« July 2008 | Main | September 2008 »

August 30, 2008

The expatriate

In The National, Micheal Donohue profiles Sidney Shapiro, who came to China in the late 40s:

Almost six decades later, Shapiro is still here - a robust 92-year-old Chinese citizen with white hair, a strong handshake, and an exceptionally well-preserved Brooklyn accent. Part of a wave of westerners who settled in Beijing in the early Mao years to sign up for the "socialist experiment," Shapiro is one of a tiny few who lasted long enough to experience the entire, ongoing era of Communist rule - and to see China stage an Olympic opening ceremony last Friday night that gave almost no acknowledgement to Mao's legacy.

The article also devotes considerable space to an examination of the bad blood that exists between Shapiro and Sidney Rittenberg. (via Arts and Letters Daily)

August 29, 2008

Rock attitude

JDM080829sorock.jpg
So Rock is two-thirds music, one-third Internet humor, quirky news, opinion, snark, and film and book reviews. This issue features a look at Yuan Jian's audacious book Twilight of the Miracle, available only online.

Testing the Olympic volunteers

YWeekend devotes an entire issue to "testing" the Olympic volunteers' language abilities, enthusiasm, and selflessness by posing English questions, speaking in heavy local accents, and asking for money. ESWN translates a few of the pranks.

What will fill the Olympic-sized void?

Pallavi Aiyar on Yale Global Online:

What will fill the Olympic-sized void once the Games end? Neither the World Expo in Shanghai nor the Guangzhou Asian Games, both scheduled for 2010, have the same rallying power to mobilize a nation. For the Chinese leadership, this is an issue that presents the need for some tightrope walking that even the skilled policy acrobatics of Beijing's top apparatchiks will find testing.

CCTV News: Live without it? Never!

CCTV held a symposium to gauge audience reactions to its programming, and found that people love the evening news broadcast, comparing it to a strong, authoritative man (the weather forecast is a woman).

Russia could push China closer to West

Geoff Dyer in The Financial Times:

August 8 has already been pencilled in by some as a turning point in modern history, the day that authoritarianism stood up as a credible force for the first time since the end of the cold war. Television producers did not know where to look. On one screen Chinese drummers were launching the hi-tech opening extravaganza of the Olympics, while on another Russian tanks were filing into Georgian territory.

China and SCO frown at Russia

From The China Daily:

SCO: Solve problems by dialogue

DUSHANBE: Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders Thursday agreed that attempts to solve a problem through use of force would never work, and instead it would hinder a comprehensive settlement.

...The SCO members expressed deep concern over the South Ossetia issue, and urged all the parties involved to resolve it peacefully through dialogue.

Beijing welcomed you....so did you remember its song?

At Fool's Mountain, Nimrod presents an English translation of the Official Earworm of the Beijing Olympic Games:

The Olympics are over (except for the Paralympics, that is) and people have trickled out of Beijing, but still in their heads and mine is probably this catchy (some say annoying) song that was sung by an ensemble of veritable who's-who in today's Chinese popular music world. Chinese people seem to really like this kind of qunxing (群星) or star-ensemble singing, where phrases are sung by their favorite stars.

Gun battle near Kashgar

From The New Dominion:

BBC's got a story about a gun battle that occured Thursday between seven 'militants' and police in Jiashi County (伽师县), or in Uyghur, Peyziwat County, near Kashgar.

BBC's stories are based on 'reports from the scene' rather than the usual release Xinhua News Network, which is interesting as I believe it represents the first time a description of the attack went directly to a Western media outlet without first going through Xinhua. And as usual, mum's the word at Xinhua's Xinjiang Channel...

Lies, damn lies, and Chinese "lies that bind"

At Frog in a Well, C. W. Hayford explores the role of falsehoods in Chinese and American society in light of the recent media fury over doctored realities at the Olympics.

Benetton's Sichuan earthquake ads

From The Inspiration Room:

Benetton, the Italian fashion company, has launched a campaign focused on prayer, featured prominently in two-page print advertisement showing a Tibetan monk and a Chinese soldier at prayer for the victims of the May earthquake in China's Sichuan province.

August 28, 2008

Out goes the torch

JDM080828tower.jpg
Blogger He Dong mouths off to a journalist about the boring Olympic closing ceremony. SF critic Wu Yan wields cultural theory to uncover deep levels of meaning hidden in the scaffold that formed the centerpiece of the performance.

How the New York Times (should have) covered the Olympics

Black and White Cat examines the changes made when the Beijing Evening News republished an edited version of a New York Times article.

Chinese manga for the QQ generation

From the Sinosplice blog:

Recently at a Family Mart convenience store I encountered 黑背 ("Black Back") comics, the creations of Zhang Yuanying (张元英). I've been a fan of independent comics for a while, but I've had trouble finding much I like in China. The main thing that has turned me off of mainland Chinese comics is their highly derivative nature. They all seem like copies of Japanese manga! Not 黑背, though.

Democracy, ethics, and China's post-Olympic challenge

Jeremiah at the Granite Studio comments on the Daniel Bell - Michael Walzer debate over China's future:

Looking at this question as a historian, I am struck by a few things not specifically touched upon in the original piece. First of all, the issue of what is and what is not a "truly awful" regime? Bell defines it here as one that violates "basic rights," of which Bell lists one: 'right to food and basic means of subsistence.' This of course cuts to the heart of a larger debate: Is there a set of basic (inalienable, if you will) human rights to which all human beings are entitled and that cannot be sacrificed to satisfy other ends?

Govt. officials embezzle $660 million

From The China Daily:

Central government departments and their subordinate units misused or embezzled about 4.52 billion yuan ($661.09 million) last year, for which 14 officials have been detained, the country's top auditor said Wednesday.

A total of 88 people have been arrested, prosecuted or sentenced, and 104 people handed administrative punishments for the violations in 2007, Auditor-General Liu Jiayi said in his annual report to the national legislature.

More than 41.7 billion yuan ($6.09 billion) of central funds were mismanaged, too, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

August 27, 2008

Tony Blair: We can help China embrace the future

Former British Prime Minister writing on The Wall Street Journal

The Beijing Olympic Games were a powerful spectacle, stunning in sight and sound. But the moment that made the biggest impression on me came during an informal visit just before the Games to one of the new Chinese Internet companies, and in conversation with some of the younger Chinese entrepreneurs.

