Chinese textures
The new Barking at the Sun blog looks at the beauty that is brought forth when acid rain meets poor quality building materials.
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August 31, 2007
5 ministers retired
Xinhua reports that in the run up to the 17th Party Congress that starts on October 15, five government ministers have been retired. The ministries with new heads are finance, supervision, personnel, state security, and the minister in charge of the State Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
August 30, 2007
Sandstorms eating away at China's Great Wall
From AP:
Western sections of the Great Wall of China are being reduced to 'mounds of dirt' by sandstorms and may disappear entirely in 20 years, a report said Wednesday.
The reasons for the deterioration are entirely manmade, the official Xinhua News Agency said, pointing to destructive farming methods in the 1950s that desertified areas of northern China, causing sandstorms.
'Frequent storms not only eroded the mud, but also cracked the wall and caused it to collapse or break down,' Xinhua quoted archaeologist Zhou Shengrui as saying.
The most threatened sections of the wall are in Gansu Province, where it's made of packed earth rather than the bricks that make up the sections around Beijing.The social reporter's internal notes
ESWN translates the notes of a reporter who interacts with police, migrant workers, security guards, and village officials:
There are good security guards and then there are bad ones. Based upon my experience in gathering news, most security guards are good people (or else Shenzhen would be in total chaos). There were several stories in which I came into close contact with security guards. The first case was the security guards who were assaulted in Nanshui. They were the victims. The second case was on November 1, when a security guard was squeezed twice in the testicles by a woman, resulting in a painfully swollen injury. The security guard was also a victim. The third case was the Gangxia security guards. They were very bad people. The fourth case was the security guards at Shexia who were very good at maintaining security at the village. The reporter played the role of a passerby and chatted with the security guards to obtain the information. Sometimes, one gets more lively material when one does not reveal oneself as a reporter.
Finance minister resigns
The Wall Street Journal reports:
China's finance minister resigned in an unusually abrupt change ahead of a major Communist Party conclave in October, but his departure is unlikely to result in any significant shift in the government's economic program.
Finance Minister Jin Renqing asked to resign for 'personal reasons' and the government has approved the resignation, the State Council, China's cabinet, said Thursday. Mr. Jin will become deputy chief of the State Council's Development Research Center, a think tank, a statement issued by the State Council Information Office said. That is a far less senior position than finance minister, although the Information Office said Mr. Jin would also keep his ministerial rank in the government bureaucracy.
Chinese leaders meditate loudly on the philosophy of censorship
At the newly-revamped China Media Project, David Bandurski looks at 'cadence' in the Chinese media: "This is essentially the 'art' of knowing what can be reported (from the party's standpoint, naturally) and how."
China generally avoids making a public display of its media control ideology and tactics, which have scant popular support. As the 17th National Congress nears, however, party leaders are cranking up the volume and urging media not to forget their duty to public opinion guidance.
One of the most notable examples to appear in recent weeks was a speech, disseminated on August 22 through the Central Propaganda Department's Guangming Daily and a number of major Websites, by Yuan Zhifa (袁志发), a former Guangming Daily editor with a long resume of propaganda postings.
Yuan, who is now - for lack of a better phrase - a journalism educator, talks about how journalists in China can gain a better grasp of "cadence" (韵律).
Why is it so hard to go to the Great Wall?
Li Xing tackles the tour package question for China Daily:
I've heard more complaints than praise about arranged tours, both from entire tour groups and individual travelers. Too often we hear tourists say they have been taken to places other than the Badaling Wall, such as the Wildlife Park or playgrounds in the neighborhood.
An American friend who visited the Wall with a group in late April was taken to a pharmacy and forced to take a physical exam there. He was told that he had problems with his kidney and that the medications offered at the pharmacy just happened to be the best treatment available.
August 29, 2007
23 million pet dogs in China
This article on South Africa's Independent Online says that China has 23 million pet dogs 'according to 2006 estimates', but does not name the source of the estimated number.
Premier Wen's fan club
Photos of a young, surprisingly handsome Wen Jiabao surfaced at the Tianya BBS, leading to a flood of comments from admirers. Could President Hu be among them?
