« August 2008 | Main | October 2008 »

September 30, 2008

A very Chinese film festival

At the Cup of Cha blog, Richard describes a trip to attend the Qing Hai International Mountain Documentary Film Festival:

One country crossed; one lake swum; banquet, opening, closing and awards ceremonies endured; much beer, whine, whiskey and baijiu consumed; many contemporary and classic pop songs, English and Chinese, murdered; many questionable dance moves attempted; vistas of incomparable beauty cemented in the memory; never more than one hours warning regarding any event and not one film viewed - one very enjoyable, very Chinese, Film Festival attended.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:15 AM |

Zhao Wei: "My interests are my motivation"

Chinese Mirror translates an interview with Zhao Wei, who's currently appearing in the new movie Painted Skin.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:14 AM |

Milk lawyers muzzled

By Mure Dickie in The Financial Times:

Officials in a number of ­Chinese provinces are pressuring lawyers to pull out of a volunteer legal advice group set up to help the ­families of thousands of ­children who were poisoned by contaminated milk powder, according to people involved in the group.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 3:52 AM |

September 29, 2008

22 detained for making and selling melamine

Xinhua reports:

Police in north China's Hebei Province have detained 22 people involved in a network connected with making, selling melamine and tainting milk with the chemical.

Among the detained, 19 people were managers of 17 pastures, breeding farms and milk purchasing stations. The local procuratorate has issued arrest warrants for 13 of them, according to the investigation panel of the Sanlu Group tainted milk case.　

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:33 PM |

September 28, 2008

The right to breastfeed

bezdomny ex patria translates a report on a lawsuit involving a woman who's suing for the right to breastfeed her 6-month-old son. Her husband, whose application for divorce was denied because their son is still nursing, refuses to let his wife see the child until she grants him a divorce.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:17 PM |

Sanlu's public relations pawns: a relay of lies in China's media

At the China Media Project, David Bandurski details how a blurred line between reporters and corporate spokespersons who peddle soft news undermines the integrity of the news media, particularly when it comes time to break negative news that involves their advertisers.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:02 PM |

Fighting the China Business Post suspension

The Financial Times reports that the media group that owns China Business Post is protesting a three-month suspension handed down for the Inner Mongolia-based paper's cross-province reporting on corruption in the Agriculture Bank of China:

However, in what appears a sign of confidence that central authorities would not approve of the suspension, Mr Wu said the newspaper would not reopen until the order was revoked.

"Our position is very clear. Unless they withdraw the original three months suspension, we will not consider reopening the operations," he said, adding that Inner Mongolia must also agree to allow the paper to move its registration elsewhere.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:33 AM |

September 27, 2008

Xu Jinglei guest edits Wallpaper.com

Wallpaper.com has invited actress / director / blogger Xu Jinglei their website this month.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:11 PM |

Fake tiger photographer gets 2 years in jail

From The China Daily:

Zhou Zhenglong, the farmer who shocked the country with his fake photo of the endangered South China tiger, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Saturday in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The Xunyang County People's Court also fined him 2,000 yuan (about 292 U.S. dollars) after convicting him of fraud.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:06 PM |

Wedding noodles

Instant noodles served at a wedding banquet held at a Liuzhou hotel whose kitchen was shut down by the health authorities.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:55 PM |

Netease fixes public opinion poll

Wen Jiabao's approval ratings mysteriously jump.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:25 PM |

A non-existent agency supplies the government with food

Does the State Council Party and State Organizations Special Food Supply Center exist? Netizens debate. CDT translates (earlier).

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:28 AM |

Takeover possible for tainted milk producer

The China Daily reports that Sanlu, the dairy at the heart of the melamine milk scandal, may be acquired by Sanyuan:

Hebei's provincial State-owned asset supervision and administration department has reportedly started clearing Sanlu's assets. It is also looking for another company to take over Sanlu so that its 30,000 workers are not left jobless, China Securities Journal reported on Friday.

