The murky evolution of the Chinese education system
Now that the furor over the ejection of Lu Xun has subsided, Chengdu Living takes a look at what's really going on with the changes to China's school textbooks.
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September 30, 2010
The ash cloud over China
At China Dialogue, Meng Si examines a Greenpeace report on fly ash.
Some rich give anonymously at Buffet and Gates dinner
Ben Blanchard reports for Reuters.
What are rare earths and why does China control their supply?
Bloomberg has an extensive report on rare earth elements and how China came to control most of the world's supply.
The article is titled 'Pentagon losing control of bombs to China neodymium monopoly' but it does a good job of explaining rare earths and their industrial applications.
See also Wikipedia.
September 29, 2010
The $62-billion South-North Water Diversion
At The Chicago Tribune, Barbara Demick has a good summary of the status of and controversies surrounding the South-North Water Diversion Project that intends to pipe water from China's wet south to the parched northern areas.
China starts to resume export of minerals to Japan
AFP via France24:
Beijing had resumed customs procedures allowing for the export to Japan of the minerals, which are used in a range of high-tech devices, reported the Asahi Shimbun daily and Kyodo News agency.
Fei Mu, Lianhua, and Song of China
The Chinese Mirror looks at Fei Mu's earliest surviving work, Song of China, a 1935 domestic drama that became the first Chinese film exhibited commercially in the US, albeit in a somewhat distorted version:
While the usual complaint about English subtitles is poor grammar and erroneous vocabulary, "Song of China" has a different problem: whoever did them had a mastery of English grammar, but must have been a frustrated poet, and the subtitles perpetuate the Western myth that Chinese, even common people, only speak in flowery complex sentences. For example, at one point the intertitles relate the passage of time, in English, as:
"Seven times the pear tree has come into blossom"
The actual Chinese intertitle: "Seven years later"
Later on, when the daughter consults her sister-in-law as to what she should do, given her parents' disapproval of the man she loves, she is told that parental consent is a "timeworn tradition," and she should "follow her heart." The mother's reaction on hearing this is rendered in English as:
"The words of your sister-in-law are like seeds of the thornbush sown in the darkness"
But the Chinese says: [her words] are "very wicked, like a noxious weed"
What remains of Kashgar's old city?
Far West China presents photographs of Kashgar's urban makeover:
An interactive version of this map, created using Google Earth, is also available for download for those who need detailed information. The fact that Google Earth still shows all of the Old City intact indicates that they haven’t updated their satellite photos of Kashgar since before 2009.
Most of the buildings that face the main streets and places like the Id Kah Mosque have remained untouched, but behind these neighborhoods others are being hollowed out. Currently almost half of the Old City has been razed with more yet to be completed.
Academic gangster Xiao Chuanguo - a chronology by Fang Zhouzi
Anti academic fraud crusader Fang Zhouzi has published a time line of his interactions with Xiao Chuanguo, a urologist who developed a controversial procedure to restore bladder control to patients with spinal chord conditions. Fang Zhouzi accused Xiao of misrepresenting his academic credentials and fabricating data about the procedure.
Xiao and Fang have been in the news because Xiao hired thugs to beat up Fang Zhouzi earlier in September.
September 28, 2010
Gome shareholders reject jailed founder's proposal to remove chairman
A proposal by Huang Guangyu, the founder of electronics retail chain Gome who is currently beginning a 14-year sentence for bribery and insider trading, to replace current chairman Chen Xiao was rejected by a narrow margin at a special shareholders meeting in Hong Kong this afternoon, Bloomberg reports.
Xinhua is also carrying the story.
PR for the PRC
A transcript typist for the 2008 Beijing Olympics describes her experiences for n+1 magazine:
The first conference I attended concerned the logistics of the Olympic Village. I typed the sentence, “The overall mission of the Olympic Village’s operation team is to offer adequate reception services and make the Olympic Village a safe, harmonious, comfortable and convenient home for all the athletes, officials and other local residents.” I sat through speeches titled “More About the Co-Host Cities” and “Reception Service for Tourists.” I accompanied the reporters on government-led tours of the field-hockey grounds and farming greenhouses, and I peeked into a wrestling training facility where two judo sparring partners were locked in an embrace, looking like teenage lovers frozen in a petrifaction of sexuality. At one tour—as we were led through training facilities to “introduce reporters to China’s athletes,” the brick pathways between the facilities were being literally built (bricks put on top of mud) as we walked through.
