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Blogs » Society » Will China's new social insurance regulations lead to more illegal foreigners? |
- Will China's new social insurance regulations lead to more illegal foreigners?
- Party To Cadres: Rectitude At Home=Soft Power Abroad
- Mark MacKinnon frets over the rise of China Daily and the fall of western media
- Qatar Recycles Its China Earnings
- China Real Estate. Is It Different This Time?
- Husband in Shaanxi forced abortion case missing
- Presented By:
- Acid Dumplings [18]
- Forced abortion victim branded ‘traitor’ for talking to foreign media
- Worst City In The World Does Really Shitty Thing, Even For Its Standards
- For 200 yuan, cab driver returns lost cell phone
- Shenzhou 9 is in space, why aren’t public intellectuals happy?
- The iPhone and upstart smartphone Xiaomi
- Top-of-the-Week Links: Bo Xilai and the Cultural Revolution, FC Shenhua inks another import, and a reminder that Chai Happens
- After Rio, a new consensus
- Do Not Sexually Harass This Woman Wearing A See-Through Dress, Please
- Watch: Hong Kong's dragon boat festival makes a splash
- Off the Beaten Palate: Fermented fish
- A Reminder That Chinese Toddlers Are Basically The Best
- Top Ten Search List (June 25)
| Will China's new social insurance regulations lead to more illegal foreigners? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:00 PM PDT  Over at new blog on the block Rectified Name, Tianjin-based expat Matthew Stinson has a must-read post on China's new social insurance for foreigners that distills everything you need to know about the new rules down to six points. Here's what jumped out at us: [ more › ]     |
| Party To Cadres: Rectitude At Home=Soft Power Abroad Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:32 PM PDT  Soft Power: Teach The Masses, Make Money I was as appalled as anyone at reading about the forced abortion of a 7-month old fetus in Shaanxi. The only good thing perhaps is, as The Economist reports: Even three years ago, Ms Feng's suffering might have gone unnoticed outside the remote village in the north-western province of Shaanxi where she lives—just another statistic in China's family-planning programme. But her relatives uploaded the graphic pictures onto the internet, and soon microblogs had flashed them to millions of people across the country. Chinese citizens expressed their outrage online. It is not just the treatment of Ms Feng that they deplore. It is the one-child policy itself. The Internet has become a true force for disseminating information of all sorts that calls out government misdeeds. But, does the government care? Turns out, yes. On the heels of reading this, I came across a truly enlightening article from the ever excellent China Media Project, 'Where Does Soft Power Begin?' The article riffs on and explains (and translates) a recent piece in the People's Daily, 'The Government Must Consider the International Implications When Dealing With Domestic Issues," which takes that forced abortion on head on:
Then there is the example of a woman in Ankang, Shaanxi province, who was seven months pregnant and forced to have an abortion. How can you calculate the kind of adverse impact a story like that has on China's international image? Regarding the impact of such a story, the China Media Project suggests: Leaders, particularly at the national level, seem far more sensitive now to the international impact of domestic stories than they have been in the past. And many seem to understand that in this age of rapid, decentralized sharing of information, it is difficult to separate domestic public opinion (and the project of information control) from the issues of foreign news coverage, China's international image and — yes, here comes that magic word now so cherished by Chinese leaders — soft power. What saves the China Daily's piece from sounding like 'soft power' is just one more cynical mode of manipulation is: Against this backdrop, where is the key to the "ability to engage public opinion"? Faced with complex changes in the public opinion environment, the first thing many people might think of is how they can "say the right thing", how they can improve their ability to use the microphone in their hand, or how they can make their voice more readily heard. This so-called "ability to engage public opinion" should first and foremost be about the capacity to negotiate the contrasts between public opinion and reality — and not just the ability to utilize public opinion sphere and command discursive power. For those who lead, what is most critical is how to support the conceptual through pragmatic steps, using facts to win understanding, using action to preserve one's image [and that of the Party]. It should not be just about ways of dealing with the media, of reining the media in, or simply about handling all aspects of any given sudden-breaking incident. [emphasis mine] That of course doesn't mean that Central Government's exhorting 'soft power' domestically, which in turn affects it internationally isn't cynical. But, somehow I feel that something is changing in the Party. Perhaps the realization that, as many inside and outside of China has said, if it doesn't honestly reform, it will join the ranks of the past dynasties. |
| Mark MacKinnon frets over the rise of China Daily and the fall of western media Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:30 PM PDT  Interesting observations, as always, from Mark MacKinnon, East Asia correspondent of The Globe and Mail: [ more › ] |
