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June 27, 2008

迎奥运、讲文明、树新风

From an article on the official Beijing Olympic website with the slightly plaintive title 'China attempts to clean up the Internet':

The internet-based activity promoted under the slogan 'Welcome the Olympics, Improve Manners and Foster New Attitudes' officially began on Wednesday in Beijing. Aimed at promoting appropriate internet usage for a pleasant internet environment during the Olympic Games, the activity was met with much approval.

Foreign guests at the Olympics will certainly appreciate the new, cleaned-up Internet.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:08 PM |

June 26, 2008

Korean citizen journalist conference

Oh My News, the groundbreaking South Korean citizen journalism website is holding its annual citizen journalism conference in Seoul, starting Friday June 27. Might be a while before there is a similar event in Beijing.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 7:19 PM |

Warning from closed hepatitis website

Robin Kwong in the Financial Times:

The Chinese government's recent crackdown on civil rights groups may backfire and incite protests during the Beijing Olympics, warned Lu Jun, who ran a popular website for hepatitis B carriers shut down last month.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:36 PM |

Funeral dirge for 56.com?

From Kaiser Kuo's blog:

...Anyone who quotes this blog should do so under the full knowledge that this is all still rumor, and as such all of this must be taken with a grain of salt.

That said, here's what I'm hearing: One or more partners with Sequoia 56.com's board ... paid a visit to SARFT regulators to plead the case for 56 in an episode reminiscent of a visit IDG's Hugo Xiong paid to same to prevent disaster from befalling his portfolio company, Tudou. Unlike Xiong's SARFT audience, this source tells me, this one didn't go well: when the Sequoia partner or partners asked for a dispensation, SARFT's response was a chilly 'Why should we?'

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:24 PM |

Olympic Games rules for Beijing citizens

From Sexy Beijing blog:

Our local neighborhood grannies came knocking on my door this week to make sure I have a copy of the Olympic Legal Handbook. So forget about getting around the city on your skateboard this summer--according to the handbook, skateboarding on the street is now illegal, along with a host of other activities like hanging clothes outside your window and dumping garbage in the gutter.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 3:23 PM |

Post quake solar schools design competition

From Xinhua:

An international architectural design competition for the so-called 'Sun-lit Schools' was launched here Wednesday, to seek solutions for solar-fueled school buildings in the countryside.

Contestants are required to design 'Sun-lit' school buildings with reference to climatic conditions in earthquake-hit areas such as Maerkang and Mianyang, both in Sichuan Province...

...For more information, visit www.isbdc.cn.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:06 PM |

Sourceforge blocked in China

From the Moonlight Blog:

SourceForge, the world's largest development and download repository of Open Source code and applications, appears to blocked in Mainland China on the eve of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:05 PM |

Solar energy LED wall in Beijing

From a New York Times blog post by Carolina A. Miranda:

This evening, rush hour commuters on Xicui Road in the western part of Beijing will be treated to the sight of a 20,000 square foot LED screen displaying videos that are twelve stories high. It will be the official debut of the Greenpix Zero Energy Media wall, a building-sized video installation powered entirely by solar energy.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:02 PM |

What to do about Internet censorship?

Rebecca MacKinnon has rounded up much of the Net censorship discussion at the recent China Internet Research Conference, including links to presenters slide shows and reports about the Net Nanny and the current video website problems in China.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:25 AM |

June 25, 2008

Years of being obscure

David Bordwell compares two versions of Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild in an attempt to determine just what the heck Tony Leung was doing in the movie.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:20 PM |

Patriot Zong and his green card

zou_zong.jpg
Zong Qinghou, chairman of Chinese beverage maker Wahaha and famous patriot, has a U.S. green card. The Chinese Internet is not impressed.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:43 PM |

Hu Jintao's speech about the media

David Bandurski at China media Project has explained and translated parts of President Hu Jintao's 'first speech since taking office in 2002 to deal comprehensively with the news media and its role in a changing China. It was a big deal.'

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:28 PM |

Sex and politics in the Orient

Andrew Field of the Shanghai Journal blog has posted an interview with James Farrer, author of the book Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 7:15 PM |

Tibet open to foreign tourists today

The Shanghai Daily reports:

Tibet will be re-opened to foreign tourists today after a stoppage of more than three months due to the March 14 riot in the regional capital of Lhasa, a local official said yesterday.