Tencent: best shareholder returns of companies globally 2005-2009
Shen Hong on The Wall Street Journal:
[A] report from Boston Consulting Group, sampled a total of 712 companies between 2005 and 2009 and compared them on the basis of so-called “total shareholder return” (TSR), a measure that combines capital gains with cash payouts via dividends, share buybacks or debt payments...
Shenzhen-based Internet company Tencent Holdings (TCTZF) topped the list with a stunning total shareholder return rate of 106.3% over the five-year study period...
...Apart from Korea’s OCI Chemical Corp. and Indonesia’s Perusahaan Gas Negara, the rest of the top ten were all from Greater China, including instant noodles producer Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp. and rice wine maker Kweichow Moutai, as well as machinery firms Sany Heavy Industry, Changsha Zoomlion Heavy Industry and TBEA. The lowest TSR among these ten companies was 61.7%, well above the 6.6% annual average among the 712 firms sampled.
The report, titled “Threading the Needle: Value Creation In A Low-Growth Economy,” noted
Police investigate Beijing company that runs black jails
From The China Daily:
Police in the capital city are investigating a security service company that reportedly earns commissions for helping local governments intercept and lock up petitioners in "black jails", according to media reports.
Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau officials have detained Zhang Jun, chairman of Anyuanding Security Service Company, and Zhang Jie, general manager of the company, for "illegally detaining people and illegal business operation", the Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Saturday.
The story was first reported by the Southern Metropolis Daily.
September 27, 2010
Imitation, creativity and authenticity in contemporary Chinese literature
At the MCLC Resource Center, Krista Van Fleit Hang reviews Lena Henningsen's Copyright Matters: Imitation, Creativity and Authenticity in Contemporary Chinese Literature:
Lena Henningsen's study of copyright and plagiarism provides a window into contemporary Chinese popular culture, informing her readers of the most current trends in commercial Chinese literature. This book combines literary analysis with sociological, legal, and economic data on the often decried problem of piracy in China, generating fresh readings of contemporary Chinese literary culture in the twenty-first century. Indeed, Henningsen's exploration into intellectual property, piracy, and creativity leads to a reassessment of what it means to compose literature.
Why China bears will not die
Gady Epstein has a post on the Forbes blog about China bears -- people like Jim Chanos, Andy Xie, Michael Pettis and Gordon Chang who regularly predict gloom and doom for the Chinese economy.
The post links to a Sinica podcast featuring Kaiser Kuo, Arthur Kroeber, Bill Bishop and Epstein himself discussing the the ursine members of the China watching community.
Trying to make money from music festivals
Nick Frisch writes about it for Forbes blog:
Then there's the bland copy-cat corporatism that is overtaking festivals as it has recorded music, movies and literature. Many local jurisdictions around major cities hold various events to attract visitors and raise their town's profile. Recently, some have settled on hastily constructed stages, blaring lights and mediocre bands to do the trick. Dozens of such "festivals" now clutter the calendar, few of them distinct in concept or execution.
Thirty years of China's one-child policy
September 26, 2010
No more foreign aid for China?
The Economic Times:
China says it's still a developing country in need of aid, while some critics argue that the money should go to poorer countries in Africa and elsewhere.
Petition urges Nobel for jailed writer Liu Xiaobo
From the New York Times:
In a move sure to irk the Chinese government, a group of 300 scholars, lawyers, factory workers and retired government officials have signed a petition calling on the Nobel Peace Prize committee to award this year’s prize to Liu Xiaobo, an imprisoned writer who has spent much of his life calling for democratic reform in China.
Government releases white paper on human rights, upholds "Internet freedom"
Xinhua:
The Chinese government Sunday released a white paper on human rights in China in 2009, highlighting the role of Internet freedom and the country's efforts in safeguarding citizens' legitimate civil and political rights.
The full text of the white paper (English version) is here.
1.13 billion phone users in China
Some numbers from The China Daily:
China's phone subscribers rose to 1.13 billion by the end of August, said Yang Xueshan, vice minister of industry and information technology, on Saturday...
... according to the ministry, the country's phone users stood at 1.11 billion by the end of June, with 805 million mobile phone users and 305 fix-line phone users.
China's Internet users reached 420 million by the end of June, with the Internet penetration rate hitting 31.8 percent, said Yang.
