| Sensitive Words: The Bo Xilai Expulsion Posted: 29 Sep 2012 04:01 PM PDT Search results do not include the "search for user" function. Bo Xilai:
double expulsion (双开): A form of CCP discipline in which one is expelled from both the Party (开除党籍) and office (开除公职). Bo has suffered this fate.
support + Bo (支持+薄)
endorse + Bo (拥护+薄)
endure + Bo (挺+薄)
Eighteen (Big) + Bo (十八（大）+薄) [unblocked as of 9/29]: The 18th Party Congress is commonly referred to as the "18 Big."
18big + Bo (18大+薄)
Zhang (Ziyi) + Bo (章（子怡）+薄) [unblocked as of 9/29]
Wang Lijun + Bo (王立军+薄) [unblocked as of 9/29]
Chongqing + Bo (重庆+薄) [unblocked as of 9/29]
Enter the Standing Committee (入常) (Before the scandal broke, Bo was widely expected to join the Politburo Standing Committee)
force the king to abdicate (逼宫)
Hu Deping (胡德平) (Incoming president Xi Jinping met with prominent reformer Hu Deping）
Blood Debt Gang (血债帮) Retested Nicknames for Bo Xilai [all unblocked as of 9/29]:
Captain Bo (薄督)
King Who Pacified the West (平西王)
not thick (不厚): The character for Bo's surname is the same as for the word "thin" (báo). Xi Jinping:
Brother Sly (刁哥): The character 刁, which can mean "sly," resembles the character for Xi's surname (习).
come out in a wheelchair (坐轮椅出来): When Xi went missing early in the month, a number of rumors circulated about his health. Netizens asked mockingly why he couldn't sit in a wheelchair and show himself. Other:
Beijing + chaos (北京+乱)
Prostitute Uncle (婊叔): A nickname for Watch Uncle. "Prostitute" (婊 biǎo) looks similar to and sounds the same as "watch" (表).
Kuqa (库车): A county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Note: All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results. CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese's latest sensitive words post.
© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bo Xilai, Hu Deping, Internet censorship, sensitive words, sina weibo, xi jinxing
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| Chinese girl causes Internet sensation for a perfect split Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:18 PM PDT 
A college girl from Shangdong has triggered a trend after she uploaded on her personal blog a photo of herself doing a perfect split in the dorm. Many girls across the country followed her up, and made the difficult but graceful posture as well to show on the web. They are seen eating lunch, working on the computer or talking on the phone, with their long straight legs spread wide apart. Check out below: 
h/o to May Daily |
| Woman in mermaid costume seeks help in street Posted: 28 Sep 2012 08:50 PM PDT 
On September 21, at a public square in Changzhou city, Hebei province, a beautiful woman who dressed herself up in a revealing mermaid costume attracted a lot of attention from the public. She wrote in a piece of paper placed in front of her that she is a mermaid from waters around Diaoyu Islands, but recently was left stranded due to the rising troubles over the islets. She hoped someone to help bring her back to life by collecting blesses from 999 pairs of lovers, when she turns into a pearl three days later. What a publicity stunt! |
| Old Boss Wants to Become New Boss Posted: 29 Sep 2012 12:29 AM PDT As the 18th Party Congress draws near, former leader Jiang Zemin is believed to be wielding his clout behind the scenes. A recent appearance at a concert once again stirred up curiosity from the public. From Zhang Jie and Keith B. Richburg at The Washington Post: […] China-watchers – and the active community of Internet users on Twitter-like microblogging sites known as "weibo" — took considerable interest in photos of Jiang that suddenly appeared on overseas Chinese Web sites this week, attending a recent concert at Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts, affectionately called "The Egg." […] But China's ubiquitous Internet censors have tried to squash the swirling speculation by blocking Jiang's names from the weibo search engines. The photos only appeared on overseas Chinese media Web sites. But that hasn't stopped China's Netizens from talking, mostly by using more oblique references, like; "Old comrade and his wife went to a concert."