Shares of Shanghai-listed Beijing Sanyuan Food, a major dairy producer, were suspended on Friday as it reportedly received a government notice to consider a Sanlu merger plan. The suspension will continue until a decision is made, according to a company announcement.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:53 AM |

September 26, 2008

Subway security measures extended indefinitely

Beijing will remain the only city in the world to have security checks along the entire length of its subway system, reports The Beijinger Blog.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:57 PM |

Ripples of the China milk scandal in Africa

At Global Voices Online, Jennifer Brea looks at how bloggers in Africa are closely watching the unfolding milk scandal; Chinese exports to Africa have risen in recent years, and the bloggers raise concerns about inspections.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:51 PM |

Li Jingze speaks on contemporary Chinese literature

Paper Republic republishes an interview that Li Jingze conducted in anticipation of next year's Frankfurt Book Fair, where China will be guest of honor.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:46 PM |

No Way Out: A report on the human cost of China's economic miracle

"A new report by China Labour Bulletin and Canada's Rights and Democracy reveals how the lives of millions of workers were thrown into turmoil during the wholesale, shock therapy-style privatization of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the late 1990s and early 2000s."

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:19 PM |

Xinhua concocts astronaut dialogue

A Xinhua story, released on yesterday then recalled, was datelined September 27 and contained a "transcript" of astronaut chatter during the historic first space walk. The Times includes the story in its report on the launch.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:36 AM |

September 25, 2008

Shenzhou 7 lifts off

Xinhua reports on the start of China's first EVA mission:

Three Chinese taikonauts told the ground control center that they felt "physically sound" in the first few minutes of the flight. "The solar panel has unfolded and we feel well," one of the crew members told the Beijing control center.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:16 PM |

September 24, 2008

Jackie Chan saves East Timor

From Kaiju Shakedown comes the news that Jackie Chan has intervened in a feud between rival martial arts clans to bring peace to the troubled region of Timor-Leste:

So there you have it. Warring martial arts clans, ritual magic associations, street fighting, gang warfare, and Jackie Chan in the middle of it all trying to make peace. It's a better story than almost any of his recent movies.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:48 PM |

Websites guilty of Sanlu cover up?

ESWN has translated a Southern Metropolis Daily story:

As more products were found by the General Administration of Quality Inspection to contain melamine, many of the well-known Chinese makers of milk-related products are trapped in a confidence crisis. At the same time, many mainstream Chinese websites are being questioned about the manner by which they are handling the keywords related to the companies in trouble.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 2:38 PM |

Milk fallout: China's quality regulator resigns

China's chief quality regulator Li Changjiang resigned in the wake of the melamine milk scandal; his unlucky replacement is Wang Yong.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:41 PM |

First Chinese space walk set for Friday

The China Daily reports:

The first Chinese astronaut is likely to walk in space around 4:30 pm on Friday, a day after spacecraft Shenzhou VII lifts off, the commander-in-chief of the mission's ground operation has said.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:04 AM |

September 23, 2008

Please inspect milk as strictly as you censor films

China Digital Times translates a commentary that appeared in the Shanghai Morning Post (新闻晨报) by Liu Yiwei (刘仪伟), a TV host at Shanghai Dragon Satellite Television.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:21 AM |

No roads lead to Starbucks

Josh at Cup of Cha reports that a crosswalk and traffic light, installed in his neighborhood so that Paralympics participants and spectators wouldn't have to climb stairs to cross the road by bridge, have been removed now that the Games have ended.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:01 AM |

An Englishman, Thomas Lipton and tea

An Englishman considers occasional visitor to Shanghai Thomas Lipton, and his tea.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:35 AM |

Milk scandal fallout: China's quality czar resigns

China's chief quality regulator has resigned. The State Council accepted the resignation of Li Changjiang, chief of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and appointed Wang Yong in his place.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:55 AM |

September 22, 2008

Melamine found in White Rabbit candy

From Shanghaiist:

Singapore has now found traces of melamine in White Rabbit candies, wildly popular throughout Asia.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:30 AM |

Triads murder Chinese students in UK?

The Observer reports on police investigations into the murder of two Chinese students in Britain:

Senior officers believe the [Fujian-based] syndicate, which has struck in London, Manchester and the north-east, is targeting Chinese students through online letting agencies...