September 25, 2010
Detained author describes his ordeal
Xie Chaoping talks to Southern Weekly. ESWN translates:
At the Chaoyang detention center, I waited 3 days "in transition." The conditions were poor. Four persons ate from one meal box. I was then transferred to the Linwei detention center. The detainees had to perform labor there in the form of batching joss papers. For the first week, I was in a cell with more than a dozen people and we completed two batches a day because we were novices. I was transferred to another cell later, where we had to complete ten to twenty batches a day.
Who is the winner in the Sino-Japan trawler row?
From Al Jazeera:
Not only did China get its way, everyone else saw it, and saw how it was done, too. You can't imagine Vietnam, with its own territorial dispute with China, feeling any safer. Or the rest of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations). Or South Korea. Or the people of Japan, as they watch their leaders capitulate.
Short-lived Chinese buildings
A photo gallery showing the premature ends of many Chinese buildings. Posted by China Hush.
Duncan Hewitt on labor unrest and manufacturing in China
Paul French interviews Newsweek's Duncan Hewitt on labor unrest and manufacturing in China, part of a series of Paul French podcasts on the Ethical Corporation website.
Japan frees Chinese boat captain
The Global Times:
China said early this morning that it was bringing home a Chinese fishing boat captain who had been illegally detained by Japan, by flying him back on a chartered plane after a Japanese prosecutor's decision to free him.
The latest development in the incident was summarized by an AFP headline as "Japan's blink in stand-off seen as win for assertive China," but Chinese analysts said the spat does not benefit either side, as the return of Chinese captain Zhan Qixiong will defuse tensions between the two regional powers but still have a lingering negative effect on their ties.
September 24, 2010
Japan plans to free fishing captain
CNN reports:
Japan will free a Chinese fishing captain, whose arrest touched off a diplomatic storm between Beijing and Tokyo, Japan's coast guard said Friday.
"We decided to suspend the charges in consideration of the Japan-China relationship," said the Japanese prosecutor in the case.
Meanwhile, China has arrested four Japanese for entering a military zone without authorization.
September 21, 2010
Controversial doctor detained in Fang Zhouzi case
Xiao Chuanguo, a urologist who developed a controversial procedure later criticized by Fang Zhouzi, has been detained by police along with three others for attacking Fang and as well as science journalist Fang Xuancheng. CS&AIW translates a report from The Beijing News website.
Following the attack on Fang, Xiao publicly mocked him for fabricating the incident to drive book sales.
Beijing revives Yongding River
From The China Daily
A river that has been dry for the past two decades will flow once more in the coming days, thanks to an ambitious environmental project.
Yongding River, historically the biggest to flow through the capital, is slated to be brought back to life by filling water into Wanping Lake, one of four lakes along its course. The lake's bed has recently been reconstructed so it can hold water more efficiently and it is now being refilled.
The lake should be full before the coming Mid-Autumn Festival.
Spring Dreams in the Old Capital
The Chinese Mirror introduces a classic 1930 film by newly-launched studio Lianhua:
The new studio was called Lianhua (联华), which literally translates as "United China," but used the English name "United Photoplay Service." It was the product of a merger of Luo Mingyou's Da Zhonghua Baihe studio with that of Li Minwei's Minxin studio. In addition to carrying over those two studios' talents, they also recruited some young filmmakers from other studios who were seeking more opportunities. The new studio's stated objective was to make progressive films which would entertain audiences while also advancing reformist ideas.
Don't call us dissidents - photo gallery
The Italian website Cineresie.info has a published a photo gallery titled "Don't call us dissidents" featuring writers, bloggers and activists including Tiger Temple, Zola, Yan Lianke and many others.
Also of interest on their website is a photo essay called Being Mao Zedong.
Patriotism, hacking, and advertising
The Global Times reports on the exploitation by hackers of anti-Japanese sentiment:
Hackers are taking advantage of anti-Japanese sentiments to lure visitors to advertising sites posing as a Japanese government website purportedly under attack, according to a Beijing-based web security company.
...
"Discretion is always advised when users feel the temptation to click on links that suggest they have anti-Japan content, because they could have viruses," Jin said. "Considering the current territorial spat and the 9.18 memorial day, you can understand why some people may want to cash in on the bitterness many Chinese feel about Japan."
