Cankao Xiaoxi hoaxed by spoof story
Cankao Xiaoxi (or Reference News), a digest of international media in translation, ran with a spoof story about poor migrant bankers in China and misattributed it to a reputable German media outlet.
« November 30, 2008 - December 6, 2008 | Main | December 14, 2008 - December 20, 2008 »
December 13, 2008
Destination is a double-edged sword
Samantha Deng is a Harvard student studying abroad in Beijing. Inside-Out China posts her look at Destination, a popular gay nightclub in the city.
Departing from The East is Red at 10:31
bezdomny ex patria picks up the story of an unusual train ticket.
A cold winter after the quake
At China Dialogue, Tang Hao examines the housing situation in quake-affected areas as winter weather approaches:
Two months later, the rows of white tents had disappeared. It first appeared like everyone had been provided with better housing, but the locals told a different story. In order to keep a promise that everyone in Yingxiu would be provided with prefabricated homes, officials had simply moved the tents and their residents into the mountains. Sure enough, I saw the tents off in the mountains: the area was not safe, with mudslides during heavy rain. Residents and relief workers wore helmets as they walked around. The temperatures up there were even lower, and it will be even worse in winter.
December 12, 2008
China's navy to defend against Somalian pirates?
From The China Daily:
Chinese military strategists and international relations experts are debating whether China should dispatch its navy to the troubled waters off Somalia.
The debate was first kicked off by Major-General Jin Yinan of the National Defense University, when he told a radio station last week that 'nobody should be shocked' if the Chinese government one day decides to send navy ships to deal with the pirates.
Chinese viral brand videos
51minus1 features five recent viral brand videos. Bruce Lee! Fake Liu Xiang! An illegally-parked Chevy Captiva drives off pulling the tow truck behind it!
An American who knows China
Tim Johnson posts part of an email conversation he had with Sidney Rittenberg about life in Yan'an:
Yanan is now a grungy commercial city of two million, and the historic sites are shoved behind and under the shadow of everything else. They should have made the whole district a museum park, and put their commercial center outside of that. Not only that -- the two caves where Mao lived are labeled all wrong, the historical incidents they mentioned and even the times during which he lived there are wrong. And the one building standing when I got to Yanan in 1946 -- the Party Meeting Hall has been totally redesigned and rebuilt, in spite of which they swear that it remains unchanged.
A map of hurt feelings
France has hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. How many other countries have done so over the past few decades? Chinese bloggers investigate.
Top keywords for 2008
ESWN translates Hecaitou's comments on the top ten search terms of 2008 (he doesn't indicate where the list comes from):
In 2008, we searched for "Beijing Olympics." All the sorrows and hardship of the year seems to be waiting for the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At 8:08pm that evening, we received the long-awaited answer. Will the world admire us? Will our efforts over several decades finally be realized? Does this mean that we can finally say to the world: We can do it too! It took only one minute for the footsteps created by the fireworks to traverse Beijing. But we had already walked many years just for this moment. Beijing is a city with 10 million residents. But it is still far too small for the Olympics. Thus, we needed the power of the Internet to witness this historical moment, to learn to sing the Olympic theme song and to figure out why Liu Xiang withdrew from his race.
Also, China Journal comments on Google's year-end roundup of Chinese search terms.
Preparations underway for China's 60th birthday blowout
Ten months ahead of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, Beijing has already started preparations. The Zhongnanhai blog translates an article from the Beijing Evening News:
While the parade is still ten months away, an official with the Ministry of Defense confirms preparations have already started. According to other sources, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China will be the largest-scale ceremony since the founding itself. It will apparently showcase the military and economic power of China.
A Manchu school museum
At the Echoes of Manchu blog, Randy Alexander describes a visit to a school in Sanjiazi, where he spoke with a Manchu teacher.
