Boom times for Chinese film
Articles on the state of the film industry from Sanlian Life Week and Oriental Outlook. Soft power, censorship, and breaking the director-centered system.
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February 29, 2008
A cup of tea for dissidents
From Mure Dickie in The Financial Times:
China’s foreign minister on Thursday scornfully waved aside criticism of his country’s human rights record, suggesting local police would be more likely to give dissidents a cup of tea than to arrest them.
The comments by Yang Jiechi come amid what human rights groups have called a crackdown on dissent ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August, including the recent detention of several high-profile social activists.
One child policy to be amended?
From Mure Duckie of The Financial Times:
China is considering a gradual raising of its limits on the number of children a couple can have, according to a senior official of the National Population and Family Planning Commission.
The comments by Zhao Baige, family planning vice-minister, highlight growing concern about the demographic implications of the strict and sometimes harshly enforced population control rules that are a cornerstone of Chinese social policy.
Lijiang's war on "white pollution"
Do new regulations actually have a chance of eradicating plastic grocery bags? At China Dialogue, Xuedong Ke looks at Lijiang's five-year experience with a plastic bag ban:
on April 1, 2003, Gucheng district announced its ban on "production, sale and use of disposable, non-biodegradable polystyrene and plastic packaging." A small group was established to monitor the ban, and the first battle in Lijiang’s war on white pollution had begun. Soon environmental workers and volunteers were distributing leaflets about "white pollution". There were announcements on the local television station every hour.
The ban came into formal effect on July 1. At the time, Zhang was deputy head of group behind the huge political offensive, which saw posters put up across the city explaining the ban. "Using plastic bags is extremely convenient; it was an ingrained habit," he said. "Without pressure no one would change. So we had to get everybody involved, and make sure the message was spread into every single household."
February 28, 2008
M&A: What foreigners can buy in China
The China Law Blog explains the basic principles behind Chinese government decisions on what types of acquisitions foreign firms make in China.
My favourite wife
The Guardian has published a spoof 'digested read' that tells the whole story of British author Tony Parson's new novel My Favourite Wife, about a British businessman in Shanghai who embodies all the stereotypes of Western men in Shanghai, and plenty of China clichés to boot.
Beijing denies manipulating pollution data
Nick Mulvenney of Reuters reports:
An op ed in the Wall Street Journal last month said the Beijing authorities had closed three monitoring stations in the centre of the city and opened two more in less-polluted areas, thus bringing down the average pollution levels recorded.
'This phenomenon does not exist,' Du Shaozhong, Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau spokesman, told a news conference.
Is Huawei cursed?
From John Kennedy at Global Voices Online, an assortment of netizen responses to the recent suicide of a Huawei employee.
Homeowners' protests in Shanghai
The China Beat interviews Benjamin L. Read, from the Department of Political Science at the University of Iowa, about homeowners movements in China:
The homeowner groups in China's new private housing estates (xiaoqu) are a complicated mosaic. Some of them can be seen as a manifestation of civil society, while others are something else. For instance, a lot of them are not actually controlled by the homeowners themselves but instead are dominated by the property developers and their management companies. Sometimes the homeowners themselves become factionalized and get bogged down in internal conflict, so that there's no functioning organization. In some places the government has blocked the formation of a formal yeweihui, although there can be informal activity regardless. In other neighborhoods, the homeowner group functions well, holding regular meetings and elections and representing the residents' interests much as, say, a healthy condo association might in the United States.
Popular movies playing to empty houses
Sun Bin looks at the most recent statistics from China's film industry, which work out to a paltry number of tickets sold for each screening, on average:
3,527 screens worth 5.1 billion RMB
What does this mean? 3.327bn/3527 = 943k/screen = 2584 /screen/night
In Beijing, e.g., the movie ticket cost 50-70 Yuan (!!! yes, that is right, almost as much as that in HK). But it is cheaper in other cities and other cinemas (eg, 20-30 for Kunming). Therefore 2584/day means 100 people/screen per day (assuming 25/ticket), which is very small considering there are more than one show per day on average.
Clear water, muddy journalism
Murdoch's China story
A book review by Eric Ellis of Bruce Dover's Rupert's Adventures in China: How Murdoch Lost a Fortune and Found a Wife. Spiked by the Far Eastern Economic Review.
The homeless of Qianmen
Blogger Tiger Temple has been writing about the plight of the homeless in Beijing's Qianmen neighborhood, whose makeshift shelters are being swept away by urban redevelopment.
February 27, 2008
Peering into China's sovereign wealth fund
Bloomberg reports:
When Lou Jiwei visited Switzerland one spring weekend in 1993, the Chinese government economist was so eager to see the inside of a Swiss bank that Credit Suisse Group opened its Zurich head office on a Sunday to show him around...
... Lou also stopped at the homes of farmers in the village of Weesen, an Alpine community with a population of 1,500 people and 3,000 cows. 'He even looked inside the fridges and cupboards,' says Dean LeBaron, a Boston-based fund manager who owns a vacation home in Weesen and hosted Lou's visit. 'He was very inquisitive.'
Today, investors, regulators and politicians are asking questions about Lou, now chairman of China Investment Corp. a sovereign wealth fund set up last year. Lou, 57, who's never been a fund manager before, has about $200 billion in his care, $70 billion of which he will invest outside China...
...His first investments for CIC have had mixed results so far. He spent $3 billion in May for a 9 percent stake in Blackstone Group LP, the world's biggest buyout fund, which has since lost almost half of its value. In December, he bet $5 billion for as much as 9.9 percent of Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest U.S. securities firm. As of Feb. 26, a 9.9 percent stake would have been worth $4.91 billion.
The article contains plenty of numbers about CIC, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund, and biographical detail about Lou.The tragedy of Yao’s left foot
Yao Ming will sit out the rest of the season and is at risk of underperforming at the Olympics. At Shanghai Scrap, Adam Minter blames overwork: several years of full NBA seasons plus duties for China's national team that Yao is required to perform as a patriotic athlete:
The tragedy in this - for both China and the Houston Rockets - is that Yao’s laudable efforts to please both masters has resulted in an injury that will disappoint both. The Rockets are in the midst of their best run of Yao’s NBA career, and I think it unlikely that they’ll be able to repeat it. Likewise, China’s Olympic basketball team was not expected to win in Beijing, but it surely expected to place well, and Yao’s (presumably) superb play was the key. Now it’s not even clear that Yao will play in the Olympics. But if he does manage to appear, he’ll be doing it with all of the rust that accompanies rehab from a major injury, and his team and country will suffer for it.
Mao and the marriage counselor
Jeremiah at the Granite Studio compares the Hundred Flowers Movement to a manipulative marriage spat:
Like a lot of marriages, Mao and the Party were in a bit of a rut, the passion was gone, they were missing the ZazaZoom. Not completely sure how best to rekindle the spark, Mao fell into a pattern that any $150/hour marriage counselor would quickly identify as "passive-aggressive."
First of all, his speech relied on the oft-used but fatally flawed strategy of fishing for compliments. In essence, he asked "You don’t really love me that much, do you?" — confident in his heart that there could be but one correct answer: "Yes, of course! Of course we love you Mao…"
First Yunnan - Vietnam highway completed
GoKunming.com reports:
The highway linking the town of Xinjie in Hekou County in southeastern Yunnan province with Lao Cai province in northern Vietnam was opened yesterday, marking completion of the first highway linking Yunnan with a neighboring country from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
New Beijing airport opens Friday
From The China Daily
Six international and domestic airlines will begin operating in the terminal Friday, while others will switch over from the other two terminals in March.
The new building was designed by Norman Foster. See also this opinion piece in The Independent: The Chinese get things done — at a cost.February 26, 2008
China to open POW archives to USA
ABC news reports that China is expected to open some of its archives to investigators from the US who are looking into the 8,100 Americans listed as "missing in action" during the Korean war:
A small U.S. delegation is currently in China, anticipating that a final agreement can be reached by week's end.