...Detective Superintendent Steve Wade of Northumbria Police, who is leading the investigation, said: 'We have identified a fairly complex criminal network who are ostensibly targeting Chinese rich kids who are seen as easy pickings and soft targets.'

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:30 AM |

Photoshop parodies of milk ads

ChinaSmack has compiled and translated a bunch of Photoshop parodies of Chinese milk product advertisements that are being circulated on the Internet.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:00 AM |

Exposure anxiety

At Paper Republic, Eric Abrahamsen translates an analysis that ran in Southern Weekly of a review that ran in the New York Times of a translation of some novels.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:29 AM |

September 21, 2008

43 dead in Shenzhen nightclub fire

From The China Daily:

A fire at a club in Shenzhen of south China's Guangdong Province left at least 43 people dead and 88 others injured on Saturday night, local police said...

...The fire broke out at about 11 p.m. at a club, named 'King of the Dancers,' in Longgang District in Shenzhen City, when hundreds of people were watching a performance.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:55 PM |

What's wrong with breast milk?

xiao_wu_fd.jpg
Q&A with bestselling author Xiao Wu: The Chinese media have openly discussed the problems behind the melamine milk powder scandal. But why are Chinese women feeding their babies powdered formula when they have perfectly good breasts?

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:29 PM |

September 20, 2008

Midi delayed again

The Beijinger blog reports that the Midi music festival has been delayed until after the October National Day holiday week:

...just as the organizers were about to receive the long awaited permission from the Chaoyang governent's cultural bureau, during a meeting with officials from the National Olympic Sports Center they were informed that there might be some complications.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 7:27 PM |

SARFT visits UCLA

Kaiju Shakedown reveals that the "next wave of film and television moguls" who attended a 3-week seminar at UCLA were mostly executives from SARFT and CCTV.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:05 PM |

Govt. rescues China's stock markets

From The China Daily:

Stocks spurt at government rescue

Chinese stocks ended three straight days of losses with a sharp rise on Friday after the government stepped in to revive the market, cutting the trading tax and promising share buybacks.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:32 PM |

China becomes first nation to halve poor population?

Xinhua reports:

China halved its impoverished population over the past three decades, according to Huang Yanxin, deputy director of the regulation department under the Ministry of Agriculture.

The accomplishment makes China the first nation to fulfill its objective under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) framework.

'According to China's standards, the number of poor people dropped from 250 million in 1978 to 14.8 million in 2007,' said Huang.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:29 PM |

Ugly Wudi too pretty

By Tania Branigan in The Guardian:

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder - but so, it appears, is ugliness. A Chinese television company seemed to be striking a blow for the unsightly when it announced it would screen its own version of Ugly Betty.

But now 'Ugly Wudi' faces a backlash, with newspapers and internet users complaining that the star of the show is too good-looking for the role.

The story of a smart, kind but defiantly unattractive girl struggling through an appearance-obsessed world has proven international appeal. The Colombian telenovela quickly spawned remakes in Russia, Germany, India and the United States.

Hunan Television's version goes on air next week.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:04 PM |

September 19, 2008

Melamine in Yili, Mengniu and Bright Dairy liquid milk

From The China Daily:

Liquid milk sold by three leading companies is contaminated with melamine, tests showed on Thursday, the day when the number of infant deaths caused by the chemical rose to four.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 3:49 PM |

Clock ticks down on media rules

Tim Johnson writes:

Less than a month from now, we will find out if China will maintain its attitude of greater openness with the foreign media. My bet is that it won't.

At the beginning of the year, China relaxed its rules on the foreign media to fulfill pledges for greater freedoms in the period around the Olympic Games. The measures lapse on Oct. 17.

If the old rules come back into play, this is what it means:

* Reporters will be required again to seek advance permission from the Foreign Ministry for any trip outside of their base, such as Beijing.

* And reporters will no longer be free to interview anyone who agrees to an interview request. Rather, interviews must be vetted by authorities.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 2:38 PM |

Somali pirates hijack Chinese ship

from Xinhua:

Armed Somali pirates hijacked Wednesday a Hong Kong bulk carrier with 25 crew members, 24 of them Chinese, off the Somali coast, the Chinese embassy in Nairob confirmed.

