sending dispatches to the New York Daily News Web site.
The fall and fall of Furong Jiejie
Furong Jiejie or Hibsiscus Sister has been one of China's longest lasting Internet celebrities, for reasons that no one can quite explain. In this series of photos on Tianya, she takes her talent for cringe-inducing exhibitionism to new lows.
Bullet in the head: Marquee executions and public communication
Imagethief looks at the possible motivations behind Zheng Xiaoyu's execution, and whether its goals were achieved:
Executions have a long tradition as public communication. That's why, historically, executions have either been public or very well publicized. Look what we do to murderers/ robbers/ adulterers/ royalists/ deserters/ partisans/ corrupt mandarins/ spin doctors, etc. It could happen to you, so stay in line. Whether or not executions are effective as a deterrent is debatable (and widely debated). But that they are used as communication is indisputable.
July 24, 2007
"Are you Chinese?"
Fan Linjun describes her job working as news assistant to McClatchy's Tim Johnson:
It seems that I do just the opposite after I started working with Tim. We are constantly looking for China's problems, especially wrongdoings of government and its officials. Sometimes I am worried that American readers get the impression that the Chinese government is doing nothing but evil through news stories about China, including those written by Tim and me. I actually support many of the Chinese government (and my government)'s policies, which I think are trying to seek justice and help the disadvantaged. On the other hand, I believe that problems should be exposed so positive changes can be brought about early on. Journalists should always be ready to pick faults with the government, like flies untiringly searching for rotten stuff. Foreign journalists could function as critical watchdogs in China, especially when the feet of Chinese journalists are bound.
China delays publicizing 'Green GDP' figures
Richard Spencer at the Telegraph reports that China has delayed a report on its 'Green GDP':
In a briefing to local newspapers, the scientist given the enormous task of calculating China's "green GDP" said the project had been effectively killed off by political opposition.
His outspoken denunciation of the barriers put in his way is another challenge to the leadership of President Hu Jintao and prime minister Wen Jiabao, who have staked their local and international reputations on readjusting China's economic model to take more account of its social and environmental consequences.
Made in China, read worldwide
Publishers, translators, and academics talk to the Telegraph about publishing contemporary Chinese literature in English.
Toby Eady, the literary agent who worked for seven years to get Jung Chang on to our shelves, now a consultant for Picador on Asian fiction, says:
"Two years ago,...English publishers went to the Beijing book fair for the first time. They bought blind without translators lined up. It was a piece of PR or corporate politics. A few years ago I was asked to speak to most of the major publishers about China and I said they had to respect its culture - publish quality in good translation, not tone-deaf translation. Next year there will be a lot published."
July 23, 2007
The heartwrenching story of a 16 year old Hunan student
Kenneth Tan at Shanghaiist presents an Anhui TV report on Tao Xing, a student who's been lauded for taking care of his mother:
It all started when the owner of the store next to Tao Xing's school told his teacher-in-charge that the boy was buying sanitary napkins on a monthly basis. She had thought that the boy was "up to no good" and told him that he should spend his time studying instead.
China's kings of destruction
Token display of force against pirates
The China Daily reports:
The Silk Street market in Beijing, popular among tourists for cheap goods, tarnished its reputation as authorities seized fake name-brand sneakers and sports wear in the latest raid at the market.
Law enforcement workers on Saturday confiscated 553 shoes of pirated Nike, 408 counterfeit Adidas shoes and 160 fake sports suits of the two famous brands after inspecting 11 booths at the market.
Sarkozy has 'problem' with Beijing over yuan
The Financial Times reports:
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France is to push for a more assertive European Union exchange-rate policy towards China this autumn to try to shore up ailing exporters hit by the strong euro.
Howard Goldblatt on translating Chinese literature
Andrea Lingenfelter interviews Howard Goldblatt for the journal Full Tilt:
Do you think that Chinese readers have different expectations of a work of fiction from Western readers, and that they're willing to give an author more leeway?