These people, men and women, were smart, sharp, forthright, unafraid to express their views about China and its future. Above all, there was a confidence, an optimism, a lack of the cynical, and a presence of the spirit of get up and go, that reminded me greatly of the U.S. at its best and any country on its way forward.

Which portal won the Olympics traffic race?

ESWN translates a comparison of Sina, Sohu, and QQ, who all claim to have had more viewers during the Olympics

Knife-wielding cop killer on trial

From The China Daily:

Beijing man Yang Jia, who allegedly murdered six policemen and injured another four in a knife attack in Shanghai last month, stood trial on Tuesday charged with premeditated murder, according to the Shanghai No 2 People's Intermediate Court.

Beijing car restrictions fade

From The China Daily:

The odd-even license plate rule brought in to keep cars off the streets of Beijing during the Olympics will be lifted in some areas beginning on Thursday, the city's traffic management bureau said yesterday.

The rule will no longer apply on roads outside the Fifth Ring, with the exceptions of the airport highway and certain sections of the Badaling and Beijing-Chengde expressways, it said.

The regulation was introduced on July 20 to ease congestion and reduce pollution during the Olympics and Paralympics, the bureau said, adding that it was always designed to have two phases.

West's difficulty in Africa is China's opportunity

Mary Fitzgerald writes about the Chinese presence in Angola for the Irish Times:

"The donor community was not ready to come to our rescue so we had to look for alternatives," [Aguinaldo Jaime, Angola's deputy prime minister] says crisply, sitting in his office at the presidential palace high above Luanda's Atlantic coastline. And so the government turned to Beijing. "We had just come out of a long war, our economy had been devastated and the country had massive social needs," explains Jaime. "China was willing to understand this reality and put a huge financial package on the table. This is the main reason Angola decided to enter into a relationship with China."

August 26, 2008

Lovers of corrupt officials also liable for graft charges

The China Daily reports:

Family members and/or secret lovers of corrupt officials too could face trial if the draft of the Criminal Law's seventh amendment is passed.

Spouses and children of and/or people who have 'intimate relations' with corrupt officials could be jailed for more than seven years if they are found guilty of taking advantage of such officials' positions to get bribes or make money illegally.

GoDaddy blocked

William Long at the Moonlight blog reports, "GoDaddy, the largest ICANN-accredited domain registrar in the world, appears to blocked in Mainland China." He speculates that it might have something to do with CNNIC and the General Administration of Sport's plan to give all Chinese Olympic medalists their own personalized domain names.

Lone Chinese climber missing on Kilimanjaro

From Tanzania's The Citizen:

Mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of a Chinese national who disappeared after scaling Mt Kilimanjaro last month.

Tanzania National Parks officials and Kilimanjaro regional authorities told The Citizen at the weekend that they were still searching for the tourist who was accompanied by several other Chinese climbers on an expedition to climb Africa's highest mountain.

6.8 earthquake in Tibet

From Xinhua:

A strong earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale rocked Zhongba County, Xigaze prefecture in Tibet at 9:22 p.m. on Monday, but no casualties have been reported.

The epicenter was about 10 km underground at 31 degrees north and 83.6 degrees east, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

August 25, 2008

Who are the hottest Olympians?

New Express announces says the sexiest male athlete of the Olympic Games is Rafael Nadal Parera; his female counterpart is Leryn Franco.

Who killed would-be citizen journalist Wei Wenhua?

Wei Wenhua was beaten to death on Juanary 7 this year after he used his mobile phone to film officials in Tianmen, Hubei while they were beating a group of peaceful protesters. He himself was beaten to death.

Forgotten Archipelagoes reports:

Four officials indicted for Wei Wenhua's murder were tried on August 22 in Qiangjiang, Hubei province. All of them retracted their confessions alleging they had been extracted under torture.

Not everyone can be a winner

Southern Metropolis Weekly profiles a dozen Olympic athletes who were not the fastest, highest, or strongest.

If Phelps were a Chinese athlete

The Foreign Expert blog translates a forum post that casts US swimmer Michael Phelps as a typical Chinese champion.

Old ladies' reeducation through labor documents

Channel 4's Lindsey Hilsum interviewed the two old ladies who were given a suspended sentence of a year of re-education through labor for their protest activities before the Games and application to protest during the games. The article includes a translation of sections of the sentencing document the old ladies were given.

August 24, 2008

The Olympics end with a bang

The closing ceremony was not quite as spectacular as the opening ceremony, but it did feature Jimmy Page playing Whole Lotta Love.

How one bum heel set up China for a fall

Newsweek's Jonathan Ansfield talks to SI China executive editor Wei Hanfeng about Liu Xiang's injury and China's reaction:

Q: Do you feel everyone's making too much of this?

No. It's a huge story. To tell you the truth, when I watched it, my tears were uncontrollable. But I also felt very conflicted about it. On the one hand, here you have just an injured athlete. But on the other, he's a symbol of the country. His image was completely one of health, vigor, and omnipotence. We put him on such a high pedestal. He basically became a spokesman for the new generation of Chinese people. So the feeling is, "how could this happen to him? This is always our nation's bad fate."

August 23, 2008

Who arranged the national anthems for the Olympics?

The Washington Post talks to Peter Breiner, who did the orchestrations of 200 national anthems for the Athens Olympics. Beijing may have used his work without acknowledgement or compensation:

Breiner's basic conception of the whole piece has been copied. The brass opening, the addition of strings when the opening melody repeats, the inclusion of complex bass lines in Measures 14 and 28, and the use of an archaic little cadence at the end of several phrases are all very particular to Breiner's original. The last of these features, what musicians would call a "4-2-3" figure, is the sort of thing one finds in an old-fashioned hymn setting. It is a decidedly quirky addition to "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Although the Chinese version leaves out some percussion accents that Breiner calls for, it distinctly emphasizes elements that make Breiner's version so individual. Musically, it advertises the very features that best confirm the theft.

via China's Scientific & Academic Integrity Watch

Why does anyone still show up?

