Must-read China news by Danwei

Has Coffee-Mate (咖啡伴侣) become genericized in Chinese? Go Kunming looks at a spat over Nestle's trademarked brand of coffee creamer:

The Yunnan Coffee Industry association is standing behind Hogood, insisting that Nestlé should not continue to "monopolize" the Coffee-Mate trademark and that Nestlé should let Chinese companies use the name on their own products.
...
"Coffee-Mate" has served to describe such a coffee flavor additive for many years. Looking from the perspective of the inherent of the meaning of "Coffee-Mate", the term directly describes this type of product's quality, function and usage, lacking any striking characteristics. But Nestlé uses "Coffee-Mate" as a product name. Objectively speaking, this dilutes the name's striking characteristics when used as a trademark.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:26 PM | Permalink

Tania Branigan reports for the Guardian in Beijing:

Xiao Jiansheng spent 20 years researching and writing the book. It was printed on the mainland two years ago after heavy censorship but officials promptly barred the publisher from distributing it.

Bao Pu, of New Century Press in Hong Kong, said he understood that the ministry of state security learned of the Hong Kong edition and put pressure on Xiao through the editor of his newspaper.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:38 PM | Permalink

An explosion destroyed a restaurant in Beijing's Xinjiekou neighborhood this morning. From the Wall Street Journal, which has a photo of the aftermath:

The explosion took place at the Xinjiekou district in the old part of the city. According to pictures on Twitter, the restaurant was sandwiched in between two two-story brick buildings. One picture showed a fire truck and a car covered in rubble. Police and fire personnel stood in front of the debris, which spilled into the road.

Links to Maggie Rauch's photos can be found on Global Voices Online.

The short Xinhua report does not give a cause; Qianlong is reporting that a gas canister exploded, injuring three restaurant employees and numerous passers-by.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:53 PM | Permalink

For Global Voices Online, John Kennedy looks at some netizen responses to the crackdown on corruption currently going on in Chongqing:

Though some people have this and that to say about Bo Xilai's corruption crackdown, the vast majority of the people have no objection whatsoever. Regardless of whatever ambitions a top-level cadre might have, as long as he is genuinely willing to put his back into it when working for the people and genuinely keep their welfare in mind, then he will be a good leader who will win the heartfelt love, affection and support of the people. If only all officials in China could be like Bo Xilai!

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:49 AM | Permalink

dGenerate Films' CinemaTalk speaks with David Bandurski, familiar to Danwei readers from his translations and analysis at the China Media Project, about his involvement with documentary filmmaker Zhao Dayong and the film Ghost Town:

So he was taken in to the police station to take care of this situation and Dayong just walked in there with the camera with every intention of filming that entire thing. And there was a whole back and forth where they told him don’t film in here, but his first thought not “Can I do it, how can I do it, do I need a tiny little camera?” No, he just walked in there with his camera on his shoulder, so when they make these films they don’t really have any consideration as to whether they’re approved or not, so in that sense they’re very free.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:24 AM | Permalink

The AFP reports:

China kicked off its mass vaccination for the A(H1N1) influenza virus on Monday in Beijing, apparently becoming the first nation in the world to start inoculating its population against the virus.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 4:43 PM | Permalink

Xujun Eberlein at Inside-Out China reviews Jonathan Tel's The Beijing of Possibilities, a collection of stories about the city:

In recent years, there has been no shortage of nonfiction books set in Beijing written by expats, but fiction in the same category remains sparse. Jonathan Tel's new story collection, The Beijing of Possibilities, stands out as a notable exception, its twelve stories displaying a gripping juxtaposition of realism and allegory.

Tel's prose treats serious themes in a romantic, humorous, at times mystical way. He is evidently very familiar with Beijing's settings, geographically and culturally, having lived in the capital city as early as 1988.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:39 PM | Permalink

Yang Xianhui's Chronicle of Jiabiangou (夹边沟纪事), a book of stories of a rightist camp in Gansu Province during the 1950s, was recently translated by Wen Huang and published under the title Woman From Shanghai. Why do these fictionalized accounts of memories collected from former inmates come wrapped in a cover showing a rouged woman in a qipao?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:13 AM | Permalink

Yeeyan, a collaborative translation website, is promoting a crowd-sourced Chinese edition of Dan Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol. But does the project violate the author's intellectual property rights?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:06 AM | Permalink

Adam Minter writes for Foreign Policy on China's e-waste processing industry, fueled by domestic cast-offs:

It's a sign of the times: China is simply consuming more and making more of its own trash. The items being processed down south have certainly included some of the handsets replaced by the reported 1.5 million iPhones brought (unofficially) into China over the last two years. Unlike in the United States, where Apple accepts phones for recycling from any manufacturer, in China it only accepts Apple-branded products (and requires its consumers to ship them to, of all places, Hong Kong). They have all but guaranteed that, at some point, millions of Chinese cell phones will contribute to the government-supported disaster in Guiyu as shiny new iPhones fill China's up-and-coming pockets.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:45 AM | Permalink

Rosealea Yao and Tom Miller blog at the Financial Times about subsidies in the real estate market:

Including households that purchased “economic housing” (supposedly affordable housing subsidised by the government for lower-income families) and those living in low-rent subsidised housing, well over half of all urban households enjoy some form of subsidised housing.

