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November 22, 2008

In a toxic era, a Hangzhou restaurant pursues purity

From The New Yorker:

Dai [Jianjun] is the owner of the Dragon Well Manor, a restaurant in Hangzhou, the provincial capital. In an age of industrialization, dire pollution, and frequent food scares, the Dragon Well Manor is committed to offering its guests a kind of prelapsarian Chinese cuisine. Dai assures them that everything he serves will be made from natural ingredients, untainted by pesticides or melamine, and with no added MSG.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:33 PM |

Numbers numbers numbers

At a news conference on preparations for the winter in the quake zone, Wei Hong, executive vice governor of Sichuan, gave the student death toll as 19,065 -- nearly a quarter of the total death count -- a figure that was immediately quoted in stories by Chinese state-run and foreign news services.

However, as the LA Times and IHT report, this figure was swiftly retracted. Questions abound.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:24 AM |

November 21, 2008

Who cares about maps?

The dismal state of domestic map collection. Also, two books by map enthusiast Yang Lang explore the joy of maps.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:21 PM |

You just want us to look bad

In the days before he directed lumbering epics, Zhang Yimou used to be criticized for giving foreign audiences the impression that China was dirty and backward. At New Matilda, Dan Edwards examines the touchy reaction domestic audiences have had to a number of more recent films about China.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:27 PM |

Nationalized Chinese football?

The General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) and the Chinese Football Association (CFA) are currently considering taking back the ownership of football clubs from companies to local sports bureaus, a move clearly trying to put Chinese football under its controversial juguo or whole-nation sports regime.

From China Sports Review.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:03 AM |

Step Brothers has poor agricultural credit

Szechuan Vultures presents some back-translated English-language subtitles from a Chinese edition of the movie Step Brothers.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:59 AM |

Imagining the present: Marjorie Liu's China

Shanghai Scrap interviews author Marjorie Liu:

In the interview which follows, Marjorie makes it clear that she's not writing "China novels." At the same time, though, she is happy to note that many - if not most? - of her books have varying degrees of China content, ranging from entire set-ups and narrative lines, to simple details about clothing and accents. On a deeper level, she admits to being inspired by Chinese literature (among many other sources of inspiration), and - in the case of her most recently published novel, The Iron Hunt - by a quote from Lu Xun.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:56 AM |

November 20, 2008

Baidu's grudging response to ad criticism

ESWN translates two Southern Metropolis Daily articles showing that in response to media allegations that Baidu accepted sponsored links from dodgy medical providers, it pulled the links in question, but continued to display ads from unlicensed companies related to other search terms.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:29 PM |

Catch that Pepsi spirit

The China Beat interviews Kelly Hammond about a Pepsi commercial shot in Xinjiang that brought together different Chinese ethnic groups and various nationalities of expats:

The shoot also brought the concept of national identity to the foreground by questioning some of our basic assumptions about what it means to be part of a nation. If, as people noted, the Uyghurs made convincing Mexicans when they were adorned with the accoutrements of some stereotypical construction of Mexico, what does this mean for the way that we build so many of our assumptions about ethnicity ethnic minorities and the nation?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:10 AM |

FDA opens office in Beijing

The US Food and Drug Administration has opened an office in Beijing, the first of three in China, the LA Times reports:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt told a gathering of Chinese product manufacturers here that the U.S. hopes to work with China as part of a global product-safety strategy that would eventually involve opening similar inspection offices in India, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

"This is not about China and the U.S.," Leavitt said. "This is about a response to a large shift in global trading patterns. We have to invent solutions to problems that didn't exist 15 years ago."

More at All Roads Lead to China.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:50 AM |

November 19, 2008

Translation magazine shuts down

Translations magazine (译文), which announced in April that it would close before year-end, has published its last issue, Zhongnanhai blog reports.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:16 PM |

Gov't tricked into blowing up its offices

JDM081119blowup.jpg
Officials in Hohhot were easily convinced when Wang brought up his plan of building western China's tallest building in Hohhot. The officials promised to help him in any way they could, including blowing up their own offices.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:31 PM |

Zhang Huichong, the magic man

The Chinese Mirror looks at the life of Zhang Huichong, a silent film star who became a famous stage magician:

Cantonese speakers faced bleak movie prospects with the coming of sound, so Zhang Huichong decided it was time for a career change. Reverting to his first love - magic - he formed a performance troupe to tour South China staging magic acts. After a successful run in several Chinese cities, Zhang decided to chance taking the show to Jakarta, where there was a sizable Chinese populace. When the company opened in Jakarta, the demand for tickets overwhelmed the box office, and it was reported the crowd outside the theater was so thick it blocked all traffic on the street. With this encouragement, Zhang took the company, more than 20 people, on a tour of Southeast Asia, drawing packed houses in Singapore and other cities.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:56 AM |

China's auto industry seeks bailout

The New York Times reports that Chinese automakers are following their American counterparts in looking for government assistance during a market downturn:

This autumn, after six years of 20 percent or more annual growth, vehicle sales were flat or slightly negative, a shock to an industry that has borrowed heavily to build ever more factories for a market that had once seemed insatiable.