Imagethief reacts to IOC/BOCOG press conferences:

Reading through the transcripts...gives you a real sense of the formula at work. Completely anodyne opening statements followed by probing questions from foreign media that receive mostly anodyne answers, and (generally later in the process) softball questions from Chinese media that receive mostly anodyne answers. One wonders why anyone is showing up at this point.

No happy ending to the gymnasts scandal

Joyce Lau comments on the gymnast age investigation:

There have been the usual cries of "Why us? Why us? Why pick on us?" But the IOC investigates everyone....the U.S. coaches were not sulky and defensive in face of questions. They did not make excuses. They did not call Phelps' multiple tests a "false accusation." They allowed repeated testing quietly and uncomplainingly. No U.S. coach came out with a ridiculous statement like "drug testing makes Michael Phelps's mom feel bad," which is one line the Chinese have used.

August 22, 2008

Hua Guofeng's calligraphy

Yang Lang has posted an extensive gallery of inscriptions by the late Chairman Hua.

CCTV cleans up with Olympics broadcasts

NBC would kill for ratings like these:

The viewership numbers are staggering. A women's weightlifting contest on Aug. 9 drew 155 million television viewers and the men's basketball game between the United States and China attracted 170 million. The women's table tennis gold medal match -- won by China -- drew 330 million viewers last Sunday, according to CSM, more viewers than the entire population of the United States.

CCTV says that in the first 10 days of the Games, more than 100 million people in China watched streaming video on its Web site, CCTV.com.

From the New York Times.

IOC to investigate gymnast ages

The Times Online reports that the International Olympic Committee, spurred by a blogger investigation, will look into allegations of age falsification:

The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into mounting allegations that Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete.

An IOC official told The Times that because of "discrepancies" that have come to light about the age of He Kexin, the host nation's darling who won gold in both team and individual events, an official inquiry has been launched that could result in the gymnast being stripped of her medals.

See also: Imagethief, Fool's Mountain

Rich painters and poor rock stars

New Weekly presents a career guide for aspiring rock musicians.

August 21, 2008

iTunes blocked in China

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

Access to Apple's online iTunes Store has been blocked in China after it emerged that Olympic athletes have been downloading and possibly listening to a pro-Tibetan music album in a subtle act of protest against China's rule over the province.

David Beckham, Boris Johnson, Jimmy Page in Beijing for Olympic handover

From The Daily Telegraph

Footballer David Beckham is to be the star of the Olympics closing ceremony, arriving on a red double decker bus to mark Beijing's handover to London 2012.

Beckham, a key figure in the bid that won London the games, will be joined by Leona Lewis, who was born in Hackney, east London, near to where the next games will take place, and the London mayor Boris Johnson.

X Factor 2006 winner Lewis, 23, is said to be singing a duet with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page for the event, which will be screened live to a television audience of as many as 150 million people.

Remembering Hua Guofeng

JDM080825hgf.jpg
Some reactions to the death of the "wise leader" who succeeded Chairman Mao and smashed the Gang of Four before being pushed aside by reformer Deng Xiaoping.

Who was China's first Olympian?

Chiu Teng Hiok, basketball star and artist, played in the 1924 Paris Games. Why isn't he better remembered? Robert Marquand at the Christian Science Monitor looks into the life of this extraordinary individual.

August 20, 2008

Publishing a "PRC historical library" in HK

JDM080820peril.jpg
In a cover feature on Hong Kong' banned book marketplace, Phoenix Weekly talks to Ho Pin about how he built Mirror Books into one of the most visible publishers of Chinese political books.

Cheap Olympic tickets and the running of the yellow bulls

Ben Ross explains how to avoid the scalpers and get face-value Olympic tickets from regular folk.

10 new Chinese ambassadors

From Xinhua:

President Hu Jintao has appointed 10 new ambassadors in line with decisions adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

August 19, 2008

Behind the headlines at the Global Times

The Global Times wants to shed its jingoistic image. Newsweek's Jonathan Ansfield, who attended a pre-Olympics "free talk"session at the paper, now looks at how its strategies are being carried out.

Staying in power

Fernando Lugo has entered office as Paraguay's new president, leading the BBC's James Reynolds to reflect on long-serving governments:

The fact that there's a new president in a small, land-locked, country in South America is of great - and almost entirely unnoticed - symbolic importance to the Communist Party in China.

Mr Lugo's inauguration ends 61 years of continuous rule by the Colorado Party of Paraguay. If I've got this straight, this means that the Chinese Communist Party has now become the world's longest serving government - right in the middle of the most important event the Party has ever staged.

A Finn in Beijing launching bug wars

From The New Yorker:

Kari Heliövaara ... [a] Finn ... has ... spent a good deal of the past decade working in China. 'Control strategy'--how to stop insects from killing trees--is one of Heliövaara's areas of expertise, and he was recently part of a team hired to prevent an ongoing eco-catastrophe from marring the Olympics in Beijing.

For years, a blight had ravaged nearly all the deciduous trees in Beijing, leaving the branches naked and ugly...

'Chemical control was possible but ecologically not recommended,' Heliövaara said the other day. 'Precisely planned biological control is much more effective.' Biological control, in this context, means rearing parasites that attack only the defoliating pests.

Ai Weiwei: A global festival manipulated for the sake of narrow nationalism

Ai Weiwei in The Guardian:

The 2008 Olympics has created an illusion of China to the public and to the outside world. It is so fantastic, so unreal, that the entire meaning of the games is being distorted. At the opening ceremony we saw this global festival manipulated for the sake of narrow nationalism.

The propaganda system of the Chinese government went into overdrive, public money was spent like water and ranks of mediocre performers were employed to create an alternative, distorted reality. It received fake applause from the country's media and public. Officials from the International Olympic Committee and United Nations also collaborated in the deception with their comments on the success of the games and the improvement of the environment.

August 18, 2008

Hand grenades and Olympics

Zhang Lijia's article about Olympic Games, and the relationship between China and the West.

Liu Xiang out of 110m hurdles

(updated link)China's champion hurdler left his heat due to injury:

Liu Xiang's dream of defending his Olympic title on home soil ended on Monday when he failed to start his first-round heat in the 110 metres hurdles.

Liu, the world champion and the host nation's best hope of an athletics gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, pulled up after a false start and hobbled down the tunnel to leave the Bird's Nest stadium in stunned silence.