The bulk carrier owned by Sinotrans of Hong Kong was en route from Tunisia to Pipavav, India when it was hijacked off the eastern coast of Somalia, the 14th of such seizure by the pirates in the past two months, said Andrew Mwangura, an coordinator of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP).

Besides the 24 Chinese, a Sri Lankan captain was also on board the vessel that was captured, Mwangura told Xinhua by telephone.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:15 PM |

September 18, 2008

Exposing the Chinese nuclear tests, 1964 - 1996

By Thomas C. Reed on PhysicsToday.org:

For starters, Stillman asked the professor, 'Does the Chinese nuclear weapons program have a prompt burst reactor?' ... Yang's answer: 'Of course.'

Stillman pulled out a map of Sichuan Province. 'Can you show me where it is?' He thought he already knew the answer, but much to his surprise, Yang pointed to a location off in the mountains, a considerable distance west of the known Chinese nuclear weapons facilities.

Stillman fired a third fastball, right over the plate: 'Can you arrange an invitation for me to visit that facility?'

'Certainly,' the professor responded...

Thus began a most remarkable unveiling of the Chinese nuclear weapons program, a deliberate disclosure of its nuclear crown jewels to a central player in the American nuclear intelligence community.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 4:15 PM |

The ethics of Baidu

Silicon Hutong comments on a Register article and an analysis by Music2.0 that explore how Baidu may be directing users away from legitimate MP3 download sites and to its own battery of servers hosting unauthorized digital music..

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:05 PM |

Jack He and the media: running in circles

Xujun Eberlein follows up on the story of Jack He, who recently accused an American TV station of taking his words out of context when it reported that he wanted to return to the US with his daughter, Anna Mae He, whom he had brought back to China following a protracted court battle with her foster family in the US:

Ms. Curling later wrote me again: "The more I think about this now (that you've brought it to my attention again) this guy is definitely a media hog. It just doesn't make sense to me. How he would say that a reporter is mischaracterizing what he said when he was actively asking me to help him find work in the US. It just doesn't jive."

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:47 AM |

Melamine milk: 6,244 babies sick, 3 dead

from The China Daily:

Three babies are now dead after drinking melamine-contaminated milk powder, China's Minister of Health Chen Zhu said here on Wednesday.

The third fatality occurred in southeastern Zhejiang Province.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:52 AM |

September 17, 2008

Classic Chinese TV commercials

JDM080917chow.jpg
Ads from the 80s and 90s that fan feelings of nostalgia, featuring the Yanwu kid, Chow Yun-fat, telephone infomercials, and the comic and inspirational sides of Jackie Chan.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:38 PM |

2563mg melamine per kg of Sanlu formula

Sun Bin suggests that the sheer quantity of melamine in Sanlu milk means that unlike the other 21 dairies implicated in the scandal, it added melamine itself during the production process.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:04 AM |

Chinese space walker

From BBC journalist James Reynolds' blog:

1.3 billion Chinese people walk on the earth. In a few days time, one of them will walk in space.

Chinese space shuttle Shenzhou VI launch in 2005Unofficial reports on Chinese websites say that China has chosen Zhai Zhigang, a 42-year-old fighter pilot, as this country's first space walker.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:04 AM |

September 16, 2008

Imagethief on Sanlu crisis

PR professional and blogger Imagethief examines the Sanlu melamine milk crisis.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:23 PM |

A catalogue of Chinese car clones

Monsterauto.ca has compiled a list with photographs of six new Chinese car models that appear to be clones of Mercedes Benz' Smart, BMW X5, Mini Cooper, Toyota's Scion XB, Mercedes Benz CLK and Hummer.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:21 AM |

First two arrests in Sanlu melamine milk probe

From The China Daily:

Two brothers who sold about 3 tons of fresh milk to the Sanlu Group a day were arrested in Hebei province on Sunday because their product was adulterated.

Sanlu, a leading baby milk food producer, is in the grip of a scandal after its contaminated products have caused the death of two infants. Altogether, 1,253 infants across the country have been diagnosed with the ailment after drinking Sanlu milk.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:32 AM |

September 15, 2008

Beijing SARS mayor, now Shanxi governor resigns after deadly mudslide

The China Daily:

Meng Xuenong, governor of north China's Shanxi Province, resigned from his post Sunday in the wake of the deadly mud-rock flow that had killed 254 people by Saturday night...

