Stab in my back: TV Serials and Communist Ethics
Uln at Chinayouren watches a thirty-episode patriotic drama.
« November 1, 2009 - November 7, 2009 | Main | November 15, 2009 - November 21, 2009 »
November 14, 2009
November 13, 2009
Interview with SF author Han Song
Charles Tan at SF Signal interviews Han Song, a Xinhua journalist and well-known Chinese SF author who has a story appearing in translation in The Apex Book of World SF.
"No one man can change everything"
Global Times has a vox pop of Chinese people's opinions of Obama ahead of his visit:
I believe this visit is a positive action and that's why I support it. But it's still too early to anticipate the consequences of his visit because no one knows his purpose this time.
And more practically speaking, I hope he will bring solutions to some substantial issues such as the Taiwan issue. We're looking forward to witnessing a positive stance from the US. I hope he can sit down and have a good talk with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders concerning those problems, because they are what Chinese really care about.
PC World also has an article on netizens volunteering questions for Obama.
Liu Xiang grabs Asian hurdles champion
The AFP reports on the hurdler:
China's former world record holder Liu Xiang has easily won his third Asian 110 metre hurdle championship, posting a time of 13.50 seconds in a driving rain in the southern city of Guangzhou.
The 2004 Athens Olympic champion led from the start late Thursday to win his second competition since returning from surgery on an Achilles tendon injury that kept him out of the 2008 Beijing Games.
"I had hoped to run faster, but due to today's weather, it was better to be steady," Liu told journalists in a post-race interview.
A new generation of rockers
The New York Times blog has a podcast about Beijing bands Carsick Cars and PK14: Shouwang and Yang Haisong, despite being from different generations, are interviewed.
The Washington Post has also published an article about the "nascent rock scene" in Beijing (now in New York).
"Our legal system is like the mafia"
Ahead of Obama's visit, Ai Weiwei writes an op-ed in Newsweek about his injuries in Sichuan.
Abuse in China's jails
New York Times has a piece on black jails in China, from a report released by Human Rights Watch.
November 12, 2009
An angry, searing vision of China
Q&A with Julia Lovell, translator of a new English edition of Lu Xun's fiction: The Real Story of Ah Q and Other Tales of China, published by Penguin.
November 11, 2009
Economic Observer founder He Li confirmed as new Caijing chief
Economic Observer Online reports, via Sina:
Yesterday, He Li, the former editor in chief of China Business Weekly and one of the founding editors of The Economic Observer, confirmed that he had quit his current job but refused to provide further details to reporters from Sina Finance.
However, despite his reticence, Sina is reporting that he will indeed take up the position of editor in chief at Caijing.
The 47 year-old He once worked alongside Hu Shuli at China Business Times, the first privately-invested newspaper to be published in the People's Republic of China. He worked there from 1989 to 2000, while Hu headed up the paper's international department from 1992 to 1998.
Warning bells for the media on Journalist Day
At the China Media Project David Bandurski writes about Li Changchun's speech on tightening media controls on Journalist Day:
Li Changchun’s speech on Sunday also placed a great deal of emphasis on the idea of “discourse power” (话语权) — the CCP’s “discourse power,” that is. This underscores in particular an interest in strengthening the party’s capacity to make its voice heard both domestically and internationally.
This is also an important reason why the term “public opinion channeling,” or yulun yindao (舆论引导), rises in the ranks of Li’s speech this year. This further drives home what we have been arguing here at CMP for months — that the party is reworking its media control system to allow traditional controls and active agenda-setting (”grabbing the megaphone“) to work hand-in-hand.
Win in China: a documentary that "so blatantly embodied capitalism"
ChinaGeeks interviews Ole Shell, the filmmaker behind the documentary Win in China, focusing on the CCTV2 program that seems to have stopped broadcasting:
ChinaGeeks: How is the film being received? Presumably, you’ve read some reviews, but are you also hearing from regular people and perhaps schools? What do they think of it?
Ole Schell: People almost universally say they had no idea of the extent of the pace over there. They expect something much dryer-something more business related. That was a challenge I took head on and tried to incorporate as much of the outrageous landscape of Beijing Shanghai, and some of the smoky second tier cities like Weifang and Hefei that we visited to get to know several of the contestants. My favorite contestant was an aspiring lingerie baron nicknamed “The Wolf” for his predatory business style.
Going to court over the Sanlu milk scandal
Wen Tao at the Global Times reports on the reopening of wounds over the Sanlu milk scandal:
Father of a Sanlu Group milk powder victim claims that he experienced unwarranted police brutality which he believes is associated with his ongoing court case with Sanlu Group.
Wang Gang, 36, is currently struggling to take legal action against the Sanlu Group and receive compensation for his 2-year-old son, Wang Ziyuan, who suffered from kidney stone and still suffers from anemia as a result of drinking the tainted milk powder. The family was forced to sell their house to cover the medical expenses.
China's self-taught professional golfers
Dan Washburn writes for Golf World:
Chen's rise from farmer to head waiter to obscure pro golfer -- now, slightly less obscure -- mirrors the random trajectories followed by the majority of the Chinese men who toil on their country's domestic golf circuit. Most of them stumbled into the sport accidentally and relatively late, bringing personal histories almost unheard of in the Western world of contemporary professional golf.
November 10, 2009
Editor departs after high-profile tussle
Jonathan Ansfield at the New York Timeshas an in-depth look at the situation that led to Hu's departure from Caijing magazine:
The split reflects the divergence of interests in a media market still governed by party cadres, said Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at Beijing Foreign Languages University.
“Some people still stick to their ideals,” he said. “But management has become increasingly concerned with profits, and increasingly conservative.”
See also: The Guardian, a Wall Street Journal follow-up, Foreign Policy, the AP, the mainland newspaper The Economic Observer and, for contrast, Xinhua.
November 9, 2009
Military recruitment posters
ChinaSMACK presents the latest recruitment posters, which feature images from the National Day parade.
Hu Shuli to leave Caijing for Zhongshan University
Hu Shuli, editor of the influential business magazine Caijing, is resigning following the walkout of a number of senior staff. She's said to have accepted a position as dean of the School of Mass Communication and Design at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou.
Is dialogue possible?
Roland Soong at ESWN writes about civil online dialogue and the dim prospects for HK-mainland blogger interaction:
Hong Kong bloggers look inwards. What are they interested in recently? 'Bowtie' and energy-saving light bulbs; 'Bowtie' and Hong Kong apartment prices; Michael Rowse’s book; etc. An possible victim of Internet bullying named A Xuan is on the front page of the newspaper Ming Pao today. Amazingly, more than 30,000 people have signed up for the Facebook page against this person. Mainland bloggers are unlikely to be aware of these stories; even if they know, they wouldn’t care much because these matters are far removed from their own daily lives.
What came down was the wall and what stood up was the people
Tim translates an op-ed by Shi Zhe that appeared in last week's Southern Weekly.