Book discount ban scrubbed
A revised draft of trade regulations for the book industry has scrapped controversial rules banning discounts on new titles and capping backlist discounts at 15%, reports the China Daily.
« August 22, 2010 - August 28, 2010 | Main | September 5, 2010 - September 11, 2010 »
September 4, 2010
September 3, 2010
Hollywood vs. 'Huai-llywood'
At ChinaGeeks, Robert Powers discusses what the Chinese film industry can do to compete on a global level.
Tax case against Xu Zhiyong/OCI dismissed
The Chinese Law Prof Blog reports that the case against Xu Zhiyong and the non-profit Open Constitution Initiative (Gongmeng), who were raided for suspected tax evasion last year, has now been dropped.
Wang Li on mealtime hospitality
Many consider Wang Li (1900-1986) to be the founder of modern Chinese linguistics. Along with other linguists, Wang Li developed a new Chinese framework of linguistic analysis, and after 1949, he worked extensively on reforming the Chinese writing system. In addition to his linguistic contributions, Wang Li also wrote several essays. Below is "Mealtime hospitality," originally published in 1943.
Beijing Literature celebrates 60 years
A brief history of the literary magazine once edited by Lao She
The many forms of official approval
Jiang Zongfu explains how leaders can indicate what they really mean when they sign off on a document.
Interview with a lexicographer
A video interview with Julie Kleeman, chief English editor of the new Oxford bilingual Chinese-English dictionary.
Mormons in China to be "Regularized"?
Peggy Fletcher Stack reports for the Salt Lake Tribune:
None of that is likely to change with this week's announcement that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has held "high-level" talks that are "expected to lead to 'regularized' (church) operations" in China.
The Utah-based faith isn't about to overwhelm the world's most-populous nation with young men in dark suits or erect temples in Beijing, Shanghai or anywhere else on the mainland.
"It is important to understand what the term regularizing means, and what it does not mean," LDS Church spokesman Michael Otterson said in a news release. "It does not mean that we anticipate sending missionaries to China. That issue is not even under consideration."
How Islam was defined in China
HA Hellyer writes for The National about the history of China's Muslims.
Some mistakenly interpret the Chinese Muslim experience to be primarily an immigrant experience or one defined by ethnic minority status, particularly when it comes to China’s Uighur population.
But the largest populations of Muslims in China, among the Hui population, are virtually indistinguishable from the ethnic Han community that comprises the majority of China’s population. The position of these Muslims in China’s history should not be underestimated – not least due to the fame of the Muslim Zheng He, the commander of the Imperial Star Fleet in the 15th century, who remains celebrated even today as a magnificent leader.
September 2, 2010
Landslide in Yunnan kills three; 57 missing
China Daily reports:
Three people died and 57 others were missing when landslides hit a village in Baoshan City of southwest China's Yunnan Province Wednesday night, local government said Thursday.
The landslides happened at Wama Village of Longyang District, the provincial government's emergency office said in a statement.
September 1, 2010
Yunnan sex education learned from the American far right
GoKunming reports:
The conservative American organization Focus on the Family gained its first major toehold in Chinese classrooms this past week.
The Yunnan provincial education bureau has ordered high schools and universities to teach Focus on the Family's "No Apologies" (无悔今生) strategy for rejecting premarital sex.
See the original report in the Chuncheng Evening News and a critical view from Fang Gang written two years ago when Zhejiang University launched its own abstinence-only education program.
The limits of microblogging
Wu Danhong has his microblog quietly sapped of functionality. China Media Project translates:
On August 31, my personal photograph and bio were deleted by Sina Microblog management personnel, and I received no prior notice whatsoever about this. I attempted to make contact with managers, and one manager told me that this wasn’t their decision, but was “the intention up top” (上面的意思). I said my microblog had contained nothing at all that could be construed as illegal or reactionary. He said my posts had probably dealt too much with current politics (时政内容太多). I said I focused mostly on legal issues, and can you guess what he said? He said, “The law is also current politics.”
On the night of August 31, I discovered that not only were my microblog followers not growing, but they were in fact falling in number. I watched them fall from 9,958 to 9,952. When I asked my friends about this, they said I had already been marked as “forbidden” (禁止关注), so it was no longer possibly for others to follow me. A few of my friends were skeptical. They un-followed me and then attempted to add me again — but this was impossible.
ID needed to buy cell phone cards from today
The China Daily:
Mobile phone customers will have to present ID when purchasing a phone number from Wednesday, in the latest campaign by the government to curb the global scourge of spam, pornographic messages and fraud on cellular phones.
Foreigners will also need to register with their passports or other ID in order to subscribe to mobile phone carriers.
August 31, 2010
Rivalry between the top leaders?
Asia Sentinel looks at the relationship between Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao and their attitudes to political reform.
First steps towards political reform
China Media Project translates an editorial by PKU professor He Weifang.
China and DPRK to restart nuclear talks
China Daily reports following Kim Jong-il's visit to China.
August 30, 2010
Echoes and the crunch of broken glass
Shanghai Street Stories asks, "What is the appeal of an abandoned building?"
State-owned enterprises seek foreign executives
The China Daily:
More than a dozen State-owned enterprises (SOEs) will hire new managers by the end of the year after a worldwide recruitment campaign, the centrally administered State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) announced last week.
Recruitment will begin Aug 30. The positions are open to all nationalities, the watchdog said.
Four general managers and eight assistant managers will come on board during the eighth and largest global hiring program by the SASAC.
Don't use Party newspapers as toilet paper!
At Language Log, Victor Mair comments on the grammar of a sign in a public toilet forbidding the use of Communist Party newspapers as toilet paper.
August 29, 2010
A shady adoption agency
Kim Mackrael at the Guelph Mercury takes a long look at Jim Garrow's "baby rescue" operation, which claims to smuggle out of China babies who would otherwise be abandoned:
As the organization’s reputation in China grew, he says it became easier to convince people in China to trust representatives of Pink Pagoda with their infants. Now, he says, he’s almost legendary in much of the country.
“You don’t see me walking on a street in China, you don’t see the reaction they have to me there,” he says. “It’s almost mystical.”
“People know something like what I do is going on, and they appreciate it.”
On March 11, 2009, the Pink Pagoda website welcomed a lawyer named Kenneth Xue as the organization’s legal adviser.
...
Reached by email at his office in Shenzhen, China, Xue said he never agreed to be a part of Pink Pagoda.“I have never been involved with Pink Pagoda and have no ... idea about this organization. I am really angry with this guy,” Xue wrote.
Via Research China, which adds additional information on Mr. Garrow, including the detail that he claims to enjoy the patronage of President Hu Jintao.
'Science cop' Fang Zhouzi injured in attack near home
Fang Zhouzi, who is known as a "science cop" for battling against pseudoscience and academic misconduct, was attacked Sunday evening near his residence in Beijing, according to his wife's posting on his microblog.