...Meng Xuenong, born in August 1949, is a native of Penglai, east China's Shandong Province.

He was elected mayor of Beijing in January 2003 and was removed from the post for failing to respond properly to SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis in April the same year.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 7:33 AM |

Very yellow very violent pushups

At Global Voices, Oiwan Lam has posted a video with the transcript and translation of a spoof song that lists the Chinese Internet buzz words of 2008, such as very yellow, very violent (很黄很暴力), just here to buy soy sauce (打醬油), and doing pushups (俯臥撐).

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 7:11 AM |

September 14, 2008

Idealism in Gansu

James Fallows writes about a program started by two Taiwanese tech businessmen to bring the Internet and the outside world to remote villages -- 'the most touching and quixotic enterprise I have seen in China--one that my wife and I felt moved to support after seeing its effects in rural schools.'

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:08 AM |

Emergency response to melamine milk

Xinhua reports:

China's State Council, the Cabinet, has started the first-class national food safety emergency response to deal with the tainted Sanlu milk powder incident that has caused kidney stones in at least 432 babies.

The State Council has set up a national leading group comprising officials from the Health Ministry, the quality watchdog and local governments for the incident.

A preliminary investigation has confirmed the Sanlu baby milk powder contaminated by melamine was the cause of kidney stones in infants, said an official statement released here Saturday evening.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:52 AM |

September 12, 2008

N. Korea complains, Chinese book banned

ye_yonglie.jpg
Popular author Ye Yonglie visited North Korea (DPRK) and wrote a book about it, published in March. It was immediately popular but was soon pulled from bookstores because the DPRK complained.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:31 PM |

5.5 earthquake in Sichuan: no casualties

From Xinhua:

An aftershock measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale hit western China at 1:38 a.m. Friday, the National Seismograph Network Center said.

The quake struck an area at 32.9 degrees north latitude and 105.6 degrees east longitude. The depth of the epicenter is about 6 km.

The area joins Qingchuan County of Guangyuan City in southwestern Sichuan Province, Wudu District of Longnan City of northwestern Gansu Province, and Ningqiang County of Hanzhong City of northwestern Shaanxi Province.

No casualties have been reported.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:01 AM |

September 11, 2008

128 dead in mudslide

AP reports the death toll from the mudslide in Shanxi province's Xiangfen County:

At least 128 people were killed and many more were feared dead in north China after a huge reservoir of iron ore waste, illegally maintained and turned to sludge by heavy rain, buried a bustling marketplace in tons of suffocating mud.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:53 AM |

September 10, 2008

A few thoughts on China's new "e-waste" law

Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap comments on the new e-scrap regulations approved by the State Council last month:

If the subsidy is paid out uniformly, then - theoretically - the illegal workshops will slowly close in favor of the legal ones, if only because they no longer can compete for domestically generated e-waste. Of course, there's quite a bit of "theoretically" in there (theoretically: the money will be enough; there's enough political backing to continue paying it out for years; corruption won't seep into the distribution; local governments will finally abide, etc.). But what's encouraging here - what's really, truly encouraging - is that the central government is going to commit serious money to combating this very serious problem - and not just talk.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:35 PM |

Tang Wei goes Hong Kong

Tang Wei, the Lust, Caution star who was blacklisted on the mainland by state regulators, has resurfaced in Hong Kong with a new passport and a new film role, Kaiju Shakedown reports.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 7:44 PM |

Free market economists urge post-Olympics social and political reforms

Is China's political and economic system the best in human history? Some well-known economists made that claim recently; John Kennedy at Global Voices Online translates a refutation circulating online.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:47 AM |

Blade Runner wins Paralympics 100m sprint

South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, nick named the 'Blade Runner' won the Paralympics 100 meter sprint yesterday in 11.7 seconds, beating Jerome Singleton of the United States.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:13 AM |

September 9, 2008

"I prefer to write stories that no one else is writing"

China Digital Times talks to Philip Pan, author of the new book Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China:

As a foreign journalist working in China, it can often be difficult to get people to open up to you. I met most of the characters in the book through the course of my reporting for the Washington Post, and as I spent time with them, they came to trust me. It's the way good journalism works anywhere. In the end, most of the individuals I chose to write about in the book were eager to share their stories, sometimes at great risk to themselves, and usually for a simple reason -- they wanted the world to understand their country better.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:20 AM |

How to report Hong Kong's election

Black and White Cat shows how CCTV's Network News reported on the Hong Kong Legco elections: all the details you could ask for about the vote itself, but nothing about the candidates or the results.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:54 AM |

September 8, 2008

Starting up a school in China

At the MKL blog, Ken Hayes presents a multi-part guide for foreigners seeking to open up schools in China. From Part II, "Choosing a Partner":

The first years are a money pit and the school requires constant nursing and attention. Many Chinese businessmen don't have the patience for a school as an investment. And why would they? Money spent on a school could be put into a "Crazy Money from the Sky" venture with near-immediate potential returns. So, in an irrational market, their rational decision is to focus on investments with rapid returns.

Part I is here; future installments to come. via China Law Blog, which adds some interesting commentary.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:44 AM |

China's first spacewalk set for September

Xinhua reports:

China's manned spacecraft Shenzhou-7 will be launched at an appropriate time between Sept. 25 and 30 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern Gansu Province, a spokesman said here on Saturday...

...When Shenzhou-7 enters its orbit, one of the three taikonauts will conduct a space walk, said Zhao Changxi, a senior scientist with the project, earlier.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:16 AM |

September 7, 2008

Not fit to print in Tianjin

Joel at China Hope Live shows what he had to cut out of a column for the city's English-language expat magazine.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:09 PM |

Sleeping Chinese

Napping in China - a photo gallery. This has apparently been around for a while, but we just noticed it in a link from Chinglish.de.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:01 AM |

Paralympics open in Beijing

The Guardian reports on last night's colorful opening ceremony:

A rainbow army of figures in full head-and-body rubber suits swept in, waving and smiling, to launch a lower key, but more human, show than the spectacle - overseen by renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou - which opened the Olympics last month. The crowd roared its approval at the lavish performance, also staged by Zhang, which featured the incorporation of sign language into dance.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:10 AM |

September 5, 2008

True or false? A fugitive sergeant's diary

After accusing the authorites of corruption, police officer Yang Xiaodong kept a diary while he went on the run. At Global Voices Online, Meng Zhang looks the online conversation surrounding Yang's diary post, and suspicions that it might be a fake.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:26 PM |

China trumps Western companies, gets $3 billion oil deal in Iraq

From The Wall Street Journal:

China clinched a deal to develop an oil field in southeastern Iraq, marking the first major foreign oil contract struck with the Iraqi government since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The agreement, which revives a deal struck between Beijing and the Saddam Hussein regime, calls for an investment of about $3 billion. But the development agreement is a limited, technical-services contract, far less lucrative that the accord originally envisioned in a 1997 deal between Baghdad and China National Petroleum Co.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:18 AM |

Uighur-Online returns

Buxi at Fool's Mountain reports that the Xinjiang-based BBS Uighur-Online, which was shut down in May, has reopened now that the Olympics have passed.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:38 AM |

September 4, 2008

A migrant worker in the legislature

JDM080904huxiaoyan.jpg
Hu Xiaoyan, one of three "migrant worker representatives" at this year's NPC, receives constant SMS messages accusing her of being opportunistic, self-promoting, and out of touch with the workers she is supposed to represent.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:48 PM |

Mine explosion in Liaoning

A gas explosion at a coal mine in Fuxin, Liaoning Province has killed 23 people, Xinhua reports. Via AFP.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:31 PM |

On railways and history and the railroading of history

Construction on a high-speed railway near Nanjing uncovered a wealth of artifacts dating back several millennia, which the construction company simply plowed on through. The Telegraph explains. via The Granite Studio

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:17 PM |

Behind the Wu Jinglian spy case

ESWN translates a Caijing investigation into the origins of the online reports that economics Wu Jinglian was an American spy:

When the Caijing reporter asked Boxun whether they contacted Wu Jinglian or other relevant persons before publishing the story, this person said that they didn't have Wu Jinglian's phone number and "since we had no way to verify the story, we decided to publish it first."