Hangzhou Information Net saga continues
Hangzhou Information Net, the website that reported the heroic death of a naked party secretary, reports that a police raid on its offices was in violation of numerous laws. ESWN summarizes:
On August 25, the website declared that it had been subjected to bandit-style law enforcement as 13 computers and 1 server were hauled away by the authorities. This caused some netizens to remark that the website had finally been subjected to retaliation for that famous series of reports and notices.
The enforcement team leader said that Fan Bin was running an illegal Internet cafe. He said that Fan had set up his Internet cafe inside his own home. "We asked him to stop, but he refuses to pay heed. There is a steel door and a surveillance camera at the place. When we knock on the door, he does not open it. We couldn't get in." He also said that the raid had nothing to do with Hangzhou Information Net.
Crackdown on Internet porno fiction
China recently announced a crackdown on obscene online fiction. The dragnet has already snared 348 websites, accused of publishing 'disgusting' written content that could 'easily poison the minds of young people.'
Bloggers on Beijing traffic experiment
Between August 17 and 20, Beijing restricted the numbers of cars allowed to drive on all roads in the city and the surrounding countryside inside Beijing municipality. Several Chinese bloggers weighed in about the success of the test, as did Danwei commenters.
Beijing today and in the 70s and 80s
The Economist's Asian editor lived in Beijing in the late 1970s and then again in the late 1980s. The maganie's website has published the anonymous editor's diary of a recent trip to China. It's well worth a read, below is a soundbite:
I talked to two journalists who did master’s degree courses in London. Both work for the state-owned English-language media. One was rather apologetic about his work. Because his audience is mainly foreign, he is not as constrained as colleagues in the domestic media. But nor is he free of censorship. Yet he also thinks that in many ways he does a better job of reporting China than the foreign press does. It is not that the foreign press is too 'negative' about China; it is that it lacks context. It misses the trends.
Sex, but not on billboards please
A look at the one-year anniversary issue of the Chinese edition of Psychologies magazine (心理) which includes a supplement called 'Handbook for Sexual Communication' — toned down on the magazine's outdoor advertising to 'Handbook for Love Communication'.
Date set for Nat'l Party Congress: October 15
The Financial Times which usually has accurate coverage of rumblings in the Chinese government, reports:
China's Communist party will open a critical meeting on October 15, state media said on Tuesday, announcing a congress at which president and party chief Hu Jintao is expected to consolidate power with a leadership reshuffle...
...One key test of his growing confidence will be whether he succeeds in ousting Jiang loyalists such as Jia Qinglin, head of an advisory body to parliament, from the standing committee, which currently has only eight members.
China legislates to tolerate scientific failures
From Xinhua:
Legislators are discussing a draft amendment to the Law on Science and Technology Progress that states: "Scientists and technicians, who have initiated research with a high risk of failure will still have their expenses covered if they can provide evidence that they have tried their best when they failed to achieve their goals."
The high pressure has been blamed for contributing to the rampant academic frauds in China, scientists say. Xu Jialu, vice-chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said on Monday that when a project failed, the technicians were always under heavy pressure. They might be afraid that their reputations would be affected and it would be harder to apply for research funds.
August 28, 2007
Beijingers split over air quality exercise
The China Daily reports the results of a Beijing Youth Daily survey gauging city residents' attitudes toward the recent test of traffic controls:
Car owners argued that smoother traffic comes at the expense of individuals' convenience.
"Does being a car owner mean you have limited rights? That would be cruel and inhuman," Wang Hongsheng, head of the Volkswagen Polo club in Beijing, said. Fifty-seven percent of car owners shared his opinion.
Among non-drivers, 21.9 percent did not think the even-odd plate exercise was a reasonable, scientific way to gauge air quality.
August 27, 2007
Robert Sawyer most popular foreign author at Chengdu SF con
From Robert J. Sawyer's blog:
Robert J. Sawyer of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, today won China's top science-fiction award, the Galaxy Award, in the category "Most Popular Foreign Author of the Year." The award, voted on by Chinese readers, was presented at the Chengdu International Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, the largest science-fiction conference ever held in China. (The last international SF&F conference in China was held ten years ago, in 1997.)
