Swimming with Mao
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July 31, 2008
One world, two Internets
From The New York Times:
The International Olympic Committee failed to press China to allow fully unfettered access to the Internet for the thousands of journalists arriving here to cover the Olympics, despite promising repeatedly that the foreign news media could 'report freely' during the Games, Olympic officials acknowledged Wednesday.
July 30, 2008
China Media Timeline
Clearing the air: multimedia site on China's environment
A multimedia site on China's environment produced by the Asia Society that includes a video, a compilation of statistics, a photo montage, and recent news on air quality in Beijing.
NPR asks 'Whatever Happened to the 'Genocide Olympics'?'
Last Monday, NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook did an hour-long show on whether the coming Olympics has changed the state of human rights in China, and how those changes measure up with activists' expectations. They introduce their show as follows:
It is almost show time in Beijing for the Olympic Games; China fought hard to get the games, and has spent at a level without precedent on preparations that have remade its capitol and wide swaths of the country.
Many hoped the world spotlight on the Olympics would also remake Chinese policy on human rights issues from Darfur to Tibet to its own legal system.Now, with the opening ceremony in Beijing just days away, August 8, we're asking how those efforts have gone. What that leverage has meant.
Beijing on the eve of the Olympics
As August 8 approaches, it's time for Beijing residents to decide where they'll spend the games; stay in the city and experience the Olympics first-hand, or escape to someplace quiet and wait out the three weeks of madness in relative calm? Yuan Yue, a consultant and columnist, has come up with justifications for either decision.
Youku video buzz
A round up of recent Youku videos by Kaiser Kuo. This month's 'Video Pick of the Month' is called No Legs, but Lots of Heart and Great Pipes.
The round up also highlights this month's top videos in the following categories: 'Youkulest', 'This Month's Most Viewed', 'Hot Topics: Most Talked-About', and 'Viral Ad of the Month'.
Lame duck president meets has been dissidents
From The New York Times:
President Bush held private talks with five prominent Chinese dissidents on Tuesday, and urged China's foreign minister to relax restrictions on human rights, as part of an intensifying White House effort to put pressure on Beijing before Mr. Bush travels there in a little over a week for the summer Olympic Games.
Mr. Bush received the dissidents -- Harry Wu, Wei Jingsheng, Rebiya Kadeer, Sasha Gong and Bob Fu -- in the White House residence, where he 'assured them that he will carry the message of freedom as he travels to Beijing'...
253 million Chinese Internet users
CNNIC, the state-owned organization that put out official figures about China's Internet, has released a new report. Kaiser Kuo translates and comments on the news numbers:
First, the big number: 253 million Internet users. That of course puts China over the top to claim the number 1 spot [most internet users of any country in the world].
Rain cleans up Beijing air, officials relieved
The China Daily encourages the weather to behave better:
Beijing finally cooled on Tuesday as a brief heavy shower embraced the city around noon after a hot and humid week.
The rain, though lasting only 10 minutes, will hopefully help restore confidence in the city's air quality, according to Guo Hu, Beijing Meteorological Observatory director...
...His confidence was shared by many as the city goes through every detail to fulfill the dream of billions on its 10-day countdown to the August Olympics.
Shanghainese sniff at bumpkin Olympics
Adam Minter looks at why Olympic ticket sales are slow in Shanghai:
In a related sense, slow ticket sales highlight the widely held belief - among most Shanghainese - that they could hold a better, more 'international' Olympics than the one being put on by those backcountry Beijingers.
Beijing air pollution: it's not the cars
On the Huffington Post, Deborah Seligsohn writes:
Factories and trucks are apparently the problem.
Contrary to popular perception both inside and outside China, Beijing's air pollution problem is not primarily due to increases in personal vehicle use.
Factories and trucks are apparently the problem.
July 29, 2008
Kunming jittery after 3rd bus blast
From GoKunming.com:
One week to the day after two bus bombs killed two and injured 14 on two number 54 buses on Renmin Xi Lu in Kunming, the city was on edge once more as rumors of another explosion Monday night - this time a K2 bus - spread like wildfire via text messages and phone calls.
Liu Xiang's 'parents' star in TV commercials
From an article in The Wall Street Journal called 'Athletes' Parents Get Chance to Be Stars' by Geoffrey A.Fowler:
In a marketplace already saturated with images of sports in action, highlighting athletes' parents is helping a few Chinese advertisers stand out from the chest-thumping crowd. Coca-Cola has aired a TV ad featuring parents of famous athletes such as diver Guo Jing Jing. They ride motorcycles, parachute in from the skies above and go through other extremes to be with their kids. Johnson & Johnson has run ads profiling the mothers of two champion athletes.
