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- Memorial Day
- A Black Hood & 81 Captive Days for Ai Weiwei
- Sensitive Words: Foreigners and Cannibals
- Two Self-Immolations in Lhasa, City’s First (Updated)
- China Watches As One University Edges Toward Admissions Reform
- China Arrests Man Suspected of Killing 11
- China Rape Arrest After Web Anger
- Photo: Hang out, by Suri Sun
- Mark Zuckerberg accidentally shows up in CCTV’s documentary
- Chinese Twitter Offers Advice on How to Marry the Next Zuckerberg
| Posted: 27 May 2012 08:44 PM PDT
Lest I continue my complacent way, Help me to remember that somewhere, Somehow out there A man died for me today. As long as there be war, I then must Ask and answer Am I worth dying for? - Wartime Prayer by Eleanor Roosevelt
Let's consider Mrs. Roosevelt's question this Memorial Day and take a moment to remember the "forgotten war" of Korea. Sixty years ago 36,940 Americans (along with many brave Canadian, UK and other allied soldiers) died fighting Chinese communism in cold and miserable conflict. In Death by China, we shared Marine Lee Bergee's memory of Frozen Chosin, "We all have memories of buddies killed, of the hordes of Chinese assaulting our frozen lines, and the long dangerous walk out . . ." Today, most Americans don't even know that we fought a war with China in the recent past and they are even more oblivious to the fact that we are losing a bigger one right now. That horribly cold war is still in progress, both technically and literally. Technically we are still at war in Korea because the Armistice Agreement of 1953 never progressed into a full-fledged peace agreement. And we are literally in a Cold War as China actively supports a nuclear dictatorship in North Korean, undermines our economy, corrupts our political system, infiltrates our educational system, steals our technology, buys up our land and businesses, and openly prepares for battle with the U.S. seventh fleet. Every time we go into WalMart and pick up a Chinese product when we could have made another choice we are selling out the brave young men who gave their all to uphold freedom and liberty and the answer to Mrs. Roosevelt's question is, "NO, we not worth dying for."
-Greg Autry, Senior Economist with the American Jobs Alliance
photos: Greg Autry Korean War Memorial, Washington DC, February 2012 |
| A Black Hood & 81 Captive Days for Ai Weiwei Posted: 27 May 2012 08:00 PM PDT The New York Times' Edward Wong relates a series of conversations with "the world's most powerful artist" Ai Weiwei, detailing his 81-day detention last year.
See more on Ai Weiwei, his detention and subsequent skirmishes with the authorities via CDT, and look for a nearby screening of Alison Klayman's documentary, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Sensitive Words: Foreigners and Cannibals Posted: 27 May 2012 07:37 PM PDT As of May 26, the following search terms are blocked on Weibo (not including the "search for user" function):  Photos of young American sharing fries and conversation with a beggar went viral on Weibo. Foreigners and Exiles:
In response to the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report:
Murders in Yunnan: According to reports, the case of missing 18-year-old Zhang Yongming of Puning, Yunnan is related to a serial killer.
Generally blocked: These terms are not related to particular events.