| Qatar Recycles Its China Earnings Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:06 PM PDT As an exercise in financial recycling, it is intriguing. Qatar is applying for a license to invest $5 billion of its earnings from selling liquefied gas to China in Chinese equities, including initial public offerings. Beijing likes the idea, promising … Continue reading →  |
| China Real Estate. Is It Different This Time? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:37 PM PDT I had dinner last night with two Chinese from Nanjing and two Americans. The two Americans are both fluent in Chinese and have each spent well over a decade living and doing business in China. The same is true of the two Chinese. I greatly respect all four of these people. The topic of China real estate came up during our dinner and, and I found myself in the more bullish camp. The two Americans both argued that China's real estate bubble has already popped and that it is only going to get much worse. I, along with the two Chinese, argued that China's real estate had not really "crashed" and that I did not think it was going to crash in the same way it had in the United States. The two Americans kept making fun of me and saying that I sounded "just like the realtors who try to sell property." I responded by pointing out that I have been pretty bearish on China real estate for a long time but that there is a big difference between being bearish and believing there will be a crash, which to me means a plunge in real estate prices so deep that properties pretty much cease selling at any price and the rest of the economy is deeply impacted. I then talked about how China's real estate market is different from that in the United States, mostly due to the following:
I hate making the "it's different this time" argument as I do think past performance is one of the view ways on which we can judge future performance, but at the same time, Shanghai isn't Sacramento — heck, Sacramento isn't even San Fransisco. As I thought more about our discussion, I started thinking about how it has all of a sudden become almost too fashionable to paint China as finished economically. When it comes to investing, I think of myself of as a bit of a contrarian, and so I am now wondering if the recent onslaught of negative news on China might actually end up being a good thing. Does the fact that just about everyone (or at least it feels like just about everyone) is negative on China's economy and real estate mean that we should be expecting an upswing soon? Has the China is going to fall bandwagon gotten too big or is it justified? What do you think? |
| Husband in Shaanxi forced abortion case missing Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:40 PM PDT  The forced late-term abortion case in Shaanxi that recently took China by storm has taken a new turn with the husband now missing following harrassment by officials and thugs. [ more › ] |
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| Forced abortion victim branded ‘traitor’ for talking to foreign media Posted: 25 Jun 2012 02:49 PM PDT A Chinese author named Cao Junshu posted onto Sina Weibo, China's immensely popular microblogging service, several pictures in which the local authorities led villagers to unfurl banners insulting the family of a woman who was forced to undergo an abortion seven months into her pregnancy. Until press time, the post has been reposted over 48,000 times and received more than 20,000 comments.
Couple Deng Jiyuan and Feng Jianmei, who have just lost their 7-month fetus to forced abortion, are harassed by bullies hired by the local government after talking to the foreign media. According to the post, after Deng Jiyuan, victim Feng Jianmei's husband and father of the aborted fetus, was interviewed by German reporters, the local government was riled up about him exposing the skeleton in the cupboard, and sent people to stage a protest outside Deng's home with huge red banners reading 'Strike Down Traitors with Heavy Hands; Kick Them Out Of Zengjia Township.' Deng was forced to flee his hometown. The author wrote, "Despite that this (forced abortion) incident has hit the domestic as well as the international community with such a great impact, the local government still has the gall to go against the winds of the public opinion and persecute the victims. Just how unscrupulous those officials can be! A lawless and ungoverned country!" Another microblogger who goes by the name @假装在纽约 also disclosed on Weibo that at Baidu's discussion forum, the local government has mobilized a water army (paid posters) to deluge the front page with insults and defamation directed at Deng's family. The microblogger cited the following web comments as examples, "His sister Jicai, who made her name by selling her country, will soon find her way into the Japanese AV (pornography) market as a dark horse. The Deng family gave their interview to Japanese media and made this thing known to Japanese, with whom we have a bitter vendetta, which makes them no different from traitors. Feng Jianmei must be the most pampered pregnant woman in the town's history." Deng Jicai (邓吉彩), sister of Deng Jiyuan, responded to the vilification in Weibo, "I feel like crying but have no tears. Where is justice? Zengjia Township, where I was born and brought up, how can I still love you?I just don't understand in what way I have committed treason! I don't know what you mean by calling me a 'traitor.' My lord, in what way I have sold the People's Republic of China? I didn't beg you for pity for my miserable sister-in-law. I didn't ask you for even the slightest bit of sympathy. Just get lost! Let us go home!!!"