"We just hope that we can find something out of these records that they have. We believe that these records will help us … and hopefully, it will help us unlock clues as to the fate of our missing," said Capt. Mary Olsen, a spokesperson for the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO).
Once an agreement is signed later this week, U.S. officials hope a timetable can be reached soon for American investigators to begin researching the Chinese files, which DPMO has been seeking access to for years.
Security guards to get regulated
Xinhua reports that the State Council is preparing regulations to reign in bad behavior on the part of security guards. What sort of regulations?
The draft forbids guards to do the followings: restrict personal freedom of any individual and make body search, insult, assault, battery or induce others to commit battery, withhold individual's property or identification, interfere official performance.
It also bans guards to use violence or threaten to use violence to importune for payment, infringe personal privacy or leak out secrecy and other illegalities.
In a blog post, journalist Huang Yilong welcomes the idea of kinder, gentler security guards, but finds the regulations redundant:If this regulation goes into effect, if the Chinese people no longer have their personal liberty restricted by security guards, or are subject to search and seizure at their hands, then this is indeed good news.
However, if instead of security guards carrying out the above acts, it is mayors and village heads, or police and urban enforcement, or even thieves and burglars who carry them out, must we then enact separate Service Management Regulations for mayors and village heads, police and urban enforcement, and thieves and burglars in order to guarantee that our personal and property rights are fully protected?
Then what use is the grand Constitution of the People's Republic of China, which guarantees citizens' personal and property rights? Is it just there so that we can gaze on in admiration?
Infiltrating the underground (and other seldom-seen Beijing destinations)
As part of his research for a new Beijing by Foot guide, Eric Abrahamsen is keeping a blog of his experiences in some of the city's less-traveled spots. In this post, he visits the tunnels under Nanluogu Xiang:
The entrances to the tunnels (there are many) are locked, except for the tourist section east of Qianmen, and where the tunnels are still of use to certain personages…
I and an anonymous band of doughty explorers descended into the murky, flooded depths, to bring back these stunning images of the netherworld. Sadly all the tunnels leading off into the great unmonitored unknown were bricked up or choked with rubble (including the one that made a beeline to Zhongnanhai), but the itch was mostly scratched.
Should authors get mixed up in politics?
Wolfgang Kubin on Ah Cheng and other sell-outs, and Chang Ping on Zhang Ping, the novelist who became vice-governor of Shanxi.
Peking Opera not compulsory for schoolchildren after all
Remember the hue and cry last June when China's educational authorities rolled out a new physical fitness program that included the waltz and other forms of dirty dancing? Later, it turned out that dancing wasn't compulsory, but the damage had already been done. It's happened again: a few days ago, Peking Opera was supposed to be the latest mandatory cultural enrichment activity, but public complaints that teachers aren't qualified and most of the selections are "model operas" from the 70s have forced the authorities to spin the issue. From Xinhua:
"The opera classes are by no means a nationwide compulsory class, but pilot programs implemented in certain schools from March to July next year," said ministry spokesman Wang Xuming at a press conference on Monday.
"The Peking Opera class is a meaningful move to uphold China's national spirit and cultivate student patriotism", said Jiang Peimin, director of the Ministry's Basic Education Department.
February 25, 2008
¡Viva la revolución!
Xinhua reports:
Cuban army general Raul Castro was elected the new president of Cuba on Sunday during a legislative session held at Cuba's Palace of Conventions in Havana.
Raul said his older brother Fidel Castro would remain a key figure and vowed to be on guard against U.S. 'meddling' as he assumed the presidency.
The Xinhua report also notes various facts about Cuban democracy in action, e.g.:On Sunday, 597 deputies unanimously elected a 31-member Council of State for a term of five years, which in turn elected Raul as president of the country.
The father of pinyin
The Guardian has published a video interview and transcript with a fascinating old man:
The phonetic alphabet developed by Zhou Youguang, pinyin, turns 50 this month, having helped up to a billion Chinese citizens to learn to read, write and in many cases speak the national language.
The 102-year-old linguist is renowned as the "father of pinyin", the system for representing standard Mandarin in the Roman alphabet. The country is celebrating the anniversary with lectures, a TV series and educational programmes.
The revolution is dead
From Jane Macartney of The Times:
China's Communist leaders are taking another step away from their Marxist-Leninist roots by removing the word 'Revolutionary' from the titles awarded to those who die an heroic death.
February 23, 2008
Lu Jinbo on marketing Internet literature
Eric Abrahamsen talks to celebrity publisher Lu Jinbo about print publishing and Internet authors:
Rongshu, where he works now, is not a publishing house in the legal sense, but once the publishing numbers (刊号, kānhào) have been bought, the entire publication process – from editing, printing and distribution – is under their control. The company as a whole is heavily invested in the internet. "About 50% of our content comes from the internet or internet-related writers," says Lu, "compared to about 10-20% for traditional publishers. When it comes to publicity, as well, the internet is an extremely important tool – an advertisement on Sina, for instance, is far more effective than on in a newspaper. Part of that has to do with our target audiences. The majority of them are young, under the age of 30, and those readers pay very little attention to traditional media. Almost everything they do involves the internet."
Blue sky trickery
In The Wall Street Journal, Steven Q. Andrews reports on how the 'blue sky day' statistics for Beijing's air quality are being manipulated:
More than a month after Beijing's manipulation of air-quality data was first exposed, the government's response has been to -- wait for it -- manipulate the data even more. This year to date, record numbers of 'blue sky' days have been reported in the run-up to the August Olympics, thanks mainly to statistical shenanigans. The authorities are getting away with the deception, at least to judge from all the flattering media coverage they're generating.
February 22, 2008
Theater, business and wading into the sea
Beijing Olympics logos abound
b. cheng at A Modern Lei Feng looks at Olympics-related logos, from the well-known stylized "jing" character to lesser-known designs like the one for Olympic Ticketing:
Walking around Beijing, you are met with an overwhelming number of Olympics related logos. It seems like BOCOG has gone a bit insane with logos, not being in any previous host city, I don't know how they treated the Games, but to me, by August it might seem like there are a hundred different logos and even more different "official sponsors."
Confessions Of A Propagandist
Chris O'Brian, familiar to Danwei readers as the man behind the Beijing Newspeak blog, has a piece in Forbes about his time working as an English polisher at the state-owned Xinhua news agency.
"Cornerstone" of a Mystery
In a review of The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang, Xujun Eberlein comments on the novel's portayal of Chinese society:
This conversation is so real, I can almost see those people's lips moving and hear their voices, as if they spoke in Chinese, as if I were among them....
The intimate reflection on everyday life of contemporary China is a great quality of this novel. For a reader who knows about China, this quality is engaging. Too often I can't finish a novel set in China written by non-Chinese, because it turns me off when the author gets obvious things wrong.
For readers who are less familiar with China, The Eye of Jade provides a real lens into Chinese society. The author picked a good starting time for the story. Between 1980 and 1997 there were amazing changes that took place, almost as amazing as the changes between 1997 and now.
Chinese stem cell breakthrough?
The People's Daily reports:
A Chinese biomedical firm has achieved unprecedented capacity to develop large-scale, lifesaving stem cell production with stocks of umbilical cord stem cells hitting nearly 5,000 samples, the Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday.
The Tianjin Angsai Cell and Genome Project Company is the country's first bank for umbilical-cord-blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) samples.
Against Farrow
Philip J. Cunningham has written an opinion piece for the International Herald Tribune about 'the narcissistic edge' and 'subliminal racism' of Mia Farrow's campaign against the Beijing Olympics.
