Links » Crème » Top Ten Search List (June 19)
Links » Crème » Top Ten Search List (June 19) |
| Posted: 19 Jun 2012 02:43 AM PDT
1. 港姐九丑榜 Gǎng jiě jiǔchǒubǎng – "Miss Hong Kong Nine Uglies List": Previously made fun of by director Eric Tsang for being a "pork chop," and ruthlessly criticized by the Hong Kong media and public for being the "least beautiful Miss Hong Kong ever," Miss Hong Kong 2007 Kayi Cheung apparently has a new look, but has spent so much money on her transformation into a skinnier version of herself that she is now being criticized again, this time for "going beneath" her Miss Hong Kong status and having to vie for cheap discount items amongst the masses. The discovery of Cheung's makeover comes amidst netizen discussion today about how the women in Hong Kong "are getting uglier," with the circulation of a "nine uglies" Miss Hong Kong list, which includes Cheung, and a "ten beauties" list, which includes 1988 winner and Hong Kong actress Michele Monique Reis. Here's the story in Chinese. 2. 3岁驾车肇事 3 suì jiàchē zhàoshì – On the morning of June 16th, a man in Jiangxi brought his three year-old son with him into town to buy some milk. Seems innocent enough, right? But wait, there's more. In a rush, he left his son in his cart, and the keys in the ignition. The toddler got behind the wheel and, as toddlers are want to do, began playing around, accidentally switching on the battery and driving for ten meters until finally running into and toppling over an electric bike. Here's the story in Chinese. 3. 我爸是交警 wǒ bà shì jiāojǐng – "My Dad is a Traffic Cop": the nepotistic-watchword-turned-meme-explosion known lovingly and loathing-ly as "My Dad is Li Gang" is back with avengence, Humen style, this time with a different Daddy. This past Sunday during pre-twilight hours, traffic police in Humen, Guangdong encountered a drunk driver who, hoping for leniency, announced: "My DAD is a traffic cop!" The inebriated's father indeed was and still is the leader of the traffic police department in some city in Anhui, but this did not work on the steely-willed Humen cops, who imposed a 2,000 RMB fine, deducted 12 points from his license, and suspended the D-list princeling from the open road for six months. Here's the story in Chinese. 4. 工资指导线gōngzī zhǐdǎo xiàn – "Wage Guidelines" - The Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau recently released its "2012 Wage Guidelines for Enterprises," which includes a clause setting businesses' new minimum margin of wage increase at 4.5%. This stipulation and others have caused confusion and concern among netizens, as people try to understand the kind of "enterprise" to which the guidelines apply, whether or not this is compulsory, how it is meant to be implemented, and so on. Yesterday, the labor relations department of the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau responded to inquiries saying that the "wage guidelines are…recommendations for businesses' annual wage growth, in the government's attempt at macroeconomic control over the national income distribution" and that "based on the guidelines, enterprises and trade unions can negotiate the level of wage growth." According to the labor relations representative, the new guidelines will also apply to state-owned enterprises. Here's the story in Chinese. 5. 肉灵芝西安 ròulíngzhī Xī'ān – "Xi'an Fleshy Mushroom": On June 17th, a young female reporter on "Xi'an Up Close," an investigative journalism program in Xi'an, did a riveting feature story on a mysterious, never-before-seen magical mystery mushroom that was recently discovered dwelling in a well in Xi'an. It turned out to be an artificial vagina! The television station has apologized for the naïveté of their reporter. Here's the story in Chinese and Here's a follow-up in English. 6. 男子赤身被铐交警队外 nánzǐ chìshēn bèi kào jiāojǐngduì wài -"Man Handcuffed Naked at the Door of Traffic Police Department": After pictures of a shirtless man in Xinyang, Henan being handcuffed outside of the Xinyang Traffic Police Department began to circulate online last week, the police have issued a response, saying that the man, who had been hauled in for violating traffic regulations on his motorcycle, had attempted to escape questioning and needed to be held by force. In the photograph, one of the man's hands has been cuffed to a fence and he is not wearing his shirt, which hangs on the fence next to him. His face shows a grimace of pain. Here's the story in Chinese. 7. 危金峰 Wēi Jīnfēng – Wei Jinfeng, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Finance Bureau, is now under investigation, on suspicion of serious "violations of law," though no details have been released yet as to what kind of "violations" they might be. We can guess. So far, most articles spend one or two vague sentences on the breaking news, and then go on to list Wei's resume through to his last day in office on June 13th. One reporter remembers his "modest smile," and on paper he seems to be a real straight shooter who has held a wide range of government posts throughout his career. Here's the story in Chinese. 8. 袁立怀孕 Yuán Lì huáiyùn – Blaine Grunewald, husband of Chinese actress Yuan Li, recently announced on his Weibo that his wife is pregnant, proudly posting pictures of the ultrasound. Here's the story in Chinese. 9. 遮挡号牌扣12分 zhēdǎng hàopái kòu 12 fèn – "12-Point Deduction for Covering License Plate": Countless crazy drivers across the nation are cringing with the publication of new requirements for China's national driving test and the alteration of other related driving regulations, including a law that will increase the severity of penalties for breaking traffic laws, now deducting 12 points for the obscuration of one's license plate number and deducting up to 6 points for running a red light. Here's the story in Chinese. 10. 神九发射后遇神秘发光体 Shénjiǔ fāshè hòu yù shénmì fāguāng tǐ "Light-Emitting Object after Shenzhou Launch" – Microblogs are going crazy with speculation, as netizens have spotted two unaccounted-for points of light in infrared pictures from yesterday's Shenzhou 9 space launch. Are they birds? Are they planes? Are they UFO's? Are they stars? Are they a camera lens malfunction? No one knows the answer!!!! Here's the story in Chinese.        |
