Fantasy in a serious literary magazine
Guo Jingming's new epic fantasy novel will appear in Harvest. Is a bastion of serious literature repositioning itself to compete with the pulps?
« May 16, 2010 - May 22, 2010 | Main | May 30, 2010 - June 5, 2010 »
May 28, 2010
State media snark about Foxconn
John Sexton looks for "Common sense on Foxconn suicides" at China.org.cn:
Some journalists have been heard to remark that the workers' dormitories are far better than the pigsties they live in back in the villages. This reflects the deep concern of the media for the weaker social classes and belies the idea that they are only interested in compiling rich lists of green technology billionaires.
The local trade union, after an exhaustive and penetrating inquiry, decided the workers who committed suicide each had their own individual reasons for doing so. In line with the union's profound belief in the superiority of collective over individual action, perhaps they should be urging something more along the lines of a Masada-style event.
CNN Go TV show
CNNGo, the cable network's newish blog website now has a TV show at cnngo.com/tv, or click on this link to go to a video captioned "Shanghai's quirky characters show off the old, new and overlooked in their city".
Creative Chinese character art
Sinosplice presents imaginative sketches composed of Chinese characters.
Japanese germ warfare: effects
A story in City Journal by Judith Miller:
When Germ Warfare Happened: Seventy years ago, Japan’s bio-attacks killed hundreds of thousands. The effects linger today.
China says will not dump euros, markets smile
From The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. stocks rose broadly Thursday as investors' concerns about euro-zone debt eased.
The euro climbed following China's statement that it isn't planning to sell its European bond holdings and Spain's passage of additional budget cuts. As fears of stunted global demand eased, investors' appetite for risk increased, fueling a rally in crude and lifting key stock indexes above recent levels of resistance.
May 27, 2010
Group sex and the Cultural Revolution
Translation of a post by Li Yinhe commenting on the conviction of Ma Yaohai for group licentiousness.
Sprawling Beijing tries a softer urbanization
Caixin examines the progress of two trial schemes for urbanization:
The municipal government has decided to completely integrate into the urban landscape all of Beijing's so-called villages – communities of compact, low-rise brick homes on fringes and in backward corners of the city. Tens of thousands of people live in hundreds of villages which, despite the quaint name, are more or less slums, and have been slated for demolition.
...
The Dawangjing model is designed to support relocated households with substantial subsidies and shares of the proceeds from government land-leasing. The Beiwu model, on the other hand, encourages villagers to urbanize on their own, while allowing them to share the benefits of urbanization through land collectives.
Qinghai, Hunan satellite TV in programming deal
The China Daily reports on the country's first link-up of two provincial satellite TV stations:
The first show the new Qinghai TV is strongly promoting is "Blossoming Flowers," a girls' talent contest show. This genre is what Hunan TV is adept in, experts said.
...
Qinghai turned to several partners before Hunan, including Murdoch's Star TV in 2005. Star co-produced some shows and broadcast them in Qinghai TV, but due to the limitations on foreign capital's entry into local TV, the cooperation lasted only several months.
May 26, 2010
Infographics about China
Here' a promising new blog posting infographics about China: Chinfographic. This link is to a graphic titled 'The long tail – 60 Chinese cities with a population of over 1 million'.
Guangzhou 'city inspectors' to hire 50 cent gang
The China Media Project:
[T]he news on May 18 that Guangzhou’s corps of “city inspectors,” the camo-clad enforcers of urban order particularly among the rural migrant population in China’s cities (and a key component of “stability preservation”), would likely be getting its own team of internet commentators brought a few interesting comments from China’s media last week.
"City inspectors" aka "chengguan" (城管) or urban management squads are frequent targets of on- and off-line criticism for rough antics in dealing with street vendors, migrant workers and other vulnerable city residents.
May 25, 2010
When Xinhua holds back
ESWN translates an account of a presentation given by Xia Lin, deputy chief editor of Xinhua, on how the agency reports during emergency situations, such as the Urumqi riots, the Sichuan earthquake, and the Yang Liwei space mission.
Shen Fuzong, a Chinese scholar in 17th Century London
America's National Endowment for Humanities has published the trascript of a lecture by Jonathan Spence about an unusual meeting of the minds in 17th Century Europe: the scientist Robert Boyle (of Boyle's Law), scholar Thomas Hyde, and scholar cum would-be Catholic priest Shen Fuzong.
Leading art collector Zhang Rui and wife arrested
From Shanghai Eye:
Leading Chinese collector, dealer and gallerist, Zhang Rui, also known as Zhang Hao Ming, has been arrested, along with his wife, caught in the dragnet following the arrest of China Mobile vice president and deputy chairman Zhang Chunjiang. Zhang Rui has been held in custody incommunicado for three months, with no access to lawyers, a source close to the investigation revealed. The couple’s child is said to be with relatives.
May 24, 2010
Wang Keqin, investigative journalist
Tania Branigan of The Guardian profiles Wang Keqin: "Death threats from criminals and official wrath fail to silence zealous watchdog journalists".
May 23, 2010
Jet Li's new movie: no martial arts this time
Cfensi takes a look at the action star's family drama:
After taking a break from movies in May 2008, Jet Li returns to the Chinese film market with his new movie Ocean Heaven (Hai Yang Tian Tang), expected to open at the end of June. The movie tells the story of an autistic twenty-two-year-old named Wang Dafu. Jet Li plays the boy’s terminally ill father, who works in an aquarium and takes care of his son day and night. The boy’s mother died several years ago from drowning, but Dafu himself is quit adept in the water.