Taping over Olympic non-sponsors

From Jason Dean in The Wall Street Jurnal:

At the Olympic Games here, you drink Coca-Cola beverages, eat McDonald's food, ride in Volkswagen sedans and watch events on giant Panasonic video screens.

Beijing organizers have gone to great lengths -- employing a dedicated staff armed with plenty of tape -- to ensure that companies providing otherwise important services but who aren't official sponsors don't upstage the companies that are...

...To ensure that only the companies that pay millions of dollars to be official Olympic sponsors enjoy the benefits of exposure in Olympic venues, organizers have covered the trademarks of nonsponsors with thousands of little swatches of tape...

...The Taiden Industrial translation headsets in a large conference room have had their logos covered, as have the American Standard faucets in the bathrooms nearby, and the ThyssenKrupp escalators down the hall.

Even the sign atop the InterContinental Beijing Beichen hotel, attached to the Main Press Center, has been obscured by an Olympic cloth wrap.

Zhang Yimou on the opening ceremony

From China Digital Times:

Southern Weekly has a long interview with Zhang Yimou, the General Director of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. The sections of the interview [linked here], translated by CDT, help illuminate the political machinations behind the spectacular extravaganza.

The Coming China Wars--pfffftttt

Xujun Eberlein tears apart the awful book that has plagued the Google advert box on countless China websites for most of 2008.

The girl with the uneven teeth

ESWN translates and compiles media reports and blog posts about the lip-synch scandal of the Olympic opening ceremony.

Daily Show vs. Rui Chenggang

The Daily Show's Rob Rob Riggles vs. CCTV's Starbucks-busting anchor Rui Chenggang.

August 15, 2008

How the Nazis ended the Cultural Revolution

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was translated into Chinese in 1965 and published for "internal circulation," available to high-ranking government and party officials. In the waning days of the Cultural Revolution, a second edition grew to become quite popular.

"内部书":红花香,白花亦香

摘自《中国新闻周刊》,2008年8月11日,第383期。

"内部书":红花香,白花亦香

在图书匮乏的年代里《第三帝国的兴亡》这部"只供一定级别领导参阅"的"内部书",成为众多传看者的精神盛宴

★本刊记者/罗雪挥

"凡是忘掉过去的人注定要重蹈覆辙。"这是《第三帝国的兴亡》中闻名遐迩的引语。1925年,美国记者威廉·夏伊勒抵达德国,开始对纳粹进行报道。

1945年,第三帝国崩溃,数量惊人的秘密文件公诸于世。此外,私人日记、极度秘密的发言记录,包括战犯就刑前的供词都很丰富。依据自己的亲身经历,威廉·夏伊勒花费了5年半的时间写作该书。

作为全球最畅销的历史作品之一,迄今为止,其精装本和平装本的销量已超过200万册。而该书自1965年起,就在中国"内部"翻译发行,从秘密走向公开。记者查阅了该书的5个版本,发现在1983年6月印刷的那批书上,公布了具体印数,那时的发行量就已经达到40万册。

一本"内部书"的诞生

"我真没想到,这本书的发行量后来会那么大。"柴金如告诉《中国新闻周刊》。这位西南联大的毕业生,时任世界知识出版社西方组组长,编辑校订了该书第一个"内部"版本。《第三帝国的兴亡》1961年荣获美国国家图书奖。当时,柴金如通过内部渠道得知此书的声名后,便有心出版,只是考虑到该书部头太大,约人翻译太难,只得放下了。

无独有偶,上海圣约翰大学毕业生董乐山也发现了该书。这位日后的翻译大家,新中国成立前,曾在美国驻华新闻处任职。解放后,他在新华社担任翻译工作。后来他被划为右派,调离翻译岗位,为干部班教授基础英语,月工资也从167元降到69元,不得不找些稿费收人,贴补家用。董乐山在新华社图书馆的英文书架上发现了《第三帝国的兴亡》,爱不释手,花了两个星期,一口气读完了该书原版,当即给世界知识出版社写信推荐。

柴金如具体负责该书。他先让董乐山试译了一小部分,认为质量不错,就着手让其翻译。考虑到这是一本130多万字的巨著,出版社决定由9个人合译。其中,董乐山翻译了20万字,并负责全书校订。

董乐山已于1999年去世,夫人凌畹君如今定居美国,她接受了《中国新闻周刊》的电话访问。凌畹君回忆,当时家里只有一个从新华社房管处借来的小桌子,白天董乐山在桌上翻译,晚上就得让给儿子用。而就是这样一个小桌子,后来还被房管处收走了,目的是想收回房子,董乐山只得又从别处借了一张。翻译就是在这样简陋的条件下进行的,译稿完成后,柴金如对董乐山的评价是中英文水准俱佳,"我没有理由拒绝这样的稿子"。

该书标明是"内部"读物,只能在"内部"发行,除了其中有对斯大林的不敬之语,柴金如指出了另一个隐秘的原因,"出版社不能公开发表一个资产阶级作者的著作,当时的环境只能这样做。"1974年,该书重印,很快脱销,不到一年即再版,仍然是"内部"发行。而在那个特殊的年代,"内部书"多半是拿来就译,没有人考虑版权问题。《第三帝国的兴亡》也不例外。

饥饿年代的窝窝头

从上世纪60年代初至"文革"结束,应反帝反修的需要,一批"内部书"出版,涉及外国政治、历史、文学艺术等领域。封面只有书名、作者名,都印上"供批判用""供内部参考""内部发行"或"只限国内发行"字样,只供一定级别的领导参阅,甚至严格到编号发行,以便流失时追究责任人。其中包括俗称的"灰皮书"和"黄皮书",前者为政治、法律类书,后者为文学类作品。

曾任人民出版社总编辑、当时的"马列外书编辑室"主任张惠卿认为,《第三帝国的兴亡》应属于灰皮书的外延,也可以算广义灰皮书的一种。但当时灰皮书的出版高潮已经过去,无论是内容还是发行范围,它和狭义的"灰皮书"都有一定距离了。

