Unions and social unrest in 2009
Peter Ford of the Christian Science Monitor talks to Danwei about trade unions, unemployment, and social unrest in China in the coming year.
« December 28, 2008 - January 3, 2009 | Main | January 11, 2009 - January 17, 2009 »
January 9, 2009
Charity gives migrant workers train tickets and cash
From chinaSMACK.com, pictures and comments from a Netease forum that details a charity which has provided trains tickets and money for migrant workers strapped for cash.
China's anti-smut Internet crackdown takes its first victims
Global Voices Online's co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon writes in her blog RConversation:
I just heard from a Chinese friend who works in the web industry. He says the anti-smut crackdown announced on Monday has already taken three victims at the Guangzhou-based web portal, Netease (Wangyi). He says that this morningļ¼ "high ranking officials" were highly angered by some content featured in Netease's entertainment section. They demanded the resignation of three editors responsible.
China adds MSN China to its list of lewd websites
From Xinhua:
China continued its nationwide crackdown on Internet pornography Thursday by releasing a second list of web portals violating the country's Internet regulations.
China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center (CIIRC) said in a statement that all 14 portals named on the list contain content which either go against public morality or harm children's psychological health.
The new list included Microsoft's MSN China. The CIIRC said the portal's movie and community sections contain a large number of lewd pictures.
Beware of fake money
From the China Daily:
Recent media reports said that 100-yuan notes, starting with numbers "HD90", are fake, but their quality is so high that even cash detectors cannot make them out. The central bank denied the reports yesterday.
On Jan 2, the Guangzhou-based Information Times reported that a convenience store owner in Dongguan, Guangdong province, received 15 100-yuan notes starting with figures "HD90" and all of them turned out to be fake.
January 8, 2009
Xinhua Daily calls for democracy
From the Black and White Cat blog, which translates Wang Xiaofeng's blog post on the headlines of the official newspaper for Jiangsu province, the Xinhua Daily before 1949, when the CCP were trying to oust the KMT. The headlines range from "Democracy is the essence of life" to "Freedom of the press is the foundation of democracy."
January 7, 2009
Mt. Changbai suffers from human encroachment
The China Youth Daily reports on commercial development in the virgin forest of the Mt. Changbai Nature Reserve in Jilin Province. Translated/summarized by China.org.cn
Calling any actor
Variety Asia Online's Kaiju Shakedown blog explains the long, involved process of finding a replacement for Edison Chen in the hip-hop movie Jump:
Re-editing and trimming some scenes wasn't enough, however. In October 2008 word popped up that Stephen Fung was going to have to edit Edison out of the movie entirely and the part would be re-cast with either Wu Zun of the band Fahrenheit or with Van Fan, the star of Taiwanese break-out hit flick CAPE NO. 7. However, both actors passed on Edison's leftover role, and even Daniel Wu turned down replacing Edison. With their film mostly shot and the costumes sitting in a warehouse, Star Overseas continued looking for a replacement - any replacement
Chinese art and the credit crunch
Shanghai Eye reposts an article originally written for Art Newspaper that looks at how the financial downturn has affected China's art market:
China's art scene is heavily laced with gossip, exacerbated by art chat websites such as artbaba and heyshihui which spread rumours and facts intermittently. Some big name galleries in Beijing and Shanghai are allegedly closing, or their staff are looking for work elsewhere. Foreign buyers aren't buying, or even worse, have bought paintings and aren't paying their bills, partly due to the collapse of the Euro against China's currency the RMB, one gallerist from a major gallery said on condition of anonymity.
January and February is the season for sexy photos
ESWN translates Hecaitou's blog about Zhang Ziyi's naked beach photos, with animated pictures, also from Hecaitou's blog,
For the next few days, Zhang Ziyi will become the object of condemnation of all the Chinese guys who couldn't find a wife or who could only find an ugly hag. Although it is seldom mentioned among the media or at formal occasions, it is obvious that many people are upset at white men scoring Chinese women.
Websites told to clean up vulgar content
CIIRC has warned nineteen major Chinese websites, including Google, Baidu, QQ, Sina, and Sohu, about vulgar content but did not mention the paparazzi shots of Zhang Ziyi circulating all over the Chinese Internet.
China names 'netizen day' on the anniversary of first e-mail sent from China
Rebecca MacKinnon writes at her blog RConversation:
Wang Xiujun of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's remarks are a good illustration of how the Chinese government is putting an increasing amount of energy into trying to shape and guide the Chinese Internet's development in a "harmonious" direction. She spoke of how, in 2008, Chinese netizens provided support and comfort to disaster victims, and how they showed their patriotism.
Cutting down on "undesirable" content online
The Straits Times (via Asia Media) examines the warnings given to websites about offensive content:
But a senior manager of a leading website in China told The Straits Times yesterday on condition of anonymity that the instructions and warnings were vague.
"They said that some pictures are low-brow and crude. But what is considered 'low-brow', they didn't elaborate," he said. "We are just feeling our way in the dark now and going by intuition, deleting whatever we think might not be deemed proper by the government."
The confusion is not surprising in a vast developing country where social mores differ across regions.
A migrant worker's guide to buying train tickets
From a small town in Xinjiang, the Far West China blog describes the drawn out process of buying a train ticket before the Chinese New Year.
Chinese navy to be in Somali waters for 3 months
From The China Daily:
After successfully carrying out its first escort mission, the Chinese Navy prepares to cover another 11 domestic merchant vessels planning to travel around Somalia this week...