December 11, 2008
China stops external purchase of planes
China Herald writes about a La Tribune report on how the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is urging state-owned airlines not to purchase foreign-made airplanes in 2009, echoing recent concerns about the financial crisis in China's aviation sector:
Both Airbus and Boeing will suffer from the effort that should reduce China's foreign debt (although the country still a a bit of a trade deficit).
Today Xinhua via China.org.cn announced the plan to halt or cancel plane purchase from abroad, link here.
Also, earlier Danwei linked to China's first domestically produced jetliner, the ARJ-21.
China's exports drop 2.2% imports drop 17.9%
From The China Daily:
Exports and foreign direct investment (FDI) both fell in November because of shrinking demand overseas, sending fresh signs of economic weakness and prompting calls for more measures to bolster the economy.
Exports dropped 2.2 percent to $114.99 billion last month, the first monthly decline in seven years, Customs authorities said Wednesday. And FDI fell 36.52 percent year-on-year to $5.3 billion, the Ministry of Commerce said.
But the country's trade surplus soared to a record $40.09 billion in November despite a fall in exports because imports fell, too, by 17.9 percent year-on-year after having risen 15.6 percent in October.
"It was like hitting the jackpot"
The man who found a sack of documents detailing a costly "government inspection tour" to Las Vegas and other entertainment spots explains why he, as a taxpayer, felt compelled to release the information online. ESWN translates the Information Times interview.
December 10, 2008
A boycott is a good excuse for a cheap boyfriend
Boycott French goods? Global Voices translates a number of online reactions, include a snarky response from Han Han.
"Change is no longer optional"
For the upcoming issue of the New York Review of Books, Perry Link translates the 08 Charter, a document signed by 303 Chinese intellectuals that "offers a strong critique of the government's 'disastrous' denigration of values such as freedom, equality, and human rights" (via China Journal).
A Beijing protest
From the WSJ China Journal: on International Human Rights Day protesters gather outside the foreign ministry in Beijing.
Ministry officials handed out forms to the protesters and asked them to fill in details of their grievances. But the forms weren't returned to the ministry later. Instead, many protesters handed them over to reporters at the scene thinking that would be a better bet for getting some attention.
The implications of "Tianxia" as a new world system
At the USC US-China Institute, Lelise Gobena discusses a lecture by William Callahan that examines CASS professor Zhao Tingyang's "Tianxia system":
Geographically, Zhao argues that tianxia is more than a physical place, but a way to think of the world which does not automatically begin from a national perspective. Psychologically, Zhao links the concept of tianxia as pertaining to "all the people" in which there is no such thing as an "outsider" because China's process of thought does not reject the "other." According to Callahan, Zhao says Chinese cultural unity is the opposite of the Western approaches which divide the world's peoples by race. Ultimately, Zhao contends that tianxia is about transformation: transforming enemies into friends and many into one.
Write like a champion
Scott Dreyer, an American high-school teacher in Roanoke, Virginia, hit the bestseller charts in Taiwan with a guide to better English writing:
Back home, Dreyer spent the next few months writing. Liao, who became his co-author, would e-mail him student essays, and Dreyer would correct the grammar and give advice about writing effectively in English. Liao would then translate that advice into Mandarin for the bilingual textbook.
...
Today, the book is a sleek 256 pages, with a photo of Dreyer's oversized smiling face on the cover, making him look like a bobble-head doll.
Taiyuan police arrest CCTV reporter in Beijing
Police from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, arrested a CCTV reporter for accepting bribes. The reporter had been investigating allegations of abuse of power on the part of a district prosecutor's office in Taiyuan, the same office that dispatched the police to arrest her.
China: Carpe Diem!
At the Asia Times, Alex Merk has some advice for China amid current global economic uncertainties:
China can learn from these mistakes, but has no time to lose. Demand destruction in China is working its way through the economy there as well. The window for Chinese policy makers to lift the spirit of workers is closing fast: the holiday based on the Lunar New Year, falling in 2009 on January 26, is an opportunity for workers to reunite with their family and friends; during those days, the mood of the country will be set for the year. Right now, stagnating wages, job losses and the bleak US economy will dominate the dinner-table discussions. Consumer spending in China has continued to hold up year over year, but there is a seriously accelerating slowdown under way. Far more effective than a spending program on infrastructure is a program to lift the spirit of Chinese consumers.
