Links » Crème » Top-of-the-Week Links: First Chinese woman blasts into space, on corruption and censorship, and “rat tribe”
Links » Crème » Top-of-the-Week Links: First Chinese woman blasts into space, on corruption and censorship, and “rat tribe” |
- Top-of-the-Week Links: First Chinese woman blasts into space, on corruption and censorship, and “rat tribe”
- Top Ten Search List (June 18)
- Today’s China Readings June 18, 2012
| Posted: 18 Jun 2012 06:14 AM PDT
Beijing has rolled back its taxi fuel surcharge from 3 to 2 yuan, effective today, the Beijinger reported earlier (People's Daily reports via Sina it's thanks to a decrease in oil prices). Enjoy that fact over these links. Here's your story of the week: "Over the past two years, photojournalist Sim Chi Yin has documented this subterranean world known in the Chinese media as home of the 'rat tribe,' recording the odd mix of quaint domesticity that has managed to flourish within the drafty, moldy cells. Beijingers from every walk of life populate these hidden spaces; they are the waiters and hairdressers, fruit-sellers and manicurists of the gilded new capital taking shape above them." [Foreign Policy] Literature in 21st-century China. "This is the confusing world of the People's Republic 2.0, with its sliding scale of dissidence, a gray zone where authors are constrained but can flout the official rules without their work necessarily being banned. They carefully calibrate what can be communicated in English but not in Chinese; in Hong Kong but not in Beijing; online but not in print; via allegory but not direct exposition. The tank-to-tractor substitution — as well as related techniques, like taking advantage of Chinese's rich store of homophones to substitute a sound-alike anodyne term for a politically charged one — illustrates how the ever-present censorship machine turns Chinese writers into verbal acrobats. Put more bluntly, it forces them to lie to get their voices heard." [NY Times] Anger over abortion that wasn't. "I learned later that the family had been expecting a healthy baby. Today that baby was born, but with a major birth defect, it was missing an arm. The family was angry because the hospital had missed this during the ultrasound (or perhaps it was something that was not obvious on the ultrasound). They were shouting, 'How can our baby live without an arm?' // I couldn't believe it. This large protest was not over a death, but over a life. They were upset because they had missed their opportunity to have an abortion (or euphemistically 'stop the pregnancy')." [Seeing Red in China] Bao Tong, Zhao Ziyang's consigliere, talks about Wen Jiabao: "He's hard-working and diligent. But he hasn't accomplished anything. I'm sure he wouldn't be satisfied with his work, though in one point he could say, 'I didn't let my own conscience down: I wasn't lazy.' // But I don't want to speak badly of him. What did I do? What did I accomplish? People say, 'well you weren't corrupt.' I say, wrong. If I were in the current system, I'd be corrupt too. Do you believe me? Believe me." [Ian Johnson, NY Review of Books] Liu Yang makes history, goes into space interlude: Finally… Asian American Writers' Workshop launches three e-zines: The Margins, Open City and CultureStrike. [Angry Asian Man] A baijiu brand called "Bomb" is pretty awesome; its imitators… not so much. [Isidor's Fugue] Pictures of China under the title, "The bewildering face of China." [The Independent] Finally, finally…
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| Posted: 18 Jun 2012 03:27 AM PDT Here is today's top ten real-time search list, recorded at 2:00PM. 1. 母女跪教育局 Mǔnǚ guì jiàoyùjú – On June 14th in Nanshan, Shenzhen, the parents of over one hundred children occupied the Nanshan District Bureau of Education, demanding places for their kids in Nanshan's public schools. One parent brought her little girl with her and kneeled in front of the education department's petition office for an hour. As a result of the "occupation," the Nanshan Department of Education promised to resolve the quota issue, assuring parents that every student would have the chance to attend public school. The protest came in the wake of a June 13th announcement for 2012 first grade enrollment in Nanshan School District public schools, when several parents noticed that their children's names had been left off the list and began to wonder if other families had paid extra to ensure their children had places. The department of education promised to partially subsidize tuition from grades one through six for children attending private schools, but parents soon realized that they could only attain the meager subsidy, upon paying tuition in full. Here's the story in Chinese. 2. 大学男生毕业裸奔 dàxué nánshēng bìyè luǒbēn – "Male College Graduates Go Streaking": More college students are getting naked to celebrate their newfound freedom from the library. Several pictures are circulating today of law students from a college in Zhejiang who recently went streaking through the night, as crowds of onlookers shouted out "Streakers! Graduated streakers!" Some netizens are berating the nudists for "disrespecting their parents, who made their education possible" while others are praising their courage and admiring the "sincerity" of their raw approach to self expression. Here's the story in Chinese. 3. 