Must-read China news by Danwei

At The New Yorker blog, Evan Osnos translates from a "new multimedia project" that documents the real lives of the earthquake victims. Amongst the projects, diaries unearthed from the rubble, and an exhibition on May 12:

The most powerful memorial to the children killed last year in collapsing schools in the Sichuan earthquake is the testament they, themselves, produced.

"Ruins--The Memory of Youth" is a chilling new multimedia project that showcases writing recovered from the rubble of the Beichuan Middle School. Scheduled to open, in Beijing, on Sunday, May 12th, the one-year anniversary of the quake, it includes over a thousand photo-booth headshots, class notebooks, and, most affecting, diary entries.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:04 AM | Permalink

From the James Fallows blog, three recommended articles on Chinese education, two of which are "edgy" ones from China Daily.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 5:44 PM | Permalink

Financial Times journalist Jamil Anderlini was recently in Sichuan, covering post-earthquake Mianzhu. This video shows how an interview with a parent was stopped.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 5:29 PM | Permalink

Qin Gang, who authored the authoritative book on the Tangshan earthquake of '76, writes at the China Media Project about reporting on collapsed schools almost one year ago.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 3:28 PM | Permalink

The Economist reviews Jay Taylor of Harvard University's new biography of Chiang Kai-shek:

In imperial China, overthrown rulers were ill-treated in the official histories written by the dynasty that succeeded them. They were blamed for all the evils that justified the transfer of the mandate of heaven. Today, not all Chinese history is written by its latest winners, the Chinese Communist Party. But its victory certainly colours views of the Republican period that preceded the revolution.

One casualty of this has been the reputation of the Republic's leader, Chiang Kai-shek.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 3:12 PM | Permalink

Gady Epstein at Forbes discusses Gao Zhisheng, rights lawyer who disappeared in February.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 3:01 PM | Permalink

At Shanghai Scrap, Adam Minter examines the precarious situation of the United States' disorganized, non-funded expo planning group:

Late yesterday afternoon Expo 2010 organizers announced that all national pavilion construction work must begin by June 30. Those who miss the deadline will not be allowed to build their own pavilions, and must instead seek space in a "standardized" pavilion or use a common pavilion. The statement didn't single out any particular country, but the target of this ultimatum is unmistakably the United States which, along with Andorra and Columbia, is the only country with Chinese diplomatic relations that has not confirmed for the Expo - and perhaps the only nation to have missed multiple fundraising and construction deadlines (set by itself, no less).

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:48 PM | Permalink

The Associated Press via Msnbc:

China said Thursday that 5,335 students died or remain missing from last year's Sichuan earthquake, the first official tally for students in what became a politically charged issue because of allegations of shoddy school construction.

No reason was given for the release of the number now, just days before the one-year anniversary of the disaster that launched an outpouring of grief around China and united the country in a massive rescue effort.

You can find a Chinese report on this from Sichuan Online, via QQ. Also, the official China Daily report.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:01 PM | Permalink

The Economic Observer examines whether China Unicom's acquisition of China Netcom last October may have violated the country's new antitrust law:

However, an official from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), the main agency in-charged of anti-monopoly review, told the Economic Observer that the above companies had yet to submit pre-consolidation filings to the Ministry.

Thus, the merger of the two telecommunication giants was suspected to have breached the Antitrust Law, which came into effect since last August, two months before the consolidation took place.
...
When asked if state-owned companies were exempted from antitrust review, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau under the MOC responded in writing that the Law was applicable to all companies in China, and that both domestic and foreign firms were subjected to the same review procedure under similar standard.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:18 AM | Permalink

Meizhong Guanxi presents an introduction to outspoken economist Mao Yushi and translates an article written for FTChinese that looks back at 1978:

As for considering something as it stands, I didn't feel that I needed to be rehabilitated. Everybody said, 'so-and-so was falsely labeled a rightist.' But I felt that I was correctly labeled a rightist, and it was not at all an injustice. This is because at that time I really did want to take the capitalist road, which could also be called the 'primary stage of socialism' road. Even if I didn't really understand what capitalism or primary stages were at that time, my rightist expressions really did include calling for an increase in prices in response to not being able to buy pork, and other examples. If you say that I wasn't wrong at the time, and there is to be some redress, then it was the Communist party who was wrong. However, up to now, no one has said that the Communist party was wrong at that time. Thus, to say you will rehabilitate me, there is a problem with this logic that has still not been clearly resolved.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:12 AM | Permalink

Mary Ann O'Donnell at Shenzhen Noted introduces a government SMS contest in Shenzhen:

One of the events being promoted by the Shenzhen Bureau of Taxation is citizen participation in the 3rd National Tax Collection Text Message Publicity Contest (第三届全国税收宣传短信大赛). I hadn't realized that the first and second contests had come and gone, but the current contest is open until June 30, 2009. The particularly ambitious can also compete in the ring-tone competition and the multi-media message competition (basically flash for phone), examples here and here, respectively.
...
There are no restrictions on the subject matter of competition text messages, they should be related to tax collection, have less than 70 characters, and share the defining features of a text message, such as brevity (few characters and carefully done), exquisitness (with definite expressive creativity), and humor (interesting and easy to disseminate).

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:08 AM | Permalink

Cao Yong, spokesman for pharmaceutical giant Roche in Shanghai, told The China Daily yesterday that "Governments worldwide have already ordered about 220 million doses of" Tamilflu, the anti-viral drug used to treat swine and bird flu:

[Cao] said Roche is also increasing its stocks of the raw materials used in Tamiflu, including the star aniseed spice that produces shikimic acid - the major ingredient in the antiviral drug...

...The ingredient is already the subject of rising prices in a number of Chinese markets, with retailers reporting prices going up from about 9 yuan ($1.3) a kilogram for the spice to as much as 14 yuan a kilogram in places including Shanghai.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:34 PM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has started preparations for a massive military drill in the second half of this year that involves as many as 50,000 troops, sources from the Headquarters of General Staff said here Tuesday.

The drill, dubbed Kuayue-2009, will be undertaken by troops from four military command areas, namely, Shenyang, Lanzhou, Jinan and Guangzhou...

...The drill is aimed at assessing and improving the PLA's overall combat capacity in the context of information warfare, the sources said.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:24 AM | Permalink

Author and race-car driver Han Han has a phenomenally popular blog, on which he has just announced his intention to launch a high-paying magazine. Uln at Chinayouren discusses Han Han's popularity and the ideas that are going into the magazine project.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:40 PM | Permalink

The Wall Street Journal writes about guests being quarantined in a hotel in Hong Kong:

David Mahiet, a 32-year-old Frenchman and guest of the Metropark, is more resigned. He was out of the hotel when the quarantine was imposed Friday night. He checked into another hotel. But after talking to staff at the French consulate, Mr. Mahiet decided Saturday to return to the Metropark to do his time.

"It's better for my health and better for Hong Kong city for me to go directly in the hotel, to check if I have the swine flu," he said Saturday after returning to his room, where he has been spending his days smoking cigarettes, watching TV, surfing the Internet and waiting.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:15 PM | Permalink

Imagethief responds to an article in The Australian about Hubei's stimulus plan: ordering officials to smoke more local cigarettes:

It scarce needs be pointed out that ordering local government officials to smoke more is kind of like ordering frat boys to drink more beer － redundant at the best of times. In fact, speaking of drinking, the only thing possibly more ridiculous than ordering local government officials to smoke more would be ordering local government officials to, well, drink more.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:46 AM | Permalink

From China Daily:

China rejected the charge, saying it was not discriminating against Mexicans and called for Mexico to be "objective and calm".

"The measures are not targeted at Mexican citizens, and are not discriminatory. This is purely a question of health inspection and quarantine," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said yesterday.