Doing this is not best done by providing access to credit, but by giving the country a vision.
New multiplexes planned for China
The Hollywood Reporter reports that former executives of Warner Brothers' failed cinema venture have formed a new company to build more theaters in China:
The deal has APEX, which has offices in Beijing, and EPT -- owner of 80 North American megplexes -- planning luxury movie theaters in China's major cities "in conjunction with their joint venture with the largest entertainment company in China," the companies said.
...
APEX and EPT said their China cinemas would boast wall-to-wall screens, improved sightlines, outstanding sound and projection systems, modern decor and "unparalleled customer service."
December 9, 2008
I am sorry, but I am not boycotting French goods
At Fool's Mountain, DJ translates an op-ed by Liao Baoping that ran in the China Youth Daily and has been featured in online opinion round-ups.
More on the response generated by Liao's article is at ESWN.
Dead man talking
At The China Beat Zhang Lijia writes about the execution of Yang Jia and Wo Weihan:
'The real problem with China's legal system is that it's under the Communist party's control,' said Danny Gittings, an academic who specializes in the Chinese legal system at the University of Hong Kong. 'The procuratorate, public security and judiciary are separate organizations but all under the control of the same arm of the Party - the political-legal committees which exist at every level of the state. And there's still no sign of any willingness to address the fundamental problem - the lack of a legal system independent from the state.'
Cross border future for Asian show biz?
From the genYchina blog:
[S]ince 2000, all Asians have been slowly acclimating to cross-cultural, continually-subtitled entertainment products ... you will notice a growing proportion of popular Asian entertainment products whether music, film etc. is produced from concept with cross-border appeal as the main focus.
Plastic packaging for paperbacks
China's publishing industry is at the forefront of making sure that books are free from dust and germs. Even lowly mass-market paperbacks are now coming wrapped in plastic.
China to loan Brazil $10 billion for new oil fields
From AP:
China wants to loan Brazil's state oil company $10 billion to help develop massive new oil fields in deep water off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's top energy official said in comments published Monday.
Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao also told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the United Arab Emirates has offered to finance field development, but he did not specify a price tag.
Majority of billionaires are children of high officials
At Time China Blog, Austin Ramzy summarizes and links to a Global Voices Online translation about social mobility in China. Over 90% of billionaires are the kids of high-level cadres:
The original blogger was savvy enough to put the rich princelings tidbit in the headline, not the last graph like Xinhua. Some commenters were upset that 2,932 of the 3,220 superwealthy were children of officials, but for some the only surprise was that a government mouthpiece would admit the fact.
Kidney thieves on the loose in Shaanxi
Chinese Business View reports on the spread of an urban legend about kidney theft.
'Strike hard' style campaign for food safety
The government has announced a 'four-month nationwide campaign ... to ensure all food products are free of non-edible substances and excessive levels of additives'.
The campaign seems to be organized a little like the frequent 'strike hard' police campaigns against theft, prostitution, drug dealing etc. From The China Daily:
From tomorrow to Jan 10, companies will be asked to conduct self-examination and correction.
From January 11 to March 10, law enforcement officers will raid high-risk food producers or regions, and intensify random checks on markets.
From March 11 to April 10, the focus will be on illegal food-additive producers and cutting off the supply of high-risk non-food substances.
Meat, dairy, brewery and other products rich in protein are high-risk food products, Pu Changcheng, deputy director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said at the conference.
December 8, 2008
Top twenty online pundits
Southern Metropolis Weekly names twenty blogger-pundits. CDT translates the feature's intro:
A whole new world of expression and influencing public opinion has come to China with the spread of the Internet. The Internet provides people in China an unprecedented platform to express themselves, a place that's boundless and centerless, and has brought about an explosion of personal expression.
