Must-read China news by Danwei

Tim Hathaway at Southern Weekly translates an editorial by Guo Guangdong that ran in the newspaper on October 1:

Which statement is best able to capture the sentiments of Chinese 60 years ago? Which statement is best able to mark the moment when the People’s Republic of China was founded? Without a doubt, it is the following:“The people of China have stood up!”

This rather plain utterance was actually more influential than the legal proclamation made on October 1, 1949 during the ceremony for the founding of the nation: “The government of the People’s Republic of China is hereby established this day!” This is because the mere announcement of a change in authority was not enough to mark the difference between the old and the new. Nor was it enough to express the fervent hope of people under the flag of the new leadership.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 7:21 PM | Permalink

A deal to sell Hummer to a Chinese company that had appeared to have fallen through has been revived. From The Financial Times:

China is set to gain a toehold in the North American car market through Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery's acquisition from General Motors of Hummer, the hulking symbol of Americans' fading love affair with gas guzzlers.

The two sides said yesterday that they had reached a "definitive agreement", which remains subject to US and Chinese government approval. Terms were not disclosed. The purchase price, understood to be about $150m, could be affected by conditions set by the two governments.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:07 AM | Permalink

Rupert Murdoch gave a speech yesterday in Beijing at the "Wolrd Media Summit". The Financial Times has a story on it titled Murdoch calls for free media in China.

Paidcontent.org has posted the full text of Murdoch's speech. Three excerpts below:

The Philistine phase of the digital age is almost over. The aggregators and the plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid-for content, it will be the content creators, the people in this hall, who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs will triumph...

... There is a ... problem for these potentially influential Chinese [media] companies. They operate in a market that is sheltered and so they are not exposed to the competition that would prepare them for the rigors of the global marketplace...

...India, which is far, far earlier in the economic development cycle, has been more welcoming of competition and so Bollywood has come to influence Hollywood, financially and creatively.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:58 AM | Permalink

The Chinese Mirror introduces Wu Pen Ji, a 1927 film about the famed Lord Bao, and compares Bao to "Judge Dee," the subject of an upcoming film directed by Tsui Hark and starring Andy Lau:

But while [Robert] van Gulik made Dee much better-known in the West, the more familiar literary detective in China is "Judge (or Lord) Bao," [Bao Zheng 包拯 (999-1062), aka Bao Qingtian (包青天)] , like Dee a real historical person. Bao's fictionalized cases have long been the subjects of books, classical Beijing operas, and numerous TV films and miniseries (including children's versions, both live action and animated). In fact, the number and variety of the TV versions is similar to that of Sherlock Holmes in the West, with such spinoff series titles as "The New Cases of Bao Qingtian," "Young Bao Qingtian," (the hero as a young man) and "Young Detective Bao Qingtian," (the hero as a child), etc. In China, when I would tell a friend or colleague how much I had enjoyed Judge Dee, the usual reaction would be similar to what a British person's might be if a visitor from another culture said he had avidly read "all the Doctor Thorndyke mysteries, and I've even read a couple about that other fellow, Sherlock what's-his-name."

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:12 PM | Permalink

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Tony Blair writes about his views on modern day China and the change the country has experienced since his first visit 20 years ago:

A few weeks ago, when I was in Guizhou province outside Guiyang city, standing in a small village to see a pilot project in solar lighting, I reflected on what I had seen. I had seen the city center, with its fashion shops like Christian Dior and its bustling nightlife, but also housing tenements urgently in need of renovation. I had witnessed a stunning music and dance show celebrating the region's indigenous heritage. I met the Muslim governor. And in the village, I saw newer homes, but also many that were as poor as some in Africa.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:02 PM | Permalink

Xinhua reports from the World Media Summit, which opened today in Beijing with a speech from president Hu Jintao:

"We sincerely hope that media organizations from around the world can make new contribution to deepening the world's understanding of China, and helping consolidate and develop friendship between the Chinese people and those in the rest of the world."

The government also supports the Chinese media in enhancing exchanges and cooperation with their foreign counterparts in news communication, human resources, information technologies and business development, he said.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:45 AM | Permalink

At Fool's Mountain, Berlin Fang discusses Herta Müller's Nobel win, cross-cultural literature, and China's own Nobel prospects.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:37 AM | Permalink

Robert Kaplan, writing in The New York Times:

In Afghanistan’s Logar Province, just south of Kabul, the geopolitical future of Asia is becoming apparent: American troops are providing security for a Chinese state-owned company to exploit the Aynak copper reserves, which are worth tens of billions of dollars.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 2:00 PM | Permalink

GoKunming visits a theme-park on the outskirts of Kunming that employs more than eighty little people in a "Dwarf Empire":

Chinese visitors to the park are obviously attracted by the novelty of a dwarf village, but there does not appear to be any belittling of the park's residents. Most visitors spend a couple of hours in the park, taking photos of – and with – the dwarves, maybe having a coffee and then leaving after the performance or staying around for beer and barbecue at night.

According to Wu it was initially difficult for the park to attract employees, due to concern by families of dwarves that they would be exploited or scammed. In order to allay such worries the park made relocation fees part of the employment package for its dwarf employees. Almost all of the 80 dwarves living in the park take part in the daily performances, with a handful working as food and gift vendors or janitors.

See also: A Google translation of an Italian-language report on Cinaoggi about the park.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:11 PM | Permalink

The China Daily reports on a story that Xinhua has so far not mentioned:

DUBAI: A prominent Al-Qaida militant on Wednesday threatened to attack Chinese targets in "reprisal" for the July 5 riots in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

He urged Uygurs in Xinjiang to "make serious preparations" for a "holy war" against the Chinese government and called on fellow Muslims for support.