Chinese translations of Sawyer's novels are published by Science Fiction World, headquartered in Chengdu, and his short stories have appeared in Science Fiction World magazine, the world's largest-circulation SF publication; Sawyer is also a past columnist for that magazine.
Oriental in Minnesota
Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap looks at a pamplet examining Asian populations in Minnesota, USA, in 1949:
The booklet is a report, personally commissioned by Governor Youngdahl, to assess "discrimination practiced against the Chinese, the Filipinos, and the Japanese who reside in Minnesota." It is divided into three sections concerning each group, respectively, and ends with a brief conclusion on what steps should be taken to assure that the three groups can continue to live in Minnesota, unmolested by discriminatory people and practices.
This is a laudable stuff, and much of it seems just as relevant today as it was in 1949. But for my money (admittedly, very little: I paid US$4 for the book), the most interesting passages concern the history and daily life of the 550-member Chinese community living in Minnesota in 1949.
August 26, 2007
Bringing blogging to the countryside
From John Kennedy at Global Voices Online:
Calling himself Tiger Temple, Zhang set off earlier this month on a bicycle blogging tour to look for his own news that will take him through Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, four impoverished provinces in north central China's hinterland, posting photos, video and reports of who and what he encounters along the way, the next step it seems from his usual blogging of things like street-level crime and natural disruptions to construction work on 2008 Olympic venues.
August 25, 2007
Party leaders target government retribution against Web users
From David Bandurski at CMP:
In a rare show of tolerance in Internet policy, top party and government leaders in the prefecture-level city of Luoyang released a notice recently prohibiting subordinate offices from employing technical means to dig up information on individual Internet users with an eye for retaliation....The policy comes as ordinary Internet users are increasingly being targeted by local authorities in China for posting content regarded as damaging to local government reputations.
August 24, 2007
Nine seconds with the Chairman and a pop star
Xiao Qiang at CDT translates imagined conversations between Hu and Andy Lau during their 9-second handshake at a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return:
Hu: I know you. (Lau cries)
Hu continues: Isn't your name Jacky Cheung (Lau cries again.)
Lau - shaking Hu's hand hard: Thank you Chairman Jiang. (Hu cries.)
Ho to sell the bank
The Financial Times reports:
Stanley Ho, the Macao gaming tycoon, is in advanced talks to sell a majority stake in his empire’s banking arm to China’s largest lender, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China...
...Although a minnow compared with ICBC, Seng Heng is Macao's second-largest locally incorporated bank with assets of 25.4bn patacas ($3.2bn), profits of 312m patacas last year and nine branches in the special administrative region.
Seng Heng was acquired in 1989 by Sociedade de Tourismo e Diversoes de Macao, Mr Ho’s flagship gaming, transport and infrastructure conglomerate. Mr Ho is Seng Heng’s chairman and managing director.
August 23, 2007
17 million people in Beijing
From the Associated Press, quoting Xinhua:
[T]he population included 12.04 million permanent residents holding Beijing 'hukou,' or household registration certificates, along with 5.1 million migrants, citing figures released by the Public Security Ministry at a workshop Monday on the country's managing of the migrant population.
705 foreign correspondents in China
In an article titled 'China welcomes foreign journalists - FM spokesman', Xinhua gives some figures for the number of accredited foreign correspondents in China:
There has been a sharp increase from 606 resident foreign correspondents from 315 organization based in 49 countries in China since the year's start to 705 from 351 media organizations based in 53 countries, while 2,060 foreign journalists came to China on reporting tours.
Stamps from Manchukuo
A guest post by Alexander Akin at Frog in a Well that a number of Manchukuo stamps, with an eye toward how they were intended to promote the legitimacy of the country.