February 21, 2008
我和中国作家无话可说——专访德国汉学家顾彬教授
我和中国作家无话可说
——专访德国汉学家顾彬教授
《瞭望东方周刊》记者何映宇／澳门报道
丁玲公开地告诉我，她想打很多人，我觉得一个人到了70多岁，她不应该打什么人她还在用斗争哲学的一套来思考人生。
他太累了，不停地参加世界各地的学术会议，每天只睡五个小时。2007年底，他在澳门参加“现代中国文学的个人与社会”国际学术研讨会，本刊记者与其共进晚餐时，见到他满脸倦意。但为期三天的会议日程，坐在第一排的永远是他，听得最认真的也永远是他。他抱怨说，中国和西方的学者都说得太快，没有考虑到翻译的困难，这给双方的学者都造成了一定的困难。
他就是德国波恩大学汉学系主任顾彬教授。
1967年，当他读到庞德翻译的中国汉诗就迷上了中国文学。“庞德虽然没有上过正式的中文学校，但他经过自学，可以说他比现在许多所谓的汉学家还要懂中国文学。他很了不起，他敏锐地感觉到中国人究竟要表达什么。”谈到庞德，顾彬赞不绝口。
正是这次阅读改变了他的人生之路，他几乎将能够找到的中国文学作品的德文译本通通找来阅读，有的还不只看了一遍。然后是学中文，直接阅读中文。“曹植、屈原、李白、杜甫、苏东坡、欧阳修、袁宏道等等，太多了。还有中国的古典小说对我的吸引力太大了，除了《三国演义》之外，我都喜欢，太喜欢了。”
问他为什么独独不喜欢《三国演义》，他的回答很简单：“杀人太多了。”
如今他是西方汉学界的权威，他的翻译和评论直接影响西方文学界对中国文学现状或某一位作家的评判。
2006年的年末，他的一番言论在国内引起轩然大波。在接受《德国之声》采访时，他对中国当代作家（主要是小说家）提出了尖锐的批评，他说《狼图腾》是法西斯主义，卫慧、棉棉的作品是“垃圾，不是文学”。在接受《新京报》记者采访时，他说：“王家新说的我非常同意，中国作家盲目自信。”对于当代中国作家，他怒其不争，觉得很多作家都丧失了对文学的崇敬之情，丧失了最起码的尊严。
如今，由他主编的十卷本《中国文学史》即将由华东师范大学出版社出版。在他所热爱和厌恶的中国作家中，存在着怎样的分水岭？需要顾彬自己做出解答。
我太老了，不看电影
《瞭望东方周刊》：鸳鸯蝴蝶派的作品在你的中国文学史中占据了一个怎么样的位置？
顾彬：我写过张恨水，他在当时也产生过历史性的作用，他用通俗文学的方式反抗日本，所以，中国政治家通过张恨水发现，如果利用中国传统文学的因素，加人革命的内容，会有利于中国的革命。但那都不是张恨水的原意。从历史上来看，他是一个比较重要的小说家，但他从来没有融人到现代性的社会和世界中去。他的写法还是非常传统，他有非常固定的道德观，对现代性几乎完全没有认识。
今天上午一位学者的发言很有问题—他看不懂鲁迅在说什么。“狂人”如果回到社会，他所有的话都可以被否定，和中国知识分子一样：某一两年可以是“造反派”，然后回到社会去，就会变得“好好好”什么都好了。鲁迅非常清楚，所有的“造反派”都是假的，他们一回到社会就会批判他们自己曾经的理想，会和所有压迫过他们的力量合作，这才是鲁迅所要传达的意图。
《瞭望东方周刊》：你觉得这是中国特有的情况，还是世界范围内都是如此？
顾彬：不，我的问题在于，“造反派”除了一小部分，其他人从来没有公开说过自己是错的。他们不说，就顾赚钱。
《瞭望东方周刊》：张爱玲最初是在鸳鸯蝴蝶派的刊物上发表的作品，在解放前，在革命意识主导下，虽然夏衍和傅雷都欣赏她．但她一直不被认为是一个纯文学的作家（如果当时就有这个概念的话），你对张爱玲怎么看？你觉得她和鸳鸯蝴蝶派的关系大吗？
顾彬：张爱玲是了不起的。她的作 品很难翻译成好的德文，我们翻了不少，但都失败了。她完全是现代性的作家，她写的故事，她的情节，和鸳鸯蝴蝶派似乎有点关系，但她的观念和鸳鸯蝴蝶派完全不同。她刚开始写小说时才20岁，而鸳鸯蝴蝶派那时差不多快完了。
另外，她从女性的角度来写作，她也用英文写作，她的视野和中国其他作家的视野完全不同，在我看来，她完全有资格成为中国现代性作家的代表。从主题和思想来看，她和鸳鸯蝴蝶派没有什么关系，虽然她的题目也是风花雪月，也就是所谓的浪漫主义的爱情，和鸳鸯蝴蝶派有点相似的地方一一也许她年轻的时候看过这些小说，但她之后完全脱离、超越了鸳鸯蝴蝶派的局限。这就是为什么她是中国20世纪最重要的作家之一。
而且她不像张恨水，张爱玲很有幽默感，她的讽刺一针见血。你看《倾城之恋》，充满了幽默感，现代性的幽默感。
《瞭望东方周刊》：李安拍了《色·戒》，你有没有看过这部影片？
顾彬：我太老了，不看电影。至于小说，很可惜，至今我也没有看过它，也许我看过？但现在记忆模糊了。现在很多人对我说应该去看这部电影，但我太老了，我总觉得电影会比小说差很多。这可能是错的，但我不喜欢看电影。
丁玲：她还在用斗争哲学的一套来思考人生
《瞭望东方周刊》：中国现代文学史上还有许多优秀的女作家，比如凌叔华、林徽因、萧红、丁玲。现在张爱玲成为了媒体热炒的对象，在图书销售上也是一枝独秀，你对张爱玲之外的中国女作家怎么看？
顾彬：很多年里，中国大陆都没办法看到张爱玲的作品，现在有一些热潮也是正常的。我觉得现在对丁玲的评论很有问题，不能只从1942年之后来看丁玲。她23岁时创作的作品，无论她的语言水平高不高，她的内容依旧独树一帜。这就是为什么丁玲在国外非常红，影响非常大的原因。
我们可以把丁玲上世纪二三十年代创作的作品翻译成很好的德文。在延安时她的中文水平比过去高一点，写得非常漂亮，很可惜的是，在接受了批判之后，她完全否定了自己的作品。这就是为什么我说作家和叙述者是两回事：作家老是批判自己的作品，而叙述者不会，叙述者有其历史性的态度，两者是分离的。
比如丁玲的《莎菲女士的日记》，在现在的德国都很受欢迎。她早期和中期的作品应该重新看，《太阳照在桑干河上》有问题，但仍然可以说非常优秀。因为她敢于写当时谁都不敢写的农民落后的情况，所以这部小说也值得重新来审视。
她（上世纪）五十年代被打倒，“文革”结束后可以重新写作。（上世纪）八十年代我见过她三次，也许我是唯一和她见过三次面的西方汉学家。
《瞭望东方周刊》：我听朋友说，丁玲在晚年，变化比较大。
顾彬：这对我来说也是非常奇怪的。我跟她谈过这个问题。如果一个人坐过10年、20年的牢，她会完全变成另外一卜样子。她公开地告诉我，她想打很多人，我觉得一个人到了70多岁，她不应该打什么人。她还在用斗争哲学的一套来思考人生。美国一位研究丁玲的学者对她也是非常失望。在西方，大概只有我们两个在认真研究丁玲的作品。
和西方学术界对她的冷遇不同，西方的读者对她很感兴趣，特别是女性，都觉得丁玲是男人的牺牲品，读了她的作品感到很大的共鸣。
《瞭望东方周刊》：你在今天的研讨会上讲到作者和叙述者的分离，在丁玲的问题上，有政治的原因，如果抛开政治，你觉得两者还是分离的吗？
顾彬：（上世纪）三十年代她受到批评，于是她完全否定了《莎菲女士的日记》的价值，然后还重写了一个《莎菲女士的日记》的结尾。这完全是错误的。我有机会和她谈起这个问题时，她没有正面好好地回答，什么问题她都没有回答。她还是怕，她不敢。这也是她的悲剧。