Absolutely. Partly because they believe that the writer can dictate the way things are said. And I think they had to read so much crap for so long that if they get something that's interesting they just can't let themselves put it down. They have no trouble with long, long, long novels - 400,000- 500,000-word novels. They pick up a book and read it. I think they just assume that that's the way it should be. There's a tolerance, an acceptance quotient that I think the younger generation doesn't have and we don't have here in the West. We're not going to be that tolerant.
July 22, 2007
Right track to harmony
Part 9 in Raymond Zhou's series of dispatches from Tibet features a number of photos from his trip.
China's journalists' association on bun conundrum
China Newspeak comments on a Xinhua article that quotes every-day people who are dubious about the cardboard bun hoax story.
A polluted but "livable" town
Michael Zhao writes for CDT about an award-winning polluted town:
Dawang Township of Guangrao County (广饶县大王镇) in Shandong Province has dozens of awards, from "the most livable new town" to "living environment prototype award." But the nasty smell of the town is unmistakably loud while driving through the area. And locals are used to being awaken by the polluted air in the middle of the night.
The party congress peg
Jonathan Ansfield writes for CDT about discussion of political reform in the Chinese media:
...as the media has sprawled and opened up it's become easier for editors and academics to shoulder in on the ideological beltway and try to impact the speed and direction of reform. That especially has proven to be the case in the lead-up to the 17th Party Congress later this year. Debate over "political system reform" has spilled over into the pages of influential publications. In many cases, they are using the congress as a peg to reprint work published less visibly many months beforehand. And leading magazines and newspapers are covering the resultant buzz and debate, finessing their way around Propaganda warnings to not to rock the boat ahead of the congress. In turn we're gaining an unusual amount of information about the machinations behind the debate and the media's semi-independent role in hyping it.
July 20, 2007
Studies in scat
Cindy Carter at Paper Republic looks at the "very scatological sense of humour" in contemporary Chinese fiction. Yu Hua's Brothers, Zhu Wen's What is Love and What is Garbage, and Li Er's Truth and Variations all make an appearance.
China GDP growth up to 11.9%
From The Washington Post:
China's annual economic growth surged to an 11- year high of 11.9 percent in the second quarter, cementing expectations for tighter policy to keep the world's fastest-growing major economy from overheating.
In China, fame comes easier with a foreign face
Andrew Miller at the Christian Science Monitor reports on foreign actors on Chinese TV:
In cities nationwide, recruiters are prowling university campuses and expatriate hangouts in search of aspiring variety show performers, game show contestants, and film extras.
Pretty much any kind of foreigner will do, with one exception: "They definitely prefer people that don't look Asian," says American expatriate Ben Ross.
The History of Chinese Journalism Since 1949
ESWN translates an anonymously written essay on a history of typographic errors that have got journalists into trouble in China.
July 19, 2007
Lessons in propagating a favorable image of the Party overseas
David Bandurski at CMP introduces and translates an essay by two senior "external division" Xinhua journalists.
In recent weeks, Party officials have ratcheted up pressure on Chinese media to mind their political P's and Q's in the run-up to the all-important 17th National Congress. For Party leaders, the question of how China can put on its best face as international attention turns to the political session in Beijing now takes on fresh urgency.
This month, Chinese Journalist, a monthly magazine published by Xinhua News Agency that, along with People's Daily's News Line, is responsible for conveying the "management spirit" of state propaganda ministers, ran a piece about how media can convey to the world the great achievements of the Chinese Communist Party - by employing "the facts", no less.
A China More Just
From Broad Press, a new book by Gao Zhisheng. From the publisher's description:
Part memoir, part social commentary, part call to action, A China More Just is a penetrating account of contemporary China through the life of one attorney. Its selection of writings takes readers from a village in rural China to urban courtrooms, mountainside torture chambers, and the halls of a reluctant government. A China More Just is at once witty and raw, touching and wrenching, sober and playful.