September 20, 2010
Redefining the Great Wall
Translating Changcheng (长城) as "Great Wall" harms the cause of cultural heritage preservation, writes commentator Pei Yu, because it represents only one aspect of a more general cultural artifact.
China halts contacts with Japan as boat row escalates
In protest of Japan's extending trawler captain's detention, China has suspended ministerial and provincial-level bilateral exchanges with Japan, halted talks on increasing flights between the two countries and postponed a meeting about coal with Japan.
Rotting vegetables in Hebei
The Guardian's Jonathan Watts reports about drastic measures to reduce energy use before the five year plan is up.
September 18, 2010
Xie Chaoping released from detention
Xie Chaoping, the author of a book on relocations in the Sanmenxia area who was arrested in Beijing in August by Shaanxi police for "illegal business activity," has been released on bail because of "insufficient evidence," CRI reports.
September 17, 2010
The technically-illegal booming business of golf course construction
By Dan Washburn on Par for China:
There are ... worse places to kill time than Hainan, China’s tropical island paradise in the South China Sea. And increasingly for professionals in the struggling world of golf course construction, if you aren’t working in Hainan or somewhere else in China, you probably aren’t working...
...Simply put, China—where golf was banned until 1984—is propping up the entire golf course industry, and being able to maneuver through the country’s minefield of challenges is fast becoming the key to professional survival. Of course, figuring out China is never easy. This may be the only country in the midst of a golf boom. But it’s also a place where new courses remain technically illegal. …
September 16, 2010
Dress and speech codes for teachers
Teachers in Jiangsu dress too sexily and have a bad habit of talking out of turn, reports the Modern Express.
Future uncertain for Jet Li's charity
The One Foundation, a charity founded by Jet Li, is nearing the end of its three-year contract with the Chinese Red Cross, after which it will no longer be able to operate legally in the country, the Global Times reports.
September 15, 2010
Suicide as protest for next-generation migrant workers
At Japan Focus, Jenny Chan and Ngai Pun analyze the Foxconn suicides:
China’s emergence as a global economic power could not have occurred without the painstaking efforts of the older and younger generations of migrant workers. The Foxconn suicides have received much media attention and yet many other workers toil under equally terrible conditions. We believe that the labor and human rights issues raised by this human tragedy go far beyond the specific conditions at Foxconn, and demand wide-ranging changes at both the industry and governmental levels.
Shanghai's 7 social classes
CN Reviews translates a Chinese Internet post that describes, rather sarcastically, the income, lifestyle, habitat and mating habits of "Shanghai’s 7 Social Classes".
September 14, 2010
A demonstration against 'upbringing fee' and the penalty for a second child
Global Voices Online runs a translation about a law professor who is preparing to sell himself as he can't afford to pay for his second child.
Chinese vs Japanese media graphics of trawler - patrol boat collision
On Japan Probe:
A few days back, I posted about how a Chinese trawler had been seized by Japanese authorities after ramming two Japanese patrol vessels near the Senkaku Islands. That post contained the above image, which was created by the graphic department at TV Asahi News. It shows the Chinese trawler colliding with the side of the Japanese patrol ships.
After checking out some China Smack’s translations of anti-Japanese comments left by jingoistic Chinese netizens, I noticed that at least a couple Chinese media outlets are using graphics that report a very different kind of collision.
BMW driver intentionally kills boy
From China Daily:
The incident happened around 11 am on Sept 7 when the boy Le Le (not his real name) was playing behind a BMW X6 car in a residential community, the Nanjing-based Yangtze Evening News reported on Monday.
The driver drove the car backwards without looking behind the car and knocked down the boy, the report said.
"My son was run over four times," the boy's father surnamed Li was quoted as saying while crying and watching the surveillance video that happened to catch the entire accident.
Disappearing The Party from Am Cham and That's Shanghai
On The Financial Times' website, Richard McGregor writes about further censorship of his book author of The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers (The book's Amazon and Barnes and Noble Web pages are already blocked):
The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Beijing kindly invited me to speak when I was there in early August and also did a video interview with me for their website. They followed up by asking me for an article, which was duly written and received with pleasure. Then, the Beijing government intervened. According to AmCham officials, who contacted me about the issue, Beijing government officials called to suggest - which in China means request - that that the video interview with me be taken down...
A few days earlier, That’s Shanghai, the what’s-on magazine catering to China’s commercial capital, was called about an interview a couple of their editors had posted with me on their website a few months earlier...
