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April 11, 2008

How fair is reporting on China's environment?

At treehugger, Alex Pasternak considers the way that the western media reports on China's pollution problem and its efforts to go green:

To China's chagrin, this won't stop journalists from reporting on China's dire eco situation (or its human rights record, or its food safety, etc.), and it shouldn't. Western media may even have a greater responsibility to keep the heat on given the limitations that the Chinese government imposes on domestic media. Smartly, the New York Times included Mandarin text and audio along with their Choking on Growth series.

But there can still be something unbalanced and even sensational about foreign environmental coverage of China. That China has 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities is a widely reported fact, but that it has the world beat on solar hot water heaters is clearly not as sexy a story.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:05 AM |

April 10, 2008

China's great migration: "Little America"

At Slate, Patrick Radden Keefe writes about overseas Fujianese who send money back from the US:

As we stroll through an ornate gate (erected with money sent from America) and wander along a stone alley that winds through the village, we notice something else: There's no one here. All the adults of working age have left, Dr. Tang explains. They call these towns "widow's villages." Half the houses are vacant and shuttered. The others are home only to grandparents—and to American-born babies.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:53 PM |

I'm a prisoner. Let me in!

In March, China Daily ran a story about a man who voluntarily returned to prison after 22 years. Liuzhou Laowai fills in the missing pieces with a translation of a Procuratorial Daily story on Feng Junqiang's two-decade odyssey outside the law:

Feng was now rich and frequently visited his mother but was too afraid to spend the night. His mother was in poor health and she began to beg him to hand himself in, finish his sentence and then be free. She wanted him to be a free man before she died.

In 2007, Feng bought his son a computer and accessed the internet for the first time. He found a webpage which had an article about how conditions in the local prison had improved greatly since his escape and began to consider complying with his mother’s wishes.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:47 PM |

Yunnan female film series review

On RealTime Arts, Dan Edwards reviews The Case by Wang Fen and The Park by Yin Lichuan, the first two films in Lola Zhang's project to produce ten movies by first time female directors, all shot in Yunnan. You can see a Danwei TV interview with Lola Zhang and Wang Fen here.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:43 PM |

Customs protects Fujian author from his own work

Chen Xiwo's novella collection Book of Offenses was seized by Fujian customs officials, who deemed it "pornography." But all of the stories had been previously published on the mainland, and many had won awards, so Chen fought back.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:24 PM |

Quick-publishing the truth about Tibet

Less than three weeks after the Lhаsa riots, Sanlian Bookstore and the China Publishing Group have come out with Lies and the Truth, a compendium of online sources on western media bias and the black hand of the Dаlai clique.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:15 PM |

The King of Mean

Peter Guo, the Amoiist, sounds off about corrupt party bureaucracy:

The history is impartial to Cixi's empire and Yuan Shikai's restored dynasty; both of them were overthrown by the people. Therefore, I have said that the CCP will repeat the history again if no political reforms. Currently, almost all the nations surrounding China are implementing democratic system, including two small poor countries Nepal and Bhutan. I cheer that we have been surrounded by democracies except North Korea, the east hell. And how do you predict this nation, will it become the next democracy?

There is an anther question. Are the civil servants elites, even the party members? It's undeniable that most of the civil servants or party members are well educated. However, the system only opens the door to those people who take Marxism theories for granted, or obsessed with Communism, or have illusion on Communist Party, etc. Therefore, nearly all of the civil servants should have one kind of thoughts. This kind of people who show foolish loyalty to the party are always seen as brainwashed by outside world. Actually, I'm always astonished by them because of that they can't even tolerate someone who talks democracy and freedom in front of them; the reason is not that they are one track minded but greatly influenced by educational system.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:09 PM |

Why I will carry the Olympic torch

On the website of the San Franscisco Chronicle, Chinese-American Helen Zia explains why she is still proud to be an Olympic torchbearer.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:11 PM |

Yuan breaks through 7 to the dollar

From Forbes:

China's National Foreign Exchange Center has set the central parity rate for the yuan at 6.9920 to the dollar, breaching the 7.000 usd level for the first time.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:03 AM |

Why Beijing just can't grasp Tibet

Pallavi Aiyar in Asia Times:

In the summer of 2006, I visited Lhasa as part of a journalistic contingent aboard the first Beijing-Lhasa train. Everywhere I went in the city ripples of excitement seemed to spread simply by virtue of my Indian nationality. Roadside sellers of bric-a-brac, monks in the Potala Palace, itinerant city guides, aged pilgrims: what this motley assortment of Lhasa residents had in common was the desire to talk to me about the Dålai Låma.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:54 AM |

April 9, 2008

Are you really Tibetan? You’re so clean!

Black and White Cat translates a letter that a Tibetan reader sent in to blogger Lian Yue:

After I graduated, I applied for an office job. One boss asked my to change my Tibetan name to something that Han people could recognize more easily, like Zhuoma or Zhuoga, to give people a strong impression and be more competitive in business.