How government waste threatens conservation
Tang Hao at China Dialogue examines the causes of fiscal irresponsibility:
Recent increases in property and land prices have meant rocketing incomes - far in excess of GDP growth - for local governments, who have a monopoly on land resources. This has meant more and more waste, and in other countries the government could not act so freely. Excessive government spending betrays a lack of political awareness - and a lack of respect for the taxpayers and their money. Government officials believe the only way they can benefit from the money is to spend it, and act as if there were no point in saving it. The motto seems to be: as long as the money doesn't actually end up in your pocket, spend it as you will. This attitude damages both social and political morals.
Shandong to dead workers: blame yourselves
Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap picks apart several state news reports on a disaster at an aluminum plant in Shandong:
Large, modern aluminum plants don't explode because someone failed to replace a liner. If worker error was responsible for the accident, that error could only have occurred if there was a fatal design or safety flaw in the plant itself.
It's no surprise that the Shandong safety authorities would quickly act to protect a large (partly state-owned) employer from having to take responsibility for a large industrial accident (see: Xintai mining disaster). What is surprising - or at least, novel - is the approach that they take in this case, tacitly suggesting that one of the China's largest aluminum producers was actually operating like a wildcatter.
August 22, 2007
Natural and human disasters
The Black and White Cat blog looks at reactions from three SMD commentators to the mine disaster. The writers wonder whether institutionalized procedures turned a preventable accident into a catastrophe.
How to tarnish your China image (or not)
China Law Blog annotates a post from Wu Way on five ways to shoot your business in its metaphorical foot:
1. Open a store at the Great Wall. In light of China's history, its reaction to Starbucks at the Great Wall is "not surprising." The lesson here is that "if a Chinese official gives you the green light to open up at the Great Wall - or any other iconic cultural location in China - think twice."
After the scandal comes the totally illogical explanation
ESWN translates an SMD opinion piece by Cao Lin regarding media reports that cadres staged a "disaster relief show" of aid dispersal, only to demand that villagers return the money once the journalists left:
Yet, what are the 'facts' as produced by the Gaoling people? The village cadres were "careless" and gave the "disaster relief funds" to the wrong people and the reporters "misunderstood" this action. Wow! Brothers and sisters, never mind whether the general public believes that! Would you believe such an explanation yourself? Can you convince yourself in terms of logic and experience? How can you give these very important sums of money to the wrong people? Why was this discovered just after the superiors and television crews left? Why do you admit the mistake only after the media reported on the case? The public may not be able to see the facts. But relatively speaking, the media reports about the "disaster relief show" is more consistent with the logic, knowledge and reality of China today.
August 21, 2007
Lonely Planet Ch na
FEER's Traveller's Tales blog finds a strangely-edited copy of Lonely Planet Shanghai for sale at a Xinhua Bookstore.
Bad air or bad journalism?
An article in The Daily Telegraph that was not written by its Beijing correspondent reveals the dangers of ex situ journalism. As the Olympics approach, we can expect more of this.
Google buys stake in top Chinese BBS
Google has bought an undisclosed stake in Tianya.cn, one of China's leading online discussion forums that has become a main distribution point for breaking news from citizen journalists.
China's rising generation of worship leaders
Hudson Tsuei at the Christian Post writes about a religious music instructor:
In 2000, he started his music school, which could only provide barely-usable electric keyboards for students to practice music. Three years later, the first class of graduates was being dispatched to house churches throughout China.
Since then, the school grew to include several classrooms, new pianos, an ornate music hall, a practice room and a library....The students at the school come from virtually every corner of China - from Yunnan Province in China's southwest to the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. Though most students are of Han-Chinese origins, a few are from the Miao ethnic minority.
The Chinese novel finds new life online
Aventurina King at Wired News looks at the lucrative world of online fiction:
more and more internet authors now prefer web to print publishing. To promote sales, publishing companies often require the author to keep a novel's ending exclusive to its print version. In the past, this had resulted in the online organized demonstrations of angry readers who felt cheated into spending money on the print version. Now, according to Li, the web gives online authors enough confidence and financial support to refuse print-exclusive endings.
