« February 10, 2008 - February 16, 2008 | Main | February 24, 2008 - March 1, 2008 »

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

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Peter Micic recounts the history of two Chinese words that started as Qing dynasty actors slang and became buzzwords of the Chinese business elite.

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.