即便如此,董乐山夫人凌畹君回忆,作为译者,董乐山当年也只有一套样书。在"文革"中,董乐山曾被长期关押,因为他拒绝承认莫须有的罪名或诬陷他人。1971年,董乐山从干校回到北京。到家后发现,珍藏的《第三帝国的兴亡》上册还在,下册没了,儿子说借给同学弄丢了,凌畹君说,董乐山当时气得要命,因为没处可买。

《第三帝国的兴亡》不久便成为了外传最广泛的"内部书"。曾经在中央编译局负责"灰皮书"的郑异凡告诉记者,"文革"期间,包括图书馆藏书在内的"内部书"大量流向社会,有的是被红卫兵抄家没收,有的则是高干子弟在内部传播。

《世界文学》副主编李政文告诉记者,上个世纪70年代,身为高级干部的父亲为他开了介绍信,在北京东城区千面胡同一家内部书店内,李政文买到了一套《第三帝国的兴亡》,此后无论是到山西插队,还是返回北京,他都随身携带。而当年"是个人都来借",大家不仅互相传,还交换心得,看完一章一节,都要在小圈子里讨论。

李政文至今珍藏着这套书,他说,在无书可读的年代,它为人们打开了一扇窗,原来世界的可能性很大,生活的选择很多,而以前"不是黑就是白,不是革命就是反革命",李政文第一次意识到,除了红的花,原来白的花也很漂亮。

作家胡发云当年20出头,还在武汉当工人,因为常买书,渐渐和当地内部书店的人相熟,得以破格购买,用去他一月工资的三分之一。朋友们知道胡发云有一套《第三帝国的兴亡》后,都排队来他家借书。有的人其实与胡发云并不太熟,担心他不肯出借,就带一本书来换,权当抵押。这一套书自买来后,就没能在家里停留过,在数年的辗转传阅中终于全部失落。胡发云难忘最初阅读该书的震撼,形容是"石破天惊",他认为"这本书在意识形态上撕开了一个大口子",因为纳粹的口号和做法都和中国的"文革"太相像了。

特殊年代里,正是这批"反动"教材,为人们搭建了当时唯一通向外部世界的精神通道。《灰皮书、黄皮书》的作者沈展云,在《关于"皮书"的集体记忆》中,记述了包括《第三帝国的兴亡》在内的思想盛宴。当时的"内部书",政治类如吉拉斯的《新阶级》、考茨基的《恐怖主义和共产主义》等,文学类如《带星星的火车票》《在路上》,包括三岛由纪夫的作品,都炙手可热。

历史的真相不断被揭露,对人性、人道主义的期盼呼之欲出。胡发云向记者表示,在只能"吃野菜"的年代,内部书好比是"窝窝头",成为真正填饱饥肠的精神食粮。他认为,在当下中国,无论是学术界还是文学界,一批有思想的人几乎都从这类的阅读当中不同程度地获得了思想理论资源。

"内部书"亦保存了学术研究的薪火。上个世纪90年代初,郑异凡到德国去参加一个托洛茨基研讨会。会上有西方学者说,苏联人和中国人根本看不到托洛茨基的著作,根本无权谈论托洛茨基。郑异凡告诉他们,在中国托洛茨基的著作基本都翻译出来了。

书皮变了颜色

随着时光流逝,第三帝国渐渐成为了人们可以理性对待的历史陈迹。

"书中对美帝国主义的绥靖政策讳莫如深,未作揭露;对苏联在纳粹德国侵苏前的对外政策及斯大林本人则进行了恶毒的歪曲和污蔑;作者是资产阶级记者,立场和观点是反动的。"这则《出版者说明》摘自"文革"期间出版的《第三帝国的兴亡》。

仅仅在5年后,1979年版本中,该批判转为:"尽管作者对于某些问题和人物的评价,有未尽全面之处,与我们的观点不同,不失为一本有史料价值的读物。"当时中美两国已经建交,该说明饶有兴味地在作者名字后加了一个逗号,注明"美国人"。

而1983年,中国开始对外开放,逗号悄悄地消失了。

1992年,中国加人世界版权公约,世界知识出版社正式购买了该书的中文版权,并对外输出了中文简体字版权,比如台湾麦田出版股份有限公司,就根据该社版本,出版了繁体字版,更名为《第三帝国兴亡史》。世界知识出版社的副总编辑章少红向记者介绍,这本书仍然是社里的品牌书和长销书,正式获得该书版权后,自1996年初以来,共印过八印,总计印数约为5万册。

40多年间,《第三帝国的兴亡》中文版封面设计也发生了重大变化。"内部书"时期,该书均是按照西蒙·舒斯特出版社1960年的版本翻译,其封面设计也有相似元素。记者在清华大学图书馆查找到了该书1960年原版,淡淡的灰色封皮,竖长的黑条典雅地位于左上角,内嵌书名,简约大方。而在中国出版时,使用了白色的封皮,黑底被刻意加宽加长,黑底白字的书名赫然醒目,比起一看就反动的"灰皮书",略有改进,但是仍属"另类"。

1979年,"文革"中被迫关闭的世界知识出版社恢复,《第三帝国的兴亡》成为其公开印行的第一本书。该书的封面被"去了毒",封面从白色变为天蓝色,甚至还加上了希特勒虚化的头像。而最新出版的《第三帝国的兴亡》中文版本,则根据西蒙·舒斯特出版社1990年版本授权,该原版书上著名的纳粹标志也同样出现在了中文版封面上,只是中文版背景更为宏大,清晰的黑白照片中,希特勒正精神抖擞地检阅麾下军团,既未美化,也未丑化,历史风云从正面滚滚而来。这一版中,《出版者说明})彻底消失,替代的是书勒口上对作者的隆重推荐,以及封皮上醒目的广告潜"这是一本关于我们这个时代最重要的历史作品!"