Later I went to XX for an interview. One manager was extremely interested in knowing whether or not Tibetans only wash twice in their lives. He was very curious to know: "Don't they mind being dirty?" That took up a third of the interview.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:06 AM |

India, too, looks to Africa

From The Times:

India has granted Africa radically improved terms of trade in the clearest signal yet that it intends to compete head-to-head with China for access to the continent’s natural resources.

Speaking at the inaugural India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, said that tariffs would be scrapped on a host of African imports, from diamonds and copper ore to sugar cane and clothes. The abolition of duties will cover 94 per cent of the in-bound goods from 34 African nations.

The summit, which is being attended by the leaders of 14 African states, is widely regarded as India’s riposte to the China-Africa Cooperation Forum of 2006, at which China unveiled $9 billion in preferential loans, export credits and other incentives to reinforce its grip on Africa’s mineral-rich regions.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:04 AM |

Where's the news stand?

Imagethief visits Beijing's new Terminal 3:

The whole concession arrangement smacked of having been designed by someone who doesn’t actually travel by air, or who had no vision for Beijing’s potential role as a hub airport. Think about it: Most people will want to deal with the formalities before they relax and shop because on any given day they won’t know how long it will take to get through them. And international transfer passengers, if Beijing ever develops that market, won’t even know that there was something better just beyond their reach.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:01 AM |

Black water: coastal China on the brink (I)

China Dialogue presents a translation of a Southern Metropolis Daily report from November, 2007, that details how China's fisheries are dying off:

The fishermen of Shuigou village are washing the dirty water from their legs for the last time and preparing to leave the sea behind.

"I'll probably go and do manual labour," says Hou Baoyou, "the sea is too unreliable." Once-vibrant fishing villages are being deserted as the trend of moving away from the coast spreads. Nowadays, seafood buyers from other regions are nowhere to be seen in Shuigou. Thousands of workers used to arrive from other parts of China, now the locals themselves are leaving for the town.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:21 AM |

Pranking the chengguan entry

Micah Sittig translates a Baidupedia entry on chengguan that's pretty perceptive:

① noun: a mafia-type organization devoted to keeping up appearances through violence methods, exclusively bullying those who can't afford to rent a storefront, can't afford to register a business permit, or belong to other disadvantaged groups. ex: the chengguan are on the prowl, everybody scram!

② adjective: violent, gory, horrendous. ex: That's too chengguan, man!

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:57 AM |

April 8, 2008

Top 25 women in business

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Business Watch Magazine magazine has published a list of China's 25 top businesswomen. The list includes many familiar faces from real estate tycoon Zhang Xin to media entrepreneur Yang Lan to Lenovo bigwig Ma Xuezheng (pictured).

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:49 PM |

Grain stores for anything but grain

The Economic Observer interviews Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice", who says that some of China's official grain stores are being put to other uses because for want of funding:

In Jiangshi, a township in Hongjiang, the EO found the three grain stores there were rented out to a local timber processor and other operations. An official known as Zhou from the Hongjiang Municipal Grain Bureau also admitted that some stores had been converted for business purposes rather than holding grains.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:38 PM |

A Kiwi looks at free trade with China

Beijing resident Kiwi blogger Chris Waugh looks at Chinese language coverage of the free trade agreement that New Zealand has signed with China. His translation from Xinhua:

New Zealand was the first country to complete bilateral negotiations for China’s entry into the WTO, the first country to recognise China’s status as a full market economy, the first developed country to open negotiations on a free trade zone with China, and the first developed country to complete a free trade agreement with China. These four “firsts” in the history of economic relations with China are especially eye-catching.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:42 AM |

Namibian firms: too many Chinese roads

Africa Files reports from the southwestern African nation of Namibia:

Local contractors in the road maintenance and construction sector accuse the Government of contravening tender procedures by awarding the bulk of tenders to foreign firms especially Chinese companies, who have virtually taken over the industry. Further accusations are that some key officials in the Government team up with Chinese nationals to form companies and thereby obtain tenders on behalf of their companies in the construction sector.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:30 AM |

Skinhua: Cameron Diaz

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State-owned news agency Xinhua's Web editors are taking their minds off more disturbing news with a return to the type of photo gallery that earned them the nickname 'Skinhhua'. This time it's Cameron Diaz, as seen in very little clothing in a image gallery scanned from GQ magazine.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:23 AM |

China Eastern to punish striking pilots

From The China Daily

China Eastern Airlines admitted Monday that some pilots at its Yunnan branch last week 'deliberately' turned back midway through their flights - ostensibly because of poor weather - in a rare strike action demanding higher pay.

Two senior officials of the Yunnan branch have been sacked, and a deputy general manager of the parent airline has been appointed as the new branch head to check why 21 flights returned to Kunming last Monday and Tuesday, according to a statement released by China Eastern Monday.