Feng Jianmei, then 7-month pregnant, was beaten by officials and forced to abort the baby at seven months on June 2 because her family did not pay a 40,000 yuan ($6,300) fine for the a second child as a violation of the country's one-child policy. The graphic photos of the mother and her dead baby in hospital bed were circulated online and sparked a public uproar over the monstrosity and the draconian policy. (Read: Gruesome photos of forced late-term abortion appall China, challenge One Child Policy)
Pictures of Feng Jianmei and the body of her 7-month unborn baby son sparked public fury Selected comments on Sina Weibo:
Selected comments from NetEase
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| Worst City In The World Does Really Shitty Thing, Even For Its Standards Posted: 25 Jun 2012 10:58 AM PDT
After physical and mental trauma, how else can one victimize the defenseless? Go after the family. That's what appears to have happened to the woman who was forced by local Family Planning officials to abort at seven months. By now surely you've seen the photo, and know that authorities have done diddly shit to punish the perpetrators except (we're told) strip them of their jobs (and I'm sure they remain unemployed, ignominiously blacklisted and shamed [SARCASM]). The latest development, according to Yanzhao City Online, is that the family of Feng Jianmei, the 27-year-old in Zengjia Town, Shaanxi whose seven-month-old fetus was removed from her belly and laid on her bedside, is being branded "traitors" for accepting an interview with foreign media. As the story appears on NetEase (translated by chinaSMACK):
Check out the chinaSMACK post if you want more details: about how the local government has organized a "water army" (paid online commenters) to smear the family's reputation; about how it is trying to spread rumors of the existence of documents the family signed agreeing to the abortion; about how Feng Jianmei's sister is planning to do Japanese porno; and, perhaps worst of all to one's reputation in such a godforsaken village/township, how the family has been giving interviews to Japanese media. And according to the journalist, the local government wants its water army to spread the idea that "no one in Zhenping county's history has ever enjoyed better post-birth care than Feng Jianmei." There's enough bullshit here to fertilize the Pearl River Delta, but don't expect anyone in Zhenping to see it. Banners were erected in front of the Feng apartment, reading, "Punish national traitors, drive them out of Zhenjia Town." Who would want to stay, after this, and live among the foulest detritus society has to offer? The comments on NetEase are around these lines. Again, translated on chinaSMACK:
As with all Chinese online discussions, members of the 50-Cent (Wumao) Army — again, commenters who get paid according to how many nice things they say about the government — lurk, so that in this case, not everyone agrees that the people who did this are husks of human beings who deserve drubbing by shillelagh. The least angry comment?
A fair question, but I'm afraid it doesn't matter for our purposes. Here, let me activate rant mode: Zhenjia Town of Zhenpin County in Ankang City, Shaanxi province is the worst place in the world, a special type of hell that criminals in the old days would choose death over banishment in order to avoid. It doesn't matter if the "local people" or the local government did this. Vile creatures survive — and thrive, it seems — in that place, lost like a drifting pirate ship, isolated from decency and common sense. If you think I'm being too harsh, well, yes. A woman had her seven-month-old fetus extracted from her belly and laid at her bedside, and the people responsible — who have been identified, by the way — have suffered no justice of consequence. You think about that, and wonder how high the blame should trickle, and how far it has yet to go. UPDATE, 10:38 am: Tea Leaf Nation and Ministry of Tofu have both written about this now. I recommend TLN's post in full; from Ministry of Tofu, this netizen comment stood out: "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." Throw that line around at your next party. |
| For 200 yuan, cab driver returns lost cell phone Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:13 PM PDT by Allison Carroll Goldman on June 25, 2012  The front page of today's Chutian Metropolis Daily features a big red headline: "For how many students will the gates to their dreams open today?" The story announces that the results of the gaokao, China's highly competitive national university entrance examination, will be announced around noon today. Students will be able to check their results online or collect a results slip from their schools. A second headline reads: "online speculation on the price of gold costs clients over 70 million RMB." The article describes how, for the first time, 9 executives at a Hong Kong-based firm will be taken to trial for encouraging clients on the mainland to engage in online speculation over the price of gold, which earned the executives a hefty commission but eventually caused the