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  |
| Two Self-Immolations in Lhasa, City’s First (Updated) Posted: 27 May 2012 07:23 PM PDT Two unidentified Tibetan monks reportedly set fire to themselves in front of Lhasa's Jokhang Temple on Sunday. From Radio Free Asia:
While there have been 35 self-immolations in Tibetan areas since March 2009, this would be only the second within the Tibetan Autonomous Region itself, and the first to take place in the capital. Columbia University Tibetologist Robert Barnett commented on the incident on Twitter:
News of the incident is so far scarce, with state media silent [Update: see below] and foreign reporters barred from the region. In addition, phone lines in the region were quickly blocked, according to exile news site Phayul. As Kristin Jones wrote for the Committee to Protect Journalists in February, the government's media exclusion policy "all but guarantee[s] that activists are the ones reporting the news." Update: Xinhua has confirmed the incident:
The New Yorker recently featured a history of self-immolation and its status as "the paramount form of protest", following a series of cases this year across North Africa and the Middle East, and one in Norway, as well as those in Tibetan areas.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| China Watches As One University Edges Toward Admissions Reform Posted: 27 May 2012 03:46 PM PDT While the number of Chinese applicants to American colleges saw an exponential increase over the past few years, the "gao kao," (高考), China's dreaded college entrance examination, is still most Chinese high schoolers' only chance to gain access to higher education. But due to the efforts of one school in Shenzhen, that may finally be changing. An intro to the mother of all rat races For those new to the subject, it may be helpful to know that each year more than 10 million Chinese high school seniors take the gao kao. Of those test-takers, only about 60% are admitted into any university at all (according to People's Daily Online), which can make all the difference for a young graduate's career prospects. In fact, the job market has been looking so dim nowadays that even a college degree doesn't guarantee anything. According to China's Ministry of Education, the employment rate of last year's college graduates was only around 74%. But these statistics deserve scrutiny. As many would argue, included in those 74% were students who only signed a contract to show to their schools, students who wrote that they were employed on schools' questionnaires to get their diploma—some schools don't confer the degree unless students find a job—and students whose first jobs were only temporary or very unstable.  Everyone is sick, but everyone is still studying for the gao kao! Adding to the pressure of a gloomy job market, the gao kao still weighs as essentially the sole determinant in Chinese universities' selection process. As many Chinese parents would say, a single score sends you to up to paradise, or straight to hell. Departments of different schools set up their own "score lines" (分数线), which are minimum scores students need to achieve in order to be accepted. A student passionate for economics may end up accepting a place in the Department of Physics of Peking University due to a lower score (in which case the brand name of Peking University overrides the desire to pursue something of genuine interest). Majors are settled before entrance into college and it is extremely hard to switch to another major once you're already in college. The prominent role of the gao kao imposes enormous fear and pressure. At a normal three-year high school, students spend their first two years learning what they are supposed to learn in three years. Their last year completely is devoted to gao kao prep, which is basically repeated drilling and endless practice tests. In a sad illustration of the level of pressure and obsession that surrounds the gao kao, last year a student jumped from the exam building after he was refused entry into his gao kao test room. He showed up late for the test, and died for it.  Showing up late and unable to enter his test building, he jumped and died. Talk of education reform Educational reform has been on the table for China's Ministry of Education for years and opinions are seemingly divided. Some support the current system for its relative fairness: For students who weren't born with a silver spoon or family connections, the gao kao is in fact a great equalizer that gives them a shot at higher education. If parents manage to bribe their kids' way into colleges even with the present set "score lines," what would happen if schools suddenly obtained the freedom to admit whoever they want? But for most people, a test-score-oriented selection process is intrinsically problematic. Evaluation of students should be multi-faceted, they argue, but gao kao scores fail to account for students' non-academic potential or abilities. Often cited in debates is American colleges' consideration of student volunteer experience and extracurricular activities. Opponents of the current system