Related: Trendspotting in online fiction.Hardest-working editor in Chinese media
Xiao Qiang at CDT presents five nearly-identical front pages from 19 August:
For all official newspapers, what appears on the front page and even at which position using which fonts, have been instructed by the Central Propaganda Department for decades. This is not news. But it is still rare that five newspapers, including four nationally published ones such as People's Daily, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily and PLA Daily, ran almost identical front page layouts on the same day, including the headlines and placement of photos and articles. This is one sign that recent media control has been tightened to an unusual degree.
August 20, 2007
The squeeze on print on demand websites
Talent show banned for vulgarity
China's TV regulators have been complaining about the vulgarity of talent shows for more than a year; now they are starting to act, with the banning of Chongqing TV's program "Shock to the Heart".
Bye bye baiji dolphin
A guest post from Me Old China:
R.I.P. baiji dolphin, one of the world's few fresh water dolphins and former resident of the Yangtze River.
WPP grows 29% in China
The Wall Street Journalreports that advertising and communications behemoth WPP is growing strongly in the Asian-Pacific region, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The article gives some figures from head adman Martin Sorrell:
Sir Martin said in addition to WPP making numerous acquisitions in China and India in the past year, the group saw organic growth of 29% in China and 20% in India, excluding acquisitions.
Direct marketing and digital-related activities accounted for about 23% of the group's revenue. In May, WPP said it planned to buy Internet-advertising firm 24/7 Real Media for $649 million.
Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa
An article by Howard French and Lydia Polgreen in The New York Times looks at Chinese entrepreneurs in African countries like Malawi, Chad, Zambia and Ethiopia.
Mortgage slaves
This is a post by Roland Soong about 171 new Chinese words recently recognized by the Chinese Ministry of Education, including words like 吊瓶族 -- (the tribe with the dripping bottles) — pushy people who enter the hospital and immediately demand IV feed regardless of their cause for being there, 2时歇业令 — the regulation for entertainment facilities to half business at 2am, and 房奴 — (house slave) people who work to pay off their home mortgage loan.
Soong concludes:
There is a debate whether a middle class exists in China. You look at this list of words. What are they about? It is the middle class.
Sex overtakes drugs as China's main HIV problem
The China Daily reports:
Unsafe sex has for the first time overtaken drug abuse through injections as the main cause of new HIV infections in the country, according to the latest annual report released by the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The finding suggests the virus is spreading from high-risk groups to the general public.
Of the 70,000 new HIV infections recorded in 2005, 49.8 percent were through sexual contact, said a report released jointly by the MOH and the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Figures for 2006 are not available.
August 17, 2007
Instant noodle price fixing
From Xinhua:
China's top economic planner on Thursday determined that the China branch of the International Ramen Manufacturers Association (IRMA) has illegally fixed prices for instant noodles.
The IRMA branch had held three meetings of instant noodle manufacturers and related businesses early this year to discuss specific plans to raise prices, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The story quotes an instant noodle insider who says that price increases are necessary because of commodity price hikes, and also at the punishment that may get meted out to price-fixers.Lots of jobs, no qualified staff
From The Economist:
In a recent survey, 600 chief executives of multinational companies with businesses across Asia said a shortage of qualified staff ranked as their biggest concern in China and South-East Asia ... Across almost every industry and sector it was the same.
The report notes that airline pilots, lawyers, doctors, accountants and managers are all in short supply in China.Why do foreigners want to change China but not Italy?
Blogger The 88s:
China has a lot of problems — and I don’t really care anymore. And that’s a good thing...
...I used to live in Italy. The main thing I learned there is that Italians have their own fucked up ways of doing things that you aren’t going to change — ever ... So why do I always seem to run into foreigners who tell me how much they “care” about China and its problems? I never heard that phrase once in Italy.
Chinese Net slang
CIC Data's blog has an interesting post about the argot used by Chinese netizens on forum websites about automobiles.
Black market banks
Last week's Economist had a story about a black market bank:
Just over two years after a big unlicensed bank was last found in China, another surfaced this week. Last time the bank was based in Shanghai and operated in a small number of provinces. This time the illegal bank, which is based across the border from Hong Kong in Shenzhen, is on a far grander scale. It did business in every province of the country and its clients included state-owned enterprises and foreign multinationals. It appears to have been operating unnoticed by officials for up to eight years. In the Shenzhen area alone, it was reported to have done 4.3 billion yuan ($544m) of unspecified transactions in the year and a half to May.