The first foreign tourists, two Swedes, would arrive in Lhasa today and another four from Singapore would be there on Sunday, said Tanor, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Bureau of Tourism.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:21 AM |

June 24, 2008

Death knell for 56.com?

The Venture Beat blog looks at China's three market leading video websites and concludes that 56.com, currently out of service, is a looking rather sickly:

So, 56.com has half the cash of Youku, a third the cash of Tudou, with fewer high-placed friends in China, a smaller market share, and category-wide headwinds from newly skeptical investors.

An earlier Danwei report looks at SARFT's latest list of approved video websites that has left the three sites mentioned above out in the cold.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 7:33 PM |

Foreign press learn about 'hong bao'

From a Reuters report by Nick Mulvenney:

The hotel hosting the official non-accredited media center for August's Beijing Olympics is offering cash to reporters in return for positive media coverage.

The Gehua New Century Hotel, which describes itself as 'China's first five-star hotel with a media-cultural theme,' has promised journalists up to 1,000 yuan ($145) for articles about it.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:48 PM |

Tîbetan - Huî tensions rise

The Los Angeles Times has published an article by Barbara Demick subtitled 'Long-standing enmity is a factor in recent clashes in Lhaasa and other areas.'

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:21 AM |

43 punished for quake relief frauds

The China Daily website's top story today:

Twelve officials have been sacked and 31 punished for misappropriating earthquake relief funds and materials, the country's top discipline watchdog said on Monday.

Most of the sacked officials were serious offenders at the grassroots level and directly responsible for distribution of relief, Ma Wen, Minister of Supervision, said.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:17 AM |

June 23, 2008

Online chat with Hu Jintao

President Hu Jintao speaks to the Internet masses in a Strong Country Forum chat room. But he does not say a lot.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:03 PM |

1978 students visit the capitalist West

A Beijing News story about a group of students sent to the West to study in 1978.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:44 PM |

Tudou, Youku and 56.com in the cold palace

leng_gong.jpg
SARFT has published a list of 247 organizations 'approved to host Internet audio-visual programs' in China, but the list does not include the biggest players in the space.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:16 PM |

Working class hero

Son of Shenzhen Zen puts out a fire and becomes the subject of water-cooler gossip.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:41 PM |

Don't indulge our 'racial complex'

Blogging for China has translated an online essay by a regular Uygur poster at a Chinese forum dedicated to Minkaohan (民考汉论坛), ethnic minorities raised in Han-language schools alongside Han classmates. The blogger explains:

The term Minkaohan literally means 'minority testing using Han'. With their perfect grasp of putonghua and numerous Han Chinese friends, Minkaohan are often the best economic achievers in their community, and a successful model of the Chinese government's policies towards minorities. But with their non-Han faces, and with their inability to read/write their own language, they often find themselves uncomfortable in both communities.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:20 AM |

Citizen takes local govt. to court for access to information

Donald C. Clarke's Law Professor's blog (blocked in China) reports on the first case to be heard in court in Beijing in which a citizen is suing the state for access to information under the Regulations on Open Government Information (政府信息公开条例), which came into effect on May 1.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:49 AM |

Americans want govt. to control the internet

Fons Tuinstra:

I remember that many outside China reacted shocked when research found out that most of the Chinese internet users applaud government control. Well, those Chinese internet users seem to be in good company, as 49 percent of the US citizens follow the same line, according to the Rasmussen Reports.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:39 AM |

Oh my God

Sinosplice has a thoughtful post on teaching Chinese learners of English about different attitudes towards the exclamation 'Oh my God!'

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:29 AM |

No porn, drugs or gambling for Mainland tourists in Taiwan

From Xinhua:

Mainland-based Cross-Strait Tourism Association (CSTA) has published three regulatory documents on mainland tourists' travel to Taiwan...

...Agencies should not engage in economic, cultural or any other cross-Straits exchanges in the name of traveling in Taiwan, and tourist activities on the island should not involve gambling, pornography, drugs, or any other activities that may hamper mainland-Taiwan ties on the island...

...The regulations also demanded an emergency mechanism to be set up by the accredited travel agencies, in case of natural disasters or other incidents threatening the safety of life and property of mainland tourists in Taiwan.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:10 AM |