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• Honda Corolla owner in Xi'an suffers severe concussion in attacks by anti-Japan protestors
• ‘Bite Little Japan to Death!’: Protesting With Mooncakes
• Watch: French spiderman Alain Robert scales world's tallest steel tower in Zhengzhou
• Photo of the Day: Laundry
• Some Small Act Of Bureaucratic Kindness
• Today's Links: 2049, Foxconn riots, Afghanistan and the death of a panda cub
• Pencil This In: Sep 24-27 - From Social Media to Sailor Moon Machinegun Massacre
• Chengguan Chase Down Farmer Before Beating Him
• Not too late for Leffetember (and other food events)
• The Situation Is Excellent: The Week That Was At Beijing Cream
• China Contracts. Watching The Jurisdictional Sausage Get Made.
• Innocent Bystander Seriously Injured Amid Anti-Japan Protest

Honda Corolla owner in Xi'an suffers severe concussion in attacks by anti-Japan protestors Posted: 23 Sep 2012 08:00 PM PDT In the recent wave of widespread anti-Japan protests across China, the last thing you want is to be seen in a wrong car, at the wrong place and at the wrong time. 51-year-old Xi'an resident Li Jianli used to be the economic pillar of his family. But now he can only lie almost motionlessly in the neurosurgery department in hospital. [ more › ]

‘Bite Little Japan to Death!’: Protesting With Mooncakes Posted: 23 Sep 2012 06:32 PM PDT I now have a new example to give to show how clever and enterprising Chinese businesspeople are: Anti-Japanese mooncakes. The Shanghaiist, in 'Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with these anti-Japan mooncakes, now on sale in Guangxi!' reports: The recent Diaoyu Islands sovereignty dispute between China and Japan has triggered an unprecedented wave of anti-Japanese protests across China. But as the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day draw near, China's fenqings (angry youths) have found an even more creative way to express their anti-Japanese fervor while enjoying the 8-day holiday. In Wuming County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, one local bakery has tapped on anti-Japanese sentiments by selling anti-Japanese mooncakes. Slogans moulded on the mooncakes read: "Down with Little Japan!" "Hate Little Japan!" "Bite Little Japan to death!" "Chase Little Japan away!" The Hao Hao Report expands on the themed: The emphasis on "Little Japan" is similar to the use of the pejorative term "Japs". This notion is reinforced by the smallness of the mooncakes. Also, the strange incitement to "Bite Little Japan to Death!" may have been inspired by the morbid thought that, with each bite of a mooncake, patriotic Chinese should imagine that they are biting "Little Japan(ese)". I'm holding out for some 'Drive the Dwarf Pirates into the Sea' mooncakes for my celebration. But, then, I'm a traditionalist.

Watch: French spiderman Alain Robert scales world's tallest steel tower in Zhengzhou Posted: 23 Sep 2012 07:00 PM PDT French daredevil Alain Robert scales the Central Plains Fortaleza tower, the world's tallest steel tower, located in Zhengzhou, Henan province. [via BeijingCream] [ more › ]

Photo of the Day: Laundry Posted: 23 Sep 2012 06:00 PM PDT Want to see your picture here? Share your photos with us on Instagram and Flickr using the tag #shanghaiist! [ more › ]

