Harmonizing the Gulf of Aden
Black and White Cat translates the lyrics to a rousing anthem currently being learned by the crew of three warships headed to combat pirates off the coast of Somalia.
« December 14, 2008 - December 20, 2008 | Main | December 28, 2008 - January 3, 2009 »
December 27, 2008
December 26, 2008
Movie magic in 2008
For the China Daily, Raymond Zhou picks ten enjoyable films of 2008.
We know big news events that keep audiences glued to the tube are not good for the cinema, but we cannot be certain whether an economic downturn will do more good or harm.
Judging by the year-end crowds at the nation's multiplexes, however, people are unfazed by bad news, or perhaps, any news can be turned into a good excuse for spending two hours in a dark hall with hundreds of others.
City Weekend interviews Imagethief
City Weekend's interview of Will Moss about the life of a 'modest' blogger:
Actually reading my own blog, particularly the older posts, can be the source of a little bit of embarrassment. One of the wonderful things about the China blogging community is how much it has grown over the last few years. Some of the blogs that I read regularly are David Wolf's Silcon Hutong. David is an ex-colleague of mine and a very astute analyst of business in China...
When money doesn't buy happiness
For US-China Today, Robson Morgan looks at the relationship between China's economic performance and surveys of public satisfaction.
Melamine found in farm-raised seafood
The Los Angeles Times reports that melamine, previously found in pet food and milk products, is showing up in farm-raised seafood:
...industry experts and businesspeople in China say that melamine has been routinely added to fish and animal feed to artificially boost protein readings. And new research suggests that, unlike in cows and pigs, the edible flesh in fish that have been fed melamine contains residues of the nitrogen-rich substance.
...
More than 15 feed suppliers in various parts of China were contacted for this story. Most of them declined to comment or said they didn't add melamine. But some of them said the practice of spiking feed with it had been going on for at least the last six years, with inspectors checking some types of feed products more tightly than others.
China Law Blog discusses why US companies are hesitant to talk about the issue, and what may have led one US seafood distributor to go on the record.
"Qianmen is a headache"
Soho, Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi's high-profile Beijing real estate development company, has stumbled over its redevelopment of historic Qianmen. The Wall Street Journal explains.
Soho's difficulties with a project in one of Beijing's oldest districts illustrates how even one of China's savviest Western-oriented companies can fall victim to the opacity of the country's real-estate market. Soho said it went into the project hoping to save the old district, known as Qianmen; instead, swaths of historic buildings have been leveled and Soho remains locked out of revenue.
Political change in China
Chinayouren reflects on the implications of "Chаrter 08" now that the media has largely moved on to other topics:
One important difference from past actions is the positive nature of the movement. The Chаrter is not merely a reaction or complaint; it is a statement that stands in its own right. Note, however, one important difference between the line quoted above and those in the classic American and French Declarations: this one is formulated in the negative, "Human Rights are not bestowed by a State". There is still an important element of reaction which will have consequences on the future of the Charter.
December 25, 2008
"Infants" by Egoyan Zheng
Egoyan Zheng, a Taiwan-based writer whose novel Fleeting Light (流光) was on the long-list for the 2007 Man Asia Prize, has posted an English translation of a short story, "Infants" (嬰孩), to his blog. The translation is by Laura Jane Wey, who also translated Fleeting Light.
Writers, scholars and Nobel laureates call for release
At Time China blog, Austin Ramzy notes the latest development on the 08 Charter, with a link to the open letter in question:
A group of writers, scholars and Nobel laureates have signed an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo.
Pawn shops in China lead small business loans
From Bloomberg:
After months of rejection from Beijing banks, Wang Fei got the money to start a dried-fruit business by pledging his apartment to a pawnbroker.
The 25-year-old law-school graduate is following a path taken by a growing number of Chinese entrepreneurs and small businesses. Within days of offering his 90 square meter flat as security, Wang got 400,000 yuan from Baoruitong Pawnshop Co., the nation's biggest pawnbroker.
China's arbitrary capital cases
The Washington Post does an in-depth report on the death penalty in China, with special mention to Wo Weihan, executed for espionage, and Du Yimin, the owner of a beauty salon in Zhejing, who is appealing against her sentence:
Wo told his family he still had confidence in the Chinese justice system. He was executed the next morning, despite a promised second family visit. He died a convicted spy, even though he said he had signed a confession only because security officials promised he would not be prosecuted if he did so.
Earlier this month Danwei translated the Global Times article, Wo Weihan convicted of espionage, executed.
China donates $500,000 to Zimbabwe to fight cholera
From Xinhua:
China donated 500,000 U.S. dollars to Zimbabwe on Tuesday to boost the country's efforts to arrest cholera epidemic which has killed more than 1,000 people since the first outbreak in August.
