Free Lenovo laptops for delegates raise public concerns
The China Media Project finds some reactions to the news that CPPCC delegates get to keep their session-issued laptops this year.
« February 21, 2010 - February 27, 2010 | Main | March 7, 2010 - March 13, 2010 »
March 6, 2010
March 5, 2010
Kneel before Lei Feng
March 5 is Lei Feng Day. Do people still perform acts of altruism and dedication? Or is the Lei Feng Spirit being exploited for other purposes?
Some problems with train tickets
People can't get tickets to Beijing! The real-name ticket system enables ID theft!
The true story of a soy sauce man
An entrepreneur in Xingtai, Hebei Province.
Spring Festival gala scandals
Han Han accuses Louis Chen of stuffing his magic act with shills. Louis strikes back. And Ma Weidu tries to teach CCTV a lesson in manners.
Send some positive text messages
A campaign to replace dirty jokes and satiric comments with positive, uplifting, patriotic "red snippets."
Infant forumula pushers
Xinhua reports that nurses and doctors get kickbacks from manufacturers for steering new mothers away from breast feeding and toward infant formula.
Introduction to six independent Chinese documentaries
dGenerate films asks documentary film insider Zhang Xianmin about his favorite documentaries:
Using directed by Zhou Hao.
Zhou Hao always cross-produces several projects at the same time. When this documentary was made, he was also working on other subjects, such as the cotton industry and Olympic youths. The central character is known as Brother Long by other social outcasts. Originally from Northeast China, he makes his living by dealing drugs in Guangzhou, and eventually he is trapped in drug addiction himself. He helps others, but also requests help from others all the time, especially from the filmmaker Zhou Hao. But what Zhou Hao offers cannot save him. The story is astonishing and thrilling.
Chinese teaching materials upset parents in southern California
Parents are angry at one San Gabriel Valley school:
Parents and community members who are upset by a Chinese language and culture classroom slated to open at Cedarlane Middle School next year say they're planning to voice concerns at Thursday night's Hacienda La Puente Unified School District board meeting.
They allege that the Confucius Classroom, which is sponsored by the Chinese Language Council International, will become a vessel for political propaganda.
Yoshinoya workers deliberately withholding change?
The I Love China blog talks about money-taking at the Japanese chain:
It’s lunch time so there’s a fairly long line. The woman in front of me has ordered food that comes to 27 and passes 30 rmb to the cashier. Now this is one of my pet peeves coming up right here. In England if it came to 9 pounds and 1 penny the cashier might ask if you happen to have a penny so she can give you back one pound change from 10. But here they take it to extremes for the simple reason that many establishments cannot seem to get the hang of preparing small change in advance. So the cashier pulls a funny face and asks the customer if she has 2 rmb coins so that she can give her a 5 rmb note back rather than use up precious coins. So the customer opens her back and rummages around for 5 minutes trying to scrape together a couple of 1 rmb coins while the queue gets longer behind me.
From experience I can guarantee you the cashier had 3 rmb but wanted to conserve the coins and therefore decided it was better to try and squeeze a few more coins from the customer.
Magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Taiwan
China Daily reports:
The 6.7-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan at 8:18 a.m. Beijing Time on Thursday has left 64 people injured, according to the latest statistics from local fire department.
Those injured have been taken to local hospitals, it said, without identifying them.
A blackout caused by the earthquake affected some 540,500 households. Electricity was restored at 2 p.m.
According to a separate report from education authorities, some 340 school buildings were damaged and classes were suspended in some schools Thursday. The report did not specify on the names of the schools.
March 4, 2010
Celebrities parading ideas at the CPPCC
At the Financial Times, Jamil Anderlini sums up the opening of the CPPCC by looking at its celebrities:
Among the proposals this year was one from delegate Zhang Xiaomei, editor of the China Beauty Fashion newspaper, who proposed legislation to force husbands to compensate their wives for doing housework.
One delegate suggested banning internet cafés because of their bad influence on the nation’s youth, while another wanted to outlaw sales of dog or cat meat.
Liu Xiang, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist hurdler and CPPCC delegate, suggested that top athletic coaches should get better training and more pay.
But Mr Liu, 26, admitted that he had been too busy training to write the proposal himself, adding that a self-penned suggestion would have focused more on the welfare of athletes.
What is the definition of a Chinese 'yuppie'?
At CNReviews, Elliott Ng asks questions about the term Xiao Zi (小资):
小资 (Xiao3 Zi1) – people who enjoy fashion, brands, hobbies, and free thinking that is inspired by Western commercial and artistic culture. Similar to “yuppies” in the sense of youthful materialism, the term also carries a overtones of the creative, free-thinking state of being “hipsters.” However, this creativity and free-thinking is only within the bounds of what is socially acceptable within the xiaozi norm. There are many positive attributes of Xiaozi. To some it is a put-down. But to others, it is a compliment. Still others might use the term in a self-deprecating way to describe themselves.
Are Chinese students "irresponsible"?
Alec at 6 comments on 1978 essay by Zhang Yifan, who criticizes the students of that era for being of poor quality.
March 3, 2010
Obama to take Google censorship to WTO?
Reporting from Bloomberg UTV:
The Obama administration is weighing the merits of taking China’s censorship of Google Inc. to the World Trade Organization as an unfair barrier to trade.
The US Trade Representative’s office is reviewing legal arguments advanced by two groups with links to Google, spokeswoman Carol Guthrie said. The Computer & Communications Industry Association and the First Amendment Coalition say China’s restrictions on Web access and content discriminate against US Internet companies and online commerce.