...For the first phase of the escort mission, the fleet will patrol the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters for about three months, followed by possible replacement warships as needed.
January 6, 2009
Beijing woman dies of bird flu
At the English version of Caijing Magazine, an announcement about a woman in Beijing who washed duck entrails at the end of December, and died two weeks later with the H5N1 virus, also known as bird flu.
Rehab for Internet addicts
The Christian Science Monitor looks at a PLA-run Internet addiction treatment program:
As the song "If you're happy and you know it" plays, two web addicts at a time spin around until dizzy, then try to race each other across the room. Later, they line up in pairs to pop pink balloons by hugging each other tightly, amid raucous laughter.
Preservation, Shanghai-style, of a Carmelite Convent
Shanghai Scrap observes a demolition:
I've witnessed my fair share of Chinese demolitions, and to me this looked like the gutting of any and all recyclable materials (scrap!) before the wrecking ball. I'll admit, my indignation was rising; my camera was snapping; and I was mentally preparing the accusatory blog post that this crime against history so richly deserves.
But then I backed up and noticed - hanging from the old gate to the Film Studio - was this blueprint...
Update: Shanghai Scrap later found out that the original building was going to be knocked down after all, and replaced with a facsimile:
The person who corrected my understanding of the real "preservation" effort underway at the convent went on to further explain that - all things considered - there's really no alternative. According to this person, there are only "two or three" restoration contractors in Shanghai, and they're simply too busy with residential projects (ie, restorations of historic homes for wealthy buyers) to be doing the convent. And anyway, "they'd probably just hire a - what you call it? - sub-contractor."
French laughing child?
From Bloomberg:
Groupe Danone SA, the world's biggest yogurt maker, and Chinese partner Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. began a hearing this week in Stockholm to decide who owns the $2.4 billion brand Wahaha, which means 'Laughing Child.'
Angry protesters in the south, and timid police
The Shanghaiist links to a NBC video that '...is an otherwise regular report if not for the footage of the angry crowd pushing policemen back when they tried to stop the NBC crew from doing their work.'
Obama's Asia team
Thomas Crampton gives an early peek at Obama's potential Asian team, courtesy of Chris Nelson at Samuels International.
January 5, 2009
So Rock Jesus 2009
So Rock! magazine wishes its readers a Happy Fxxking New Year, snarks at Axl Rose and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mr. Bird Anus, profiles Zhao Lao Da, and throws in a bonus Spookycore album for good measure.
China's highways expect 2.08 billion passengers for Spring Festival
People's Daily Online reports on the 3% year-on-year grown of Spring Festival travelers:
New Year's Day and Spring Festival this year are close to each other so the effects will be especially noticeable; the flow of students going home, migrant rural workers and people who returning home for family reunions will overlap, causing passenger flow peaks to appear earlier than in previous years.
The China economy for foreign companies
China Law Blog conducts a non-scientific poll of foreign businesses in China:
They said that China's downturn had made them look more carefully at their China expansion and hiring plans. They said they were going to be very "cautious" and "careful" in 2009 with respect to expansion and hiring. Many of them (5 or 6?) said they had an "official" hiring freeze in place for the first six months of 2009 or the entire year. Two said they were going to expand faster than anticipated in China because they saw now as the best time to get a jump on their less well-funded rivals. All of them said they had no concrete plans to get out of China, but one worried that the company's overall problems might force an ill-advised China exit. Many of them responded to my question about their leaving China by asking me "and go where?"
January 4, 2009
Human flesh search engines could be hunted themselves
Singapore's Strait Times reports on the supposed government tightening on 'cyber hunts.' China Digital Times first linked to the piece.
10086: We are very sorry
James Reynolds writes in his BBC blog about the text message that apologized on behalf of the 22 dairy companies, and the parents of affected babies who invited foreign media to a press conference:
I went with a colleague to the parents' news conference. Things began badly - the parents we met told us that the police had stopped five of their group from attending.
The Time China blog also reported on the 'milk powder mass mailing.'
Quick loans from Mr. Wang
Chinayouren analyzes SMS spam for high-interest loans, noting that, much like email spam, the text is broken up with punctuation to evade keyword filters.
Blast at illegal fireworks kiln kills 13
The AP reports via the International Herald Tribune about a fireworks accident three weeks before Spring Festival:
An explosion at an illegal fireworks factory in eastern China killed 13 people, state media reported Sunday.
The blast occurred Saturday in an abandoned kiln being used illegally to produce fireworks in the city of Weifang in Shandong province.
Accidents such as this one are common in China, here is a similar fireworks incident that occurred in 2004 in Hunan province.
Happiness in China in 2008
Translated by Black and White Cat, originally from the Netease forum:
What is happiness?
Happiness was 2008
You didn't go to Urumqi for the New Year
You didn't go to Chenzhou in February
You didn't visit Lhasa in March
You didn't go to Shandong in April...
Sorry we poisoned your kid. C U L8R
From The China Daily:
Troubled dairy producer Sanlu Group and 21 other dairy firms implicated in the tainted milk scandal, which sickened nearly 300,000 children in the country, apologized to the public via text messages on the first day of 2009.
'We are deeply sorry for the harm we have brought to children and to society,' the message read. 'We offer our sincere apology and plead for forgiveness.'
See also: Apology by text message by the BBC's James Reynolds, and Milk powder mass mailing by Simon Elegant at the Time China Blog.