« June 1, 2008 - June 7, 2008 | Main | June 15, 2008 - June 21, 2008 »
Reeling off traits recognizable in umpteen fest-bound independent films from China -- such as a snail's pace, minimalist plot and dialogue, and deliberate muffling of emotions -- Yin is several stitches short of creating a work of originality.
Recently, I asked whether or not the openness the Chinese authorities displayed in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake would continue. Now, after a day spent in the city of Dujiangyan trying to cover a story about bereaved parents, I can try to answer that question more fully.
rolling stone published lee's photos to illustrate klein's report. the photographs' formal composition and klein's article become a reader's primary tools for interpreting shenzhen. however, here's the rub: in an interview, klein states that her goal is to "show how u.s. and china more and more alike, creation of a middle ground". however, the photographer, thomas lee invoked the aesthetic conventions of creative photography to organize photographic composition. in these pictures, people in the foreground are blurred, while the background is in focus. consequently, the images show a shenzhen that is depersonalized and off-kilter. for an american viewer, these pictures do not provide common ground, rather its opposite--a looming gulf that threatens to swallow anyone who would dare cross over.
Cuba's Dayron Robles has toppled Liu Xiang's 110m hurdles world record. The 21-year-old clocked 12.87 seconds, beating Liu's time by just 0.01 seconds and smashing is own personal best. Liu was not racing...
...Olympic favourite in more ways than one, Liu Xiang is not only expected to successfully defend his Olympic title, but is one of the most popular athletes in the host country.
Ouch, probably these have been the perfect two years to take a break from China. I couldn`t go five minutes into a conversation with any of the Laowais I`ve met in Bj without them starting to moan about the [visa clampdown], and about how much of a hassle it`s become, being a Laowai in Beijing . I was thoroughly amused then, when dinner with two well travelled Chinese friends had turned into another session of moans about how hard it is to get visas to the U.S., the U.K., Holland, and (of course) Israel.
Seriously, I doubt if the citizens of any western country (Israel least of all) can say anything about visa issuance policies, I mean, come on.
Generally, the change in visa regulation seems like a good sign of China growing up, being more selective and more ruled by law, and the procedure is bound to become clearer and more consistent. Too bad for those of you caught in the middle of this process though.
Three small Web sites have won government licenses for video-sharing services in China, a move seen as a signal that Beijing authorities may be widening the door to popular content.
But China's three leading video-sharing sites--Tudou.com, Youku.com and 56.com--were not included on the latest list of license awardees.
Instead, Caijing learned the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) granted licenses to the minor private sites Ku6.com, Uusee.com and 6.cn.
Negotiators from Taiwan and China launched their first formal talks in almost a decade Thursday, aiming to forge agreements on charter flights and tourism to build confidence between the long-estranged rivals.
Pedantic or not, in the final analysis, "Wolf Totem" becomes more about race-baiting than wolf-baiting. Summaries of racial characteristics float from these characters' mouths with the greatest of ease (Chinese bad, Mongolian good). Perhaps "Wolf Totem" has been successful in China for precisely the same reason that James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales," not known for elegance or subtlety, were popular in the first half of the 19th century: It's safe and pleasing to look back on a landscape and a life that the nation-state has largely destroyed. One might even locate this cycle of destruction and romantic celebration as an early step in the literature of emerging capitalist nations. So while "Wolf Totem" seems to praise Mongolian life and the wild animals that inform that life, the wolf must die and be replaced with a novel that comes nowhere near the creature in terms of beauty and importance, and instead reads like a 500-page-long metaphor.
Jiang Min, a policewoman in Pengzhou city near the epicenter of Wenchuan, lost 10 relatives, including her two-year-old daughter and her parents, at first became a symbol of fortitude in the face of overwhelming tragedy -- then later became the face of media exploitation....
But in one television report, the reporter pressed her to answer the question, "Why are you still here?" A drawn-looking Jiang was pounded with further questions, such as, "Do you think of your own parents and daughter when you see the rescued old people and the kids?"
...Later, Jiang was interviewed several more times on television.
Various individuals in the audience, including some in the teaching profession, also stood up to denounce Fan for his actions, and made the claim for themselves that if there was ever an earthquake, they would definitely save their students first, winning great applause from the rest of the audience. It seemed few voices were sympathetic to Fan, but some did stand up to raise the point that if one could not be sure that he would be able to save his students in an earthquake, he should not have the right to point fingers at Fan. Another member of the audience questions, "Suppose Fan had saved his students. Do we make a hero and another modern Lei Feng out of him? In this day and age, have we actually forgotten the fact that a man may have many different sides to him?"