...Then last week, their boss was called in for an old-fashioned struggle session with city officials and told to expunge it from the site, which it duly was.
"The most attractive Guangxi cities for foreigners"
On the Liuzhou Laowai blog:
Guangxi Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and Guangxi Center for International Exchange of Personnel have come up with an excellent ploy to rope in the local laowai to write their propaganda for them. They have announced an essay competition for foreigners. There are prizes. Unspecified prizes, but prizes...
...Of course, you can't just write any old thing. They have set a title...
"Amazing Guangxi - the Most Attractive Guangxi Cities for Foreigners"
Chinese beating Italians at their own game
The New York Times has a long story on Chinese immigrants in Prato, Italy, who are increasingly dominating the traditional Italian business of clothing and fashion:
But what seems to gall some Italians most is that the Chinese are beating them at their own game — tax evasion and brilliant ways of navigating Italy’s notoriously complex bureaucracy — and have created a thriving, if largely underground, new sector while many Prato businesses have gone under. The result is a toxic combination of residual fears about immigration and the economy.
September 13, 2010
Beauty gone bad: Miss Laowai 2010
At Shanghaiist, Robert Foyle pans the Miss Laowai 2010 competition:
8.15 Each contestant is introduced over loud pop music, while an introduction video for each entrant with a separate soundtrack plays (the remarks are all predictable variations on the theme of “I love China/Chinese people/food”). There’s also a female MC who gives an introduction of her own (example: “We think they’re from Down Under - when really they’re on top! Yes, this contestant is all the way from Australia!”). The result of this mish-mash? Barely anything can be heard. You can't help but feel sorry for the contestants.
As Number Two strolls on (Ellen from Indonesia), both computer screens crash. The audience watches a mouse desperately scroll through the desktop, looking for the right software (this takes a full two minutes)
David Spindler's Great Wall in Palo Alto
Great Wall historian David Spindler and photographer Jonathan Ball's collaborative exhibition of Great Wall photographs illustrating important battles and historical events on the Wall is now in Palo Alto - click through for details.
Xinhua the future of journalism?
Isaac Stone Fish writes for Newsweek:
“I read them quite a lot,” says Daniel Bettini, foreign editor for Yedioth Ahronoth, one of Israel’s largest newspapers. Editors in Pakistan and Turkey also praise Xinhua, noting that the language is simple and the quality has improved. “In the second Gulf war they were very good,” says Kamil Erdogdu, China correspondent for Turkey’s state news agency. “They got many things first; I used them many times.”
My WWII
SeeChina runs a translation on Cui Yongyuan's documentary project.
Japan frees detained Chinese fishermen
Xinhua:
The 14 Chinese fishermen, on board the trawler which had been kept off Ishigaki harbor in Okinawa since Tuesday's collision, will fly home Monday morning from the Ishigaki airport on a flight of Tianjin Airlines, said Xinhua reporter in the field.
The trawler itself will also be taken home on Monday.
Chinese embassy officials visit fisherman detained by Japan
Xinhua:
The fisherman were detained after a collision with Japanese patrol boats near what Japan controls and calls Senkaku islands but which China claims as its own and calls the Diaoyu islands.Officials from the Chinese Embassy in Japan have visited the Chinese fishermen illegally detained by the Japanese authorities last week in the East China Sea...
...Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and other senior diplomats have for several times lodged solemn representations with the Japanese side and protested the detention of the Chinese fishermen, they said.
Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo summoned Japanese ambassador Uichiro Niwa early Sunday morning and demanded the immediate release of the Chinese fishermen and their boat. Dai urged Japan to avoid any misjudgment of the situation and to make a "wise political resolution."
Microblogging marital discord
On ESWN:
"You got a mistress behind my back, so I am going to broadcast you two live on the Internet!"
A wife finds her husband in bed with another woman. All three of them use Sina's Weibo microblogging service, and that's where the fight plays out in public view.
September 12, 2010
Why Chinese horror isn't scary
Yang Jian explains that Chinese film policy removes the unknown from horror, draining its capacity to scare the audience.
Artists and their guides in the government
An op-ed for the People's Daily written in 1980 by noted actor Zhao Dan argues against censorship of the arts.
China as a modern medieval state
Wang Xiaofeng writes about the attack on Fang Zhouzi.
September 11, 2010
What is China's People's Congress up to?