Some Small Act Of Bureaucratic Kindness Posted: 23 Sep 2012 05:00 PM PDT By Jim Fields Recently, I went to Tianjin on a one-day business trip. In the morning, a co-worker picked me up from my apartment at Yonghegong. After completing my business-related tasks, I bid farewell to my colleagues (who had more to do) and took a cab to the local railway station, where I planned to buy a high-speed train ticket. I felt a vague sense of dread upon getting out of my cab, but I wasn't sure why. I walked to the ticketing windows and got in line. There was a train leaving in 20 minutes — perfect! Approaching the front, I heard the cashier asking people for shenfenzheng (state-issued ID card), which must be shown in-person to the ticket vendor in order purchase a train ticket. This system was designed last year to curtail the activities of huangniu (yellow cows, or ticket scalpers), who buy tickets in bulk and then resell at exorbitant rates. Of course, because I drove to Tianjin that morning, I had neglected to bring my passport. This realization dawned on me as I neared the front of the line, slouching toward my certain doom. I felt like a criminal in shackles, crowd jeering, guillotine awaiting. When I reached the front of the line, a young man sat facing his computer. "Where are you going?" he asked, eyes directed at the shockingly low-resolution computer screen. "Beijing South," I responded, stuffing 55 renminbi into the slot underneath the glass window and hoping to avoid the ID issue. His gaze turned towards me. "Where's your passport?" "I don't have it." I pulled out my smartphone, where I'd saved a picture of my passport in case of a spot check during the early phases of the 100-day foreigner crackdown. "I do have this, though," showing him a picture of my passport on the screen of my phone. He looked at the phone screen briefly, then at me, with a slightly incredulous expression. If he decided not to sell me a ticket, I would have to spend hundreds on a cab to get back to Beijing – assuming I could find one – much more than the reasonable 55 renminbi I would spend to take the train. I didn't hold much hope. The lumbering, soulless nature of Chinese bureaucratic institutions is well-documented. Eric Abrahamsen wrote a pretty devastating takedown of the Bank of China in this piece for the NY Times Latitude Blog: I couldn't help overhearing a British man next to me in the midst of a breakdown. For reasons he could not fathom they would only let him withdraw half the amount he wanted; he would have to wait until next week for the other half. But why? And why did they need yet another photocopy of his passport? And what exactly were they doing with his money?! Mounting rage began to derail his otherwise fluent Chinese. I admired his principles, but wished I could whisper to him: peace only comes to those who abandon hope. Yes, simple trips to pay for utilities can result in a wild goose chase between branch offices, electricity can shut off without warning at the whims of local officials, and as Abrahamsen writes, ostensibly simple bank transactions can easily transmogrify into hellacious experiences. It is important to remember that the Chinese understanding of customer service is dramatically different than the one that abides in the US, my own country of origin. The quaint notion that "the customer is always right" has almost no relevance in a culture where you actually have to scream at a waitress in order to get service in most restaurants. The impetus is on the consumer to meet a business or institution on their terms – not the other way around. As a consumer, you become subject to the nefarious whims and various internal politics that typify massive organizations, often resulting in nightmares where you didn't "get the memo," as it were, and you end up not carrying a critical form or piece of identification which is necessary to complete whatever transaction you wanted to carry out. One could argue that this system is a byproduct of the political system – if you view your own relationship with the government as inherently unidirectional and top-town, why should you expect your relationship with a large company to be any different? The man at the counter stared at me for a moment, then turned around and called over his boss. I already sensed that something about this transaction was different than the one endured by the sputtering Brit in Abrahamsen's story. If getting a ticket was truly impossible, then the cashier would have just told me "没戏" (basically, that it was a lost cause) and send me on my way. His decision to summon the boss gave me a glimmer of hope. The cashier explained the situation to his boss, who laughed, gave me a once over, and walked away. I wasn't sure what was happening. The cashier then sold a few dozen more tickets to all the people who had been waiting in line behind me. Then the boss returned, with a mysterious purple card in her hand. The cashier asked to see the picture of my passport, which I showed him by sliding my phone through the slot under the glass. He keyed some data into the computer, his boss wrote my passport number on the purple card, then the cashier took my cash and printed the ticket. He picked up said ticket, the purple card, and my phone, and slid them back to me. I picked them up, amazed, incredulous. "Thank you so much!" I stammered. "You're blocking the window," he said, waving me along. Shortly thereafter, when passing through security, I had to show my ticket again, and they asked to see my passport. In absence of that, I showed them the purple card the cashier had given me. The security clearance people waved me through. I walked through the train station, got on my train, and 30 minutes later arrived in Beijing. The purple card had my passport number and a contact number on it — my guess is that if one of the security people doubted my credentials, they could call the number, which would connect them to the boss of the cashier who had sold me the ticket. Of course this verification check would never actually happen – too much hassle — but the purple card seemed to be a sort of get-out-of-jail free card to whisk me through security. Long story short, the seller did me a huge favor. It would have been much quicker and simpler for him to tell me it was impossible and leave me to fend for myself. This situation is perhaps only remarkable because of the fact that I feel like it almost never happens to me in Beijing. My interaction with the ticket seller in Tianjin changed my entire perspective – presenting a vision of kindness, of empathy, and a willingness to help and engage even if it presents a bit of an inconvenience. I'm reminded of this speech by David Foster Wallace, which he gave at Kenyon College three years before his suicide. One of the sections has always stuck with me, where he discusses finding a new way to look at the people around you: Most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she's not usually like this. Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible. It just depends what you want to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down. I think we could all gain from internalizing a bit of DFW's perspective here in Beijing. Lord knows that life here presents infinite, confounding challenges to the psychic (and physical) health of even the happiest expat. Abrahamsen's notion that "peace only comes to those who abandon hope" is an attractive option for anybody in the throes of a "bad China day," but hope is what led me to the ticket counter, and hope is what keeps me here today. So the next time you time you find yourself in "consumer-hell," as it were, maintain some hope — things may not be as grim as they seem. Follow @JimFields.