The Europeans "were in the best of humor and joked about what was happening" and much appreciated the view of the burning city from the walls. Although Chinese troops were looting, extraterritoriality still held and no foreigner was molested.3 I can thing of few things that would reinforce the foreign sense of privilage more than touring a battlezone like it was a play put on for one's amusement.
Yuan seems to have played the whole affair like a violin. While he claimed not be be behind the mutiny, and the looting probably went further than he would have liked it worked to cement his political position. He could portray himself to the foreigners as the one man who could keep order and to the Chinese factions as the one leader who could hold off foreign intervention.
Firefighters arrived twenty minutes after it was reported because traffic was heavy at the time and getting stuck in traffic couldn't be avoided, but with the Olympics soon to be here, I'm afraid it's going to be hard for people to forgive this kind of emergency response speed. The fire squad had to struggle, just seeing them jumping back and forth over that newly-locked steel fence, feeding the hose through (see photos), you honestly wouldn't have known whether to laugh or to cry!
Vancouver-based CIBT has 3,500 students in China learning everything from business management to auto mechanics to how to work in a casino. Mr. Chu said enrolment is growing at 30 to 40 per cent a year. He is opening new sites at a rate of one every three weeks. And that, he believes, is just scratching the surface of the market. By 2020, he said 600 million Chinese will be middle class, with the money and the ambition to get an education with foreign-label cachet.
Universities and colleges around the world are starting to recognize that potential, stepping up their efforts to lure Chinese students to study abroad while offering degrees in China in association with Chinese institutions.
While consumers in much of the world have been reeling from spiraling fuel costs, China has kept the retail price of gasoline at about $2.60 a gallon, up just 9 percent from January 2007.
During that same period, average U.S. gas prices surged nearly 80 percent, to about $4 a gallon.
But Chinese consumers are bracing for a big jump in pump prices after the Summer Olympics in Beijing end in late August.
China's equities suffered their biggest fall in a year on Tuesday, after the central bank raised the commercial banks' reserve ratio for the 15th time since January 2007.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 7.73 percent to close at 3,072.33 points, the biggest loss in percentage points since June 4, 2007 when the gauge lost 8.26 percent.
The meltdown came after the People's Bank of China (PBOC) ordered banks during the weekend to set aside 17.5 percent of their deposits as reserves, up from the initial record 16.5 percent. The hike was unusual as the PBOC usually increased the ratio by 0.5 percentage points each time.
Jeff Van Gundy ultimately backed off comments that a referee told him officials had targeted Yao Ming in the Houston Rockets' 2005 first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks.
Qatar, simply needing a draw from this result, played their part perfectly after getting the goal. They sat back, put their men in the box so that even when a Chinese player beat his man on the wing, the cross could be innocently parried away, and then played the counter attack perfectly, coming up with a few quality chances. They also used the Chinese players urgency and frustration against them. The Chinese team tallied up yellow cards with sometime stupid, sometimes iffy fouls, but this forced them to play more reserved. Li Weifeng, a veteran playing in what is perhaps his last World Cup qualifying campaign, led the way for juvenile play, often arguing with the refs and resorting to a number of questionable actions (including an outright push) that probably should have earned him a second yellow card.
China's latest case of the 'human flesh search engine' (人肉引掣) at work has landed a 17-year-old girl in police detention, and that has some Chinese asking: is this really a matter of broad social concern, and is there any legal basis for police intervention?
Michael Meyer's impressive new book, 'The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed' goes a long way toward illuminating some of the scenes that have come to symbolize early-21st-century China, at least before the unrest in Tibet and the Sichuan earthquake. They include wrecking balls knocking down beloved small businesses; schoolchildren dragging their migrant-worker parents, who have never been in a restaurant, into a KFC; human-powered vehicles in a land of high-rises, evoked by the canopied pedicab set against construction cranes...
China on Monday promulgated the regulation on reconstruction after the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake. It was the first of its kind in the country, specially for a single massive quake, which led the reconstruction work into a legal orbit.
Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday signed a State Council order to make it effective. Xinhua was authorized to publish the regulation that became effective on Monday.
"It is illegal to take photos over China, or in Chinese airports."
I've seen shameless, but I've never seen this shameless. People kiss butt, but that's to stay on the boss' good side. Yu Qiuyu this super butt-kisser extraordinaire, like your average race traitor from back in the day, has squeezed out a few alligator tears and shouted to the people: knock it off, the imperial army still means well for you.