(proxy required on the mainland)July 18, 2007
State Council Information Office: News coverups are naive
David Bandurski at China Media Project reports:
In the latest example of the puzzles and paradoxes coming from China's top leadership on the question of information openness, the vice-minister of China's State Council Information Office -- the office taking the lead in expanding censorship of the Chinese internet -- told China Central Television late last week that local leaders were 'naive' in trying to suppress negative news.
Censorship in Hong Kong
Rebecca MacKinnon has posted an update about Global Voices editor Oiwan Lam's battle against obscenity charges after she posted a link to an image that is milder than many of the photos on China's state-owned news websites.
Stock cheat's blog leads to calls for Internet regulation
Charlie Rose reports from Beijing
The first in a week-long series: China Today, a report from Beijing. Charlie interviews leaders in business and politics about China's economy, politics and culture. The series begins with He Ya-Fei, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs. (Google video, unavailable in China)
China products: forget trust, just verify
Dan Harris at China Law Blog comments on a Marketplace story detailing the radio program's hassles in setting up a Shanghai office:
I oftentimes tell the story of a Shanghai expat apartment dweller who was in the process of renegotiating his lease when the apartment's top of the line office chair broke. The apartment dweller told the landlord he would re-up on the lease if the landlord would replace the chair. The landlord agreed and the deal was signed. Next day, the landlord dropped off a two dollar metal folding chair.
The people's heaven?
"Where are the muckrackers?" asks Jonathan Ansfield at Spot-On:
Dulled by censorship and dehumanized by all the other bad news out there, what seem matters of life and death to us can come off as stories of a developing country's aches and pains within China. Mainland journalists who have been tracking product safety issues for years tend to frame the situation in stoically historic terms that often dovetail into the "world's factory floor" defense.
Transformers: Xinhua reporters in disguise
Beijing Newspeak looks at the threat posed by Xinhua reporters:
But why are local officials so scared of Xinhua reporters? Surely they are just cuddly little things who only say nice things about the Chinese government. Actually it seems local government officials are genuinely scared of them, much more so than local newspaper reporters. A significant proportion - I have no idea of the figure - of Xinhua stories are for internal eyes only, passed up to the central leadership....Often Xinhua reporters play the "I'll tell on you" card to encourage local officials to start opening up. It is surprisingly effective.
July 17, 2007
Hepatitis B online
Internet word of mouth research firm CIC Data has been looking at conversation between Hepatitis B sufferers online. This post summarizes their research and links to some Chinese media coverage of their press conference about the findings. The research was sponsored by a Pharma giant.
Foreign pilots at Chinese airlines
Blogger Marc van der Chijs notes the increasing numbers of foreigners steering Chinese planes.
July 16, 2007
Rodent population problem
What's to be done about the plague of two billion rats running amuk in Hunan? And is Guangzhou cuisine responsible? John Kennedy at GVO translates some commentary.
Urban hiking Beijing: The Forbidden City
At The Granite Studio, thirteen observations on the current state of tourism at the Forbidden City:
The new audio tour is hit and miss. First off, I miss Roger Moore's 007 delivery and cheeky style. But the new system automatically does deliver an explanation as you approach a particular area. This is great because you don't have to follow any "turn left," "go forward," "put your right foot in take your right foot out,"-style directions. You look at a building and presto! A kindly older Chinese woman - who sounds suspiciously like Wu "There's 5000 years of Chinese history, Mr. Paulson" Yi - gives you a lot of decent information (she harps a bit about the 1900 Allied invasion against the Boxers, but it's pretty mild.)
China to seek oil in Somalia
The Financial Times reports:
The Chinese state oil giant, CNOOC, has won permission to search for oil in part of Somalia, underlining China’s willingness to brave Africa’s most volatile regions in its hunt for natural resources.
