Must-read China news by Danwei

Linfen was listed as at number 3 among the nine most polluted cities in the world according to National Geographic magazine. In the discussion of Linfen's severe pollution problem, National Geographic reported: At 10am, the sun is invisible even though everybody knows that it is overhead; when tourists walk in the street, their clothes are covered with soot; the water is malodorous and brownish black with white foamy bubbles on top; the rate of birth defects leads the world in recent years.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 7:09 PM | Permalink

China is to impose a quota on investments on the Hong Kong stock market – which will reduce capital outflows to a fraction of the $100bn-plus forecast when its outward investment scheme was announced last month...

...It was the first mention from Beijing of a quota on its plan to allow individuals to invest in foreign stocks. Chinese officials refused to disclose the level of the quota but it is reckoned to be lower than the amount of investment expected by the Hong Kong market, which has soared in anticipation of a flood of mainland Chinese money.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Though directors of this "Fifth Generation" once created films like Raise the Red Lantern and Farewell, My Concubine, which exposed cruel realities of country life and the Cultural Revolution, their biggest concern these days is box office numbers....

On the other side of the game has been China's industry underdogs; this "Sixth Generation" of directors, often working at odds against censors, have cultivated a pop aesthetic and depiction of quotidian ennui Martin Scorsese has hailed as "some of the finest, toughest, most vitally alive work in modern movie-making."...

As the dispute in Venice between Jia [Zhangke] and Zhang [Weiping] may have already suggested, the ideological rifts between the two generations aren't just commercial, nor even merely stylistic. Instead, the two modes represent competing visions of national representation.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:40 AM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:23 PM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:28 AM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:23 PM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:26 PM | Permalink

But it is too early to say whether opening the corporation's equity capital to outside investors also means a new attitude to foreign involvement in China's highly regulated communications sector. Only last month Han called on Chinese filmmakers to make more patriotic movies.

Underlining CFG's ability to attract capital, Han unveiled a slate of 10 major movies in various states of production to be released over the next 18 months. All are produced or co-financed with leading local, Hong Kong or foreign partners.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:53 PM | Permalink

Shanghai Media Group, China's second-largest media group by revenue, plans to launch a 24-hour English TV news channel in China this year as it seeks to expand to reach a global audience...

... Shanghai Media's plan has already won strong support from the Shanghai city government, which owns the firm, and is now subject to approval from top regulators in Beijing, they said.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:22 PM | Permalink

Much as the whole thing reeks of media circus, it's still worth a look. Wu Huaiyao, no dummy, went to ten of China's most influential literary critics to nominate the 58 writers who formed the basis of the list. Zhu Dake and Xie Youshun (who has a blog post about it) are probably best-known among the critics, and Zhu gets most of the media attention. He warns that strength does not equal influence does not equal earning power, and gets a few digs in at the inanity of last year's wealthy writers ranking.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:20 PM | Permalink

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 2:58 PM | Permalink

"How about the Great Wall of China?"

"Hey, that's great! Nobody in Denver knows much about it!"

"We can say it's going to be demolished to open up China to outside trade."

"Yeah - four engineers who stopped here overnight on their way to San Francisco and then China told us!"

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:08 PM | Permalink

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:19 PM | Permalink

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:01 PM | Permalink

God-men, inspired by the Roman Empire's style of government and linked with traditional Christianity, have come and gone in Europe for almost two millennia. In the last issue of Vision we looked at a Eurasian manifestation of the ruler cult as it played out in the history of the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin. Manipulation of religious sentiment is an important element in the rise and rule of false messiahs, and even atheistic states have succumbed to the temptation to call on the power of piety.

With the spread of totalitarianism and communism in the 20th century, it should not surprise us to find examples of messianic political aspirations in modern oriental Asia, nor to find indigenous antecedents in its ruler cults. China's Mao Zedong, Cambodia's Pol Pot, and the Kim dynasty of North Korea have all claimed savior status. And they have all called on historical precedent and religious sentiment for legitimacy.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:01 PM | Permalink

A Chinese researcher for The New York Times who was arrested on charges of revealing state secrets and later convicted of fraud was released Saturday after serving a three-year prison sentence...

... The state secrets case was dismissed in March 2006 in an apparent effort to ease strains with Washington ahead of a visit by Hu to the United States. The charges were refiled after Hu returned to China and Zhao was acquitted after a trial.

A Beijing court convicted him in August 2006 of taking $2,500 from a man in 2001 after promising to have the man's 18-month sentence in a labor camp rescinded, according to state media.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:30 AM | Permalink