| Today’s China Readings June 19, 2012 Posted: 18 Jun 2012 05:52 PM PDT Now that the Philippines has blinked first, China is also pulling its boats out of the disputed Huangyan Island/Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. But this dispute is deferred not resolved, as we can see from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei's comments: Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said Friday that Manila is waiting for Beijing to meet its commitment to remove its vessels that remain in the lagoon of Huangyan Island after the only Philippine ship there left this week…In response to Del Rosario's remarks, Hong questioned where and when the Philippine side received such a commitment from China….He urged the Philippines to constrain its words and deeds and do more things that are conducive to the development of bilateral ties. Does this mean that China will restart imports of Philippine mangoes and bananas and end the tourist boycott? The big winners are the US and weapons makers, as countries throughout the region were reminded of the need for US support, and for upgrades of their militaries. Reuters reports that China home price declines slow, Beijing to keep curbs. Beijing real estate transactions in June are at the highest monthly pace of the year–6月北京楼市成交量或再创年内新高–as many people do not believe the government's insistence that the real estate restrictions will remain firmly in place. The government is concerned about this shift in expectations, as Reuters explains: The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, said in an analytical report on Monday that many home buyers worry about a rebound in property prices, as China has relaxed monetary policies, which changed market sentiment and boosted property sales since March…."It seems home prices and tightening policies have reached their bottom so quite a few home buyers are starting to panic again," it said….This is reminiscent of 2009 when prices doubled in several months after Beijing rolled out a 4 trillion yuan ($628.43 billion) stimulus package, the newspaper said." In May I discussed the current strength of the Beijing commercial real estate market and the failed 2009 predictions of its impeding implosion. There is certainly a boom in commercial development in China, in part due to the distortions introduced by government controls on residential real estate. Reuters reports that China mall space is closing in on European levels: China will have more shopping centre space than Western Europe in 5 to 10 years, stoking fears of a property bubble as developers race to build glitzy malls for the country's fast-growing middle classes, research shows….China has built at least 20 million square meters of shopping centers in 14 major cities over the past decade, with a further 14.8 million square meters under construction, property consultancy CBRE Group (CBG.N) said this week. Western European centers cover 55 million square meters. I'd rather take a flyer on shopping malls for Chinese consumers than Western European ones. But with booms may come busts. In an article that should tickle the loins of China bears, Caixin reports on the dangers growing in the commercial real estate boom. (The Caixin article is currently in Chinese only, I will post a link to the abridged English version when it is published.) In 商业地产高危 Caixin writes that Chengdu is building not one but two financial districts and currently has 30 buildings 200 meters or taller either in planning or under construction. Some of the problems highlighted include: no restrictions on commercial lending or development; local governments blindly encouraging projects as they need the revenue; no REITs in China so financing and exit options are limited, and a small pool of qualified commercial real estate management. It does sound like there will be big problems, but also big opportunities for those who know what they are doing. Chengdu, with 15 million or so residents, is a key hub for Southwest China and much of China's western development plans, but 30 200m+ skyscrapers seems a bit much. Then again, Shanghai's Pudong was once a wasteland that many analysts said was a huge white elephant. We will revisit in a few years, to see which pundits got it right. The new issue of Caixin also has an important article on Guangdong's approach to "stability preservation"–维稳的广东弹性. The Caixin article highlights the measures Guangdong is taking to resolve conflicts before they reach the Wukan level, but emphasizes that absent true rule of law it is unlikely the new policies will do anything more than alleviate some of the symptoms, instead of addressing the root causes. The article also has some interesting disclosures about the Wukan incident. Several surrounding villages had similar problems, though not to the level of conflict as Wukan, that did not get the kind of resolution as Wukan, and some Wukan businessmen whose legitimate and legal business interests were harmed by the resolution and are now fighting for some kind of compensation. As for the part of the "Wukan Model" in which the province sends in a work team for a prolonged stay to resolve the problems, a Guangdong provincial leader told a Caixin reporter that there is "no possibility of reproducing it". It is interesting to revisit some of the Western coverage of Wukan. The Financial Times wrote in January that Wukan offers a democratic model for China. Willy Lam had a more realistic assessment in the the Jamestown Foundation's The Grim Future of the Wukan Model for Managing Dissent. Lam wrote that Beijing has "not given up the CCP authorities' time-tested strategy of tackling dissent: to switch between soft and tough tactics in accordance with the requirement of different circumstances." And in the recent Mister Nice Guy Wang Yang shows his steely side the South China Morning Post wrote that: …an order issued in recent months threatened that heads would roll if Guangdong witnessed a second Wukan or similar "unpredicted" mass incident before the 18th party congress. Local government officials and public security officers were told they would be held responsible if they failed to do their utmost to nip protests in the bud…While it cannot be confirmed that the order came from Wang himself, many find it highly believable…"This is a critical year for Wang Yang as he is hoping to get into the Politburo Standing Committee, so we've been seeing more measures to maintain social stability over the past few months," said Ye Du, a Guangzhou-based media analyst. "This includes tighter control of the local media and more petitioners being arrested." Perhaps the real lesson for cadres from Wukan is not that this is a new model in dealing with unrest but that you better not let problems grow into something so large and so media-exposed? The Guardian's Jonathan Watts is leaving for a new assignment in Brazil. In China: witnessing the birth of a superpower he reflects on his almost 10 years reporting here. Excuse the self-promotion, but yours truly made the Foreign Policy Twitterati 100. 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.
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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