The Chinese company’s deal with Somalia’s transitional federal government gives it exploration rights in the north Mudug region, some 500km north-east of the capital. (article behind paywall)
The woman who started the fuss about the Shanxi slaves
ESWN translates a Southern Weekend article about the woman who first posted the 'blood-and-tears appeal from 400 fathers' of the Shanxi brick kiln slave children.
July 14, 2007
It's not a direct flight
Alan Baumler at Frog in a Well posts an excerpt from Transnational Chinese (Pieke et. al) concerning how one Chinese migrant got to Italy:
Question: So you had two passports with you?
Xu: Yes. But in Egypt there was some trouble. We didn't get caught, but there was some trouble with the snakehead, it became dangerous, and we had to go back to Turkey. For the second time it was OK, and we flew from Egypt to Austria, and then from there to Italy. My older sister's husband came to Venice to fetch me. It took me eleven months to arrive here.
Review: I Love Dollars and Other Stories of China
At MCLC, Jason McGrath reviews Julia Lovell's translation of a collection of short fiction by Zhu Wen (朱文):
The most engaging works in the present collection are those that depart from the teasing autobiographical suggestions to instead depict in rich detail life incidents that veer suddenly from the mundane to the outrageous and delight especially in dark humor and wry detachment. In their absurdist twists, such stories occasionally recall Vietnam-era American writers such as Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller....Also frequently displayed are Zhu's admitted debts to Kafka and Borges, and even more immediate affinities with some similarly influenced, slightly older Chinese writers such as Yu Hua and Su Tong. The bursts of random violence that end "A Boat Crossing" and "Wheels," for example, are reminiscent of Yu Hua's early avant-garde stories, and the protagonists' exposure to such violence contains a similar implied historical critique of the ultimate failure of China's ruling classes to provide people with either spiritual or physical security.
Police raid scam-artist teahouse
Shanghaiist notes a story in the Shanghai Daily about police action against a teahouse that sticks foreigners with bills running into the thousands of yuan for afternoon tea.
Review: China Shakes the World
Richard at The Peking Duck reviews and heartily recommends James Kynge's book.
You come away from this book enraged at China and in awe of China, hating it and admiring it. Perhaps the most hackneyed phrase about China is that it's a "land of contradictions," but such phrases only become hackneyed because they contain a strong element of truth. Kynge brings us all the contradictions and spins them into a narrative that kept me turning from page to page throughout my flight...
July 13, 2007
Leaving the China Daily
Blogger Charlie is leaving his job at The China Daily in a blaze of glory, but notes some odd features of China style news gathering.
Mosque siege reveals the Chinese connection
Howard W. French writes in the IHT about China's behind-the-scenes pressure on Pakistan to intervene in the Red Mosque kidnappings.
Beyond the very real issue of the problems such things might cause abroad, there is an issue of growing importance in China itself, one of information and candor and an ability to accept criticism, or more to the point where the events of Pakistan are concerned, to promote and accept self-criticism.
Why does any of this matter? Because as the Chinese presence in countries around the world grows and as the country's overseas interests deepen, nationalistic reasoning like this, fed by skewed and censored news accounts - filled with conspiring foreigners and innocent Chinese - is likely to grow.
China, newly fastidious, spiffs up public restrooms
Mei Fong at the Wall Street Journal looks at Beijing's toilets from historical, sociological, and ecological perspectives.
Shut down after 12 years of publishing
July 12, 2007
Chinese business wisdom: Never take the inside seat
Imagethief goes to lunch and finds himself sitting ringside.
There is something surreal about daintily sipping your coffee while three meters away a beating is being administered. Honestly, it doesn't do much for the quaint bistro ambiance. (Although not having been to many actual French bistros, I don't really know if beatings are a regular part of their ambiance or not.) The fight was also something of a curiosity. I saw a lot of fights and beatings in Beijing (they'll all be banned for the Olympics I hear), but this is the first one I've seen in Shanghai. I was beginning to think it was just northerners who were always ready to get their fists up.