当时丁玲已经近80岁了，到了这个年纪，她还要怕什么呢？这是一个多么好的机会，本可以让我记录下她真实的想法，不至于现在我们只能靠猜测来想象她的真实想法。
关于政治因素之外的作者／叙述者之间的关系，我仍然坚持我的观点。我这两天老是听人说“王二”就是王小波，这是不可能的，王二是王二，王小波是王小波。一个作家不会也不应该将他真实的生活照搬成小说，他一定会选择，一旦有了选择，就会有虚构。
《瞭望东方周刊》：谈到虚构，马原很早就写过一篇小说叫《虚构》，他说写小说要天马行空，但是要有马有天空，你是否认同他的观点？
顾彬：对，那篇小说是我20年前翻译成德文的。如果没有马也没有天空，就会像余华早期的作品一样空洞。残雪、余华开始写的时候，模仿别人的作品，读者感觉不到他们的生活。如果一个作家，没有什么经历，没有什么经验的话，肯定没办法写出好的作品来。
当然，余华现在有很大的变化，但也很有问题，比如他的《活着》、《许三观卖血记》和《兄弟》（上），总在重复一个故事。他太成功了，他在美国又有代理，所以他可以什么都不考虑。但是一个作家应该对他的事业忠诚，拿得到钱拿不到钱无所谓。所以从某种意义上来看，余华和许多中国作家一样。
马原的问题是什么呢？他不写小说了。有一次我在柏林举办文学活动的时候，他公开对我说他不写作，他写电视剧。但那不是文学，那是垃圾。现在他就和阿城一样，出卖自己。一个严肃的作家不应该这样。
中国作家没有什么思想
《瞭望东方周刊》：我和阿城也聊了一段时间，他的一些观点我不能接受，他说作家就是乞丐。但从作家个人的生活来看，我也会同情他的观点，很多人都经历过这样痛苦的日子。你怎么看？
顾彬：我不同意，非常不同意。生活确实是一个障碍，但他为什么不在上午写他自己真正要写的作品，下午、晚上写剧本？他和许多中国当代作家一样，似乎什么都写完了。
《瞭望东方周刊》：对于中国当代作家，你也有很严厉的批评，你觉得他们主要的问题在于商业化的冲击，还是个人尊严的丧失？但是你对中国诗人的评价又很高。
顾彬：中国作家的问题是他们自身的问题。中国诗人是孤独的，他们是中国最优秀的写作者。和西川、欧阳江河、柏桦、钟鸣对话是一件多么愉快的事情，对话非常深刻，但我和小说家见面时，往往无话可说，他们没有什么思想。
《瞭望东方周刊》：你阅读中国当代作家的作品主要是通过文学期刊还是书籍？
顾彬：中国重要的文学期刊我都订了。但我太忙了，每个星期有五门课，而且要看博士论文、毕业论文，所以我需要中国朋友告诉我，我应该看什么作品，基本上，我是通过中国朋友的建议来阅读中国当代文学的。如果没有人推荐，我懒得看，作品实在太多了。
我不仅研究中国当代文学，我原来的兴趣在中国的古代和中世纪。目前我在写《中国戏剧史》。我还有什么别的时间呢？
我翻译了不少中国作家的作品，但我一个人能翻译多少呢？翻译很费力气，翻译的时候不能够写自己的作品，我总是为中国作家牺牲我自己，可中国作家却觉得无所谓，他们不搞翻译，也不学外语。有空的时候就喝酒、吃饭，而我一天睡四五个小时，就在为他们忙碌。
《瞭望东方周刊》：在德国有没有作家协会这样的机构？
顾彬：有。我也是德国作家协会的会员，我也是德国作协一个分会的会长。但是德国作协没有专业作家，不会出现作家拿工资的情况。作家应该是独立的，当然如果有一个协会帮助作家也不错。作协应该帮作家的忙，但中国作协往往不帮好的作家的忙，关于这点，我有好多例子，好多好多。中国的作协没什么用，只有差的作家可以从中得到好处。
《瞭望东方周刊》：你对中国小说家的评价比较低，那么有没有比较喜欢的小说家？
顾彬：我还是比较喜欢格非。陈思和跟我说他的小说“太主流”，但看了以后我得说我喜欢。
还有王安忆，我看了她不少的作品，她是个好作家没有问题，但她是不是个大作家就很难说，格非也是这样。原来我特别希望王蒙、莫言能成为伟大的作家，现在来看他们问题很大。
《瞭望东方周刊》：刚刚谈了小说和诗歌，那么关于中国的随笔和散文呢？
顾彬：我对中国的散文更失望。唯一好的散文是北岛的，但他现在不是中国人，是美国人。翟永明也写过散文，但是从笔力来看，没法和北岛比。从内容来看，她可能比北岛更有意思。我写过非常多有关翟永明的文章，我觉得她是个非常重要的作家，但她无法与鲁迅、周作人、梁实秋、何其芳相提并论。
我的标准都是1949年之前的作家，看现代的中国作家谁能和他们比。汉学家与中国作家
《瞭望东方周刊》：博尔赫斯写过一部小说集叫《恶棍列传》，其中用一种马可·波罗式的笔法来写金寡妇，你觉得汉学家是否也会出现这样的问题， 即他们的写作是对中国的改写？
顾彬：就像你们一样，你们能回到元朝去吗？你们的历史学家也都是在对历史进行改写。你看约半个世纪以来中国学者的表现，他们是客观的吗？他们对中国历史的写作是正确的吗？可能有对的，但也可能有问题。
《瞭望东方周刊》：西方汉学家的工作往往不被中国作家所看重，你是否也受过许多误解？
顾彬：汉学家的水平也有高低。
马悦然不懂文学，他知道北岛是谁，顾城是谁，可他根本不知道高行健的作品这么差。我是第一个将高行健介绍给西方的汉学家，（上世纪）八十年代我在巴黎见到高行健，当时他是巴金的翻译。
当时我们在巴黎开会，巴金拒绝和我说话。我觉得真是开玩笑，我们在翻译他们的作品，在向西方介绍他们，但他们不要我们，否定我们。他们觉得他们是社会主义阵营，我是联邦德国（两德统一前的西德），是资本主义阵营的。我希望能和他握手说话，都遭到拒绝。所以我们现在没有办法说出他们原来想说的话一谁矢口道他们想说什么？
中国作家对西方汉学家非常不公平，他们根本不知道我们在什么情况下进行研究。一个中国作家不敢、不要抑或拒绝跟我们对话，我们怎么办呢？我们只能够看书，和中国作家只能有文本的关系。
在巴金的问题上，是我的错误吗？不是！丁玲也是如此，接受我的见面要求，但基本上没有和我说过话，也许她觉得我是个外国人的缘故吧。
摘自《瞭望东方周刊》，第223期，2008年2月21日
Hunan booze companies object to lunch-time drinking bans
The China Daily reports:
Alcohol producers in Henan province have retained a lawyer to appeal a controversial government document that bans officials from drinking alcohol at lunch during work days.
Kang Yinzhong, a lawyer retained by the Henan Alcohol Association, said that drinking was a private affair and holding public office shouldn't keep someone from consuming alcohol as long as it did not affect their work.