Citing the $25 billion in loans that Congress has already approved to help American automakers increase green research, and the additional $25 billion in loans the American industry is seeking this week to cope with a hobbled economy, Chinese executives are now telling the government here that they also need emergency measures. They are seeking lower taxes on new cars, lower fuel prices and increased grants for research into hybrid cars and new technology.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:30 AM |

November 18, 2008

Interview with Zafka Zhang

An interview by 56minus1 of Zafka Zhang, co-founder of China Youthology.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:02 PM |

China should learn from 1998

An editorial from The Economic Observer about China's 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus package:

External demand and investment cannot be a lasting solution for China, just as loan-backed, high consumption was unsustainable for the US. There has been a consensus that China should transform its growth pattern and rely on domestic consumption, but many people tend to deny the costs of such a transformation, or they weren't actually willing to bear the costs.

By comparison, a RMB 4 trillion investment plan would be more effective. Indeed, it gives first-aid to the economy and restores confidence in the public, and policy-makers are praised for their resolute decisions. However, we hope this plan results in more than two years of steady growth, though it is the most urgent thing to do at this moment.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:29 PM |

Bank of America ups stake in Construction Bank

The Wall Street Journal reports that, contrary to speculation that Bank of America might pull out of the China Construction Bank to deal with its US financial woes, BoA is increasing its investment by US$7 billion:

But Bank of America's move to increase its stake in one of China's biggest state-owned lenders is potentially controversial at a time when the Treasury Department is pumping $250 billion into the nation's largest banks, including $15 billion into Bank of America, as a way of boosting lending during a time of crisis.

"I am just wondering if Congress is not going to look at it and say 'you are taking [federal] money and investing it in China,'" said banking analyst Nancy Bush of NAB Research LLC in Annandale, N.J. "Is this necessarily the time to make an investment that is that in-your-face?"

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:28 AM |

November 17, 2008

Hangzhou subway tunnel collapse kills 5

Xinhua reports that five workers have been killed and another 16 are still missing from Sunday's cave-in in a subway tunnel:

"There is a slim chance for the trapped workers to survive, because of heavy flooding, " said Wang. Water from a nearby river rushed into the tunnel, rising as high as 6m at one point.

The incident happened at 3:20 p.m. when a 75-m section of a tunnel under construction collapsed in Xiaoshan District, trapping about 50 workers and 11 vehicles. The cause of the collapse is being investigated.

Most of the trapped workers were saved. At last count, the number of injured was 24, all of whom were initially hospitalized. Eleven of the injured have been discharged.

Peijin Chen notes that the problems may have been identified a month ago.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:53 PM |

Yanhuang Chunqiu faces reorg

Yanhuang Chunqiu, a periodically-controversial political journal for retired cadres, is rumored to be facing a personnel shakeup. ESWN translates from Yazhou Zhoukan:

Organizationally, Yanhuang Chunqiu is under the Yanhuang Cultural Research Association, which is underneath the Ministry of Culture. The Ministry of Culture has suggested to Yanhuang Chunqiu that its publisher, deputy publisher, secretary general and the editorial committee are too old and should be replaced. However, Yanhuang Chunqiu is not an official magazine, and does not receive a dime from the government towards its operations. Therefore, the government has no right to meddle with personnel issues in as much as it has not right to challenge the age of the boss of a private enterprise.

More from The Age (via AsiaMedia).

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:54 PM |

Murder most foul

The China Beat rounds up some blog posts on the assassination by poison of the Guangxu Emperor.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:58 AM |

Coalfield fires as moneymakers in the carbon economy

Tim Johnson reports for McClatchy about carbon credit trading and underground coal fires:

Hissing and venting near the town of Jimsar, the underground fire at the Shuixi Gou coalfield is thought to be emitting about 423,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year into the atmosphere.

That sum has a value. Carbon credits can be traded under a mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, and markets already have been set up.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:54 AM |

Who gives a damn about Gong Li anyway?

Gong Li's become a citizen of Singapore. Despite what some netizens are saying, this is actually good news, because it inspired a satisfying rant from Imagethief.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:46 AM |

The Age of Openness: China before Mao

French Center for Research on Contemporary China:

Recording of Professor Frank Dikötter talking about his new book on the China's republican era and debating it with his audience. Frank Dikötter argues that the years from 1900 to 1949 were characterised at all levels of society by engagement with the world. Frank Dikötter is a professor of the Modern History of China at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Chair Professor of Humanities at the University of Hong Kong.

Posted by Eric Mu at 11:04 AM |

November 16, 2008

Guilt by blog and the trouble with China's universities

China Media Project:

As the internet has grown rapidly in China in recent years, there has been an attendant upsurge in cases where ordinary citizens (公民), or 'netizens' (网民), are arrested, jailed or otherwise punished for things they dared to write. The latest case to have Web users up in arms involves the alleged sacking of a substitute professor at Hubei University for Nationalities after the teacher wrote an entry on his personal weblog criticizing the school's anniversary celebrations.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 4:58 PM |