Ignorant and stupid actions against Xiamen netizens
ESWN translates a Q&A between Phoenix TV and journalist / blogger Lian Yue about the Xiamen government's moves to require real name registration for Net users after the June demonstrations against the PX chemical factory.
Govt. orders reshuffle at China's telecom firms
Mure Dickie in The Financial Times reports that China Unicom executive director Li Jianguo was transferred to fixed-line rival China Netcom last week, while Huang Wenlin, executive vice-president of fixed-line market leader China Telecom, swapped for a counterpart at wireless rival China Mobile, Zhang Chenshuang.
According to the FT article, the reshuffle 'has fuelled speculation that Beijing could be preparing a rumoured restructuring of the telecoms sector, which could see the number of large operators cut from four to three.'
July 11, 2007
Snakes of Beijing - a field guide
The Zhuhai penis
From ESWN:
In Doumen district, Zhuhai city, Guangdong pronvince, the local political consultative conference member Jia Yongqing spent 20,000 yuan to built a 5 meter tall penis that weighs more than 5 tons...
Internet dating leads to teen pregnancies?
The China Daily reports:
Nearly half of the pregnant teens in Shanghai were impregnated by boys they met on the Internet, a local doctor has said...
... And most of the fathers disappeared after learning about the pregnancy, and some of the mothers did not even know the fathers' names.
July 10, 2007
Tudou's new video player
Luyi Chen at China Web2.0 Review looks at the new video player and page layout that Tudou is testing.
Haruki Murakami in Chinese
An interview with Lin Shaohua, translator of Haruki Murakami's works, about the Japanese author's works and Sino-Japanese relations.
Buddhist Influence on the Neo-Confucian Concept of the Sage
Mark Swofford of Pinyin.info, maintainer of the Sino-Platonic Papers website, announces the latest paper to be rereleased online: Buddhist Influence on the Neo-Confucian Concept of the Sage by Pratoom Angurarohita. Includes links to a PDF version and to other papers available online.
Polluting factories in Yangzte area shut down
Jamil Anderlini and Richard McGregor of The Financial Times report:
Three factories in eastern Anhui province, including the largest in the county seat of Chaohu, have stopped production after they were named by the State Environmental Protection Agency in Beijing.
Another three have closed permanently and demolition has begun, according to Su Huimin, director of the Chaohu Sepa branch...
...In the past Sepa, a comparatively weak agency, has achieved early successes in campaigns only for factory owners to use connections to resume production once the fuss has died down.
But political pressure on senior officials to act on the environment is rising...
A strange story in Beijing
From Simon Elegant on Time magazine's China blog:
A strange story is unfolding in Beijing. It involves dissidents, secret policemen, a jailed blind activist and a tense standoff which has security officials besieging an apartment in which an activist and her daughter are holed up and refusing to leave for fear of being kidnapped-- by police.
July 9, 2007
Local autonomy at Google China
In an article in Caijing, Google's China CEO says the search giant is poised for a big jump in its China business, partly because of a high degree of local economy:
'With most companies you prepare a big PowerPoint deck, go over it, sit around with a bunch of ex-McKinsey, ex-Wharton people and go over every detail ... With us, I sent an email to Eric (Schmidt, Google’s chief executive) and said we want to do it and here are the five slides that tell you why. He sent a reply, he said okay, and we did it.'
Beijing's weather control plans
The People's Daily has some information about Beijing's rain conrol plans for the Olympics next year:
'Beijing's Weather Modification Office said aircraft and rockets would be used to release silver iodine and dry ice into the air to control rainfall centered over the National Stadium, especially during the opening and closing ceremonies.'
China to fund $1 billion dam in Guinea
Reuters reports:
China has agreed to fund the construction of a $1 billion hydroelectric dam in mineral-rich Guinea and renovate a series of state buildings, government officials in the West African country said on Saturday.
The Souapiti dam should allow the former French colony to generate some 750 MW of electricity, officials said. Guinea is one of the world's least developed countries and even parts of the capital city have only sporadic mains power.