"China understands the Mexican side's concern for the rights and interests of its citizens in China, and hopes to jointly address the epidemic situation," he said.

Also, from the Double Handshake blog, on how detainees were treated:

Families were paraded out of airplanes as fellow passengers openly gawked. Business men were woken up with flashlights from their hotel beds. The conditions of the hotels used for quarantines have been described as "fairly rundown," serving such appetizing meals as this. John Pomfret of The Washington Post wonders whether or not China would have treated people from developed countries in the same way.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Special Chinese media features on the 90th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement: a new La Jeunesse in Life, a retrospective in The Beijing News, and nine decades of new youth in Esquire.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:13 AM | Permalink

James Fallows posted a comment from a reader who had strong words about the way the Western media reports on Chinese official statements. Xiaoxiao Huang at 3rd Possibility responds:

I am always suspicious of the whole concept of a united "Western Media" against China as if Fox News, Le Monde, and Süddeutsche Zeitung were controlled by a multi-national Central Propaganda Department. As a Communications major, my understanding of the news media is that they should truthfully report and inform to the best of their knowledge. It is not the job of the Western media (or media of any origin) to "encourage" and babysit a foreign country. Maybe it's time that the Chinese try getting used to the fact that every Western country is "unique" as well, some of them believe in things that we do not believe, and it's OK.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:54 AM | Permalink

Holiday Fu has photos from this year's Midi festival, held in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, over the weekend.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:48 AM | Permalink

CNReviews has compiled a directory of 48 female bloggers who write about China in English.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 3:29 PM | Permalink

O'ZINE, a new graphic arts magazine, has some interesting special features in its third issue.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:12 PM | Permalink

The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television handed down a notice in mid-April ordering television stations not to sensationalize celebrity scandals.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:11 PM | Permalink

An introduction to the social satire of graphic novelist CMJ.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:10 PM | Permalink

From AFP:

Mexican diplomats complained bitterly to China on Sunday saying about 70 of their countrymen had been placed under quarantine despite showing no signs of swine flu.

See also: The Wall St. Journal and James Fallows.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:54 AM | Permalink

Isabel Hilton, of Chinadialogue and The Guardian， introduces interviews with student leaders for a big piece before the Tiananmen anniversary:

Last week I listened to a man in his 40s unburden himself of a secret he had carried for two decades. He was a student leader in a major provincial city, and although he was arrested in mid-June 1989, he was released after a month of enforced confessions.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 10:46 AM | Permalink

C. Custer at China Geeks writes about the 1919 student demonstrations:

On its own, this incident might have simply been one of a great number of incidents sparked by the frustration of Chinese intellectuals and the failures of the national government to prevent imperialist encroachments and warlordism. However, in the days that followed May 4, strikes and rallies in support of the students occurred in cities across China. This prompted the Beijing government to implement a ban on public mass meetings, and the students responded by going on strike. This led to strikes in other cities of both students and workers. In the end, the government bowed to the demands of the demonstrators, Cao Rulin and Zhang Zongxiang were dismissed, and Chinese representatives refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles . Although China's refusal to sign the treaty had no effect on the actual outcome--Shandong was indeed given to Japan--the May 4 demonstration has endured in history as a pivotal moment because it was this event, more than any other, that sparked nationwide organization of the "new intellectuals".

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 7:29 PM | Permalink

Sinopop reviews a CCTV documentary on 798, the showpiece "cultural production zone" in Beijing:

The documentary is a rather sobering look at the quickly vanishing former life of "798″--Factory 718. In the 1950s it was a state of the art center of production, a place of national pride, and a household name that symbolized a better future. Workers were hand-picked for their class background, plucked from the fields and clad in blue to make radio electronics, among other classified military gear; they worked with some of the most "avant-garde" technologies of the day. Military components aside, none of this sounds unfamiliar with the tourist "cultural production zone" we know as 798.

In the same post, a translation of a history of the factory by Li Yang, translated by Lee Ambrozy.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:04 AM | Permalink