August 16, 2007
The fall of Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu
Caijing magazine has published an investigative report about the crimes of former Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Liangyu (in English translation).
More than 3 million cars in Beijing and counting
From Xinhua:
New car owners in Beijing has begun to use licence plates started with the letter of 'L' as the city's registered 3.07 million cars have devoured more letters on the alphabet with a daily register of more than 1,000 cars.
Investigative journalism and advertising leverage
ESWN translates a post by Xu Min at 1510:
The media are supposed to have the sacred duty of monitoring the conditions, satisfy the right of the people to know and to communicate culture. But many media are now playing the role of delivering results to clients. They are more interested in swatting the flies than attacking the tigers. The essential principle and operational standard for chief editors, editors and reporters are never to touch any government units higher than the local levels and to let the advertiser clients become the "bosses" behind the scene.
August 15, 2007
A lonely war on forest destruction
Michael Zhao at CDT translates a piece from Southern Breeze magazine (aka South Wind View) about Hainan's forests:
In early July, Hainan's people's congress conducted a blanket examination on its forest resources. The island also invited media outlets from Beijing and other provinces to "expose the shame (揭丑)," that the province has lost more than 1 million mu natural forests since 2000. This, inviting the media all over, was a first.
More reflections on the Pope's letter: Heyndrickx v. Zen Edition!
Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap continues his discussion on the recent pastoral letter to China:
I feel comfortable stating that - diplomatic track, aside - China's Catholics are actively grappling with how to respond to and obey the Pope's letter and its call for reconciliation between adherents of the open and underground churches. Alas much of that grappling is out of sight of the media. Yet there are public hints as to what’s happening, and perhaps the best ones have been dropped in a terse public exchange between a Belgian priest and a Hong Kong cardinal, both of whom have long-standing ties to China's Catholic Church, but neither of whom can be said to belong to it.
August 14, 2007
China to launch moon probe
Xinhua reports that China will launch its 'first circumlunar satellite as part of its ambitious moon exploration program enters the stage of implementation, sources with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Friday.'
The article also says that China's space agency will launch a moon rover around 2012.
How soon after that will there be a moon colony full of miners from Shanxi?
Signposts of inner-party democratization
David Bandurski at CMP summarizes media attention surrounding the 'historic list' of congressional delegates and other political matters, and offers a quantitative analysis of the coverage:
How significant are those numbers? At this point, they are more symbolic than anything else. Consider that with 30 provinces and autonomous regions in China, there are just over 300 differential candidates, or an average of around 11 per province. That means that in the vast majority of voting districts (county or city, etc.) there are no additional candidates. While party members are theoretically tasked with "electing" their delegates, there are in most cases no decisions to be made.
The Bookworm grows in China
At Gadling, Kelly Amabile talks about the Beijing Bookworm and its plans to open an outlet in Suzhou. With photos.
Review: The Old Capital
The Complete Review likes the "intriguing perspectives and presentation" of Howard Goldblatt's translation of The Old Capital (古都) by Chu T'ien-hsin (朱天心):
The characters constantly look for fixed points to hold onto, but the general feel in these pieces is of being untethered in the contemporary world: a hold is hard to find. Chu T'ien-hsin works this well into her stories. Her approach isn't particularly subtle, yet it doesn't feel forced, and with the twisting spirals of connexion (particularly in the long title-piece) she uses it to very good effect....Unusual, but worthwhile.
From History Wire."Democratic Imperialism": Tibet, China, and the National Endowment for Democracy
Michael Barker at Global Research looks at financial connections between the US National Endowment for Democracy and Tibetan activists:
This article has demonstrated the close ties that exist between the Dalai Lama's non-violent campaign for Tibetan independence and U.S. foreign policy elites who are actively supporting Tibetan causes through the NED. This finding is particularly worrying given the high international media profile of many of the groups exposed in this article, especially when it is remembered that the NED's activities are intimately linked with those of the CIA. This funding issue is clearly problematic for Tibetan (or foreign) activists campaigning for Tibetan freedom, as the overwhelmingly anti-democratic nature of the NED can only weaken the legitimacy of the claims of any group associated with the NED.