For The Economic Observer, Paul Pennay summarizes the legislation that the NPC standing committee has been working on.
The man who makes your iPhone
Frederik Balfour and Tim Culpan write about Terry Gou, president of Foxconn, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of electronics.
Foxconn founder Terry Gou might be regarded as Henry Ford reincarnated if only a dozen of his workers hadn't killed themselves this year. An exclusive look inside a postmodern industrial empire.
Dilbert in China
Berlin Fang writes of attempts to bring the American workplace comic strip Dilbert to China, and of the difficulty of translating humor across cultures:
For instance, one of the cartoons obviously has a reference to the “yellow brick road” from Wizard of Oz. I doubt that the average Chinese readers know much about Wizard of Oz, let alone the reference to a particular detail in the book. In the beginning of my translation, I resorted to the use of footnote to explain where these references are from and what they meant. That was a pretty dumb idea. Next time I would rather put a footnote on my T-shirt, than putting it at the end of a cartoon. The annotation simply causes the abruptness, incongruity, and wit in a joke to be gone. Humor works likes a waterfall. There has to be a flow of thought that was suddenly interrupted by a free fall or quick turn into another direction. If you annotate, you messed up the flow and it was no longer funny any more.
Subway opens in Chengdu
Chengdu Living has lots of photos.
September 10, 2010
Chen Guangcheng released
Peter Ford writes for the Christian Science Monitor:
Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng was freed Thursday after four years in jail, to find the Chinese civil rights movement he helped pioneer weak, but lawyers still in the fight.
Mr. Chen, a self-taught “barefoot lawyer,” earned worldwide fame for calling attention to forced abortions and sterilizations as part of China’s one-child policy, and for helping people seek legal redress for official injustices.
More at The Independent.
Fat China
A video interview about China's growing obesity problem with Paul French, co-author of Fat China - How expanding waistlines are changing a nation.
A portrait of Foxconn's Terry Gou
Worker suicides and global media attention have finally convinced Foxconn that they need a PR agency. From Bloomberg:
Gou’s company hired WPP Plc’s Burson-Marsteller to help devise a formal public-relations strategy, its first in more than 35 years of existence.
Part of New York firm Burson-Marsteller’s plan was granting Bloomberg Businessweek’s request for unprecedented access to Foxconn’s factory floors, worker dorms, suicide-help-line operators and Gou himself, who in the course of a three-hour interview riffed on everything from Warren Buffett (“He’s too old”) to the uselessness of business degrees (“You can’t read a book to learn to swim”) and Steve Jobs (“I forced him to give me his business card”).
Bloomberg returned the favor with a rather appealing profile of billionaire Gou.
September 9, 2010
Oil rig tilts in Bohai Bay
Typhoon Malou pushed over a drilling platform off the coast of Shandong, Xinhua reports. Two people are missing.
See also: A slideshow of Xinhua photos hosted at the China Daily.
The hand of the state casts a shadow over the neon glare
At The Diplomat, Dan Edwards looks at the tension between commercial film and ideological goals:
China's Communist Party finds itself in a bind. Although it still views cinema as an ideological tool and maintains a tight leash on local productions, it also wants the domestic film industry to develop into a global commercial player.
So how can filmmakers navigate the apparently contradictory pressures of commercial success and politics, especially when the ideological position they’re expected to reflect is far from clear? One good guide could be in China’s most recent blockbuster—a homegrown movie that smashed box office records.
September 8, 2010
Ticks spread fear and death in Henan
The Economic Observer reports on a tick-borne illness that was covered up for a year and a half:
A Xinyang Health Bureau official revealed that the Xinyang City government researched how to disseminate information about the disease, and this past April the city mayor and specialists listened to a report given by the Health Department. The city officials then concluded that until they find how the pathogen is spread, they would not publicize the disease to prevent the spread of panic. However villagers told The Beijing News reporter that if the government does not announce the precise situation of the epidemic, panic is more liable to spread.
Cosy military ties with Myanmar
Xinhua:
A senior Chinese military officer said Tuesday that China attached great importance to the military relations with Myanmar.
Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Chen Bingde made the remarks when meeting with Thura U Shwe Mann, member of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar.
September 7, 2010
Ladislav Hudec: "The Man Who Changed Shanghai"
James T. Areddy in
Ladislav Hudec [was a] a Slovak who arrived in Shanghai as a World War I refugee. Or was he Hungarian?