Speaking at the donation ceremony at the Health Ministry office building in Harare, He Meng, Charge d'Affair of the Chinese Embassy in Harare, said as a long-term friend of Zimbabwe, China shares the concerns of international community over the current cholera situation, and sympathies with Zimbabwean people in their sufferings.
Hebei gas leak kills 17 workers
From the Telegraph: a gas leak in Hebei on Wednesday has already killed 17.
Two workers died instantly from the leak at a blast furnace in Zunhua city, about 93 miles (150 kilometres) east of Beijing in Hebei province, Xinhua said.
Twenty-seven people were also injured but are in stable condition.
The accident occurred at the Ganglu Iron and Steel Co Ltd, Xinhua said, which has 7,000 employees.
Jaime FlorCruz: 37 years in China
Q&A with CNN's Beijing bureau chief, who came to China in 1971 from the Philippines, starting his China career as a laborer on farms and fishing boats.
December 24, 2008
The loneliness of the Chinese birdwatcher
From The Economist, 'a personal account of an exhilarating hunt for the Chinese crested tern, possibly the world's rarest bird'.
The Christmas Eve rape of student Shen
From the Granite Studio:
Around 8:00 p.m. on December 24, 1946, a group of American marines including 23-year old Corporal William Pierson and Private William Pritchard snatched Beijing University student Shen Chong off the streets near Dongdan in Beijing, dragged her to the adjacent Polo Grounds (what is today the Dongdan basketball courts) and raped her.
A haunted house
The Beijinger blog tells the story of No. 81 Chaonei Dajie.
One of his concubines couldn't stand the heartache of losing the official from her life and as a tragic result she hung herself in that very building. Since this day, weird and abnormal things keep occurring; apparently people can still hear someone crying during storms or nights that coincided with a full moon.
The photos were not fake; they were real
ESWN translates the latest developments in the Zhou Zhenlong fake South China tiger photo case. Zhou has since declared that 'the photos are real' in a hand-written note:
On December 20, Zhou Zhenglong to ask Peking Normal University associate professor Liu Liyuan, who is one of his leading supporters, to issue a statement to the media that he is recanting his court confession.
Expat cafe in Kunming bombed
From GoKunming.com:
This morning at 10:30 the bustle of Wenhua Xiang's cafes and restaurants was violently interrupted by an explosion at Salvador's Coffee House.
We have spoken with Salvador's co-owner Colin Flahive several times since the explosion and he has confirmed that the explosion was set off by a man who had entered the restaurant with an explosive device.
Flahive said that none of the staff or customers present at Salvador's this morning were seriously injured and that the man with the explosive device had suffered serious injuries.
RIP John W Powell
At China Rhyming, 'Old China Hand' John W Powell is remembered. JW Powell was the son of JB Powell, who ran the China Weekly Review in the inter-war period. JW Powell restarted the journal, but was more famous for fighting McCarthyism:
One story not noted is that he was actually born in a rickshaw racing through Shanghai taking his mother to hospital - they were late and JW popped out mid-ride...
Guangdong rescue effort fails to find cats
chinaSMACK translates a Mop thread about Guangdong citizens in search of cats that are prey to the dinner table (mostly photos):
While working this afternoon (20 December 2008), I received a telephone call saying that a batch of cats were going to be shipped to Guangzhou, asking everyone to bring cat food, water, etc. and go rescue the cats. Even though we are Guangdong people (Cantonese), we long ago despised those heartless Guangdong people who eat cats, these people having made all of us lose face.
See Danwei's previous post on 'Where do Nanjing's stray cats end up?'
Fang Zhouzi beats lawsuit over super rice
Fang Zhouzi, an anti-fraud crusader who frequently faces lawsuits over his take-no-prisoners approach to combating pseudoscience and chicanery, beat back a lawsuit from CEB Rice, whose specially-engineered, super-expensive rice was branded a fraud by Fang. Eddie Cheng at China's Scientific & Academic Integrity Watch blog summarizes the outcome.
Sanlu declared bankrupt
From Bloomberg:
Sanlu Group Co., the Chinese dairy company closed in September after it sold contaminated infant formula, has been declared bankrupt by a court in the city of Shijiazhuang, partner Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd. said.
A receiver will take over management of the company and has six months to sell its assets and pay creditors, Auckland-based Fonterra said today in a statement. Shijiazhuang is the capital of Hebei province in northeast China where Sanlu is based.
Top novel of the past five years
At Paper Republic, Eric Abrahamsen describes the deliberations over this year's Dangdai Literary Prize, which awarded the "Expert's Book of the Year" prize to Bi Feiyu's Tui Na. Yan Geling's Auntie Duohe, also published this year, was voted as the top novel of the last five years, beating out Wang Gang's Yinglish and Fan Wen's Land of Water and Milk.
Tough goodbye to flimsy bin bags?