August 13, 2007
Maker of recalled toys kills himself
Michael Zhao at CDT translates an excerpt of a SMD report:
A phone call went to a reporter and the other end of the line said the boss of Foshan Lida Toys (利达玩具), whose nearly 1 million toys exported to US were recalled, killed himself at his own plant at Nanhai (南海平洲), near Guangzhou. Zhang Shuhong (张树鸿), the Hong Kong toy maker, hung himself in mid-afternoon on Aug. 11, leaving behind over 5,000 workers with his company.
The panic about China's nuclear option
An opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph alleging that the Chinese government 'has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States' has caused ripples through the world's financial industry.
Dubbed American and subtitled in-jokes
Polyglot Conspiracy reproduces and comments on a SCMP article on how foreign comedies are dubbed into Chinese, with particular focus on the Cantonese version of The Simpsons Movie:
As actress Josie Ho Chiu-yee (who dubbed Marge) confesses, "It's like a foreigner trying to translate a Stephen Chow Sing-chi film, it's very difficult and there will be something lost in the translation."
Guru Nanak with Chinese characteristics
From the Times of India:
After the Chinese-made kirpans (daggers) nearly wiped out local manufacturers of one of the five 'K's of Sikhism, it is the turn of Guru Nanak Dev's idols with 'Chinese characteristics' to flood shops across Punjab.
Plastic surgery in North Korea
This article in Asian Sex Gazette says that 'businesses offering facial plastic surgery, skin maintenance and breat augmentation are becoming more popular among the wealthy class' in North Korea.
Seattle - Beijing direct flights
According to a China Daily report, Hainan Airlines has applied to operate a non-stop flight between Beijing and Seattle in the United States starting next June.
Microsoft should be happy.
August 12, 2007
Anyp shuts down blogging services
From China Web2.0 Review:
Since July 26th, users can not access Anyp.cn's service. Anyp said there was something wrong with their data, and the service will be available soon. But yesterday, Zhang Jingjun, CEO of Anyp, announced in her personal blog that because some of Anyp.cn's users published inappropriate posts in their blog, therefore, Anyp has to shut down its service asked by regulatory departments, and Anyp will try to find other blogging service providers to take over its users and help them to move their previous posts.
There's also speculation that Anyp is dumping its free blogging platform to concentrate on its paid enterprice services.August in Beijing
Publish your video and audio on Danwei
Danwei is looking for contributors of audio and video podcasts for our Danwei FM and Danwei TV platforms. If you have experience with or are interested in using audio or video to say something compelling about business, society, culture, or urban life in China, we want to talk to you.
Blue skies in Beijing
A prediction that the air will be clear in August 2008 for the Olympics, but who knows what the weather manipulation treatment will do to those of who live in Beijing.
August 11, 2007
A very public consumer protest
Josh at China Expat explains why SUVs covered in slogans are parked along several streets in Beijing:
My first thought when I saw they spray painted cars was that either the government, or a local car maker trying to push out foreign competitors, might be behind the demonstration. However the truth is something quite different. Instead, it is a dispute between 57 consumers who purchased Chevy SUVs and both the local dealership and Chevrolet China.
August 10, 2007
Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou - shitty directors making propaganda?
Artist Ai Weiwei, son of renowned poet Ai Qing blasted Olympic pomposity in an interview in The Guardian by Jonathan Watts:
"I hate the kind of feeling stirred up by promotion or propaganda....It's the kind of sentiment when you don't stick to the facts, but try to make up something, to mislead people away from a true discussion. It is not good for anyone."
He accused those choreographing the opening ceremony on August 8 next year - including film-makers Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou - of failing to live up to their responsibility as artists.
"All the shitty directors in the world are involved. It's disgusting," said Ai.
Property law and revolution
Li Datong has written an article for Opendemocracy.net about property and land rights issued. Titled 'The next land revolution', the piece is a good introduction to the complexities of real estate transactions and laws in China.