值得一提的是,该书的译者董乐山,在书勒口上占据了与威廉·夏伊勒同样醒目的位置。而此前,为了署上自己的真名字,董乐山花费了将近10年。

1965年版本中,由于当时还没有校订者署名的先例,而董乐山本人觉得自己仍属"另册",能够参与翻译就已经算是"照顾"了,不可能有别的奢求,甚至连翻译也没署真名,因为参与翻译的人太多,而当时的集体翻译大多采取化名,比如"齐干",就是大家一齐干的意思。结果该书后来从每个译者的名字中摘了一个字,在世界知识出版社后来印刷的书目上,该书的译者为"董天爵"等。

1974年,该书由人民出版社以三联书店的名义,重新出版发行,董乐山又重新逐字逐句无偿校订了一遍,该社领导还特意找到柴金如了解情况。交稿时,董乐山向当时负责该书的"马列外书编辑室"主任张惠卿提出了署名要求,董乐山、李天爵的真名第一次出现,张惠卿向记者介绍,这在当时也是很少见的,董乐山形容:"这种感觉就像出土化石重见阳光一样。"而其他译者仍然以两个化名出现。直到上个世纪80年代,《第三帝国的兴亡》才正式还原了9个译者的真实姓名。除已经公开署名的董乐山、李天爵,以及未列人化名的郑开椿外,其他两个化名"李家儒""陈传昌",分别代表了以下译者:李耐西、周家骖、沈苏儒、陈廷祐、赵师传、程祁昌。如今,9人中,包括董乐山在内的若干位译者已经离世。

继《第三帝国的兴亡》后,董乐山又翻译了《一九八四》《奥威尔文集》《中午的黑暗》《西方人文主义传统》等。董乐山之子董亦波在《董乐山文集》代序中评价:"对于国人从世界、文化和历史的角度,认识什么是社会主义,什么是人文精神,什么是政治极权和政治恐怖,都有重要的帮助。"

《世界文学》副主编李政文告诉记者,如果你写这本书,请加上这样一句话,我向他们深深鞠躬。★

Free cigarette lighters at Shanghai airport

Adam Minter reports from Shanghai

The Shanghai Airport authorities are gathering up all of the lighters seized at security, and giving them away to arriving, smoking travelers. Welcome to Shanghai, have a smoke (only partly) on us!

Now, I'm no smoker, but I have to admit that this is the most commonsense solution to a problem that most people never even realized that airport administrators have. Pure genius, and pure, Shanghai-style hospitality!

One world, whose dream?

JDM080815dream.jpg
Ann Condi participates in a CCTV gala celebrating the Olympics, and finds it a stage-managed affair performed before a bored audience.

Chinese netizens love Iraqi athletes

From ChinaSmack:

Recently, many Chinese are disappointed and embarrassed with the China men's football team because of the team's poor performance and bad behavior...

At the same time, many Chinese are also expressing their admiration of the Iraqi athletes who have struggled against so many problems to come to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Not your typical "party school"

Peijin Chen translates an article about the curriculum at "party schools," centers for training party members in the latest theories and ideology. The contrast between dry lectures given straight from printed notes and free-wheeling discussions about more relevant issues is fascinating.

Censorship foreigners don't see

Rebecca MacKinnon has posted an extended version of her op-ed in the Asian Wall Street Journal which she says is

[A]n effort to get people to get beyond what Internet scholar Lokman Tsui describes as a Western fixation on 'Iron Curtain 2.0' which blinds most Western observers to the realities of the Chinese Internet - and to China more generally, for that matter

Do foreign protesters achieve anything?

Mark Magnier of The Los Angeles Times asks whether splashy protests by foreign activists actually make a difference to anyone.

Govt: State-owned enterprise bosses not raking it in

The China Daily reports on a story that has barely made it through the Olympic noise:

The state assets watchdog denied on Thursday the recent whopping salary rumor for heads of the country's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs), addressing that they earned 531,000 yuan ($77,366 ) on average in 2006.

'The assertion that executives in 155 SOEs were given millions of yuan was groundless and so was the word about the salary gap of millions between heads and employees,' said an official with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

However, the article does not mention how much money the 155 SOE bosses are making in gifts and red envelopes.

August 14, 2008

Stop drugs, bombs and journalists

A translation of a Caijing magazine article detailing some of the guidelines Olympic volunteers received about dealing with threats to the Olympic Games, be they explosive, infectious or journalistic.

Empty seats at Olympic events

By Amy Shipley and Maureen Fan in The Washington Post:

Chinese Olympic organizers acknowledged Tuesday they were struggling to handle an unforeseen and baffling problem inside Summer Games venues and at the showpiece Olympic Park.

Not enough people.

Chinese netizens respond to pretty foreign girl asking for hugs

ChinaSmack has translated some online responses to a photo of a foreign girl holding up a sign, in Chinese, asking for hugs on Wangfujing Street. Apparently there were few takers.

August 13, 2008

Painting Over Mao: Notes on the Olympic opening ceremony

On China Beat, Geremie Barmé looks reviews the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games:

The ancient city of Beijing was literally turned on its head to help achieve the effects of the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday August 8, 2008. Six hundred years ago the city was designed around a north-south axis that runs from the south of the old city through the Forbidden City and on north.

Along this axis the spectacles of imperial times would unfold (including the imperial 'Tours of the South' or nanxun that were a major feature of the reigns of the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors in the Qing dynasty). Since the 1910s, however, Chang'an Avenue, now a multi-laned highway that runs east-west through the heart of Beijing, became the focus for military parades...

Circling the square on the CCTV building

The Absurdity, Allegory and China blog digs up early designs for the new CCTV building that show that a helipad was part of the design process:

If there is a rub it is probably not over the helipad, but rather the change that grew it from a square contained within the perimeter of the footprint, into a circle that overhangs the edges. It's all about the mashing (not the meshing) of shapes, and how some things can, unexpectedly, change. It is, after all, CCTV.

"Energy-efficient" buildings? Not always

At China Dialogue, Lin Taige writes of trade-offs in pursuit of energy efficiency that have actually increased energy consumption:

Because the phenomenon of "energy-saving" buildings is not restricted to the residential sector, office complexes suffer the same problem. One office development in Beijing installed a number of solar water heaters. This is all very well, but the system used requires the water to circulate constantly. And the cost of running those pumps was almost as much as the cost of heating the water in the first place. This is hardly power saving.

Gold medal for downplaying negative news

David Bandurski at China Media Project:

The murder in Beijing on Saturday of American Todd Bachman, the father-in-law of U.S. men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, was a major story, particularly coming as it did at the end of the first day of Olympic competition. But while Chinese Web users had a reasonably good chance of running across the story, newspaper readers might have missed it altogether.