There's a twist to some of the ads, though: the 'parents' are actors. While Mr. Liu's parents have said in past interviews that their son liked to drink milk when he was growing up, they're not actually the people shown in the family portrait of the Satine ad. Instead, actors who look somewhat like Mr. Liu's parents, filled in, with the approval of Mr. Liu and his parents.
400 meter long Olympic Convention Center
Details about an Olympic building that rarely gets noticed, by Mirlin168:
Standing 400m wide ... and occupying an area of over 220,000 square meters, you would think the Beijing Olympic Green Convention Center would be the architectural centerpiece of the Olympic Boulevard.
But I bet you've never even noticed it.
American Apparel to open in Beijing
From Stylites:
There's a previous Danwei story about American Apparel in China here.
The other day, I helped carry boxes at the new American Apparel (AA) at the Sanlitun Village. The new shop is scheduled to open before the Olympics along with another branch at the World Trade Center. These will be the first two AAs in China.
There's a previous Danwei story about American Apparel in China here.
Outrageous prices for Olympic Village Internet
Prices for Internet access for journalists at the Olympic Village, via Andrew Lih:
* 512/512 connection: 7,712.50 yuan (USD 1,131.20)
* 1M/512 connection: 9,156.25 yuan (USD 1,342.95)
* 2M/512 connection 11,700 yuan (USD 1,716.05)
One year in jail for posting porn
From the Forgotten Archipelagoes blog:
Three days ago Zhang Xuewen, a Beijing webmaster, was sentenced to one year fixed term imprisonment on charges of spreading obscene articles. To increase his website's traffic and earn ad revenue, Zhang provided his visitors with several pornographic pictures and movies.
Zhejiang may legalize private commercial lending
From The China Daily:
As the president of a small guarantee company in Wenzhou--which like many so-called guarantee firms in this East China province acts in fact as an illegitimate private lender--Fang Peilin travels between a local banking regulator and a financial affairs office every day, asking about news about microcredit companies that will reportedly be allowed to set up.
Many companies are aspiring to become among the first microcredit firms in China, says Fang, who owns the company called Fangxing. 'For enterprises like us, the best way is to seek a place in the first batch, because future policies might become more stringent regarding illegitimate private lending.'
Third bus explosion in Yunnan
Tania Branigan in The Guardian:
Chinese media are playing down reports of a third bus blast in southwestern Kunming tonight - exactly a week after two explosions killed two people in the city.
A witness said he heard a loud blast shortly before 9pm local time and saw police and ambulance staff gathered around a damaged vehicle only 200 metres from the scene of one of the previous incidents.
July 28, 2008
The epic quest for an Olympic ticket
Kidnapped Chinese employee set free in Afghanistan
A Chinese national working for a Chinese company who was kidnapped by unknown militants in the central Afghan province of Wardak last month was set free Sunday, said the Chinese embassy in Kabul.
Three official protest zones for Olympics
Beijing set up three special demonstration zones for protesters to express themselves during the Olympic Games.
Hero lies to get medical coverage
A man who was heralded as a hero for saving a woman from being kidnapped was found to have lied to the police.
Obama's half-brother runs company in China
Thomas Crampton reports:
Barack Obama has a half-brother living in Shenzhen who runs an Internet company that helps Chinese companies export to the US.
John Pomfret's cold water
Former Beijing bureau chief of The Washington Post John Pomfret pours cold water on the idea of China as a super power.
More traffic restrictions for Beijing?
From The China Daily:
More vehicles could go off the roads and all construction sites and some more factories in Beijing and its neighboring areas could be closed temporarily if the capital's air quality deteriorates during the Olympic Games.
The Beijing authorities are likely to announce the special measures for the Aug 8-24 Games soon, the city's environment authority said yesterday.
Li Xin, a senior engineer who has drawn up the plan for the Beijing Environmental Protection Buearu, said: 'We will implement an emergency plan 48 hours in advance if the air quality deteriorates during the Aug 8-24 Games.'
July 25, 2008
How soccer explains China
Xu Guoqi in The Washington Post:
The real metric by which China judges itself against the rest of the world isn't the discus or the decathlon. It's not even our record-beating economic growth rate or our postmodern skylines. It's soccer. And when it comes to our beloved sport, China is not just the sick man of Asia. It's the sick man of the world.