Today's Links: 2049, Foxconn riots, Afghanistan and the death of a panda cub Posted: 23 Sep 2012 05:00 PM PDT A few links to start off your day: 2049, Foxconn riots, Afghanistan and the death of a panda cub [ more › ]

Pencil This In: Sep 24-27 - From Social Media to Sailor Moon Machinegun Massacre The October holidays are right ahead of us, but there are still so many things to be done! Pencil This In is all the things you'd want to do this Monday through Thursday. On the schedule: Japanese school girl mayhem with Sub-Cinema, the first Social Media Week to be hosted by Shanghai, outstanding dance performances with Jin Xing on Wednesday at SOAC and yourself on Thursday at Adam's. Or enjoy Italian food favourites at the aperitivo night at Sugar! Read on for all the details, or check out our calendar for more!

Chengguan Chase Down Farmer Before Beating Him Posted: 23 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT You know, it's not that we don't sympathize with chengguan, China's street-level urban management officers. We get that they have a tough job, and encounter scoundrels and freeloaders on a weekly, if not daily, basis. But every single week, we see a video of chengguan somewhere behaving as poorly as the people they're supposed to police. And what are supposed to do about that? Ignore these occupational tantrums because the job is tough? With that in mind, here's a video of a farmer getting chased down by a gang of chengguan and beaten. The video title says he's "innocent," but short of any other details, we're not sure what he's innocent of. He's guilty of the hard life, though. Youku video for those in China after the jump.

Not too late for Leffetember (and other food events) If you need some time to collect yourself between the Kerry Beer Festival and this coming week's Oktoberfest celebration at Paulaner Bräuhaus, then you're at the wrong site. Leffetember ends on September 29, so hurry down to De Refter, and grab a Leffe Brune or Leffe Blonde draft for only 30RMB.

The Situation Is Excellent: The Week That Was At Beijing Cream Posted: 23 Sep 2012 08:59 AM PDT September 17 – September 23 The Diaoyu Islands dominated the news this week, and for good reason. Protests and riots that began last week got worse after the weekend, as demonstrations raged across many Chinese cities. Ai Weiwei got video of protesters surrounding Gary Locke's car outside the US Embassy. A 51-year-old Chinese father got his head smashed in for driving a Japanese car. You still can't call for democracy at these rallies though. By Tuesday, the protests were dying down, as this controlled rally in Beijing shows. Meanwhile, Century 21 in Beijing offered a discriminatory special. And this is the best cartoon depicting the Diaoyu row out there. The founder of Maoist group Utopia, Han Deqiang, was caught slapping an old man for saying disagree things about Mao Zedong. An "automatic sperm extractor" was found in Nanjing and Zhengzhou. And a convenience store cashier was able to talk her way out of a robbery. The two-day trial of Wang Lijun began and ended. Chengguan in Wuhan are trying a slightly different, wordless tactic. A bull ran roughshod in the streets of Zhejiang province and plowed into an unsuspecting biker. A beauty pageant in Nanning featured some sad-looking women. Comment of the Week: There was a lot of chatter about which country owns the Diaoyu Islands on this post. Kai Pan offered these words: Our justifications and rationalizations for the past will be used to justify our acceptance and rejection of what may transpire in the future. The fact is, we don't usually have internally consistent rationalizations or principles. We just choose sides based on our current prejudices, on our own self-interest, other people's claims or rationale be damned. While Wheel Nut adds: What transpires in the future, just as in the past, depends on who has more power to enforce their will upon others who will forced to choose between submission and destruction. |Week in Review Archives|