The ban began in January 2007 in Xinyang City, Henan Province. Soon, other cities in the central province such as Shangqiu, Kaifeng and Luohe followed suit.
Local restaurants, which get a big part of their business from alcohol sales, saw fewer lunch customers and less revenue as a result of the ban.
Fear of China stops $2 billion deal for 3Com
The Financial Times reports:
Bain Capital and its minority Chinese partner, Huawei Technologies, have shelved their $2.2bn deal to acquire 3Com, a US computer networking company, saying a key Washington committee charged with vetting foreign investments in sensitive sectors had told Bain it would not approve the purchase.
The setback to the deal highlights rising protectionist sentiment in the US as both Democrats and Republicans seek to woo an American electorate suspicious of foreign investment and the effects of globalisation on domestic jobs.
Apple takes an unfair beating on the iPhone
Paul Midler believes the huge market for smuggled iPhones proves that China Mobile was the big loser when its deal with Apple fell through:
Executives at China Mobile must be feeling pretty lousy at this point. The iPhone is a hit, and they had nothing to do with it. And for a company that is convinced its competitive advantage has something to do with its role as gatekeeper, we now have evidence to suggest that they don’t control anything.
See also: A Modern Lei Feng responds.February 20, 2008
Online game industry deals paralyzed
The Economic Observer reports on overvaluation in the online gaming arena:
Ye Youzhong, CEO of Kaixin Investments, said that online game companies had recently overvalued themselves by over tenfold, making investments in them unprofitable when considering that the current price-to-earnings ratio of listed Chinese gaming companies is around 30. He said that if bought for a price of 12-15 times their real value, it would take a full three years--including the market listing process--before the investing company saw any profit. Moreover, he added, a lot of these companies had no chance to be listed in the first place.
Ministry fights back over 'rail chaos' slur
Government agencies slug it out over the Spring Festival transportation chaos. From the China Daily:
The Ministry of Railways on Tuesday responded to criticism from Guo Xiling, a member of the Guangzhou committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, over the improper handling of railways during the snow disaster that hit southern China last month.
Wang Yongping, a spokesman for the ministry, said in an interview on the website of the People's Daily that "all of Guo's accusations are groundless". Guo had said two government agencies should be blamed for the chaos at Guangzhou railway stations, the city's New Express reported on Monday.
More on China Media Project.Spielberg withdraws. Good riddance?
Reactions from three journalist-bloggers to Steven Spielberg's announcement that he won't participate in the Beijing Olympics.
China, the bear, and the overseas carpet-bagger
Elizabeth MacDonald analyzes the reactions to the possible Bear Stearns/Citic Securities deal:
The issue of foreign money washing up on US shores is a big, big, controversial issue. I urge you to read through to the bottom of this blog to get a cheat sheet on the issue in this presidential election year.
Back to Bear-Citic. Some odd sound-bites on this one seem to be tendered by ivory tower nosebleeds with an extraordinary talent for dissimulation, who devote more time trying to sound smart rather than trying to examine the terms of a deal now yellowing, as the deal was struck months ago in October.
The passing of two translators
Noted translators Chen Bingyi (陈冰夷) and Cai Hui (蔡慧) have passed away. Jeff Keller translates Cai's obituary in The Beijing News:
Cai Hui, whose translations include Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream and Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead passed away in Shanghai from liver cancer on February 10th at the age of 77. Regrettably, he did not get to see his beloved translation of The Gadfly published, as this novel still has three years before it enters the public domain.
Farrow on Spielberg
Mia Farrow and Ronan Farrow have a piece in the Wall Street Journal about Spielberg's withdrawal from the Olympics titled 'One Olympic Victory', and they are now calling for action from corporate sponsors of the Games and George W. Bush, who plans to attend.
February 19, 2008
The German press loves Johnnie To
At Variety's Kaiju Shakedown blog, Grady Hendrix muses on why everyone (except English-language critics) is lauding Johnnie To:
Wong and To both use mood and style as valuable modes of expression, treating character psychology and narrative as just two more pieces of a singular cinematic experience they're trying to create. They use all the tools in their arsenal to make movies that are complete works of art, rather than making their movies simply vehicles to deliver a narrative. But whereas Wong has his feet in emo romance, To has his in macho genre. He's who Wong Kar-wai would have become if As Tears Go By was his true starting point, rather than a false start which gave way to Days of Being Wild, the movie that Wong and critics embraced as his "real" first film.
A taxing time for China's non-profits
The Economic Observer looks at what a new 25% tax on the operating income of non-profits means for charity work:
According to calculations by Xu Yongguang, a member of the National Committee of CPPCC, even if total yields of foundations average 10% per year, their yearly income would still be under 1 billion yuan, one fourth of which would be paid to the state treasury according to the new rules.
"Compared with state revenues, which amounts to six to seven trillion yuan each year, 250 million is a trifling sum. If we say 250,000 yuan is needed to build one new charity school, then paying 250 million yuan to the state treasury means losing the chance to build 1,000 schools," said Xu.
Paying for nature
At China Dialogue, Katherine Ellison describes government plans to subsidize farmers who raise water-conserving crops:
"We’re spending a huge amount of money," Xiaoping Wang, a high-ranking official at Beijing’s Parks and Forestry Department, said of the Hebei agreement, in which the Beijing municipal government essentially pays to increase water conservation in the neighboring province.
As part of the deal, two Hebei prefectures will switch from traditional farming to water-saving crops, meaning less rice, more corn and potatoes. Farmers will also plant and tend trees on their property and reduce pesticide use to help cut back on the sediment and pollution entering rivers that feed the capital’s two main reservoirs. In return, among other things, Beijing will provide some US$16 million in direct yearly payments to farmers for water stewardship, according to the amount of land they own; subsidise Hebei farmers’ chickens, eggs, and milk; and build two new highways for products from Hebei to reach the capital’s lucrative market more easily.
"Fei-fei" Lydia Shum dies at 60
Bloomberg reports:
Hong Kong television veteran Lydia Shum died after a protracted fight with liver cancer, local broadcaster Radio and Television Hong Kong reported on its Web site, without citing anyone. She was 60.
The actress, affectionately known as Fei-fei for her plump appearance and jolly disposition, died at 8:38 a.m. Hong Kong time at the Queen Mary Hospital, the report said. She was best known for her comedic roles in Hong Kong films such as "Drunken Tai Chi."
SCMP has an obit, if you have a subscription. More info on Wikipedia.The old dog and medal show
China has stringent, detailed standards for Olympic hostesses, leading Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap to think of another sort of "beauty contest."
Highlighting the Bund as Shanghai looks to the future
At the Zhongnanhai blog, Cam responds to a blog post by Richard Spencer about the changing face of the Bund with his own comparison of Shanghai and Beijing:
Shanghai was much different. Sure, you had the tourist-ridden Bund waterfront and Nanjing Lu. But the French concession, Suzhou Creek area, and People's Square were nice places to wind down an evening (or start your morning, depending on the time of day). I also enjoyed my morning walk to work from the Hengshan Lu subway station to Zhaojiabang Road, traversing streets filled only with pedestrians and delicious xiaolongbao steaming in bamboo baskets. What made it different from Beijing (in this one particular neighborhood near Hengshan Lu) was the lack of cars, honking, and noise (at least in comparison to Beijing).
China to build railway in Libya
AfricaAsia.com reports:
A Chinese contractor has won bids to build two railways in Libya worth a combined 2.6 billion dollars as China enhances its economic presence in energy-rich African nations, state media said Monday.
Under one contract, China Railway Construction Corp., the firm that built part of the controversial rail to Tibet, would construct a 352-kilometre (220-mile) west-to-east coastal railway, the Xinhua news agency reported.
It will also build an 800-kilometre-long railway linking the southern city of Sebha to Misurata in the north to facilitate transportation of iron ore and passengers, the report said. Both projects are expected to start in June.