question whether test scores are a good approximation of students' academic competence at all when they are but the results of constant drilling. Do scores say anything about students' creativity, for instance? In any case, those who support the gao kao only seem to do it for lack of a better replacement. Consensus on the urgent need for educational reform has basically been reached. Yet while a few policy changes are indeed being made, none of them really touch the fundamentals. "Autonomous recruitment" and other measures Starting in 2003, the Ministry loosened up its grip…slightly. Some schools were given the right to "autonomous recruitment" (自主招生). This means that before the gao kao was administered, high schools can recommend that students participate in exams designed by universities with this right to "autonomous recruitment." Interviews are also offered to complement the test score, and students sometimes travel across the country to discuss the global economic woes, with an "admissions committee." Those who do well enough get a boost to their gao kao score of 5 to 30 additional points (out of a total of 480 points, for example, for candidates in Jiangsu) if they choose to enroll in the universities who had "autonomously recruited" them. These bonus points do make a big difference for those who happen to underperform on the gao kao, but are otherwise excellent exam takers throughout their high school years.  The waiting lines for university--and post-college employment--are long This policy is very limited in scope. Ordinary high schools don't even have the right to recommend students or are given a very small quota. Even for the lucky ones, "autonomous recruitment" isn't as sweet a deal as one might expect. The bonus points are bounded—that is, applicable when applying only to the school whose "autonomous recruitment" exam a student passed. Students availing themselves of this system have even less flexibility in choosing a school and major. Critics complain that measures such as "autonomous recruitment" don't really challenge the gao kao's role in the admissions process. The independently designed exams are only harder than the gao-kao, whereas the interviews are there more for the fanfare than for having any real influence in schools' decision-making process. Critics also point out that trips to take these exams waste students' time and energy (and forces them to foot the bill for travelling expenses). The dilemma of South University of Science and Technology of China (中国南方科技大学) Some say that the hope of China's higher educational reform lies in South University of Science and Technology (SUSTC), a school funded independently by the municipal government of Shenzhen. Recently, SUSTC went on the frontline again: On April 24, the Ministry of Education finally granted the school a legitimate status within the national higher education system. This was a pleasant surprise to SUSTC's president, Zhu Shiqing (朱时清) , who had been fighting for the Ministry's recognition for years. In March of last year, Zhu went on and admitted about 40 students from across the country on his own. These students passed an exam independently designed by SUSTC. Their performance on the exam was the only thing that mattered, and these students didn't even take gao kao in the end. But soon the Ministry of Education reacted, requesting that these students go back to high school and finish their gao kao. Zhu refused to let his students go. The autonomy of the school was upheld, but not being recognized by the Ministry meant that the degrees conferred by SUSTC would only be "unofficial."  Will the pioneer of China's educational reform successfully start its next round of recruitment? This incident brought him much praise from the general public. Students of SUSTC made shirts with Zhu's picture on them and wore them to show support. In November 2011, he won the "2011 Chengdu Internationally Influential Figure" (成都国际影响人物 ) award for his bold reforms. Now that the permit from the Ministry of Education has arrived, many see it as the first solid step China has taken towards real educational reform. A simple search on Sina Weibo shows that there is hardly an unfavorable remark concerning Zhu's brave initiative there. But how radically different is Zhu's effort from the Ministry's previous measures? In Zhu's new admissions plan, the gao kao score only accounts for 40% of a student's final evaluation. So from the look of it, the gao kao's dominance in student evaluation is at least reduced. But for many, problems abound for SUSTC's future development. In June, last year, three professors who were to join Zhu's effort in building SUSTC quit in disappointment. They released an open statement on Southern Weekly (南方周末) criticizing Zhu for uncritically dismissing the current system without having a concrete proposal of his own. (For a more concise English counterpart, check out Yale University professor Zhong Weimin's letter criticizing Zhu's initiative, published on Science Magazine in May 2011.) Up till now SUSTC still doesn't have its own constitution nor a concrete curriculum. Most faculty members aren't permanent. In his own defense, President Zhu confesses that it takes time to build something from scratch. At present, he is awaiting approval from the Ministry for his new admissions plan for the 2012-2013 academic year. Will SUSTC have enough time to recruit their students this year? And more importantly, what will become of SUSTC and China's higher educational reform? Unlike a simple check-the-box prompt on a gao kao test sheet, there doesn't seem to be a clear answer. |