The film “The Man Who Changed Shanghai” chronicles Hudec’s life and his impact on the cityscape during its most iconic period. In his 30-year career, all but one of Hudec’s 65 structures was in China.
Written and directed by Slovakia’s Ladislav Kabos for Media Film and Slovak Television, the film peers through Hudec’s own eyes. Rediscovered photos and 16mm film shot by Hudec document his travel between Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, the U.S., Japan and China.
Drum Tower destruction plan shelved
Li Shuang in The Global Times:
Controversial plans to redevelop the historic Gulou Drum Tower hutong area into a tourism attraction have been placed on hold after the merger of Dongcheng and Chongwen districts into a combined new Dongcheng district government.
Extensive plans to "restore" Gulou into something dubbed "Time Cultural City" by the former Dongcheng district director Yang Yiwen have all been shelved, according to a government insider who requested anonymity.
Chinese Film on 1960 Labor Camps Cheered in Venice
Reuters:
A powerful Chinese film on the plight of political prisoners condemned to forced labor camps in the late 1950s wooed critics in Venice on Monday, with some tipping it as a strong contender for the festival's top prize.
Xi Jinping: indigenous innovation includes foreign business in China
From Reuters in The Financial Times:
Xi Jinping, the vice-president, reassured overseas companies on Tuesday that China will treat them fairly and is committed to becoming the world’s most attractive destination for foreign investment...
...“We have adjusted our definition of indigenous innovation and confirm that foreign businesses are part of China’s manufacturing force,” Mr Xi told an audience of foreign government officials and business executives.
A review of Frank Dikötter's "Mao's Great Famine"
By Jonathan Fenby in The Guardian.
Also, Jonathan Mirsky has a review at the Literary Review.
Aids activist held in Henan
Global Times reports:
Police denied claims Wednesday that the arrest of a 23-year-old AIDS patient and activist was related to the man's ongoing campaign to call attention to the plight of people like him.
Tian Xi's actions have reportedly angered local authorities in Henan Province and some believe it was the reason for his arrest last month.
Larry Summers with big U.S. economic & security delegation in Beijing for 3 days
William Wan in The Washington Post:
At a time of tension in U.S.-China relations, a three-day visit by senior U.S. officials to Beijing began Monday with signs that Chinese leaders want to smooth over some key frictions.
"Sound" and "stable" was how a top Communist Party official described the two countries' relationship while receiving the U.S. delegation, which included National Economic Council Director Lawrence H. Summers and deputy national security adviser Thomas Donilon.
September 6, 2010
Francophone and Anglophone Africans in Beijing
On African Boots: a short film by young South African filmmaker Lebogang Rasethaba shot in Beijing about a meeting of an Anglophone African with a Francophone African.
China launches new satellite for TV broadcast
From The Global Times:
China successfully launched the "SinoSat-6" satellite for radio and television live broadcast at 12:14 a.m.Sunday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The satellite was carried on the Long March 3B rocket which took the SinoSat-6 into a geostationary transfer orbit 26 minutes after the launch...
...It will mainly serve for relaying TV and radio live broadcast signals and will greatly improve cultural life for people living in remote and mountainous regions, according to China Satellite Communications Corporation which will operate the satellite.
Acute but compassionate observation of human foibles
Bonnie S. McDougall's translation of three of Ah Cheng's most famous stories has been reissued by New Directions. Andrea Lingenfelter reviews the volume for Quarterly Conversation.
Author gets hauled away from Beijing by Shaanxi police
ESWN translates an in-depth report on Xie Chaoping, whose book reporting on migrants from the Sanmenxia area fell afoul of publishing policy and spurred police from Weinan, Shaanxi, to arrest him in Beijing.
"I explained the process of how
was published in detail." Wei Pizhi said. "I really didn't understand the step about reviewing the supplement, so I broke the regulations. But this should not end up as police business." According to Wei Pizhi, Zhu Fuli said: "I never said that there was anything wrong with the contents. I only said that you violated the regulations." Wei Pizhi retorted: "Aren't you Linwei police extending your arms too long and getting too widely involved?" At that moment, the police officer Wang Peng suddenly stood up and shouted: "I am a police officer. I can get involved in anything that occurs on any inch of land in the People's Republic of China." The meeting ended on bad terms.
September 4, 2010
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.
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.