Abu Yahya al-Libi, in a video posted on an Islamist website yesterday, called for "a true return to their (Uygurs) religion and ... serious preparation for jihad in the path of God the Almighty and to carry weapons ..."

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:01 PM | Permalink

Q&A with David Spindler, independent scholar of the Great Wall, about his collaborative exhibition with photographer Jonathan Ball.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 2:02 PM | Permalink

USC's US-China Today profiles Peking University's School of Transnational Law:

The professors at STL admire their students. "They have a hunger that most Americans, myself included, lack. This is their only opportunity -- higher education," said Frank Wu, visiting Professor of Law at Peking STL.

But STL remains an outlier in Chinese legal education. STL's curriculum lacks the staple criminal, civil law, and administrative rule courses that are found in Chinese law schools—the school's aim is not to produce lawyers for the domestic market, but for an international one. "Most of STL's courses are on business law or transnational law," he said. "The emphasis is on training business lawyers who will serve the global market."

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:04 PM | Permalink

From Xinhua in The China Daily:

The Chinese company Sinohydro suffered an attack on Sunday by unidentified gunmen close to the town of Beni in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s eastern province of North Kivu, the commercial representative of the company in Kinshasa, Luo Xiaowei, told Xinhua.

Gunmen launched the attack at the construction site along the National Road No. 4 (RN4), Luo said on Monday, without reporting casualties.

Eastern Congo is one of the more chaotic and violent places on the planet; the attack is less noteworthy than the fact that that Xinhua reported it.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:57 PM | Permalink

From the China Daily:

US President Barack Obama will not meet the Dalai Lama during his five-day trip to the US capital that began on Monday.

Obama instead intends to wait until after his November summit with President Hu Jintao before meeting the Dalai Lama, possibly sometime in December, US officials said.

This will be the first time in 18 years the Dalai Lama would have visited Washington without seeing a US president.

The Washington Post published an article by a special envoy to the United States for the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari who responded to the reports:

The Oct. 5 front-page article "Obama's Meeting With the Dalai Lama Is Delayed" captured some of the complexity of this issue but failed to state clearly that we were involved in the decision for President Obama to meet His Holiness after the U.S.-China summit and not during his visit to Washington this week. We came to this arrangement because we believe that it is in our long-term interests.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:54 PM | Permalink

Far West China has an account of ongoing internet blackouts in Xinjiang as well as quarantine after traveling away from the province during the National Holiday:

Contrary to local conventional wisdom, I have refused to become too fearful, taking a few motorcycle trips around the province and not wearing a face mask to protect myself from the crazy flu. I also left the province during this October holiday, another risk I was advised against (“You’ll be quarantined when you get back for one full week!”), which is how I am typing this message right now. I’m in a hotel room not even 50km from the Xinjiang border, soaking in the internet like it’s a miracle from heaven.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:17 PM | Permalink

From the Wall Street Journal:

Hasutai is at the vanguard of an explosion of ethnic awareness and pride across China. The nation's 1.3 billion people are overwhelmingly Han Chinese, but roughly 9% of the population are ethnic minorities: Manchus and Mongolians, Uighurs and Tibetans as well as dozens of others. Although their numbers are small, minorities live on nearly half of China's territory, including most of its borderlands. Over the past two years they have been at the center of bloody riots that claimed hundreds of lives.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:08 PM | Permalink

AP reports (via Huffington Post):

Conservative Egyptian lawmakers have called for a ban on imports of a Chinese-made kit meant to help women fake their virginity and one scholar has even called for the "exile" of anyone who imports or uses it.

The Artificial Virginity Hymen kit, distributed by the Chinese company Gigimo, costs about $30. It is intended to help newly married women fool their husbands into believing they are virgins.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:53 PM | Permalink

Xinhua reports:

PYONGYANG, Oct. 5 — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), held talks here on Monday...

Unlike Bill Clinton, Wen smiled for the photos.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:10 AM | Permalink

Reuters:

China overtook the United States as South Africa's biggest export destination in the first half of 2009, reinforcing the Asian country's push to build trade links with Africa...

...Data for South Africa -- Africa's biggest economy -- showed exports to China stood at 27.6 billion rand [
USD 3.7 billion] for the year to June, against 4.8 billion rand [USD ] for the whole of 2008...

...China's overall trade with Africa has increased tenfold over the past decade, hitting $107 billion last year, narrowly eclipsing the United States.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:50 AM | Permalink

deerawn translates the preface and first few pages of Du Lala's Promotion, a bestselling novel of office life that's being turned into a movie starring Xu Jinglei:

It's a really, well, good-natured piece of writing. I wonder if a book like this could ever make it in the world of Western pop fiction, a book that attempts to be didactic and entertaining. There are lots of books in Western pop fiction that are teaching lessons to the target audience or whatever, but not quite as explicitly as Du Lala's Promotion, I don't think. I'm sure there are some examples, but is there anything that, like Du Lala's Promotion, combines novel and practical handbook for office politics, a work that provides the reader with a primer on the vocabulary used in the offices of multinational companies, and a book that charts a course for upwardly mobile middle class women? I feel like Western office drones must have a hugely different conception of the officeworld and their role in it, based on my own personal experience: they're putting in shorter hours and there's less at stake and the office job doesn't represent the same heavy thing that it represents to a Chinese white collar worker. This is sort of a hybrid of a Japanese OL manga and bureaucracy novels, and neither of those genres are a going concern in the West.

See also: The Global Currency Reform Conference, a translation of a 1922 satirical essay by Xu Zhuodai.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:49 AM | Permalink

Will the officials slogans of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic last? NPR talks to Jeff Wasserstrom, who also suggests some new slogans of his own.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:57 AM | Permalink

Portrait of an LBX goes to Qingdao and ends up in a hotel filled with hookers.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:37 AM | Permalink