300 pieces of silver are not buried here

The phlegmatic Me Old China:

Foreign journalists - obviously keen to make a mark - are naturally drawn to stories that the government doesn't want you to talk about. It makes them feel intrepid. It makes them feel like Woodward and Bernstein.

Amusingly, by establishing a list of stories that journalists aren't allowed to talk about, the censors are effectively doing part of our job for us. They are adding to the frisson of newsworthiness that already surrounds negative stories concerning corruption or forced relocation or religious crackdowns.

August 12, 2008

The voice of the opening ceremony

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games had something for everyone: flags, sappy pop singing, impressive displays of synchronized choreography, wire-fu, history, and pyrotechnics. It even had a few things for the cynics: the televised firework footprints were CGI inserts, and now it turns out that the cute girl who sang the ode to the motherland was overdubbed by another girl who wasn't as cute. China Digital Times translates an interview with music director Chen Qigang:

We chose one ten-year-old child, whose voice was really good. All the rehearsals were using her singing... In the end the director thought her image was not the most appropriate, she was a little too old... so regrettably, we had to let her go.

Protest free protest zones

City Weekend's blogger Mirlin168 went to all three official Olympic 'protest zones' looking, in vain, for protesters, and also visited the police to find out how to apply for permission to protest.

When bribery backfires

Last November, Oriental Outlook magazine printed a diary that Hunan entrepreneurs Mao Shijian and Zhou Difan had kept during the eight months they spent trying to get their fireworks business registered. Recently, China Youth Daily did a follow-up investigation which discovered a sordid tale of greed, family politics, thugs, guns, and revenge.

Prince Gong's mansion to re-open August 20

From Xinhua:

Prince Gong's mansion, Beijing's largest and best preserved princely home, will open to the public on Aug. 20 after 2.5 years of renovation.

The mansion is divided into a residential area and a garden. The area to be open next week is the residential portion with an area of 32,000 square meters.

August 11, 2008

Li Ning lights China's Olympic flame

Li Ning, founder and chairman of the sports brand which bears his name, lit the cauldron at the final act of last night's opening ceremony.

Do not use this photo

Black and White Cat, blogging from inside the State media apparatus points to a politically incorrect news photo that Xinhua released and then recalled, but failed to tell their own Web editors.

More attacks in Xinjiang

From The Times of India:

Eight persons were killed after terrorists launched a dozen attacks in west China on Sunday using handmade explosives in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, which the base for a separatist movement.

Chinese Internet reacts to Olympic opening ceremony

ESWN translates some Chinese online commentary about the opneing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

August 9, 2008

Stabbing at the Drum Tower

The New York Times reports on the stabbing of an American couple and their Chinese guide atop the Drum Tower:

A Chinese man wielding a knife attacked two American tourists related to an American Olympic coach on Saturday, killing one of the tourists and wounding the other and their Chinese tour guide while the three were visiting an ancient tower in central Beijing. The attacker then killed himself by leaping from the tower, Chinese officials said....The dead American was a man, and the injured American tourist and Chinese guide are both women, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

August 8, 2008

Bushes in Beijing to focus on ceremonials

Mary Hennock blogs for Newsweek about Bush's visit to the new US Embassy in Beijing and his foreign policy legacy:

Next year marks 30 years of US-China diplomatic relations since Washington switched its embassy from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. Bush is leaving office with the US' reputation weaker than at any time since WWII, its soft power sapped by its adventures in Iraq, its economy in distress back home. His legacy for US-China relations may prove as lasting as his father's, but in a wholly different direction. China's rise may be over-hyped but it's real and there's more space for it than previously as the US depends on the partnership much too heavily to offend.

Olympic Model Workers

JDM080808mod.jpg
Danwei's choice of the best blogs about China in English and Chinese. The winners are chosen by Danwei's Central Committee; no voting or democracy of any kind is involved.

Blow your whistle when you see a terrorist

Information Times reported that whistle has become Guangzhou's taxi drivers' new weapon against terrorism.

Let the God Games Begin

Adam Minter looks at hurdles blocking foreign missionaries from proselytizing in China during the Olympics:

As recently as the spring of 2007, evangelical groups were planning an effort meant to include thousands of trained missionaries descending on China. However, in the course of the last year, several developments have damaged the prospects for the planned spiritual harvest.

No booing. (Also, no locusts.)

Joyce Lau wonders whether Chinese spectators will boo at the Games:

But it's dangerous to toy with people's emotions -- to rouse anger by convincing them that spiteful foreigners are out to shame them, and then turn around and say they must be nice to those same foreigners. What if the people who were boycotting Carrefour or rallying against "the Western media" go to a hotly contested match between China and a country with which it has either current or historical grievances -- America, Britain, France, Japan, etc? Will they understand the difference between loving your own country, and not demonstrably hating others?

Chinese newspapers on the Xinjiang attacks

At China Media Project, David Bandurski looks at the prominence given to news of the Xinjiang attacks in both official and commercial newspapers.

Photos of Hu Jintao and 11 world leaders

World leaders are in town, and XInhua is covering their handshakes with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

August 7, 2008

The changing face of Chinese journalism

The China Beat has an interview with Judy Polumbaum, co-author with Xiong Lei of China Ink: The Changing Face of Chinese Journalism

Wussy U.S. cyclists in face masks

China Smack has translated some Chinese online reactions to photos being circulated of the U.S. cycling team arriving at Beijing's airport wearing face masks to filter the air. Some examples:

The Olympics are in Beijing, whether you foreigners like it or not. If you do not like the air, then just go home!

Chinese air quality really is inferior to foreign countries. We should face the truth and not deceive ourselves and others.

Shenyang Evening News makes itself news

With the media's enthusiasm for the Olympic Games running high, a daily newspaper Shenyang Evening News created its own Olympic-related news to report on.

August 6, 2008

More foreign protesters

From AP:

Three Americans denouncing China's population control policies protested on Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Wednesday

Foreign protesters arrive in Beijing

From Peking Duck:

[T]oday somebody climbed a 100-foot electrical pole near the Olympic Green to fly a 'One World, One Dream, Free Tibet' flag for the length of time it took the Beijing Fire Department and PSB to arrive and take it down.

The protesters were all-unsurprisingly-foreigners.