February 18, 2008
Era of transparent government dawns in Kunming
From China Media Project:
China’s leaders say the long-awaited national ordinance on openness of information, due to take the stage in May this year, will usher in an era of "sunshine" governance in which government affairs are marked with clarity and transparency. Don’t count your chickens. The ordinance is hardly a panacea, and there are major questions about how effectively it will be enforced. But some government leaders ARE taking transparency seriously — or making a show of it anyway.
Since the weekend the Web has buzzed in China with the news that Kunming Daily, the mouthpiece of top leaders in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, printed a list of the names of city officials, their contact numbers and their specific areas of responsibility.
Smugglers return iPhones to China
The New York Times reports on how iPhones are manufactured in China, shipped to the US, and then reimported on the grey market:
IPhones are widely available at electronic stores in big cities, and many stores offer unlocking services for imported phones.
Chinese sellers of iPhones say they typically get the phones from suppliers who buy them in the United States, then have them shipped or brought to China by airline passengers. Often, they say, the phones are given to members of Chinese tourist groups or Chinese airline flight attendants, who are typically paid a commission of about $30 for every phone they deliver.
Spielberg, the Olympics, and oil
At Global Voices Online, John Kennedy translates a detailed blog post by Hecaitou in which he explains for his readers the historical and cultural context behind Spielberg and the Hollywood left's criticism of Beijing:
The problem, looking at this from China's point of view, is ‘do we denounce the Sudanese government?' Well, does China still want the oil? China is a country which has already transitioned to full reliance on oil imports, and where does the gasoline and diesel we burn up every year come from—Daqing, or Karamay? Of course it's a problem that the blacks in Darfur are being attacked, being massacred. Well, the gas tanks of the cars and wallets of car owners on China's roads are problems as well. With any humanitarian spirit, the Sudanese government should be denounced. But, once the denunciation is done, what are we gonna burn then? Denouncing the Sudanese government, supporting the people of Darfur, I imagine everybody would raise their hand for both. But, to say that for the people are Darfur, we would rather go without gasoline, or endure much higher fuel prices and overall hikes in commodity prices, would anybody still raise their hand for that? When it involves vital interests, we might see things differently as we consider the problem. Would you choose three years of a lagging economy if it meant not another person in Darfur would have to die?
February 17, 2008
Let the protest games begin
The Sunday Times details the circumstances surrounding Spielberg's withdrawal from the Beijing Olympics and guesses at what might happen next:
Spielberg's unease deepened after that. He had taken up the Olympic challenge for two reasons, friends say. One was his friendship with Zhang Yimou, the director of the hit film House of Flying Daggers, who is in charge of designing the opening and closing ceremonies. The other was the hope, "perhaps naive in retrospect", the executive admitted, that he could change policy on Darfur from within China.
February 16, 2008
Top 10 news photo of the year was faked
ESWN translates a Chengdu Evening News article that explains how a composite photo of Tibetan antelopes underneath the Qinghai-Tibet railroad, done up for a picture postcard, came to be chosen by CCTV as one of the top ten news photos of 2006, and how netizens uncovered the truth.
February 15, 2008
Thoughts and more on editor Yu Huafeng's release from prison
At Global Voices Online, John Kennedy rounds up some blogger responses to the release of Yu Huafeng, the former general manager of Southern Metropolis Daily, who was jailed after the SARS affair on charges of embezzlement. From the blog of his lawyer, Xu Zhiyong:
Never before has someone convicted of embezzlement consistently received so much respect and love from their own workplace colleagues. Even when when was in prison, Old Yu went on as normal issuing strategies and suggestions. During those years, from the executives at Southern Media Group down to the ordinary employees, group after group paid him visits, sending joint letter joint letter of appeal. Old Yu suffered for Southern Daily Group, and for the cause of press freedom in China, and to have defended this "criminal", I feel truly proud.
The political re-education of Rupert Murdoch
At Slate, Jack Shafer reviews Rupert's Adventures in China, by Bruce Dover, once Murdoch's right-hand man:
Because sucking up to government bigwigs has served Murdoch very well on several continents, Dover writes, the tycoon believed that China's hostility to Star, which he bought into in 1993, could be overcome. If he could sit down with the proper political leaders, he was certain he could reach an accommodation that benefited all.
But the powerful Chinese potentates routinely snubbed Murdoch, dispatching him and his underlings to speak with powerless junior officials. Dover writes that the "Chinese were well aware of his proclivity to involve himself in a nation's politics if it were to the advantage of his business interests," and they weren't going to budge. The prospect of a Westerner beaming uncensored TV signals directly into Chinese homes appalled the country's leaders.
2007's top Chinese books
Rankings as selected by China Reading Weekly, Yazhou Zhoukan, and Douban users.
China intervenes to stave off "super consolidation"
At Mining Weekly, Keith Campbell suggests that BHP Billiton's attempt at a hostile takeover of Rio Tinto was scuttled by ignorance of historical and cultural context:
The Chinese economy, the basis of the country’s power and the source of wellbeing of its people, is today dependent on the import of key inputs. This has been the case since the 1990s. This is also probably the first time in China’s some 4 000-year history that the country has been so dependent on such crucial imports.
This must have created a degree of insecurity among China’s topmost decision-makers in the government, the Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). But businesspersons are not famed for their knowledge of, or sensitivity to, history.
The PLA – this is the name for the Chinese armed forces as a whole – is also the second most powerful institution in China after the Communist Party itself. Its influence spreads far beyond purely military matters, and it is doubtful that anyone at BHP Billiton ever bothered to try and meet with key figures in the PLA General Staff.
Blue truck taxi drivers on hunger strike in Ningbo!
Jesse Owen at the Blue Third World blog has news and photos about taxi drivers protesting outside of the Ningbo Bureau of Transportation:
The protestors gave me a newspaper article (available here in Chinese), even though it is from the People's Daily it does explain the story a bit. Apparently they drivers had to pay a high license registration fee, several tens of thousands of RMB (they told me 20,000rmb or US$3000), but the government changed the blue truck taxi policy to be more liberal, for there to be more competition. So the requirements for people who wanted to get the license later on was lower and the new drivers didn't have to pay such high fees. The old drivers think this is quite unfair, to waste all their money on a large fee that was then reduced and at the same time having to enter into greater competition.
Via Global Voices OnlineFebruary 14, 2008
CJ7 and the fantasy of Chinese class integration
Barking at the Sun looks at the portrayal of migrant workers in Stephen Chow's new movie:
Could this be that rare popular movie that transcends its normal limits and become serious social commentary?
At first it certainly seems possible. The father and son duo are squatters living in a dilapidated and half-destroyed concrete block; Mr. Zhou works overtime every night at dangerous construction projects so he can afford to send his son to a private school. For these two, eating rotten apples is a treat; flushing out and stomping on cockroaches is a pastime.
Interview with Catherine Sampson, mystery writer
Nicole E. Barnes at The China Beat interviews Catherine Sampson, a former journalist who now writes mysteries set in China:
I found it hard to live in Beijing and write about London. So, when it came to my third book, I was determined that I should write a mystery set in Beijing, and that's how The Pool of Unease was written. It is set in Beijing, in Anjialou, a neighbourhood just down the road from where I live, and has a Chinese protagonist, private detective Song Ren.
February 13, 2008
Mao and the 10 million Chinese women
AFP reports on the recently-released transcript of a 1973 conversation between Henry Kissinger and Mao Zedong:
In a long conversation that stretched way past midnight at Mao's residence on February 17, 1973, the cigar-chomping Chinese leader referred to the dismal trade between the two countries, saying China was a "very poor country" and "what we have in excess is women."
He first suggested sending "thousands" of women but as an afterthought proposed "10 million," drawing laughter at the meeting, also attended by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai.