investors to lose upwards of 70 million yuan. The trial will take place this week in Hubei province, in the Jingzhou city court. At the bottom of the page, the cartoon picture shows a mean looking cabbie holding out a crying cell phone to a young girl, under the caption: "Give me 200 RMB and I'll give you back your phone." That caption basically sums up the story, which was based off some recent postings on Weibo. It seems a young girl accidentally left her cell phone in a cab and when she realized it was missing, called the phone. The cab driver answered and said he'd return the phone for 100 RMB. She agreed, but he then changed his mind and doubled the price. Eventually she agreed to pay up and received her phone back. The incident sparked a lively debate among Weibo users over the morality of the cab driver charging so much for the return of her phone. While some said it was wrong, others argued that the sum he asked for was much less than the phone was worth. The Chutian Metropolis Daily is a daily newspaper under the Hubei Daily Group that features local, national and international news and current affairs, plus background reports on science, education and health. Links and Sources  |
| Shenzhou 9 is in space, why aren’t public intellectuals happy? Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:59 AM PDT  This is the 1510 Digest, a weekly roundup of recent essays and articles published in Chinese on My1510.cn, with links to translations on the Marco Polo Project. Shenzhou 9 is in heaven, why aren't public intellectuals happy? Why do I get angry so easily? Why does the Chinese elite emigrate? Smoking ban in Hong Kong Evaluating Chinese Science and technology (1) and (2) The first part of the interview focuses on the distinction between military and civilian industries in China. Communist countries in general can develop military technology because they can focus a large number of resources on a specific project. However, this comes at the expense of civilian technology development: the best researchers are moved away from civilian technology, and the highly controlled environment of military R&D is not conducive to creative dialogue among scientists. But even in this field, China has not matched the the achievements of the USSR. The Chinese military industry has mostly reproduced existing models rather than developed original technology. Furthermore, because civilian technology is underdeveloped, raw materials produced in China often do not meet quality standards, and therefore have to be imported. The second part of the interview focuses on the Chinese 'knockoff' industry (山寨 /shanzhai). Unlike what happens in the West, military and civilian industries are completely distinct systems in China. The military industry relies on government funding, and is not subject to any market forces. It can tolerate high levels of defective products, and often fails to meet quality standards. Overall, Chinese industrial standards are low and unstable, both for processes and the quality of raw materials – for instance, ball pens are assembled in China, but the metal ball has to be imported. Apart from a few very low quality products, nothing in China is entirely produced in the country. As a result, the whole industrial system is fragile. The main R&D model in China is based on the shanzhai model. Businesses (as well as researchers) seek short-term profit. Importing core elements and developing a knockoff is cheaper than developing new technology. Beside, intellectual property is not respected. R&D investments are therefore at risk of being copied and never yielding returns. However, the media lets people believe that these knockoffs are actually original developments from China, causing a false impression of real technological progress. The shanzhai model can also lead to security issues – like in the case of the Wenzhou train incident: the Chinese high-speed train system is itself a knockoff, a hybrid of German, French and Japanese technology, which Chinese engineers failed to perfectly integrate. All articles in this digest and a large range of other Chinese readings are accessible at Marcopoloproject.org. Some are available in English, French and Spanish translation. (You can join the project if you'd like to help with translations.) Danwei is an affiliate of the Australian Centre on China in the World at The Australian National University. This posting is a result of one project that is part of that on-going collaboration. China Heritage Quarterly and East Asian History are two other publications supported by the Australian Centre on China in the World. |
| The iPhone and upstart smartphone Xiaomi Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:59 AM PDT  Apple's presentation of new mobile operating system iOS 6 last week sent Chinese Apple fans into a frenzy. On Sina Weibo, 1.8 million and counting messages were posted commenting on iOS 6. Many people were excited by the new features aimed at Chinese users, such as default options to use QQ for email and Baidu for search. The new feature that seems to have intrigued most people is that Siri now speaks Chinese – both Mandarin and Cantonese. On Youku.com, fans have posted videos of people interrogating Siri with questions ranging from the frivolous to the downright obscene such as the following:
Not everyone is amused: Many Chinese Internet companies, especially developers who make apps that sell on the iTunes store, are worried that they might be undercut and sidelined, and see Apple's new move as part of a bigger scheme to exert greater control over the users of its phones. An article on Sina Tech expresses the concern that Apple's new partnership with companies like Baidu will put other Chinese Internet companies at a disadvantage. App developers worry that some new iOS 6 features will make previously useful apps redundant. Apple switching to its own mapping function as the default rather than Google Maps means that some developers will have to redesign their apps to accommodate the new change. Even though the iOS 6 update hasn't gone public yet, pirated 'developers' preview' versions are already available on Chinese websites. Early adopters who can't wait to get a taste of the new fruit can get a trial version iOS 6 for 30 yuan on Taobao, China's biggest online consumer-to-consumer marketplace (similar to eBay). A preview version of Mountain Lion, Apple's next generation desktop operating system is also available for download for 10 yuan. Reviews of the new operating systems are mostly positive but there are also plenty of reported glitches. Some users noted on Weibo that their devices 'turned into bricks' due to unsuccessful updates, and some of them were unable to open old apps after the update. **** The Chinese smartphone market is the largest in the world, accounting for 22% of the global market. There are around one billion mobile phone users, and many of them are contemplating buying their first smart phone. In a Danwei survey of 209 Chinese mobile users conducted in March 2012 we found that 96% owned smart phones, and 94% of them used mobile phones to access the internet. The majority used Android phones. Our sample comprised only Weibo users, so is not representative of the general population. Not yet. Cheaper smartphone brands are growing in popularity as their quality rises. 40% of Chinese smart phones are expected to cost less than $200 [around 1,200 yuan] by 2015, yet so far the only budget Chinese smartphone that has successfully built a brand and achieved a certain amount of cool status along the lines of Apple is Xiaomi, a phone that runs on a version of Google's Android operating system called MIUI. Xiaomi currently offers only one model, priced at 1,999 yuan. The phone looks a little like an iPhone, and comes in a range of colors. Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun (雷军) is sometimes criticized for aping the fashion sense and stage manners of Steve Jobs (black shirt, blue jeans etc.). The Xiaomi offers itself rather blatantly as a cheap alternative to the iPhone. Xiaomi is doing very well, selling 150,000 smart phones in only 12 minutes earlier this year according to this report. This is reflected on social media: as of this writing, more than 62 million messages on Weibo are about Xiaomi, compared to just over ten million about Meizu, Xiaomi's main rival in the Chinese branded smartphone market. This is extraordinary since the phone was only launched in August 2011, and Lei Jun's previous company Kingsoft is known for making anti-virus software, and had no expertise in hardware manufacturing. Xiaomi is not the only new Chinese player to join the smartphone race: Early this year, Shanda, a NASDAQ-listed giant in online gaming and online publishing, entered the fray and has made its budget dual-core Bambook available for pre-order, with the official release date now imminent (June 28). Qihoo 360, a controversial anti-virus software company announced its intention to sell smartphones and has promised a device to be priced under 1,000 yuan. OPPO, a maker of consumer electronics, is breaking away from DVD and MP3 players it is known for to tease Chinese crowds with Finder, the world's slimmest smart phone which is now available for pre-order for a whopping 3,999 yuan. Search engine Baidu is also entering the fray with the Changhong H5018 that will make use of the company's cloud technology to offer 100 Gigabytes of free storage space. With so many players in the market, a price war is looming. **** Yet none of the Chinese smartphone brands mentioned above can draw the same kind of attention given to the iPhone as a marker of status, and this is reflected by the more than 273 million (and counting) messages on Sina Weibo that contain the key word iPhone. In comparison, there are just over 64 million messages that mention Android. (The gap is partially explained by the fact that Android is the operating system used by several different brands, and consumers are more likely to mention the phone brand than the operating system. There are over 12 million messages that mention Android in direct comparison with Apple's iOS.) Despite the attention, the iPhone's market share in the Chinese smart phone market is only just over 8%, but the phone's position as a status symbol and object of desire is firmly entrenched in the minds of China's consumers. Thus the iPhone serves as a status symbol not unlike car ownership. This is reflected in Weibo conversations where people often associate the iPhone with 'second-generation rich' (fu er dai 富二代), young people born into wealth, whose photos of themselves show off their Ferraris and Hermès Birkin handbags, much to the chagrin of other netizens. A retweeted message about iPhone is the following joke:
The myth that an iPhone can improve one's chances of hooking up is partly substantiated by the prevalent use of flirting apps that come in handy on an iPhone. One such tool is Weixin. Developed by Tencent, the app enables users to befriend any other users who are near and send messages to random users. There are enough reports of success to warrant the app the title of 'app of one-night stands (约泡 or 一夜)'. Apple remains the dominant luxury phone brand, and this is unlikely to change. But the most interesting developments in China's mobile phone industry will now take place in the low- to mid-price range, where rapid innovation, lawsuits and a price war are already under way. Users of these phones, mere mortals of the smartphone world, will have to settle for Android 4.0 operating systems, which in this writer's view is not much of a sacrifice at all. Maybe even a step up. |
| Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:26 AM PDT
Hope everyone enjoyed their Dragon Boat Festival. Here're your post-long-weekend links. A joke about "China": "The government reading is said to be both the most apt in terms of meaning and most accurate in terms of sound. When foreign visitors come to China, everywhere they turn they see the character 拆 painted on buildings, including the homes of many people who are still living in them. Puzzled, they ask their translator what this ubiquitous sign means. Whereupon the translator replies, 'That's the name of our country. From ancient times, the name of our country has been CHINA chāi[nǎ] 拆[哪] ("demolish; tear down") — demolition is absolutely essential.'" [Language Log] Your Dragon Boat Festival read: "Fang Gang (方刚), associate professor of gender studies at Beijing Forestry University, believes that Duanwu Festival is the first gay Valentine's Day in the history of civilisation, and that the recognisation of it as such would be a big move in 'rectifying the name' (正名) of both Qu Yuan and the origins of the festival." [Shanghaiist] Bo Xilai, princelings and the Cultural Revolution. "The Cultural Revolution-era elite alumni of Number Four are part of a generation marked by chaos that has made them less conformist than their predecessors. While Bo's brash ambition was rare among Chinese politicians, his sense of destiny and pragmatism are seen by some as shared princeling traits. // 'Overall, I think, their experience has made them more independent-minded and less trusting of central authority,' Yin Hongbiao, a student at Number Four at the start of the Cultural Revolution, said of politicians from Bo's generation. // …After Bo's dismissal, his wife's sister told friends not to worry about him, said a retired academic who said she overheard their comments at a funeral in March of a fellow princeling. // 'Don't worry about Bo Xilai, he's been through much worse than this,' the academic said, citing the sister's words. 'He's been through the Cultural Revolution. This is nothing.'" [Reuters] Patrick Devillers isn't coming to China after all. "Cambodia said Friday it will not extradite a Frenchman it detained for possible involvement in a murder linked to one of China's biggest political scandals in years. // …Cambodian officials have said they detained Devillers at China's request but needed more evidence of wrongdoing to hand him over to another nation." [AP via Washington Post] Chinese cities and their walkability. "Alfonzo says that there is increasing openness among officials to new ideas about what makes cities more livable and walkable. 'There are a growing number of planners and urban designers who understand these issues,' she says. 'Officials are more and more open to hearing about other policies, even if they're Western.'" [The Atlantic Cities] I'd watch. "One of the first rock 'n' roll films ever authorized by the Chinese Film Bureau, the slight but charmingFollow Follow is not a docu about Beijing's youthful music scene, glimpsed only in passing, but a wry, fetching tale about a lonely girl whose adoration of Kurt Cobain leads her to write a song and sing with a band." [Hollywood Reporter] Stan Abrams responds to Time's recent cover story on Apple in China. "There are many iPhone competitors, for example, and there are many iPhone copycats. Why does the iPhone continue to sell so well in China? Several reasons no doubt, but a lot of the success relates to branding, marketing, image, and consumer trends amongst the upper and middle classes here. Are these things that the government could easily take away, substituting a domestic competitor in Apple's place? I don't think so. // …There is no Communist cabal in China waiting in the