Tax evasion probe for Danone's China chief
From The Guardian:
Shanghai's tax bureau will investigate Groupe Danone SA's China chief executive for suspected tax evasion, a bureau official said on Thursday, adding to a series of tax probes and lawsuits embroiling the French food giant and its estranged Chinese partner Wahaha.
The official Shanghai Securities News reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources, that the tax bureau had already started a probe against Qin Peng, who had received more than 60 million yuan ($8.8 million) in remuneration from Danone since 1996.
253 million Internet users, 107 million bloggers in China
From China Web2.0 Review:
According to the [new CNNIC] report, by June 2008, there are 253 million Internet users in China, making China the World's largest Internet market by users...
...CNNIC said that over 107 million users in China own blogs/spaces
City of the past, city of the future
Daily Telegraph correspondent Richard Spencer's blogs about Beijing and Jasper Becker's new history of the city, City of Everlasting Tranquillity:
Modern Beijing, Becker notes, is an attempt to realise Le Corbusier's dreams. 'Just as Le Corbusier wished, the inhabitants no longer live in individual houses with private courtyards but in immense collective housing projects.'
July 24, 2008
More pre-olympic racial profiling
In Shanghai, a document entitled 'Safety measures for the tenants of Tomorrow Square for the Olympic period' was posted in a building just off People's Square. The Opposite End of China comments on the racial profiling directives in the document originally pointed out by Shanghaiist.
See the Shanghaiist article here.
UCLA's pocket-sized US-China Media Brief
UCLA's Asian American studies center has published a 'US-China Media Brief', a brochure with statistics and concise explanations of major Sino-American issues, including sections on the economy, trade, the environment, and human rights.
Policeman's english lessons
The Wall Street Journal presents a scan of an English language training booklet published by the Beijing Public Security Bureau and distributed to help police officers with their English. It includes instructions on how to have English conversations like the following:
Police: Someone reported you had a bomb here. We're here to search your room. Foreigner: Nonsense. I'm working as a cook. Why would I keep a bomb? Go ahead and search. Police: Stay where you are while we are searching. Foreigner: Ok. I'm an honest man. I can only make Indian pan cake. I've never seen a bomb. Who gave you this time?
The mighty FUWA-TRON!
A toy company inspired by a blogger's drawing has released a fuwa-inspired transformer action figure: 'With our powers combined, I am FUWA-TRON!'
July 23, 2008
Joost, TOM Group launches joint venture
From Reuters:
Internet television service Joost and Chinese media conglomerate TOM Group will launch a joint venture on Wednesday to court viewers in China, even as the government tightens restrictions on such services.
Angry youth: China's "neocon nationalists"
In The New Yorker, Evan Osnos looks at rising nationalism amongst young Chinese. Specifically, he profiles a young man named Tang Jie whose nationalistic video was watched more than a million times after it was posted in the weeks following the riots in Lhasa and the resulting 'biased' western coverage.
When people began rioting in Lhasa in March, Tang followed the news closely. As usual, he was receiving his information from American and European news sites, in addition to China's official media. Like others his age, he has no hesitation about tunnelling under the government firewall...
...He's baffled that foreigners might imagine that people of his generation are somehow unwise to the distortions of censorship.
'Because we are in such a system, we are always asking ourselves whether we are brainwashed,' he said. 'We are always eager to get other information from different channels.' Then he added, 'But when you are in a so-called free system you never think about whether you are brainwashed.'
Coal crunch, power cuts to follow?
From Caijing:
Rising coal prices are aggravating a power shortage in China that's more serious than expected - and likely to worsen soon.
This echoes a recent Financial Times report: China on brink of electricity shortfall.Interview with Roland Soong of ESWN
The Comme les Chinois blog has published a transcript of a long interview with ESWN's one man media and translation machine Roland Soong.
3 official protest zones for Olympics
The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games has set up three official protest zones for people who wish to 'express their ideas' in public during the Games.
One zone is inside Ritan Park.
One zone is inside Ritan Park.
Millionaires and blood on the floor
Guan Yi has one of the largest collections of Chinese contemporary art in the world. He is now developing plans to build an art museum and sculpture park on a 16.5 acre plot of land in Beijing.