China Contracts. Watching The Jurisdictional Sausage Get Made. Posted: 23 Sep 2012 08:18 AM PDT As I am always saying, I love it when my blog posts come pre-written.  Today I was cc'ed on an email from my co-blogger, Steve Dickinson. Steve's email was to another lawyer in our firm who had proposed writing a contract that would give our client the choice of suing its Chinese counter-party in either the United States or China. In his response, Steve explained that though this sounds good in theory, it is too risky in practice for China contracts.  Steve then goes on to give a short dissertation on the factors that typically go into choosing jurisdiction, choice of law, and official language of the contract: On jurisdiction, I used to do what you suggest. However, after Chinese courts started holding that this kind of split jurisdiction means that there is in fact no jurisdiction in China, I stopped doing that. If you really want jurisdiction in China, the agreement should    1) be governed by Chinese law, 2) be written in Chinese and 3) provide for exclusive jurisdiction in China. Note that none of this is black letter law. This is just what actually happens on the ground in China. It is for this reason that I provide for all three of these in all cases where I really want the right to sue in China. To properly evaluate whether you want to go with Chinese law in a Chinese Court (which is what we nearly always end up choosing to do), you need to consider the client's concerns.  Does it want to have an effective remedy against the other side, or does our client want to make it as difficult as possible for the other side to sue it?  Once our client's concerns are clear, then you can draft the enforcement section. If our client's goal is to enforce this contract against a Chinese company, you have to to provide for exclusive jurisdiction in China and Chinese law should apply and the contract should be in Chinese  But if our client's goal is to prevent the Chinese side from suing, then you should provide for exclusive jurisdiction in the United States.  But if you do this, you must inform the client that because China does not enforce U.S. judgements, the U.S. agreement will  be useless as a means of enforcement against the Chinese party. You will need to be clear with the client on this and make sure that the client understands this and signs off on this. In any event, the split approach will not work. You have to pick your jurisdiction and governing law and go from there. Arbitration is supposed to resolve this issue, however, it does not work so well for China since the Chinese courts as a practical matter are not good at enforcing foreign arbitration awards. This is all a very difficult and must be considered carefully. There is no simple answer. A hard choice has to be made. The first thing I look at when someone shows me an agreement is its jurisdiction provision. In most cases, the US lawyer has screwed up and made it impossible for the US company to enforce the contract and that stops things right there. We must avoid that result if the client in fact wants to enforce in China. If, however, this is that rare instance where the client is only concerned about preventing a lawsuit, a US jurisdiction clause with a US choice of law provision would be fine. In that case, a Chinese version is not required, but I still recommend it because at least then the Chinese counter-party will be able to understand it fully and that alone is important for making sure that it and our client are on the same page before they start doing business with each other. Wow.  What do you think?

Innocent Bystander Seriously Injured Amid Anti-Japan Protest Posted: 23 Sep 2012 01:54 AM PDT Picture via Beijing Youth Daily The violence and protests have been stowed away like a jack-in-the-box, some novelty toy to be brought back out at another politically opportune time. The carnival's over, folks. Time to go home. But there's a thing about violence. You might know it. Violence owes fealty to no one and nothing, and can as quickly turn against itself or its source, or innocents. Last Saturday in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, 51-year-old Li Jianli was bludgeoned over the head by a steel implement just because he was driving — with his family — a Japanese car. He is now partially paralyzed. The story comes via Beijing Youth Daily, and the details, as relayed via Wall Street Journal, are difficult to read: Mr. Li, his wife, one of his son's and the son's fiancée, were on their way back from a shopping trip when Mr. Li's white Toyota Corolla was set upon by an agitated anti-Japanese mob brandishing sticks, bricks and steel implements, according to the Beijing Youth Daily. Mr. Li's wife urged the demonstrators not to damage the vehicle. "It was wrong of us to buy a Japanese car. We won't buy one ever again, OK?" she was reported as saying by Beijing Youth Daily. But the gang beat Mr. Li anyway, striking him on the head with a steel shackle and causing him to lose consciousness. Later, he was rushed to hospital where he was treated for open brain injury and then moved to an intensive care unit. He remained there until he regained consciousness three days later. Mr. Li can now move the left-hand side of his body but the right side continues to be partially paralyzed. There is no "bright side" to this story. Fuck silver linings in the form of protest repudiations, as if collective guilt expressed on social media could restore a father and husband's physical well-being. You hate Japanese products so much, you shitbags? Buy your own Japanese car and go nuts on it with a sledgehammer. Film it on your shitty aigo camera put it on Youku to show off your monkey-dumb patriotism, as if it were a skill to be rewarded with a fruit-flavored hard candy, you stupid fucking pieces of scum. Go kill yourselves.