Kissinger, who was President Richard Nixon's national security advisor at that time, told Mao that the United States had no "quotas" or "tariffs" for Chinese women, drawing more laughter.
via The Granite Studio.The phantom campus in China
At Inside Higher Ed, Elizabeth Redden writes about the obstacles that universities face when they attempt to open branch campuses in China:
In May 2006, Kean University attracted national attention for its announcement that it would "be the first American university to open an extensive and newly constructed university campus on Chinese soil in September 2007." As the New York Times reported at the time, "Glasses clinked, toasts were made and then leaders of this 151-year-old institution were calling it the most important moment in its history."
Well, it’s now February 2008, and there’s been no such announcement of the historic campus opening. In response to multiple inquiries on the project’s status, a university spokesman offered only brief answers over e-mail. "Kean University is continuing to pursue plans to open a campus in Wenzhou. The application was approved by the municipal and provincial governments and is now with the Ministry of Education for review," Stephen Hudik said in one.
February 12, 2008
The snow will fade, but responsibility won't
An editorial from The Economic Observer:
The Chinese have a long tradition of submitting to fate. Throughout China's thousands of years of civilization, with one disaster striking after another; the commoners fastened their hopes one phrases like "the bad will one day turn into the good" and "the struggle with forces of heaven brings endless pleasures". Disasters did not herald the unraveling of society because common Chinese became impassioned by working through them and maintaining obedience to their kings. After each catastrophe, their lives returned to normal until the next one came.
Modern society can not deal with disasters in this way. In face of disaster, the public needs not only remedies, but also explanations and the ability to criticize. And taking these storms as an example, even though the government has shown strong emergency response capabilities, everyone knows that the government's response has been far from perfect.
"Shanghai" can't shoot in Shanghai
Variety Asia Online reports that the WWII-era drama has been denied approval to film in China:
China's decision to block the shoot of the Weinstein Co.'s "Shanghai" has left some talking of a backlash within the country against foreign influence and wondering about damage to the Chinese industry's progress. Helmer Mikael Hafstrom, who has been in China since September working on pre-production of the Gong Li-John Cusack starrer, said he doesn't know why a shooting permit has been refused....
Sources close to "Shanghai" say that seven other co-productions may have been blocked, but that has not been confirmed. News was apparently communicated to TWC by China's Film Bureau, which regulates the industry. Sources close to the production say that following the controversy that surrounded "Lust, Caution," which raised the call for a ratings system once again, Chinese authorities are now increasingly concerned that other films may tarnish the image of the country, portray aggressive foreign powers or depict drug use. Set during 1941 upheavals, the "Shanghai" plotline includes drugs, sex and war with the Japanese.
A French water company's cautionary tale
Chi-Chu Tschang writes in BusinessWeek about a French water company's efforts to turn a profit in Siping, Jilin Province:
But after the first year, in 2001, Siping Municipal Water failed to pay Suez's joint venture for water, claiming to be financially strapped. Without the money, Siping Sino French Water Supply, the joint venture, has been unable to pay taxes, repair equipment, or pay wages.
Suez is now having trouble figuring out who to pressure to get its money. Siping Municipal Water's management began privatizing the state-owned enterprise in 2001 and eventually transferred all of its assets to a newly restructured company called Siping Longyuan Water. The new entity actually competes head-to-head with Suez's joint venture in offering water treatment services. Without operating assets, Siping Municipal Water applied for bankruptcy in 2006, claiming it owes creditors, including the Suez joint venture, $2 million.
February 11, 2008
Secrets of the Bird's Nest
In the Guardian, Jonathan Glancey writes a paean to Beijing's Olympic architecture:
Most modern Chinese architecture is raced up as fast and as cheaply as possible, leaving precious little time for original thought or craftsmanship. Yet the three major Olympic buildings have been almost five years in the making.
And they are not just for the summer Games. Each has something to offer a new, specifically Chinese architecture that might yet emerge - against the political and economic odds - in the coming years. For this alone, each deserves a gold medal, though the spellbinding Bird's Nest deserves a special award of its own.
The Chinese have a lot of hells
The week after the Spring Festival is a traditional time for temple fairs. Imagethief visits a fair at a Taoist temple in Beijing that has life-size dioramas of 76 netherworld departments:
People of my age who are fond of schlocky movies may remember the John Carpenter/Kurt Russel classic, "Big Trouble in Little China". In that movie the Chinese sidekick tells our hero in a moment of peril, "the Chinese have a lot of hells". I always thought this was Hollywood color, but it turns out to be true. Almost. Technically it's more correct to say that the Taoists have a lot of hells. Or, to be perfectly accurate, that they have one hell with a lot of departments. There is no heaven, only hell. Some parts of hell are, well, hellish, while others are not so bad.
In fact, Taoist hell really looks like a mirror of earthly government. It's mostly bureaucracies, some of which happen to be in charge of things like "implementing fifteen kinds of violent death" (十五种恶死司). Others are in charge of anodyne things like "signing documents".
February 10, 2008
Lessons from two celebrity tales
At Asia Sentinel, Alice Poon looks at the implications of the Edison Chen sex scandal and the David Li insider trading complaint:
With the celebrity sex photo saga devouring media headlines for days on end and the insider share trading settlement story involving a banking celebrity paling in comparison yet still catching several bloggers’ attention, one might wonder if the rattling repercussion is intense enough to rouse deeper contemplation in society. Is Hong Kong’s social fabric about to undergo some profound positive change? There is always hope.
For a run-down of the Edison Chen scandal, see ESWN.Paper tigers whispering sweet nothings
February 9, 2008
Yu Huafeng: Yet another journalist released
Yu Huafeng, the Southern Metropolis Daily general manager who was given a twelve-year sentence in the wake of the Sun Zhigang scandal, has been released from prison, the AP reports:
Yu Huafeng left a prison in the southern city of Panyu on Friday and immediately returned to his nearby home, according to a receptionist at the Southern Metropolitan Daily and Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
The operator refused to give her name and said she had no details.
Yu was the third prominent journalist detained in China to gain release this month, following Li Changqing, the former editor of Fuzhou Daily, and Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based correspondent for Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper.
Reporters Without Borders said the releases showed Beijing was responding to pressure and urged campaigners to step-up efforts ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August.
Chinese netizens get a party
At Global Voices Online, John Kennedy translates the founding documents of the China Netizen Party, along with some critical responses:
From forcing the rescue of hundreds of brick kiln slave laborers last year and seeing it through long after local bodies gave up to being analytical piranhas when dealt obvious official lies, and numerous examples in between, it seems some netizens have realized their comparative advantage over local government authorities and this hubris now brings us the China Netizen Party. These are its founding bylaws:
"The Connection Has Been Reset"
In The Atlantic, James Fallows provides a concise run-down of the structure and implictions of China's Golden Shield Project for online content and access:
Depending on how you look at it, the Chinese government’s attempt to rein in the Internet is crude and slapdash or ingenious and well crafted. When American technologists write about the control system, they tend to emphasize its limits. When Chinese citizens discuss it—at least with me—they tend to emphasize its strength. All of them are right, which makes the government’s approach to the Internet a nice proxy for its larger attempt to control people’s daily lives.
February 8, 2008
Highlights from the CCTV Spring Festival Gala
Jottings from the Granite Studio reviews the hotly-anticipated program.
February 7, 2008
The Pickle King of Islamistan
Michael at The Other End of China reproduces some news reports about Dr. Khalid Sheldrake:
Long since having established his reputation as a complete weirdo and occasional jack-ass, in 1934 Dr. Khalid Sheldrake somehow came to the attention of the Uyghur government of the short-lived Khotan Emirate established alongside - but separate from - the equally brief East Turkestan Republic. There are some unverified suggestions that Sheldrake was an agent for the British foreign intelligence service, and that his appointment was arranged in an attempt to extend British influence in Xinjiang and Tibet.