Also, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art just previewed its new show entitled 'Our Future--the Guy and Miriam Ullens Foundation Collection'; Shanghai Eye reviews the show and describes its (rather eventful sounding) opening.
Baidu plots to conquer music industry
An article by Zhang Zhiyuan, translated and introduced by Maths of the Music 2.0 blog, on Baidu's ploy to sow mistrust amongst labels based on the 'Kill 3 Generals with 2 Peaches' strategy.
Long Hair Drama, by Zhang Lijia
July 22, 2008
Mr Wu and Family, by Pallavi Aiyar
Pallavi Aiyar has been the Beijing correspondent for Indian newspaper The Hindu, and has been living in Beijing since 2002. Harper Collins India recently published her book about about her experiences called Smoke and Mirrors
Nitpicking Chinese media
By David Bandurski at the China Media Project:
In a speech made before thousands of swimmers ventured across the Pearl River on Saturday, [Guangzhou] Mayor Zhang Guangning (张广宁) encouraged more media coverage of environmental problems in the Pearl River Delta. He said: 'The more the media nitpick, the more we can get people behind the effort to clean up the Pearl River.'
Why is Anna Kournikova on the cover of SI China?
From China Sports Today:
'Three weeks before Beijing hosts the Olympics, two weeks after Zheng Jie stormed Wimbledon, and the same week that Yao Ming returned to action with the Chinese national team, Sports Illustrated China put on its cover a tennis player who hasn't played a professional match in four years and never won a Grand Slam.'
How to interact with foreigners? Govt. explains dos and donts
The blog Peaceful Rise observes:
'A new series of posters on the neighborhood propaganda bulletin boards about etiquette to be observed during the Olympics...[includes] one poster with a list of rules for how to act around foreigners. Most delightful was a list of eight questions Chinese are not to ask us, which if observed, would leave these curious and enthusiastic hosts with essentially nothing with which to make conversation.'
Beijing prepares: a photography series
With only three weeks left to go, The Boston Globe has a series of 24 photos of China's capital preparing itself.
With only three weeks left to go, The Boston Globe has a series of 24 photos of China's capital preparing itself.
Rolling Stone's McCain cartoon should offend us?
Newsbuster's Tom Blumerblog points out a cartoon recently published in Rolling Stone magazine that depicts McCain being tortured in a bamboo cage by Obama, Clinton and Bush. He is shocked this cartoon did not elicit 'waves of denunciations.'
'You might further think that giving McCain's three torturers stereotypically exaggerated Asian features would only further fuel the outrage. Sorry to disappoint you, but the cartoon involved appeared last month in Rolling Stone. As far as I can tell, what you are about to see has produced not a single ripple of protest.'
Govt. sets up unit to protect migrant workers
From The China Daily:
The central government has set up a special department to safeguard the rights of migrant workers, help them get training and ensure safe working conditions.
The aim of the department of migrant workers' affairs, under the newly formed Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, is to achieve social harmony.
It will help the workers get their wages in time, sign labor contracts with employers and get proper training, as well as work for their social security. Arranging for large-scale flow of laborers will be part of its job too.
July 21, 2008
EU bans Peking Duck
Peking Duck could now be forced into extinction in the UK by an EU ban on the ovens traditionally used to prepare it.
Diaoyutai State Guesthouse faces court fines
The Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in western Beijing incurred a fine of 100,000 yuan (about 14,300 U.S. dollars) for its failure to cooperate with a police investigation.
From Delhi to Dongcheng
Bus bombings in Kunming
From Go.Kunming.com: Two dead, 14 injured in Kunming bus explosions.
Bloggers take stand against web activist's arrest
On Global Voices, John Kennedy reports on the bloggers who are protesting against the arrest for 'illegal possession of state secrets' of Sichuan activist Huang Qi.
Chinese exceptionalism
An essay on Fools' Mountain blog about why Chinese culture makes Chinese people behave differently from Westerners.
Russia gives islands back to China
From The China Daily:
Russia will soon return 174 sq km of territory on the northeast border to China, ending more than 40 years of negotiations.
The two countries will sign an agreement to this effect during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's two-day visit to Beijing that starts today.
According to the agreement to be signed, Russia will return Yinlong Island (Tarabarov Island) and half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island).
The islands are at the confluence of the Heilongjiang and the Wusulijiang rivers that serve as the natural border between the two countries.
July 18, 2008
China promulgates safety statute for its army
Hu Jintao, chairman of China's Central Military Commission, has approved a set of regulations designed to strengthen safety measures in the People's Liberation Army.