Some analysts read Jiang's public appearances as a sign of his desire for continued influence over policy and personnel consulting. From Cary Huang at South China Morning Post: There has been much speculation that Jiang's influence may eclipse that of current general secretary Hu Jintao in the new leadership line-up , as members of Jiang's faction and their allies seem to be gaining an upper hand in the contest for seats on the next Politburo Standing Committee, the party's top power echelon. […] There are suggestions the next standing committee will have only seven members, down from nine at present. Top contenders for those posts include Shanghai party boss Yu Zhengsheng, vice-premier and Chongqing party chief Zhang Dejiang and Vice-Premier Wang Qishan; all three come either from the Shanghai faction or are princelings – Jiang's power base. "Jiang's Shanghai faction allied with the princelings to rival the populist group led by Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao after what they saw as the failures of governance in the current administration," said Zhang Lifan, who was a historian at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, one of the nation's top think tanks.
Jiang is not the only old boss who wants his say. See Jeremy Page at WSJ: Mr. Jiang isn't the only elder statesman to re-enter the political fray. Three others have published books this year, including 87-year-old Qiao Shi, a former rival of Mr. Jiang who is also thought to have played a part in discussions on the Bo scandal, according to the party insiders. […] As top Chinese leaders step down earlier—based on an unofficial retirement age of 68 introduced in 2002—many of them are around longer after leaving office and using their unofficial powers and contacts to play a more active, and visible, role in political discourse. The result is an increasingly ungainly decision-making system that makes it harder to achieve consensus on the economic and political reforms needed to balance rapid growth and social stability, analysts say. Policy-making has been paralyzed for much of this year as retired and departing leaders scheme to ensure promotion of protégés who can preserve their political influence and protect their family interests for the next decade. […] Mr. Qiao, considered a relative moderate, has long advocated strengthening the rule of law and published a book in June that focused on his efforts between 1985 and 1998 to strengthen the legal system and the national parliament—a move that some analysts saw as an attempt to highlight the weakening of those institutions over the last decade.
See more on Jiang Zemin via CDT.
© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, Bo Xilai, CCP, Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, leadership transition, princelings, Youth League faction
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| Chinese Actresses Falling Short in Hollywood? Posted: 28 Sep 2012 11:58 PM PDT China Daily seems to be worried about the "short shrift" Chinese actresses are getting in Hollywood blockbusters: The latest sign of a Chinese invasion in Hollywood is a string of performances so short, you'll miss them if you blink. Chinese actresses, many of whom are superstars in China, are appearing in big-budget Hollywood movies, but in roles that are more decorative than groundbreaking. [ . . . ] The driving force behind these Chinese beauties' Hollywood debut is Chinese capital, which has found its way into productions of international box-office clout. Chinese investors made their projects into co-productions so that they can reap a higher share of the Chinese box office. To achieve that, the investors needed to incorporate a significant Chinese element in the storyline and have as much as a third of the main cast be Chinese actors. These actresses represent the Chinese participation in high-profile Hollywood productions.
I wrote about this co-production issue last Thursday. These studios are gaming the system here. On one hand, I understand the expectation for more Chinese actors in these pictures. That's actually what the co-production rules mandate. On the other hand, Hollywood will do whatever it thinks will result in more profitable films. If that means putting in hot Chinese girls, they'll do it. If, on the other hand, they think these actors do not relate well to a non-Chinese audience, perhaps because of language/accent issues, then their performances are going to end up on the cutting room floor. Come to think of it, are there a lot of other non-native English speakers filling those big Hollywood roles? Very few, and those foreigners who aren't Brits, Canucks, Aussies or Kiwis generally have strong English skills (I'm thinking Northern Europeans). French accents are sometimes OK, but other than that, it gets tough for foreign actors. Expecting Chinese actresses to suddenly make it big in Tinseltown sounds like a stretch to me. Contrary to conventional wisdom, looks aren't everything in Hollywood.
© Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: co-productions, Hollywood
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| Kin of Last Chinese Emperor Hold Reunion Posted: 29 Sep 2012 12:20 AM PDT Descendents of China's last emperor Puyi gathered in Beijing on Thursday to mark the publication of a new series of books. Barbara Demick at The Los Angeles Times details the family's memories of Puyi and their rocky path through the Communist era: In a rare reunion of one of China's most famous families, four relatives of the late Emperor Puyi convened Thursday at the willow-fringed lakefront mansion in Beijing where he was born in 1906. One of the more reviled figures of Chinese history, Puyi was elevated to the throne as a 2-year-old and abdicated at age 6, only to be reinstalled as a puppet of the Japanese occupation during World War II. […] There's considerable curiosity in China about those remaining royal family members, but their existence does not carry the same cachet as elsewhere, perhaps because of decades of anti-imperialist indoctrination by communists. The relatives hardly ever get together, and even less often in public — royal blood being something you don't advertise in a communist country — but made an exception to mark the publication of a new series of books about their family. […] Zheng, his niece, recalled that Puyi once tried to take a bus, but being chivalrous, let all the women get on first. One of them was the conductor, and the bus left without him. Another time, she went with him to a shop near the botanical garden and realized he had never used money.
See also Biography of Last Chinese Eunuch Reveals a Tumultuous Life, via CDT.
© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: history, Imperialism, Puyi, qing dynasty
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| Murakami on Islands Dispute, Rushdie on Ai Weiwei Posted: 29 Sep 2012 12:07 AM PDT Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has commented on the tense stand-off between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. Murakami wrote in the Asahi Shimbun that (from AFP): "When a territorial issue ceases to be a practical matter and enters the realm of 'national emotions', it creates a dangerous situation with no exit. "It is like cheap liquor. Cheap liquor gets you drunk after only a few shots and makes you hysterical. "It makes you speak loudly and act rudely… But after your drunken rampage you are left with nothing but an awful headache the next morning. "We must be careful about politicians and polemicists who lavish us with this cheap liquor and fan this kind of rampage," he wrote.
Murakami's novel 1Q84 has been among the many targets of recent anti-Japanese boycotts, alongside sushi, cars and even medicine. But although upset by this development, the author warned against retaliation. From Japan Real Time: "I fear that as both an Asian and Japanese writer the steady achievements we've made (in deepening cultural exchanges and understanding with our Asia neighbors) will be hugely damaged because of the problems regarding Senkaku and Takeshima this time," wrote Mr. Murakami. […] The removal of Japanese works in bookstores across China "shocked" the 63-year-old author. It represented how far reaching the territorial tiffs have become, threatening to tear down the regional cultural bonds that took decades to build. Mr. Murakami said it's not his position to criticize China for suspending the sale of books written by Japanese authors "because it's China's domestic problem." "But here is what I'd say loud and clear: Please don't retaliate against China for taking such steps. If we do, it becomes our problem, and it will come back and hit you."
British-Indian author Salman Rushdie, meanwhile, has written an open letter with PEN president Peter Godwin to Chinese president Hu Jintao and foreign minister Yang Jiechi. The letter protests the ongoing travel restrictions on the artist Ai Weiwei, whose passport has been confiscated and whose appeal against charges of tax evasion was rejected on Thursday. Excellencies: We write on behalf of the 3,000 members of PEN American Center, and on behalf of thousands more admirers of contemporary international literature and art, to protest the travel bar against artist Ai Weiwei, who was due to participate in a PEN event in New York on October 11. We understand that his passport, confiscated during his 81-day detention in April 2011, has still not been returned to him, although more than a year has passed since his release and his probation expired in June 2012. […] Like our colleagues throughout the world's art and literary communities, we were shocked when Ai Weiwei was detained in 2011, and we are deeply disappointed to learn that he remains unable to travel freely and participate in international fora and conversations in which he has so clearly earned a place. We believe restricting his right to travel abroad risks violating Chinese and international laws, and that it does little to advance the goals and aspirations of the Chinese government and its people. We therefore entreat you to return Ai Weiwei's passport immediately and lift all restrictions against him, allowing him to travel to represent his own work and his ideas. We very much look forward to welcoming him back to New York.
Ai was the subject of a New York Times op-ed by Rushdie soon after his disappearance in April 2011.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, anti-Japan demonstrations 2012, authors, diaoyu islands, Hu Jintao, nationalism, novelists, senkaku islands, writers, Yang Jiechi
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