HSBC to open rural banks in China
The Financial Times reports:
HSBC is to become the first foreign bank to break into rural China as part of the country’s pilot programme to expand banking in rural areas...
...It has set up HSBC Rural Bank Company in the Cengdu County of Suizhou City in Hubei Province, which has a population of 2m people.
High-wire act: Damon Albarn and "Monkey"
In The New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones profiles Damon Albarn of Blur and the Gorillaz. Albarn wrote the score to the opera "Monkey: Journey to the West", which just debuted in Manchester:
To Albarn's credit, the score is neither an aggregate of pop songs that people already know nor an attempt to garner highbrow bona fides through imitations of the classical canon. Like the opera itself, a delightful alloy of martial art, acrobatics, and cartoons, Albarn's score - which features several arias - is a hybrid that mingles movie-soundtrack ambience and goofy sound effects with the repetitive fecundity of modern composers like Steve Reich. There is even a catchy song about peaches that could possibly make it as a pop single, if the English-speaking world were ready for a hit in Mandarin.
On non-support of the Beijing Olympics
John Kennedy at GVO looks at some online voices debating whether people can speak off-message about the Olympics:
Bullog - part The Huffington Post, part Daily Kos - has a Beijing 2008 blog that starts off with a firm stance against supporting next year's summer games...
The as-yet unidentified blogger behind it poses an interesting question, put forth with no mention of the foreign protests held in Beijing this past week: why aren't people talking about opposing the Olympics?
Car restrictions for Beijing in August — confirmed
Recent rumors that Beijing will test restrictions on driving in the city as part of Olympic preparations were confirmed by Xinhua today:
The Chinese capital will ban the use of about 1.3 million automobiles for four days this month to test the effects of this move on environmental quality, the city's environmental protection bureau announced on Thursday...
...From Aug. 17 to 20, the city will have cars with odd-numbered license plates and those with even-numbered ones hit the roads on alternate days, said Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau. Du said the ban doesn't apply to taxis, buses, police cars and ambulances.
August 9, 2007
Are thank-you-CCP quotes in official news coverage "fake news" too?
David Bandurski at CMP translates part of an editorial by Leung Man-tau on implausible gratitude:
Leung's editorial referred to state television coverage of the recent rescue of mine workers in Henan Province, in which one miner was quoted as saying after emerging from the blackness: "I thank the Central Party! I thank the State Council! I thank the government of Henan Province! I thank the people of the nation!"
Evil Chinese bankers and the next American president
Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap takes a look at US debt, presidential candidates, and the China bogeyman:
...one unfortunate result of China's (rather) sudden and growing interest in dollar-based securities is a sudden case of hysteria that appears to afflict US Presidential candidates. I bring this up because, last night, I had the unexpected experience of watching roughly 30 minutes of the AFL-CIO Candidates Forum in Chicago. This unwieldy event pitted seven Democratic candidates for president against each other on a range of issues, not least of which was China.
Making of a Chinese bad boy
At Spot-On, Jonathan Ansfield looks at the motives of the parties to the Yi Jianlian draft tussle:
...at least Yi's living up to the type-casting of his sponsors, acting true to the cliches of his me-generation, playing the rebel without much of a cause. I asked an American marketing executive with years of experience in China's sports industry about how life has imitated this ad. "Yeah," he said. "But look at how it's backfired. Something like ninety percent of Chinese polled are against what Yi's doing" - by refusing to join the Bucks. Yi is blocked not by military men or politicians, but by businessmen. "The Chinese basketball authorities have become a lot more open in the past couple years," says a sport editor of a major Chinese news magazine who has followed his case. "Now the rest is up to Team Yi."
Will China drop the bomb on the U.S. dollar?
No, says Andrew Leonard at Salon's How the World Works blog:
If you're the kind of person who thinks Hillary Clinton may have ordered the murder of Vince Foster, then I can see how this passage could easily be interpreted as an implicit threat to go nuclear: Don't force us to revalue the yuan, or we'll pummel your dollar.
But how likely is that, really? I called Nick Lardy, a China