Buffalo BMW protest
Disgruntled Chinese BMW owners staged protests against the car maker's unsatisfactory after sales service.
A court house for the Olympics
The Olympic Village People's Court is a Beijing court, specially set up to deal with Olympic legal issues.moved into hih tech new digs.
Beijing architecture fest
A round up of recent articles about Beijing's new architecture.
Digital nationalism: more bark than bite
Li Datong at Open Democracy:
The latest cyber-assault on a western target suggests that the super-patriotism of China's 'angry youth' may be less substantial or enduring than it can appear.
Not enough electricity for China?
In The Financial Timesby Jamil Anderlini and Geoff Dyer:
China faces its worst power shortage in at least four years as soaring coal prices and government-set electricity tariffs force dozens of small power plants to shut down rather than face mounting losses.
Nearly half of China's provinces have started to ration electricity as the country enters the peak summer season, facing what analysts describe as its worst coal shortage.
Beijing new subway lines open this weekend
The China Daily reports:
The new subway Line 10, with air-conditioned and spacious compartments, will open this weekend.
A 4.3-km length of the Olympic line and a shuttle train between Dongzhimen and the airport terminals will also open for test runs at the same time. They will extend Beijing's underground railway to 200 km.
July 17, 2008
China's GDP growth 10.4%, inflation 7.9%
This Chinese news story on Xinhua notes that China's GDP growth in the first half of 2008 was 10.4% while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) went up by 7.9%.
For some reason, the CPI figures are not included in Xinhua's English version of the article.
For some reason, the CPI figures are not included in Xinhua's English version of the article.
The story behind the closed doors of Maggie's
On the Newsweek blog, Jonathan Ansfield has written about the closure of Maggie's, Beijing's infamous meeting place for entrepreneurial young Mongolian ladies and lusty expatriate men who favor big belt buckles and tucked in polo shirts:
Whatever the substance of its much-discussed police connections, the 'protective umbrella' of the local Public Security Bureau has kept Maggie's covered, along with countless Chinese take-out places of a similar nature.
Except not during the prelude to the Beijing Olympics. In late March, police moved in on Maggie's on orders from top Public Security authorities in the capital, and abruptly closed it down, say sources briefed by local police on the situation...
The turbulent pull of African politics
The Economist has published an opinion piece on July 11 China's veto (together with Russia) against an American-led resolution in the U.N. calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe. The sting is in the last sentence:
Zimbabwe may well remind China that it is plying choppy waters in Africa. It will not be able to ignore the domestic politics of its friends there forever.
July 16, 2008
The mark of the gentleman
Fool's Mountain blog has posted a collection of calligraphy by Chinese leaders from Sun Yat-sen to Mao to Deng.
NOlympics T-shirt
From Global Voices:
Always a cynic and hardly a hater, humor blogger Wang Xiaofeng posted a picture of a black T-shirt with 'NOlympics' on the front with the title 'noise games', a play on the Chinese word for the Olympic games.
The Securolympics: record breaking security
With new toys and rigorously trained personnel, Beijing's security teams should be well prepared to beat records at their own set of Olympic events.
Beijing tourist numbers down
From Tim Johnson's blog:
In August 2007, Beijing received 420,000 overseas visitors.
For this August, one would reasonably think the figure would go way up because of the Olympic Games Aug 8-24. In fact, it may not bump up at all.
At a press conference this morning, Xiong Yumei, a deputy director of the Beijing Tourism Administration, said, 'We expect to receive 400,000 to 450,000 overseas tourists during the Games.'
Olympic sailing venue algae destroyed
From The Guardian:
A massive algae bloom that threatened the Olympic Games sailing venue at the Chinese coastal resort of Qingdao has now been almost all cleared away, state media said on Wednesday.
Zhang Ziyi engaged to Israeli billionaire
The China Daily reports that actress Zhang Ziyi said 'yes' to the marriage proposal of Vivi Nevo, her boyfriend of one year:
Nevo, 41, a New York-based Israeli venture capitalist, has been called an 'international multi-millionaire of mystery' by the media in the United States.
The low-key billionaire made a rare high-profile announcement of his engagement while attending the annual conference of Allen & Company in Sun Valley, Idaho, according to the Associated Press.
China to buy African ivory stockpile
From The Guardian:
China has been approved as a buyer for a one-off sale of elephant ivory, with experts now believing the sale could go ahead within months. An international meeting judged that China had put sufficient measures in place to regulate ivory sales and crack down on the illegal domestic trade.