广东污臭自来水Guǎngdōng wūchòu zìláishuǐ – "Guangdong Polluted Tap Water": A recent news piece with an accompanying video showing unbelievably dirty streams of tap water flowing from the faucets of a small town in Zijin, Guangdong is now gaining national attention, as netizens learn that for close to twenty years, the people of Tanlang have been relying on well and bottled water to survive, at the same time as they have been supporting their local ("penniless," according to them) government's fruitless public water supply project. Here's the story in Chinese. 4. 出租司机举报后沦为乞丐 Chūzū sījī jǔbào hòu lúnwéi qǐgài – After exposing his taxi company for accepting bribes—code-named "tea money"—in return for granting new drivers their cabs (as there is a limited number), the now famous Guangzhou taxi driver "Lao Wang" went to the Guangzhou Municipal Traffic Commission expecting compensation for making his report. Lao Wang first came forward to the media in May, thereby bringing the Traffic Commission to encourage taxi drivers to call into a hotline to report anything they knew about the tacit rule in the taxi industry which requires drivers to pay up before they start work. The hotline soon became a "cold line," however, indicating that the commission itself may be involved in the scheme. Now cab-less and without his promised reward, Lao Wang is drawing media attention again, as he has begun begging for money and support at the Guangzhou Baiyun airport. Here's the story in Chinese. 5. 贵羊羊 guì yángyáng – Since this past May, the price of mutton in Beijing has grown steadily, rising to up to 52 RMB/kg: a 30% increase from last year. Because of this, netizens have dubbed mutton "Elite Meat." Here's the story in Chinese. 6. 天津地震 Tiānjīn dìzhèn – A level 4 earthquake hit the border of Baodi, Tianjin and Tangshan, Hebei at 3:18 this morning. The quake had a focal depth of nine miles, but an initial survey of the affected area has reported that no houses have been destroyed, and that everything has since gone back to business as usual. Here's the story in Chinese. 7. 神九对接直播Shén jiǔ duìjiē zhíbō – "Shenzhou Capsule Live Broadcast": Today at 2:07 PM Beijing time, China's Shenzhou-9 capsule, with a crew of three (including China's first female astronaut), docked with the Tiangong-1 space lab. Here's the story in Chinese. 8. 误播六级听力Wùbō liùjí tīnglì – "Playing the Level-6 Listening Test": On June 16th at Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in Jiangxi during the listening section of the level-4 exam for The College English Test (CET) (the national English as a Foreign Language test in China), the exam proctor somehow accidentally played a recording intended for those testing at level-6, leaving a lot of level-4 students wondering if there was something wrong or if they were just having seriously bad mornings. Five staff members faulted with poor organization and management of the testing center have been severely penalized and removed from their positions. Here's the story in Chinese. 9. 大兴安岭火车脱轨 Dàxīng ānlǐng huǒchē tuōguǐ – A freight train was derailed as it passed through the The Greater Khingan mountain range in Northeast China this past Saturday, impacting the operations of several passenger trains. There were no casualties, according to the Harbin Railway Bureau, though concern about the kind of malfunction that could have caused the accident still has everyone talking. Here's the story in Chinese. 10. 杨树鹏 Yángshù Péng – Though the pair previously denied the rumors, today more proof has surfaced indicating that film director Yang Shupeng and actress Zhang Xinyi are dating. They have apparently been spotted "sweetly holding hands," walking dogs, and shopping together, and now there's talk that they have been together since last year. Here's the story in Chinese.        |
| Today’s China Readings June 18, 2012 Posted: 17 Jun 2012 05:46 PM PDT Is there a temporary solution to the Huangyan Island/Scraborough Shoal dispute between China and the Philippines? In China hails PH pullout from Scarborough Shoal the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports: The withdrawal of a Philippine Coast Guard patrol vessel and a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) survey ship on Friday ended the standoff after two months and one week, leaving China in control of Scarborough Shoal…President Benigno Aquino ordered the two vessels home on Friday night as a typhoon over the Pacific Ocean and a low-pressure system over Palawan combined to cause stormy weather in the West Philippine Sea…In a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Zhang Hua, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy, said: "We have noticed the withdrawal of government vessels by the Philippine side. We hope this action will help ease the tensions." Weather concerns apparently are not shared by the Chinese ships in the area. Given the online rhetoric of a few weeks ago, we should be relieved that economic warfare and diplomacy, not gunfire, appear to have forced the Philippines to back down. M. Taylor Fravel recently looked at the role of the PLA in the South China Sea, following comments by Ma Xiaotian, a Deputy Chief of the General Staff in the People's Liberation Army. Fravel writes that: "Ma's statement indicates that a broad consensus exists among top party and military leaders to emphasize diplomacy and avoid militarizing the disputes in the South China Sea…The emphasis on using maritime law