February 6, 2008
Spring Festival power cuts
Xinhua reports:
The world's most populous nation began its week-long Lunar New Year holiday on Wednesday, but hundreds of thousands of -- perhaps millions of -- people will probably spend the biggest festival of the year in the cold and dark...
...Radio, in particular, is now one of the most popular commodities as the city has endured 12 consecutive days of power blackouts and water cuts as of Wednesday
'We cannot watch TV, so my family will sit together and listen to the CCTV evening gala for Spring Festival aired by radio tonight,' said a local resident Xiaotan.
High-end milk
Micah Sittig reports from the front lines of the milk wars in Shanghai:
In early 2006, Mengniu developed a new milk based on "OMP research" that claimed to contain certain proteins that are helpful towards calcium retention and bone formation. This milk was sterilized through the UHT process and priced at about RMB 16 per liter. In response, in September of 2006 Guangming released a new product called Youbei, or Ubest, basing the product's claim to superiority on three factors: a slight price advantage over Mengniu, that the milk cows are high-quality imported Holsteins raised on special eco-ranches, and that the milk is sterilized through pasteurization, a process that preserves more of the milk's nutrients.
This was just the beginning. Guangming soon realized that demand for Youbei was strong even though it cost around twice as much as normal UHT milk, and also faced new pressure from Mengniu. When the Mongolian competitor developed a new, pasteurized version of its premium milk solely targeted at discriminating consumers in the Shanghai market, Guangming had to react.
Hu tightens grip over Shanghai faction
At Asia Times, Willy Lam of the Jamestown Foundation looks the shift away from Jiang Zemin:
In Hu's calculus, reining in Shanghai's notorious centrifugalism will go a long way toward establishing the party-and-state headquarters' authority over the nation's "warlords", a reference to recalcitrant regional cadres who refuse to heed Beijing's edicts.
This is despite that many outside the CYL cabal are disturbed by the fact that Hu has planted his underlings in more than half of China's 31 provinces and directly administered cities. Hu, also CCP general secretary and chairman of its Central Military Commission (CMC), has entrusted the job of taming Shanghai to Politburo member Yu Zhengsheng, who took over from "Fifth-Generation" rising star Xi Jinping as party boss of the super-rich city three months ago.
February 5, 2008
Forbes to dump China publisher?
An industry rumor suggests that Forbes, an American magazine about getting and staying rich, is about to dump its Chinese publisher Morningside Group, which is an investment company associated with Hong Kong's Hang Lung Group.
A friend from Hong Kong
Peter Guo at Amoiist talks about society and politics with Derrick Chang, a Hong Kong-based photographer who posts at Mask of China:
Don't expect the oversea Chinese to think in a way like Chinese in mainland due to the difference of educational systems, background. Actually, it's quite interesting to know the thoughts of these oversea Chinese to their 'mother land', about the politics, society and etc. We should be better to hear the different voices from others. He said to me that the initiative of coming to China was to learn more about his 'roots'. Camera is his tool. When he first time arrived in China, it raised conflicts in him. He met many Chinese people and watched their deeds and behaviour.
Improving the Spring Festival Gala
Top propaganda officials offer suggestions for improving the beloved New Year's Eve spectacular.
Reader's Digest for Chinese readers
Journalist Ching Cheong out of jail
From the Straits Times:
China has freed Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong reporter for The Straits Times sentenced to five years for spying for Taiwan, Hong Kong's RTHK reported on its website on Tuesday.
The International PEN, which champions writers' freedoms in 101 countries, had urged China's President Hu Jintao to free 40 jailed dissident writers and journalists, including Ching, ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Mr Ching, who was reportedly in poor health and whose family had pushed for an early release on medical grounds, was freed on Monday ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and was expected back in Hong Kong on Tuesday afternoon. No details were immediately available.
He had been detained in China since April 2005 and then sentenced to five years in jail in a high-profile case underscoring China's curbs on the media and dissent.
Edison Chen releases video statement about sex pics
Edison Chen has broken his silence following a week-long controversy over nude celebrity photos circulating online. The photos are now thought to have been taken from his laptop when he took it in for repairs last year. Edison posted a formal press release to his blog and sent a video statement (entirely in English) to news agencies.
February 4, 2008
Leverage civil groups to combat emergencies
At the China Media Project, David Bandurski looks at an op-ed in the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily that suggests that China needs the support of non-governmental organizations to fight crisis situations:
The Yanzhao Metropolis Daily editorial is probably right that China could deal more effectively with emergency situations by permitting the growth of an active civil society. But Chinese leaders are terrified of the political implications of a society of do-gooders and people who actively care. Which is why veteran journalist Zhai Minglei asked rhetorically after the shutdown of Minjian last year: "What is the most difficult thing to do in China? The good deed."
"The Chinese people have never lacked good-hearted individuals or the force of charitable action," Shu Shengxiang writes. "What they do lack is institutional support (制度安排) for the effective mobilization of charitable action and giving."
Lunar new year approaches with tragedy growing
At Global Voices Online, John Kennedy news and videos that China's netizens have posted about the current weather conditions, particularly in Guizhou Province.
Cold Chinese grow angry over lack of preparation
Howard French writes about crisis management in the New York Times:
In southeastern Guizhou, another hard-hit area, officials said there had been extensive loss of winter crops, like wheat. Power has been out there for weeks.
"In towns and villages life now depends on primitive means," said Lu Jiang, a spokesman for Southeast Qian Prefecture. "We get light from burning pine, and families grind grains with stone mortars. It’s not difficult to survive, but to live the way we did before the snow began, we will have to wait until the next season."
February 1, 2008
A brief introduction to the history of Chinese bottled water
At Fine Waters, Howard Zhang presents the major milestones in China's bottled water industry ahead of the China Bottled Water Exhibition in March:
In 1905, a German businessman was hunting in Laoshan Mountains in China’s Shandong province. Among some old trees, he found a spring with several hedgehogs drinking the water. He tasted the water as well and felt that it was of very good quality. He brought some water samples back to Germany for testing and the analysis proved the quality of the water.
1930, another German businessman called Ludwig started to dig a well near the original spring and very good quality water, which became known as Laoshan Mineral Water emerged from the well not far from where his countrymen saw the Hedgehogs. Ludwig then invest and established a bottled water plant near the well to produce China’s first bottled mineral water named ALAC Water, only 37 years behind the worlds first bottled water.
Children, history, and the household instructions of Mr. Yan
Jeremiah at the Granite Studio looks at child raising practices in Chinese history:
Yan Zhitui (531-591) was born into a family of scholar-officials at a time when being a scholar-official wasn’t necessarily the easiest gig in the world, the tail end of the "Age of Division"....An era of family values, it was not.
But Mr. Yan found the time to write a set of "household instructions," his addition to a genre of writing quite common throughout the imperial period down to the last century. The fact that heads of households had to keep writing out the rules for living under their roof suggests that family life in old China was a bit more chaotic and disordered than contemporary stereotypes would have us believe. It’s an axiom in history that lists of rules don’t always tell us much about what people were doing, but they can tell us quite a bit about what people SHOULD HAVE been doing but were not.
See also: Sam Crane responds with his thoughts on Mencian child rearing.Don't go home for the holidays, gov't advises
CNN reports on the continuing winter weather situation:
China has taken the step of asking millions of migrant workers to forgo their annual Lunar New Year trip home, saying the worst winter weather in 50 years is expected to pummel the country for at least another three days.
"For the sake of their safety, and relieving the stress on transport, I advise migrant workers to stay in the cities where they work," Zheng Guogang, chief of the China Meteorological Administration, told the state newspaper, China Daily.