In short, a high proportion of households live in apartments purchased at below-market prices or have upgraded to apartments financed by the sale of a property bought at a subsidised price. This means that the vast majority of households do not spend a large proportion of their income on housing.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:45 AM | Permalink

The Globe and Mail interviews Bob Martin, the Bank of Montreal's "man in Asia":

The Chinese government is trying with IPOs to privatize these companies over time. We shouldn't see these as Crown corporations or state corporations in the full sense. They're in a transition mode.

It is an opportunity to have long-term linkages with what is going to become the major global economy.

If we want to work with China, and influence China over time, this is the way to do it. If we stand back a bit, we miss the opportunity to benefit from it and work with China diplomatically to try to influence the future.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:51 AM | Permalink

The Economic Observer reports that Chinese airlines have begun to abandon an unpopular pricing and discount system implemented six months ago:

The difference between the two pricing systems basically comes down to whether a discount is applied to both of the components of the full ticket price (the NDRC-set bench mark + the airline's floating price) or whether, as with the unpopular new system, only the benchmark price is taken in to account when working out the discount on a ticket.

When TravelSky first announced the new system in March, they explained that the largest discount available on an air ticket under the new system would be 76% off the standard price, this was in contrast to the maximum discount of 96% off the original offered under the old system.

"To be honest, under the new pricing system, it's not easy even for our booking agents to work out the price of any given ticket," a ticket seller at Guangzhou's Baiyun Airport admitted to this reporter.

It's predicted that tickets will be between 10 and 20 percent cheaper, now that airlines are returning to the original pricing system.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:18 AM | Permalink

Bloomberg, amongst other media, reports on the missed announcement for Xi Jinping (which could come later):

China’s Vice President Xi Jinping wasn’t named a vice chairman of the ruling Communist Party’s Central Military Commission, signaling President Hu Jintao may want to hold on to some power after his scheduled retirement in 2013.

Victor Shih has some more comments on his Chinese Politics blog.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:48 PM | Permalink

Reuters reports on the fishy e-mails that news assistants in Shanghai and Beijing have been receiving:

"There is definitely a pattern of virus attacks in the run-up to important dates on the Chinese political calendar," said Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong. He noted that non-government organizations are also favorite targets.

"Whether the government is behind it, closes its eyes to it, supports it or has nothing to with it is unclear. There are also patriotic hackers, so there is no way to know for sure who is behind it."

See also this blog post by Thomas Crampton.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:39 PM | Permalink

John Garnaut at the Sidney Morning Herald writes about Macau's seedy casinos:

The sprawling gaming room floors aren't filled with spivs chatting with cocktail girls around roulette wheels. Instead there are casually-dressed families from mainland China with their bodies hunched over baccarat tables, their sober minds crunching the odds, and fingers squeezing the life out of their cards to bring good luck.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:27 PM | Permalink

Bookseller.com reviews clashes at the preliminary discussions of the Frankfurt Book Fair, where China is the Guest of Honor.

FBF came under widespread criticism last week for its decision to revoke invitations sent to Chinese "dissident" authors Bei Ling and Dai Qing to appear at a symposium about the fair's guest of honour China. The organisers later changed their minds and allowed the authors to appear, causing the official Chinese delegation to walk out and demand an apology. But Juergen Boos has said the decision to prevent the authors from appearing "was wrong". He added: "The Frankfurt Book Fair does not compromise to the detriment of freedom of expression. Facilitating dialogue is not easy. We have always been aware of this and the symposium confirmed this. Dialogue is, however, the right way and the only way."

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:12 PM | Permalink

FEER is under Dow Jones & Co., which has announced its decision to fold the Asian affairs English-language magazine. Murdoch, the chief of News Corp. that owns Dow Jones & Co., will expand coverage to other Asian countries.

The Review debuted in 1946 as Asia emerged from the war, and became one of the most aggressive news organizations in the region. Its coverage made it the target of lawsuits in places like Singapore, where it was ultimately banned.

FEER distribution was altered once in 2004, which was also the time when it was said that they had gone "soft."