Going to the WTO is “well worth consideration,” Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel of Google, operator of the most popular Internet search site, told reporters after a congressional hearing in Washington yesterday. Using censorship “in a manner that favors domestic Internet companies goes against basic international trade principles,” Wong told lawmakers.
March 2, 2010
Diageo in £610m bid for Chinese spirits maker
The Telegraph reports:
"Diageo now has a valuable opportunity to build a substantial presence in super-premium Chinese white spirits and it will enable us to bring one of the leading Chinese white spirits brands to international markets," said Paul Walsh, Diageo's chief executive. "This is an important and unusual transaction."
The maker of Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Guinness already owns a 39.7pc stake in Chinese white spirit company Shui Jing Fang , through a holding company called Quanxing.
Norwegian consul general on biking in Guangzhou
Tormod C. Endresen " is trying to get to know Guangzhou better by commuting to work by bike, subway, bus and taxi." He blogged about his biking experience yesterday:
In general, I must say the journey was a better experience than I thought – I also noted that there are a lot of more fellow cyclists out there than I had noticed from my car window. One of them kindly told me that my back tire was a bit flat before he pushed on. Next time I go, I think I will find an alternative route through the Zhujiang Xin Chang, and look for more designated bicycle lanes. I would like to commend Guangzhou government for making them. Lastly – let me appeal to car drivers – be considerate towards the cyclists – if they all quit their bikes and got into cars the Dadao will be even more crowded in the rush hour, remember.
via Waffles & Steel
Guangxi official's sex and corruption diaries leaked
Veggie Discourse translates the latest scandal from Guangxi Autonomous Region － an official's "sex diaries" are being republished all over the Internet:
On the evening of March 1st, a spokesperson for Guangxi's Tobacco Monopoly Bureau (广西烟草专卖局, Guangxi division of China National Tobacco Corp) told the press that branch director Han Feng (韩峰) from Laibin city (来宾市) has been suspended from his duties and is now under formal investigation for possible illegal conduct. Han Feng recently came under fire when his explicit diary entries about personal sexual encounters somehow leaked to the internet.
China donates $1m to Chile for earthquake aid
Xinhua reports:
Chinese government has decided to offer emergency humanitarian aid of 1 millon U.S. dollars to Chile to help relief work in areas hit by Saturday's earthquake, Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce said Monday.
Newspapers call to abandon household registration
China Daily reports:
More than a dozen metropolitan newspapers covering 11 provinces in China have made a rare joint appeal for accelerating the reform of the country's household registration, or hukou, system in a co-signed editorial.
The editorial, published on Monday in 12 newspapers, said the household registration regulations issued in 1958 should be abolished as soon as possible.
The household registration system limits rural migrant workers' access to services in China's prosperous cities, the editorial said.
Tania Branigan's story for The Guardian is here.
Siberian tiger discovered in Heilongjiang died in captivity
Jonathan Watts writes for The Guardian:
The first Siberian tiger cub to be found in the wild in China in at least 20 years has died less than two days after being discovered, the Guardian has learned.
Authorities have moved covered up the death, which casts a shadow over what is potentially the best conservation news the country has had for decades.
It also raises questions about the handling and timing of the discovery, which comes as China celebrates the start of the lunar year of the Tiger and a major financial push to save the biggest cat on the planet.
Early on the morning of 25 February, Han Deyou, a forester in the Wanda mountains in the northern province of Heilongjiang claimed to have discovered a wild tiger cub trapped in a pile of firewood in his yard.
March 1, 2010
China Daily gets a makeover
To better compete with the Global Times, writes Sky Canaves for the WSJ's China Real Time Report blog.
Wang Meng wins third Olympic gold medal
ESPN reports on the short track racer:
Wang Meng of China has won her third gold medal at the Olympic short track, holding off American Katherine Reutter in the women's 1,000 meters.
Wang will go down as the biggest short track star of the Vancouver Games, besting teammate Zhou Yang for that honor. Both had two golds apiece going into the final women's event, the 1,000 meters, but Zhou was disqualified for a daring move with three laps to go and she finished last anyway.
Wang has been suffering from a cold in recent days. She had a hacking cough, was sweating heavily and drinking from a water bottle as she spoke to reporters, somewhat breathlessly.
China Gymnastics bronze from 2000 should be stripped
From the Seattle Times:
China should be stripped of its bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics because one member of the squad has been found to be underage, international gymnastics officials said Friday.
Dong Fangxiao was 14 during the Sydney Games, according to an investigation by the International Gymnastics Federation. Gymnasts must be 16 during the Olympic year to compete.
"Young gymnasts cannot be manipulated," FIG president Bruno Grandi said.
A second gymnast on the 2000 squad, Yang Yun, also was suspected of being underage. But there was insufficient evidence her age had been falsified, and FIG said it was giving her a warning.
Fireworks disaster in Puning, Guangdong
ESWN translates an article about a Guangdong fireworks mishap that killed 20, created a 7-meter-wide, 2-meter-deep crater and destroyed 8 luxury cars.
Du Haibin's earthquake documentary
CNN reports on Du Haibin's new documentary, 14:28, on the Wenchuan earthquake, edited by Mary Stephen:
Little more than a year after the quake, Du Haibin's film "1428" won the Orizzonti prize for Best Documentary at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.
Without judgment but with a deep compassion for their subjects, the filmmakers of "1428" bring us a myriad of individual stories of absurdity, confusion and grief.
February 28, 2010
Smilence, democrazy, freedamn, and other English words with Chinese characteristics
The China Economy Observations blog covers the bilingual puns that have been exciting China's microbloggers over the past week:
Smilence 笑而不语
vi. When you are expecting some answers from your Chinese audience, you may just get a mysterious smile and their silence only.