When there were only a billion

people_census.jpg
A 1982 news story about China's first census after the Cultural Revolution, when the population officially topped one billion, with more than four million people in the armed forces.

Bush to open new U.S. Embassy on Friday

Xinhua reports:

U.S. President George W. Bush will formally open the new U.S. Embassy here on Friday, the opening day of the Olympics...

August 5, 2008

Wen Jiabao shoots hoops

Is athletic prowess a requirement for China's leaders? A roundup of the recent reports showing the atheletic side of the country's leaders.

Grouchy Chinese bloggers on the Games

Jonathan Ansfield sums up the snarky comments from some Chinese bloggers about the Olympics in a Newsweek blog post:

'Achhhh, we've been spending half our days erasing posts,' groused the founder of one of China's edgier blog forums, reached by phone earlier this week.

August 4, 2008

Competition to prove national strength

wang_shuo_in_the_red.jpg
In the 1980s, Beijing 'hooligan writer' Wang Shuo wrote a novel centered around a 'competition to prove national strength and restore wounded pride'. The story has particular relevance in the year of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Hosting the Olympics in post-quake China

Zheng Yefu examines the implications of the Olympics in the wake of the Wenchuan earthquake.

16 die in Xinjiang grenade attack

Xinhua reports:

The raid of a border armed police division, which killed 16 policemen and injured 16 others, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Monday morning was suspected as a terrorist attack, according to the local police.

Two attackers drove a tip lorry to hit a team of policemen who were jogging outside the police division in a morning exercise in Kashi at about 8 a.m., police witnesses said.

China: Humiliation and the Olympics

China scholar Orville Schell uses the new movie Dark Matter as a platform to talk about contemporary psychological dynamics between China and the West. He references a number of non-fiction book to give historical background to his argument that the movie masterfully illuminates 'how any suggestion of foreign superiority, or even condescension, toward Chinese may intersect with their own sense of historical victimization and insecurity to create a volatile chemistry.'

Information not so open

David Bandurski has translated a China Newsweek article about Party leaders' reluctance to meet the requirements of the National Ordinance on Openness of Government Information (政府信息公开条例) that took effect on May 1.

Human flesh search engine court case

ESWN has translated an article about a man who sued websites for allowing 'human flesh search engine' postings that attacked him and revealed his personal details online.

Flypig: why podcasting isn't big in China

Flypig aka Steven Lin, on of the duo behind popular podcast site Antiwave.net explains why podcasting has not caught on in China.

August 3, 2008

Successful Cat III films

Variety's Kaiju Shakedown presents a list of all of the Cat III films in Hong Kong to earn more than $10 million since the rating was first implemented in 1988 (reportedly to allow foreign arthouse flicks to play in the colony). Of note:

Seven of these movies star Simon Yam, and three of them were written by Joe Eszterhas.

The Foreigner Card

Are you a foreigner? You might be eligible for free beer. Ben Ross explains.

August 1, 2008

China unblocks Amnesty, RSF and BBC webpages

The last two days have seen some serious complaints from the international media about China's ongoing Internet censorship. Suddenly this afternoon, the previously hard-blocked websites of Amnesty International, Reporters Sans Frontieres and Chinese pages of the BBC are all available in the capital.

Will SARFT save us from annoying ads?

SARFT vows to eliminate bad ads once for all but can they actually do it it this time?

Kaiser Kuo on forbidden cliches

Kaiser Kuo's not-to-do list for journalists visiting China for the Olympics.

The '8 Don't Asks'

00001_tall.jpg
Geremie Barmé on the 'Eight Don't Asks': a list of taboo topics to help Chinese citizens avoid offending presumably hyper-sensitive 'Foreign Friends'.

Revenge against the imperialist Chinese Gordon

From NPR:

The relationship between Sudan and China is widely believed to be a marriage anointed in oil: China needs it and Sudan has it, and the two have been in business for years. But the Sudanese say their bond with China runs deeper than any oil well and goes back more than 100 years -- to a man who proved the adage 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'

Maj. Gen. Charles Gordon was known as 'Chinese' Gordon to his fans -- none of whom were even a little Chinese.

Profits from piracy?

Tech business analyst David Wolf looks at Chinese video sharing site Youku.com and speculates on how they can turn the massive copyright problems on their site, currently a source of much of their traffic, into profit.

Patriot games

Lindsey Hilsum in The New Statesman:

The Chinese recruited a German coach, Joseph Capousek, under whose tuition Germany had won 18 Olympic golds for canoeing and kayaking in four Olympics.

In June, Capousek was sacked as Chinese team coach, allegedly because he was not getting good enough results. He believes he fell out with the sports officials partly because he criticised their obsession with winning, saying it was counterproductive, as it put too much pressure on athletes.

'For China, to win gold is political, it's very important,' he said. 'Everybody talks about gold in China. If you win bronze or silver, you are a loser.' After he lost his job, he discovered that while the German version of his contract said he should aim to win gold, the Chinese-language version said he was obliged to do so.

China and South African bank preparing massive Africa drive

Tom Burgis in Lubumbashi reports for The Financial Times:

China is readying to move into Africa on a scale that far outstrips its acquisitions on the continent to date, according to the South African bank that is laying the groundwork.

High-level groups of bankers from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Standard Bank, respectively China and Africa's biggest banks, are examining potential targets in Africa's oil and gas, telecoms, base metals and power sectors...

Clive Tasker, chief executive of Standard Bank's business in Africa excluding South Africa, said the resultant deals were likely to be at least as large as ICBC's $5.5bn (£2.7bn, €3.5bn) purchase last year of a 20 per cent stake in Standard - itself the largest foreign direct investment in post-apartheid South Africa.

S. Korean TV station criticized for Olympic leak

From The China Daily:

A South Korean TV channel breached established norms by telecasting footage of a rehearsal for the Olympic Games' opening ceremony on Tuesday...

...We are disappointed that they did that,' Sun Weide, spokesman for the BOCOG, said. Though the footage cannot give people the full picture of the grand opening ceremony, it is against universally accepted norms...

...The South Korean TV channel SBS telecast part of the rehearsal that was held on July 16. A second rehearsal was held on Wednesday, and two more are scheduled for Aug 2 and 5.