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:57 PM | Permalink

IN2marcom presents a gallery of 60 cover images from China Pictorial, starting with its launch issue in 1950, which featured a smiling, waving Chairman Mao.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:51 PM | Permalink

Freshly graduated foreigners come to China looking for better jobs. From AP via the San Francisco Chronicle:

Bangyibang.com's founder and CEO, Grant Yu, has five foreign employees in his 35-member work force. Yu plans to add more and said he might hire applicants who cannot speak Chinese if they have other skills.

"I don't believe language is the biggest obstacle in communication, as long as he or she has a strong learning ability," Yu said.

Feng Li, a partner in a Chinese-Canadian private fund in Beijing that invests in the mining industry, said he needs native speakers of foreign languages to read legal documents and communicate with clients abroad. He plans to recruit up to six foreign employees.

Update (2009.09.22): China Daily has republished the story, minus a paragraph about tightened visa restrictions ahead of last year's Olympics.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 4:25 PM | Permalink

Asia Sentinel reports about Richard Li's new venture, Cai Business Indepth Ltd:

This not just another Web site, however. Besides Li's deep pockets, the service is backed by strategic alliances with the Hong Kong Economic Journal, which Li also owns, and Caijing, the highly-respected Shanghai-based business news magazine. The new service, beamed specifically at financial institutions, is to be delivered both across the internet and through proprietary terminals, much as Bloomberg's service is, as well as to handheld devices like the ubiquitous Blackberry.

Li seems to think his timing is right to catch the wave with a service that takes advantage of both a proprietary news model and the Internet.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:22 PM | Permalink

The Beijinger blog has photos of this morning's practice run for the air-show portion of the upcoming National Day festivities:

The formations were coming in from the east, flying just south of and parallel to Chang'an Avenue, over Tiananmen and then out to the west. The fly-by lasted for about 15 minutes and climaxed with jets releasing streaks of colored smoke.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:53 PM | Permalink

China Media Project finds considerable misunderstanding of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government Regulations on News Release Work as filtered through a China Daily article:

In the China Daily/AFP/BBC version of the story, Shenzhen media seem to be actively empowered by the new regulations. The BBC suggests that “officials could be sacked or reprimanded if they do not respond quickly to media requests.” China Daily tells us that officials “who fail to provide accurate and proper information to the media will face punishments ranging from public criticism to dismissal from their post.”

But Clause Two of Article One makes it patently clear that these regulations are really about government public relations, and are not a real mandate for official accountability.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:45 PM | Permalink

At China Youthology, Zafka Zhang and Helen Yu interview Ray Lei, a young animator:

I don’t do big production any more; instead, I make short ones that can be finished in 15 days, to instantly express whatever feelings I develop. My latest work ‘Magic Cube’ is an echo of a previous work. What I wanted to say is people are just drifting about, not really connected to the society, and that as common citizens and lookers-on, we can do nothing but watch. That is the way of the society. Even if it pisses you off, you don’t have to fight against it, so I keep playing my ping-pong. I am no longer that angry now. Maybe I just don’t want to make a fuss any more.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:33 PM | Permalink

Today top headline on The China Daily's website: "President Hu rolls into US".

It's linked to other stories titled "Comment: A responsible China"; "Adhere to Chinese socialism: President Hu"; and "China helps plant seeds of optimism" which reports the following:

China was this morning expected to make a "very big announcement", organizers of a major environmental project told China Daily here ahead of a United Nations summit on climate change.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:26 AM | Permalink

China Digital Times translates an article from The Beijing News reporting that kitchen knives have been taken off shelves in major Beijing supermarkets following a recent stabbing deaths and ahead of the 60th Anniversary celebration.

Following Thursday's attack that left 2 dead and 14 injured in Beijing's Qianmen neighborhood, a French woman was stabbed on Saturday near the south end of Tiananmen Square, AFP reports.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:56 PM | Permalink

sinopop posts about a six-decade retrospective that recently closed at the National Art Museum of China:

...red not only prevailed in the literal sense, its ideological presence was overpowering. In this exhibition that sprawled out over the entirety of the NAMOC’s exhibition halls, co-sponsors Cultural Ministry of China and NAMOC pulled sixty years of revolutionary masterpieces out of storage from all of Beijing’s major collections, including the Military Museum and the former Revolutionary Museum (soon to reopen as the Museum of Chinese History). It was a mind-blowing show, by scale and quality alone. Also, by their omissions, curators highlighted what isn’t included in the sanctioned visual lexicon that is “fine art” in China today. This became especially apparent when viewers started to wonder on what floor the “contemporary” were being hidden.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:21 PM | Permalink