July 7, 2007
A Xinhua reporter on government press releases
ESWN translates a reporter's thoughts on how government press releases should be reported in the media:
"In your heart, do you believe the Dianchi Administrative Office's position that 'there was no blue algae explosion at Dianchi'?" I asked him next.
"Of course, I don't believe it. We went to observe Dianchi ourselves and we took photographs," Huaiyan said in frustration. "But they called the press conference and this was what they said. News has to be true. Other than reporting what they say, what else can I write?"
Manchurians online
July 6, 2007
Lynne Cheney and how 9-11 prevented U.S. war with China
James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly relates a story told by Gary Hart about Lynne Cheney, which concludes: 'I am convinced that if it had not been for 9/11, we would be in a military showdown with China today.'
China stops easy organ transplants for foreigners
Digital Chosunilbo reports:
Chinese health authorities have issued new guidelines that restrict organ transplants for foreigners, making it virtually impossible for foreigners on tourist visas to receive transplants.
Chinese entrepreneur buys German airport
From The China Daily:
Pang Yuliang, an entrepreneur from Central China's Henan Province and chairman of LinkGlobal Logistics Co, said yesterday he would officially acquire the Parchim Airport in northern Germany at a cost of US$130 million on July 5, making himself the first Chinese to buy a European airport.
Keeping Faith
Jin Luxian's 50-year struggle to keep Catholicism alive in China, balance Rome and Beijing, and build a Church for "100 million Catholics". By Adam Minter in The Atlantic.
The most awesome Chinese female reporter ever
ESWN translates a blog post by a reporter with the China Times, now in its latest incarnation as a business broadsheet that runs plagiarized stock reports.
July 5, 2007
Contaminated exports...from where?
Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap writes about the high volume of illegal waste material shipped to China from the US:
For almost five years I have covered the Chinese scrap trade, and in the course of visiting Chinese ports and scrap facilities, I have seen American scrap shipments contaminated with medical waste, household garbage, dead animals, sludge, mud, and other items not included on the shipping manifest. And these are just the shipments that DON'T contain e-waste. All of this occurs despite China's strict laws on waste imports - many of which were implemented in reaction to American exports of hazardous materials to China.
Andox from Andy Lau
Maureen O'Connor at Shanghaiist reveals Andy Lau's new line of toys: mini cartoon bulls! The Twins can't stop kissing them!
Chery and Chrysler to make cars for export
From The Wall Street Journal:
Chrysler Group's move to outsource the entire assembly of some vehicles to a Chinese company puts it at the leading edge of global auto makers looking to use China as an export base.
Executives at Chrysler, which is struggling to pare costs, said the agreement with China's Chery Automobile Co. to assemble a series of small, inexpensive cars for export under the Dodge brand is likely to serve as a template as the company looks to roll out new models quickly, inexpensively and with less capital investment.
China launches 'mammoth' plan to halt biodiversity crisis
A BGCI release on the launch of a new conservation plan:
With its remarkable diversity of wild flora under threat from explosive economic growth, China has announced a radical new 'National Strategy for Plant Conservation'. Coming in the face of what scientists are calling a "burgeoning ecological crisis", this landmark strategy aims to halt China's continuing loss of plant diversity, helping safeguard the future of some 5,000 threatened plant species. The plan brings together 3 state agencies - for the first time - to create a uniquely coordinated, 'whole country' approach to plant conservation in China.
Includes a link to a PDF summary of the strategy.July 4, 2007
Chinese leaders intensify jargon of control ahead of 17th Congress
David Bandurski at CMP presents a number of directives from party leadership aimed at creating a favorable environment for the fall's goings-on:
The following order went out to central party media in the middle of June:
Directions on Reporting of 17th Party Congress
(1) From now onwards, creating a favorable environment for the 17th Party Congress is most important for us all. All reports must be encompassed by this demand as they are carried out. All units must conduct an examination of their own reports and programs, and those not appropriate must be readjusted immediately. [Media must work] with political consciousness [of the party line and party interests], awareness of the overall situation [of the strategy and interests of the central party/大局], and a sense of responsibility.