As for the reader who sent in the tip, the Boxun person said that they have no clue because the website uses an anonymous IP system. They do not know the identity of the tipster nor even the location of that person. Nevertheless, the Boxun report on August 28 cited "an informed mainland person" as the source.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:27 AM |

September 3, 2008

North Korea now a tourist destination

The BBC reports that Chinese tourists will be permitted to take tours in the DPRK. They're currently only permitted to take short day-trips:

The decision means Chinese travel agencies will be able to organise and promote tourism in the largely closed, reclusive neighbour and ally.

North Korean tourism agencies will also be allowed to open offices in the north-eastern Chinese city of Shenyang.

The move could help North Korea recover from a recent loss of South Korean tourist revenues.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:45 PM |

Artists as sociological researchers

China Daily profiles two current exhibitions of documentary art: Zhou Litai and Li Yifan's "Microscopic Narration", featuring legal documents and interviews, and Qiu Zhijie's Project of Suicide Intervention on the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:28 PM |

Coke to buy juice maker

Reuters reports that Coca-Cola will buy Huiyuan, the leader in China's pure juice market:

Coca-Cola dominates the Chinese diluted-juice market and hopes to make inroads into the pure-juice sector, analysts say.

"Coca-Cola is looking to tap the pure juice market where Huiyuan is the market leader," said Emma Liu, an analyst with Nomura Securities.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:59 PM |

New mothers lack breast milk

A translation of a Southern Daily article that reports that nine out of ten new mothers don't have enough breast milk to feed their babies, due to dieting and anxiety about their figures.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:27 AM |

September 2, 2008

What can China learn from the Jews

At Frog in a Well, Alan Baumler comments on an interview with Lydia Liu that ran in Oriental Outlook magazine:

Liu throws cold water on the idea that the "foreigner problem" (i.e. the fact that foreign media often publish things about China that sound like they did not come from Xinhua) is caused by foreigners having not been to China and not knowing Chinese. Liu doubts that a trip to China will make foreigners see the danger of "hurting the feelings of the Chinese people" the way 'China' does.

I suspect as a scholar she found it rather difficult to fit her ideas into the interview, but I did find it odd that when she was asked how China could respond to accounts in Western media she suggesting taking a page from the Jews.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:46 PM |

Finish this cup of tea and go home

Chiang Ching is a Sweden-based performance artist who directed the recent play Tea. Because she shares a Chinese name with Jiang Qing, the infamous Gang of Four member, her name was deemed to sensitive to be put on posters during the Olympics. ESWN translates her account of bureaucratic madness.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:46 AM |

September 1, 2008

NIMBY protests return to Beijing

Jonathan Watts in The Observer:

In a sign that the Olympics feelgood factor has already begun to evaporate, protesters took to the streets of Beijing yesterday in an escalating campaign against the city's biggest dump site, which they claimed was polluting the air with a foul stench and dangerous dioxins.

Wearing surgical masks and carrying umbrellas, the mostly young, middle-class campaigners blocked roads, chanted anti-pollution slogans and refused to allow rubbish trucks to pass as dozens of police filmed them and appealed for calm.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 3:48 PM |

London's ambivalent Olympics

Adam Minter:

I spent most of the last week in London and didn't see one London 2012 Olympic concession. Not one. Not even a concession parked in the back of some other kind of concession. This afternoon I wandered into London Heathrow's duty-free sporting good shop, but they just shook their heads when I asked. I then wandered over to the duty-free British knick-knack shop, and the shop clerk looked at me like I was nuts. 'A little early for that, don't you think?'

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:57 AM |

32 dead in Sichuan earthquake

From The China Daily:

Thirty-two people have died, more than 400 injured and over 100,000 homes destroyed or damaged after an earthquake hit Sichuan and Yunnan provinces around 4:30 pm on Saturday.

The epicenter of the 6.1-magnitude quake, which has affected 500,000 people, was about 30 km southeast of Panzhihua city, near the Sichuan-Yunnan border, the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) said.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:37 AM |