'We will punish those pilots in line with company rules and relevant regulations once the investigation concludes,' it said.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:19 AM |

What's a disgruntled Chinese airline pilot supposed to do?

At Shanghai Scrap, Adam Minter explains why the China Eastern pilots are upset:

Now, I’m not making excuses for what the pilots did, but let’s take a look at the situation from their point of view: current ownership is demanding a 99-year unbreakable contract at the same time that their prospective new owner has taken steps to slash already below-market wages; they don’t have a union, and trying to form one will likely land them in the gulag; and even if you could figure out who to sue, it’s unlikely that any Chinese court is going to be interested in groundbreaking class-action lawsuits on behalf of a group of plaintiffs with a grudge against several large state-owned enterprises. And quitting China Eastern for another airline is hopeless - ownership is the same across the industry (at some level), and nobody wants to hire a troublemaker from another carrier

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:14 AM |

Lhasa in April

Sun Bin comes back from a trip to Tibet:

· Outside Potala is full of Tibetans, almost like a Causeway Bay weekend in HK. Perhaps the closing of the major monasteries have also contributed to driving the people there

· The Jokhang and Ramoche Monasteries are still blocked. PAP (or perhaps soldiers) guard every single alley around the block to check IDs. Only local residents are allowed in (but it is not difficult to get into these alleys, and even into Bakhorn street -- will elaborate). The gates of these 2 monasteries are guarded. However, the smaller monasteries around (there are 2 small temples just outside Johkang) are open

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:10 AM |

April 7, 2008

A very little speech: Chinese reactions to foreign media

Writer and translator Eric Abrahmsen of Paper Republic:

With all the excitement going on these days, staying home and translating the words of dead authors can feel a little irrelevant, if not actually escapist. I ... won’t stray too far from my comfort zone of language and literature, but I do think there’s something to be said about the Chinese responses of rage to the reporting of the foreign media.

1. The anger of the people: To some extent, this has to be a subconscious train-wreck between several emotions. Anger that the foreign media can spout off whatever they please when they, the regular Chinese people, cannot publicly say what’s on their mind...

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:26 PM |

The Torchbearer

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An interview with Bai Jian—teacher, impoverished foster father of 24 children, and Olympic torch bearer in London.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 2:06 PM |

Pearl Buck interview

A transcript and video of an interview by Mike Wallace with The Good Earth author Pearl S. Buck, recorded in 1958.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:43 PM |

George Morrison's vanished library

No one really knows when the building that once housed Dr. George Ernest Morrison's (1862-1920) library on Wangfujing in Beijing was torn down. It was sometime in August or September, 2007.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:11 PM |

Shanghai MBA school for Africa

From The Financial Times:

China Europe International Business School, the Shanghai-based business school set up with the European Union, plans to open a campus outside China – in Accra, the capital of Ghana.

In a move that gives a new twist to Sino-African relations, CEIBS has official approval from the Ghana Ministry of Education to offer business management courses, according to Pedro Nueno, Ceibs’ executive president. CEIBS will offer executive short courses and its executive MBA programme in Accra – it already runs the world’s largest EMBA programme.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:57 PM |

Isabel Hinton interview

Global Voices has interviewed Isabel Hilton, founder and editor of the bilingual website ChinaDialogue where environmental matters affecting China are discussed.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:52 PM |

Sanlitun drugs bust

Beijing Boyce has the details of another clumsy drugs bust in Sanlitun. There's more about it by Richard Spencer of The Daily Telegraph: 'Chinese torturing foreign teens in drugs bust'

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:08 AM |

Net Nanny to have Olympic holiday

From Earth Times:

The media - and likely the locals as well - will have full internet access during the Beijing Games including information about sensitive issues such as Tibet, Olympic official Kevan Gosper said on Saturday. But Gosper could not guarantee whether the free access would also apply on the days before and after the August 8-24 Games.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:49 AM |

Why I won't support Tibet protests

Uri Avnery is a left wing Israeli politician, publisher, former Irgun soldier, one of the first Israelis to meet Yasser Arafat, and famous for the line 'You can’t talk to me about terrorism, I was a terrorist'. This is from an article by him about Tibet:

WHAT, THEN, causes the international media to discriminate between the various liberation struggles that are going on throughout the world?

Here are some of the relevant considerations:

- Do the people seeking independence have an especially exotic culture?

- Are they an attractive people, i.e. 'sexy' in the view of the media?

- Is the struggle headed by a charismatic personality who is liked by the media?

- It the oppressing government disliked by the media?

- Does the oppressing government belong to the pro-American camp?...

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:21 AM |

Anti-China Chinese media and reckless populism

Southern Metropolis Daily editor Chang Ping suggests that the Chinese government's control over domestic reporting means that there is no "objective reporting" to combat western media bias. For this he is called a traitor. ESWN translates his editorial and a thoughtful analysis by another commentator.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:49 AM |