Hong Kong's self-knowledge
ESWN translates an essay by John Chan Koon-chung on the self-identity of the people of Hong Kong:
In recent years, I have been living in Beijing. I often hear people ask others: "What is your place of origin?" People reply with answers such as: I'm from Henan, Guangdong, Shanghai, Tianjin and so on. But I have never heard anyone say: "I'm Chinese." Could it be that they don't think that they are Chinese? Of course not. It is just that the identity as a Chinese person co-exists with those regional identities, and they are not mutually exclusive.
But in Hong Kong, there are some social scientists who run statistical surveys which ask in the same question: "Please select one of the following - Are you a Hong Kong person, or Chinese person, or Chinese Hong Kong person or Hong Kong Chinese person?"
For this particular question, each option had someone picking it.
Pope's letter to China appears, disappears
From UCAN via Zenit:
Some Catholic websites in mainland China that uploaded Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Catholics in the mainland shortly after it was released were ordered hours later to remove it. UCA News observed that a few hours after the Vatican issued the letter on June 30 at 6:00 p.m. Beijing time (12:00 noon in Rome), several mainland Catholic websites uploaded the simplified Chinese version of the letter.
However, most of those websites, which usually carry news on the Universal Church, the China Church and the pope, had removed the text by the next day. A priest in charge of such a website registered with the government told UCA News on July 2 he felt helpless because he strongly believes that "China Church websites should publish the pope's letter."
July 2, 2007
'Yi yi' helmer Edward Yang dies
From Patrick Frater at Variety.com:
Yang's best-known work was "Yi yi: A One and a Two ...," the multilayered family drama that won him the director prize at Cannes in 2000.
He studied electrical engineering in Florida and studied film briefly at USC but initially decided against a movie career. His change of heart apparently came after he was introduced to Werner Herzog's 1972 drama "Aguirre: The Wrath of God."
More from Min Lee with the AP via SFGate.We've got Phoenix
Black and White Cat writes about the voices of the Chinese media:
During a conversation in Beijing one night, I said: "Have you heard what the foreign media are saying...that X has happened?" I can't remember what X was - it doesn't matter. The other person said, "That's not possible. If that had happened, we'd know. Things aren't like they used to be. The media isn't like it used to be. We've got Phoenix."
Appreciate Guoxue as it is
In a China Daily opinion column, Raymond Zhou mocks current trends in classical learning:
People who revere Guoxue as God Almighty do not really understand how civilizations evolve. They believe it is this rigid thing that must be crammed down the throat of youngsters and never accommodate their questions. Most traditional style schools (si shu) that have sprung up in recent years resort to this gorging-without-digesting approach.
July 1, 2007
The Hong Kong that you may not know about
ESWN translates a Southern Weekly report by Zhang Yue:
...around the time of the Return, the emphasis was to keep the economic vitality of Hong Kong and therefore more attention was paid to the business interests instead of the middle-class and common people. For example, most of the 800 electors are business people who used to monopolize the economic resources of Hong Kong and are now monopolizing the political resources. During the colonial era, the Hong Kong governor looked after the interests of those business people and that part of the colonial administration has been retained.
This is a lesson that is worth learning and it can be used as reference.
But within the social environment in which the rich-poor gap is increasing, Hong Kong has provided a protective system that will enable the poor to survive with dignity. Apart from the public housing system, there are medical protection, education protection, etc. Society thus avoids instability.
Wild beasts of Beijing and Shanghai
Shanxi slave case: plus ça change...
In an interview published in this week's Southern Metropolis Weekly, historian Wu Si reflects on the Shanxi brick kiln scandal in the context of the history of forced labor in China over the past few centuries, as well as how it relates to China's capitalist reforms.