Traditional elites in the Chinese society can no longer monopolize the power to shape public opinion, as ordinary citizens and anonymous bloggers are becoming more and more influential in online forums and blogs.
One can no longer ignore the boisterous opinions posted on the Internet, because they are powerful enough to bring significant change to the real world.
Wo Weihan convicted of espionage, executed
Global Times, the jingoistic sister newspaper of the People's Daily, ran a cover story on Wo Weihan (沃维汉), who was convicted of espionage and executed last Friday.
A brief history of Shanghai's future
Historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom is the author of the recently published Global Shanghai, 1850-2010. In this essay written for Danwei, he presents a brief history of Shanghai's future, the first of a two part essay based on the themes of the book.
The ups and downs of China's current affairs commentary
China Media Project comments on the changing role of the commentary page in Chinese newspapers:
But press controls have arguably grown stronger in China since 2004, and this is a factor in the development of the commentary too. That may seem counter-intuitive at first, but as the space for news has diminished at China's more dynamic commercial media (and information is increasingly monopolized by "authoritative" state media), the editorial pages have become the refugee camps of professional journalism in China.
Higher fuel taxes
but no rise in pump prices for Chinese consumers
From Xinhua:
China on Saturday gave further explanation on the proposed reform of fuel tax and pricing in a bid to dispel misunderstanding that a higher consumption tax will mean higher pump prices.
The plan, scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, will abolish six fees now charged for road or waterway maintenance and management.
But drivers will pay higher fuel consumption taxes. Gasoline taxes will be raised from 0.2 yuan (about 3 U.S. cents) per liter to 1 yuan and diesel taxes from 0.1 yuan per liter to 0.8 yuan.
The government reiterated its Friday's statement that the pump prices, which include the higher tax, won't be raised and the reform won't increase costs for fuel consumers.
Visiting shoe factories in Guangdong
China Fubar is a blog subtitled 'Life and times on the world's factory floor; random observations from an American expat living in Dongguan'. From a recent post:
... lets just say I was at the Dark Side of Shoemaking...
...Despite the lip service given to human rights, codes of conduct and such, in reality, the main thing Major Customer cares about is getting the shoes in the shortest time possible, and if it means working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so be it. I've seen this now working with 2 companies, so I suspect this is not an isolated deal.
And some new things I've learned from the experience...
...When the boss puts his car up for collateral for a working capital loan, update the resume.
Liu Xiang could return in six months
Star hurdler Liu Xiang, who underwent a three-hour operation on Friday, could resume training in May, Reuters reports:
"The doctor said the rehabilitation needs some six months and we are not trying to rush him back to training," said Liu's long-time coach and mentor Sun Haiping, adding that the 25 year old would remain in Houston to recuperate.
Liu had four pieces of bone removed from the Achilles tendon, including a bone spur between the tendon and the ankle bone which was the cause of his withdrawl before his first-round heat at the Bird's Nest in August.
In China, empty office spaces fill the sky
The Christian Science Monitor reports on vacancies in Shanghai, using the Shanghai World Financial Center as an example:
The SWFC opened in August, having signed up a slate of clients willing to pay for the most prestigious address in Shanghai. A Park Hyatt hotel - the world's tallest - begins at the building's 79th floor with rooms starting from $400.
Among those must-have clients was Lehman Brothers, just weeks away from bankruptcy. Several other international companies have also broken their leases, say property agents. Estimates of the SWFC's occupancy rate range from 20 percent to 40 percent.
Heavy bleeding
As part of Neojaponisme's year-end roundup, Matt Treyvaud looks at Yang Yi's Akutagawa Prize-winning novel, Toki ga nijumu asa:
The hype at the time claimed that Toki dared to explore the soul of modern China: Patriotism! Tiananmen! Diaspora! Mixed emotions regarding Japan! As a Chinese citizen who writes in Japanese, despite it not being her native language, Yang was positioned as naturally hip to such topics and uniquely placed to explain them to a Japanese audience.