enforcement agencies to maintain a presence in disputed areas suggests a deliberate effort to cap the potential for escalation while asserting China's claims. …Of course, China will continue to assert its claims. But the PLA's support for a diplomatic approach and limiting the potential for escalation should be noted." Expect only good news out of China for the next few months, or at least as reported by Chinese media outlets. WantChinaTimes reports on a directive from Li Changchun, the Politburo Standing Committee member responsible for propaganda. Per the report: The head of the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department has forbidden all media outlets from reporting "negative" news before the 18th National Congress, a once-in-a-decade leadership transition, also prohibiting journalists from reporting incidents outside the regions in which they live without permission, according to an official statement released Friday. Li Changchun — member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee and the party's propaganda chief — demanded that all news portals must, beginning June 15, to the greatest extent possible publicize the achievements of President Hu Jintao and Premier Minister Wen Jiabao throughout their 10-year tenure. The overarching theme of the coverage is to be "golden decade, flourishing decade." Expect even more pressure on Sina to keep Weibo in line. A London academic infuraited a Chinese diplomat after raising questions about Confucius Institutes. As Tania Branigan reports in Chinese ambassador attacks 'cold war' fears over Confucius Institutes: "Some people are not comfortable to see the rapid growth of Confucius Institutes. They cling to the outdated 'cold war' mentality," Liu Xiaoming said at a recent Edinburgh gathering for the European branches. "They criticise Confucius Institutes for being a tool of China's 'national propaganda'. They label teaching Mandarin as 'ideological infiltration.' So they have from time to time made irresponsible remarks in western media."… Liu's remarks came after Professor Christopher Hughes, a China expert at the London School of Economics, raised concerns about hosting such centres in the wake of last year's scandal over the LSE's dealings with the Gaddafi regime…Hughes said it was "gross interference" for Liu to complain about an internal discussion on ethics at the LSE. "He has insulted me and misrepresented my views by saying that I 'have a cold war mentality' for raising important ethical issues and merely repeating what Chinese leaders have said about the Confucius Institutes," he said. You can see a sample of Confucius Institute children's courses online here. If you really want to go deep on this issue I recommend this long essay from China Heritage Quarterly on Confucius Institutes and Controlling Chinese Languages. The KMT used to fund a lot of Chinese language study in the US, and it is natural for governments to pursue a project like this. The core concerns relate to disclosure and academic legitimacy, issues Professor Hughes raised and which clearly struck a very sensitive nerve with the Chinese government. Perhaps Ambassador Liu has forgotten the proverb 此地无银三百两… So was Jon Stewart too harsh on the people of Hacienda Heights, California, who protested a local Confucius Institute, as parodied in a segment by Aasif Mandvi that "exposes the Communist threat as Hacienda Heights introduces a Chinese language program to middle school kids"? The New York Times profiles Wendi Deng Murdoch in Wendi Murdoch Is Creating a Career of Her Own. There is no mention of the Myspace China mess or her fallout with Zhang Ziyi. We do learn she gets an advance look at the Wall Street Journal and that: Her first film, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," based on the best-selling book and produced with Florence Sloan, the Chinese wife of another media mogul, the former MGM studio chief Harry E. Sloan, came out in 2011. The pair are close to signing a deal with Sony Pictures to distribute their second movie based on the memoir "Journey of a Thousand Miles," by the Chinese pianist Lang Lang. There was another small earthquake outside Beijing early this morning, at the Tianjin-Tangshan border, not far from the epicenter of the massive 1976 quake. Famous Hong Kong Fengshui master Li Kuiming (李居明) predicted 2012 would be a difficult year for China, and he specifically cited problems in North China. He apparently foretold a natural disaster for Japan in 2011. Let's hope Liu is off this year, though so far it has certainly not been an easy first half of 2012. The best way to read this blog is to subscribe by email, especially if you are in China, as Sinocism is still blocked here. The email signup page is here, outside the GFW. You can also follow me on @niubi or Sina Weibo @billbishop. Comments/tips/suggestions/donations are welcome, and feel free to forward to recommend to friends. Thanks for reading. Today's Links:
The best way to read this blog is to subscribe by email, especially if you are in China, as Sinocism is still blocked here. The email signup page is here, outside the GFW. You can also follow me on @niubi or Sina Weibo @billbishop. Comments/tips/suggestions/donations are welcome, and feel free to forward to recommend to friends. Thanks for reading. Digest powered by RSS Digest No related posts. * |
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