wings to sabotage every successful foreign invested enterprise. Even that suggestion smacks of ignorance and misguided ideology. Apple is not being 'allowed' to do well in China, it simply is doing well." [China Hearsay] Where in the world is FC Shenhua getting all its money? "Shanghai Shenhua have made yet another big splash in the transfer market, this time signing Columbian attacking midfielder Giovanni Moreno from Argentian side Racing Club for a fee believed to be $9 million. // The 25-year-old former Atlético Nacional player joins Shenhua hot on the heels of Didier Drogba, and whilst not quite on the same level as the world superstar striker, Moreno is a player approaching his prime and has been capped 15 times for his country." [Wild East Football] Shenzhou-9 manually docking with Tiangong 1 interlude: Magnitude-5.7 earthquakein Ninglang county, Yunnan kills at least four and injures 100. [Xinhua] Brian Glucroft finds a bit of China in Europe. [Isidor's Fugue] 62-year-old buries himself up to head to protest deforestation of his land. [Caijing] Finally, finally…
Images via Adam Minter. "AIRLINE passengers upset at delays and cancellations affecting their holiday plans threw objects at airline ticket counters at Hongqiao International Airport on Thursday, forcing the airport to call in extra police to restore order." [Shanghai Daily] |
| Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:58 AM PDT The text agreed in Brazil may be a compromise, says Ma Jun, but it shows the world is a fairer place than 20 years ago. On the summit sidelines, the campaigner spoke to Xu Nan about global politics, supply chains and China's shifting role. Ma Jun is founder of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), an NGO that campaigns for transparency and corporate responsibility in China, with the help of a map of corporate environmental violations. Last week, the Goldman Prize winner spoke at "Cleaning up China's supply chains", a Rio+20 side event organised by chinadialogue and the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Following the talk, he spoke to Xu Nan about supply chains, the summit and its significance for China. |
| Do Not Sexually Harass This Woman Wearing A See-Through Dress, Please Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:10 AM PDT
But what is sexual harassment, really? Does leering count? How about intense leering? How about penetrative leering? What about sniffing? Impassioned sniffing? And while we're on the subject… aggressive winking: yay or nay? Here's what Shanghai Metro's official Sina Weibo account, which posted the above picture last Wednesday, had to say about this (as translated by Tea Leaf Nation): "If that's what you wear on a subway, then no wonder you will be sexually harassed! There are too many perverts riding the subway every day, and we can't catch them all. Girl, you've got to respect yourself!" But I wonder, again: will dressing like that get you publicly jizzed on? If not, there's patently no reason to be having this conversation. Two ladies felt the need to "protest" this Shanghai Metro Weibo statement, with signs that read, "I can be sexy, but you can not harass," and "yes to cool dress, no to dirty man" (translated by China Daily). These two did not gain much traction — probably because they wore clothes that would not be considered sexy in any country except those that require burqas. I'm not about attention for attention's sake, but you can't wear a sign extolling your right to "be sexy" and not wear sexy clothes, amirite? Or am I missing something? Take a page out of PETA's book, ladies: get naked. (Or at least dance a little.) Not for my sake, mind you. For the sake of women everywhere who just want to be naked in the comfort of their own private slice of Shanghai subway.
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| Watch: Hong Kong's dragon boat festival makes a splash Posted: 25 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT Via TelegraphTV: "Hundreds of people gathered at Aberdeen Harbour in Hong Kong to watch the country's annual dragon boat festival, an exciting and colourful traditional Chinese celebration." [ more › ] |
| Off the Beaten Palate: Fermented fish Posted: 25 Jun 2012 04:10 AM PDT  Imagine a fish that you could chum the water with and attract more Wisconsinites than sharks. That fish would be chou yu, fish that's fermented so that it has the pungency of cheese. [ more › ] |
| A Reminder That Chinese Toddlers Are Basically The Best Posted: 25 Jun 2012 03:00 AM PDT
Alicia saw this on Global Times today, a picture by CFP captioned: "A boy shows his Apple haircut at West Lake in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province on Saturday." Must be nice to be that kid: didn't do a thing, got into Global Times. But that's how it is with toddlers, isn't it? They usually don't need to say the darndest word to get your attention. Just witness: (Note: some of these may not be strictly Chinese, but most are.)  They said I could be anything, so I became a lotus leaf. (China Daily / Reuters via Buzzfeed)  Via Buzzfeed  Via Buzzfeed`  Via srslycuteasianbabies.tumblr.com  Via tinyurl.com/76c4ws5  Via tinyurl.com/2gkoyd  Via tinyurl.com/776gmv5  Via tinyurl.com/89pwe33 |
| Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:30 AM PDT
Here's the top ten real-time search list for today, recorded at 10:56AM. 1. 巩新亮不穿内衣 Gǒng Xīnliàng bùchuān nèiyī – Chinese actress Gong Xinliang, known for her appearance in hit Chinese movie Feng Xiaogang's "If You Are the One" (非诚勿扰), is now also known for a recent braless walk down the red carpet. At the closing ceremony of the15th Shanghai International Film Festival last week, Gong showed up in a white dress which accidentally exposed her right breast to cameras. Here's the story in Chinese. 2. 云南地震 Yúnnán dìzhèn – Yesterday at 11:30PM, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake hit the border of Sichuan and Yunnan. 3 residents of Ninglang, Yunnan were killed, 20 have been seriously injured, and 82 others have been reported wounded. Here's the story in Chinese. 3. 遗传性性吸引 yíchuán xìngxìng xīyǐn – News from the Daily Mail of Mistie Atkinson has made it to China. Mistie, the 32 year-old woman who recently made a sex tape with her son in a California motel room upon reuniting with him after 15 years of separation, claims that the act did not count as incest, as there is such a thing as "genetic sexual attraction" between family members who come together again after long periods of separation. (Her line of defense failed to clear her name and she has been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison). Search volume is high today for "Genetic Sexual Attraction." Here's the story in Chinese. 4. 周董华仔结仇 Zhōu Dǒng Huá Zǐ jié chóu – Taiwanese talkshow host Jacky Wu has been talking smack about Taiwanese singer Jay Chou and Hong Kong Cantopop singer Andy Lau, exposing and thus further exacerbating what is apparently a long-standing tension between the two. While hosting an episode of the Taiwanese variety show "Power Sunday," Wu, known for his big mouth, let slip that just when Chou's career was first taking off, he wrote songs for Lau which Lau immediately rejected, ridiculing Chou's lyrics to his face. Here's the story in Chinese. 5. 上海地铁二运Shànghǎi dìtiě èryùn – On June 20th, the operating company of Shanghai's underground subway system tweeted a post on one of its official Weibo pages that has subsequently provoked the anger of scores of netizens. The Shanghai Metro posted a picture of a scantily clad woman waiting for the subway and wrote, "Boarding the train dressed like this, how could you not end up getting harassed?" and warned female passengers to cover up, lest they incur the wrath of the subway's countless male predators. Netizens are outraged by the post, many asserting that the way a woman dresses is her own choice, and that the Shanghai Metro is merely shirking its responsibility to protect passengers by placing blame on the victims. One user commented, "If women in revealing outfits are asking for harassment, why doesn't every man at the local swimming pool turn into Mr. Grabbyhands?" Here's the story in Chinese. 6.丁雅琦Dīng Yǎqí – Ding Yaqi, a female high school student from Wuhu, Anhui province, is now famous nationwide for her Gaokao results (the gāokǎo = China's national standardized college entrance examination), after obtaining the number one score in science in all of Anhui province. As Ding, who has chosen to matriculate at Tsinghua University, modestly basks in the glory of her success, reporters ask her about her study methods and her proficiency as an electric keyboard player. Raised in a single-parent home, articles say, she has had to "grow up fast." Here's the story in Chinese. 7. 8个月女婴家中被剁双手8 gè yuè nǚyīng jiāzhōng bèi duò shuāngshǒu – This past weekend in Jinan, Shandong, a grandmother chopped off the hands of her eight-month old baby granddaughter, also injuring her self in the process. The baby girl's parents both work during the day, and left her in the care of her grandmother. It is still unclear how this happened, and both baby and grandma are still in the hospital. Here's the story in Chinese. 8. 勺子点球sháozi diǎnqiú – "Spoon Penalty": Andrea Pirlo's penalty to help take Italy to the win over England in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals has everyone searching for "Spoon"—a reference to Pirlo's nonchalant chip and effortless goal, putting the pressure on England's Ashley Young, next up in the shoot-out. Here's the story in Chinese. 9. 中国超速最高纪录 Zhōngguó chāosù zuìgāo jìlù – Two twenty-somethings driving through Zhejiang broke the Ningbo high-speed record before being pulled over for driving at the speed of airplanes just before take-off. One young man, in a white Mercedes-Benz SLS, was going 235 km/hr, while the other, in an Aston Martin, was going 258 km/hr. They were apparently racing each other. Here's the story in Chinese. 10. 章子怡恋上孙宝奇 Zhāng Zǐyí liànshàng Sūn Bǎoqí – Rumors have begun to circulate that the new object of Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi's affection is widely beloved Chinese male singer Sun Baoqi. Here's the story in Chinese.        |
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