| China Arrests Man Suspected of Killing 11 Posted: 27 May 2012 03:59 PM PDT Although stories of serial killers are generally unknown, China has arrested a man suspected of killing 11 in Yunnan Province. Aside from murder, the suspect has been accused of dismembering, burning, and burying the bodies. The Washington Post reports:
Other reports are calling the suspect the 'cannibal monster.' The Daily Telegraph adds:
According to AFP, reports on nonpolitical crimes hardly face restrictions, but cannibalism seems to be a sensitive subject:
© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| China Rape Arrest After Web Anger Posted: 27 May 2012 03:55 PM PDT Amid Sina Weibo's recent rule changes, netizens have spurred the arrest of an ex-official through microblogging. AFP reports:
According to CNN, Li Xingong has confessed to the crimes:
See also previous coverage on Sina Weibo and Microblogging, via CDT. © Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Posted: 27 May 2012 03:49 PM PDT  Hang out © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Mark Zuckerberg accidentally shows up in CCTV’s documentary Posted: 27 May 2012 12:36 AM PDT Remember last time that Facebok's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was spotted on the streets in Shanghai with his Chinese American wife Priscilla Chan on March 27 (the couple tied the knot in a secret ceremony on May 29, a day after Facebook's $104billion IPO)? But you'll never expect that the billionaire and his wife would be accidentally captured by the CCTV on the street as bystanders when recording a documentary serial. Interestingly, the government-run TV station did not "block" the couple as the government blocking Facebook for censorship. Instead of appearing as a "nasty 404 error," Mark Zuckerberg was seen with a big smile on his face on CCTV's Chinese Police Documentary, which was just aired recently. Chinese netizens were quite amazed, and quickly spread the video clip showing the very coincident moment on the websphere. They called the couple "the most powerful by-standers in the history." Check out the video clip below. Jump to 00:30, you'll find the vibrantly smiling Zuckerberg. |
| Chinese Twitter Offers Advice on How to Marry the Next Zuckerberg Posted: 27 May 2012 12:46 AM PDT
"Priscilla Chan, the wife of Mark Zuckerberg, has been called 'The World's Luckiest Woman.' She's Chinese-American with ancestry from Xuzhou in Jiangsu province and was a classmate of Zuckerberg's from Harvard. It's said that Zuckerberg met Priscilla while standing in line for the bathroom at a party. So how do you become the luckiest woman? You must go to a lot of parties! And you must go to the bathroom and you must stand in line." Ok, maybe not the most helpful relationship advice, but with such watercooler-worthy news it was more than enough to set Chinese netizens a-tweet, with over 2 million related posts at last count. @离骚轻唱 tweets, "Waha! It's not easy becoming a lucky woman, you have to get into Harvard and then stand in line!" @Nicole林闪闪 laments, "After Prince William another tall, rich handsome man is taken. <tears>" while @小小的太阳-YY , focusing on Chan's Chinese ancestry, tweets, "Chinese women have it going on!" @洵爷, pondering the 9-year relationship before the marriage, concludes: "They didn't dare to marry earlier, because the mother-in-law couldn't open that website [referring to China's blockage of Facebook]." [1]
@_声远_ has a more cynical take: "Zuckerberg has no choice: all the women he meets now are after his money, only the woman he met nine years ago is reliable." The vast majority of netizens, however, are full of admiration and goodwill for the happy couple. @Alexxu_振忠 tweets, "Really perfect…" and @超萌互粉 writes, "Happiness comes from confidence in the future. Money in the hand but not on the brain. Zuckerberg has done it. They will be happy for life." [3] @80后开心坊 agrees: "Compared to those so-called super stars, his actions deserve respect. He's worth billions but even that could not change his love for his girl. Congratulations." [4] @翓林 simply tweets in response to the news: "I believe in love once more." [5] |
Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog in China, chimed in with its two cents on the Zuckerberg-Chan wedding. In a "Micro Topic" entitled "Facebook CEO Zuckerberg is Married," the microblog offers this advice to would-be Priscilla Chans:
Some netizens couldn't help using news of the marriage to draw comparisons between the U.S. and China. Reflecting on the seemingly inverse relationship between marital fidelity and wealth in modern China, @
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