At China Dialogue, Li Siqi shows how the ban on flimsy shopping bags has led to the proliferation of low quality garbage bags:
At least bin bags are not free, unlike the plastic shopping bags of the past. But for an increasingly wealthy urban population, the low cost involved does nothing to reduce the bags' use, and to a certain extent they have become a daily necessity. There is no chance they will disappear of their own accord. Sanitation workers are even using them to line public litter bins. In comparison with small shopping bags - which can be supplanted by reusable sacks or baskets -- the use of household rubbish bags is relatively inflexible. And unlike shopping bags, bin bags are only ever used once.
December 23, 2008
Ministry of Defence: considering an aircraft carrier for China?
Malaysian National News Agency reports:
China said Tuesday it is seriously considering building its first aircraft carrier as it prepares to send two warships and a supply vessel to protect Chinese commercial ships in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia...
...
National Defence Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Huang Xueping said at the same media briefing that the Chinese government would seriously consider the relevant issues when asked on having an aircraft carrier.
Not exactly a confirmation, but as close to an admission of intent as you could get from the Ministry of Defence.
Knock off culture and 1,500 yuan cigarettes
A round up of hot forum topics from China.
Happy birthday CCTV
CCTV turned 50 last Saturday. Morning Sun provides a retrospective.
The Internets are full of human meat users
An error by the International Herald Tribune, judging by their definition of the 'human flesh search engine.'
Teacher Gui on 'the big rice pot'
56minus1 talks about (and films) a 93-year-old living in Shanghai, possibly the oldest Chinese teacher to foreign students in China:
Teacher Gui talks about her experiences with customer service in the times of government-assigned jobs and the 'big rice pot,' a cousin of the 'iron rice bowl.' ... Teacher Gui is 93 years old and has been a resident of Shanghai since she was a late teenager.
Milk scandal effect: China to recognize mental distress in tort cases
From The People's Daily:
China's top legislature might add mental distress to conditions covered by the Tort Law to improve civil rights protection, under legislation submitted on Monday.
The long-awaited draft Tort Law, designed to provide compensation for those whose rights are violated, was tabled at the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee for a second reading.
Not simply in opposition
China Digital Times published an extensive interview with Qi Hanting, the founder of Anti-CNN.com, who is no longer with the website:
AC's current readers have decreased a lot. Before I left at the end of April, I was always rethinking one problem; was AC named correctly? The fact that AC had such a great influence was first because 'Anti-CNN' at that time was what many people wanted to say in their minds; the second reason was that the name 'Anti-CNN' was able to get the attention of the western media. However, a website cannot build on the foundation of simply opposing somebody.
Social security number system for China
From Xinhua:
The draft said China would establish a standard social security number system across the nation by using each citizen's current identification card number.
...
Currently, China's social insurance fund is managed by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and its branches in provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
The trading of words
An editorial in The Guardian talks about internet censorship and the importance of trading words as well as goods in China:
China's web community is quite vibrant and inventive, often re-posting content when censors remove it, using technology to view banned sites, or employing analogies or homonymic characters. But they are countered by China's army of technology-savvy censors and spin doctors.
December 22, 2008
President Hu's new catchphrases
Newspaper headlines from President Hu Jintao's speech on December 18 celebrating three decades of China's reform era anticipate next year's popular slogans.
Chinese Labour Corps in WWI
At his blog China Rhyming, Paul French highlights some pictures showing the CLC participating in World War I.
Shantytowns to benefit from government package
The government released details of a real estate stimulus package. From Xinhua:
The document... will solve the housing problem for 7.47 million low-income urban families and 2.4 million households in shantytowns in the next three years. Rural homes in dangerous condition will also be renovated.
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To boost home buying, the government also allows people with 'smaller-than-average' apartments to buy a second apartment under favorable loan terms. Size limits are different in every city.
...
This is the latest in government efforts to prop up the real estate sector.
Hu Yong interviewed by Tianya
ESWN translates an interview of Hu Yong (胡泳), associate professor of Peking University, School of Journalism and Communication, and ex-Lifeweek journalist, who keeps a blog on Sohu and Sina:
At the time, I felt that I could affect many things, I could affect society and I could affect many people through doing this. Today, people may think that I was naive. But whether it was due to the atmosphere at the time or my personal quest, I was certainly moved by this and chose to go into media. After 1989, the whole country went through a huge change and my personal career went through a huge change as well.
Hu Yong (胡泳) blogs on Sohu (more recently updated), and Sina.
Kappa girl arrested for porn
China Daily reports on the popular 'Kappa girl,' who has been detained by the police for spreading online pornography:
The 12-minute video first appeared on the Internet at the end of October under the title 'Kappa girl at Shanghai No 1 Department Store's east building,' in reference to the sportswear shop in which Huang worked.
It soon became one of the most popular downloads on the mainland, with thousands of people downloading it last month...
The Shanghaiist has more on the history of the 'Kappa girl' incident.