The decision is severe blow for conservation organisations which argued that both the sale to and the approval of China, the world's biggest black market for ivory, would be a disaster for Africa's elephants and would lead to more poaching.
July 15, 2008
Reality TV woes
Chinabounder is back, with a name and a book
A British English teacher calling himself 'Chinabounder' blogged about his sexual exploits in Shanghai, then disappeared after a Chinese professor launched an Internet man hunt for him.
Now he's back, with a book and a real name.
Now he's back, with a book and a real name.
What is it with the pandas?
An American professor at Peking University has demonstrating outside a cinema, saying that Chinese children should be seeing the Fuwa in the runup to the Olympics, not Hollywood's Kungfu Panda.
Western ad industry as bad as Western media?
A series of outdoor ads are circulating on China's Internet forums and have the potential to cause a new round of anti-Western prejudice and conspiracy theories.
The blog of the cop killer
The MySpace page of Yang Jia, the 27-year-old man who murdered six police officers in Shanghai on July 1.
Weng'an riots, push-up protests, fifty-cent party and astroturfing
Former CNN Beijing bureau chief and Internet researcher and teacher Rebecca MacKinnon rounds up recent happenings in the war for the hearts and minds of the Chinese Internet.
No banners at Olympic events
From Xinhua:
Banners, such as those saying 'Go China,' will not be allowed in Olympic venues. While such posters have been frequently seen during the Olympic torch global relay, the tendentious banners violate the fairness principle of an Olympic event, according to Olympic venue rules.
Yes, most unfair.The rules, promulgated on Monday, 25 days ahead of the Games, by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), advise spectators not to bring into the venues support banners and leaflets of commercial publicity, religion, politics, military, human rights and environmental and animal protection, among others.
A hah.First Olympic ticket lawsuit in Beijing court
From The People's Daily:
The first case of Olympic ticket dispute reached a Beijing court on Monday, looking for its judgement on the ownership of four tickets...
...A court source said Wang, the manager of a trade company, asked one of his employees surnamed Wu to book him four Olympic tickets via the Internet. Wu used her own ID for the booking but left Wang's contact phone number on the application.
On June 28, Wang accused Wu of collecting the tickets without his noticing. He then demanded Wu either return his tickets or payback the money.
July 14, 2008
100 people detained for Weng'an riot
From Reuters:
Police in southwest China have detained 100 people, including 39 gang members, for their roles in a riot last month that saw the torching of government buildings and official cars, state media said on Monday.
The violent protest brought 30,000 residents on to the streets of Weng'an, in Guizhou province, in an unnerving outburst of discontent as China prepares to host the Olympic Games in August.
Crowds stormed police and government headquarters on June 28 after allegations spread that police had covered up the rape and murder of a local teenage girl, seeking to protect the son of a local official.
The new That's Beijing and stench management
From Imagethief:
I am trying to understand the strategy behind the creation of the new That's Beijing. It appears to be the following:
Seize the trademark, throw together a makeshift staff and publish a rushed, unreadable issue just in time for hundreds of thousands of Olympic visitors to arrive and be utterly appalled by it. Gnash teeth as few remaining advertisers flee.
Exporting universal values
ESWN has translated a blog post by Phoenix TV journalist Rose Luqiu (闾丘露薇), considering the term 'universal values', which pro-government commentators in China have been using as an insult for those they think pander to the West:
Some people seemed terrified of hearing the words 'universal values,' as if these words represented western forces. Actually, if they are universal, then they are applicable to the human race regardless of whether they come from the west or east. And they can even come from China.
Working hours changed for Olympics
The working hours in Beijing will change from July 20 for the next two months to ease traffic pressure on the roads in the run up to and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Public institutions will open an hour later, at 9:30 am, and close at 5:30 pm, while working hours for companies will be between 9 am and 5 pm, says a Beijing municipal government notice, released on Saturday.
Shopping malls will open at 10 am and close at 10 pm or even later.
July 12, 2008
Yang Ping, Party secretary, netizen
From Fool's Mountain:
Yang Ping is party secretary of the Discipline Committee, in the city of Zhuzhou, Hunan province. Recently, he got a new nickname. It all started on an internet forum he started to frequent. The netizens there began to call him 'classmate Yang Ping'. Gradually, even his friends began to refer to him this way.