Blogs » Politics » Photo: Spring Festival Children, Chengdu Wuhou Memorial Temple, by Dordordor
Blogs » Politics » Photo: Spring Festival Children, Chengdu Wuhou Memorial Temple, by Dordordor |
- Photo: Spring Festival Children, Chengdu Wuhou Memorial Temple, by Dordordor
- China Reporting Wins Polk Awards
- Why Southern Weekly?
- Weibo Users Call Out Water Pollution
- Teng Biao: Defense in the Second Trial of Xia Junfeng Case
- China’s Most Influential Micro-Blogger Banned for Criticizing Communist-Friendly Search Engine
- Setback for Chinese Democracy: Why Protest Leader Admits He “Regrets” Taking Charge of Wukan
- Citizens Document Extreme Water Pollution in China
- Chinese Farms Breed Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
- ‘China’s Leonard Cohen’ Calls Out Corruption
- Why 100s of Thousands of Chinese are Suddenly Searching for This Chow Chow
| Photo: Spring Festival Children, Chengdu Wuhou Memorial Temple, by Dordordor Posted: 18 Feb 2013 11:04 PM PST  Spring Festival Children, Chengdu Wuhou Memorial Temple © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| China Reporting Wins Polk Awards Posted: 18 Feb 2013 10:50 PM PST In a year of remarkable news coverage of China, several outlets have been singled out for their 2012 reporting with prestigious George Polk Awards. Two stories on high-level corruption in China, by Bloomberg and the New York Times, and a CBS News series on human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, have won the award. To mark the awards, a George Polk Seminar entitled, "A Revolution Betrayed: Covering Corruption and Human Rights in China" will be held Wednesday, April 10, 2013, at Long Island University. The Bloomberg stories cited by Long Island University, which oversees the awards, include investigative reports looking into the family wealth of disgraced Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai and incoming president Xi Jinping. The New York Times reports, by David Barboza, examined the financial connections between "princelings" and their extended families. One report looked into the vast wealth obtained by relatives of outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao. The CBS series reported on activist Chen Guangcheng, during the time he was held under house arrest in Linyi, Shandong, and after his escape to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
After the stories were published, both the Bloomberg and New York Times' sites were blocked in China. Later, the New York Times (along with the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post) revealed that their site had been hacked, with David Barboza's email communications the apparent target. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:53 PM PST Former managing editor Qian Gang looks back on the Southern Weekly incident and the factors behind it, retracing the Guangdong newspaper's difficult past and examining why its New Year's greeting has long-rankled China's propaganda officials:
See also former Southern Newspaper editor Chang Ping's recent interview with ChinaFile, in which he discusses censorship and China's changing media landscape, as well as an op-ed by CDT's Xiao Qiang and Perry Link about the Southern Weekly incident and the "China dream." © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Weibo Users Call Out Water Pollution Posted: 18 Feb 2013 07:46 PM PST Zhejiang entrepreneur Jin Zengmin has offered a reward to a senior Chinese official if he swims in a polluted river for 20 minutes, according to the South China Morning Post's Chris Luo:
Jin's push in Zhejiang comes as activist web users accused factories in Shandong province of intentionally dumping waste into rivers, according to Li Jing at the South China Morning Post:
Tea Leaf Nation's Liz Carter writes that the issue has become the number-one trending topic on Sina Weibo:
The state-run Global Times reported that the online outcry in Weifang prompted a response from local authorities, who offered rewards to any whistle-blower whose tips proved accurate, and Ernest Kao and the South China Morning Post reports that an editorial in the Beijing News last week urged officials to tackle the water pollution issue:
See also recent CDT coverage of water pollution in China, including an accident at a chemical plant which caused the contamination of a river in northern Shanxi province. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Teng Biao: Defense in the Second Trial of Xia Junfeng Case Posted: 18 Feb 2013 07:43 PM PST Xia Junfeng (夏俊峰) was a street vendor from Tieling county, Liaoning province (沈阳铁岭县). On May 16, 2009, while selling chicken strips, roasted sausages and other snacks with his wife Zhang Jing near a crossroads in Chenhe District, in the city of Shenyang (沈阳沉河区), Xia Junfeng was seized by urban enforcers known as Chengguan (城管) and taken to their office where he was beaten. During the course of the beating, Xia Junfeng fought back with a small knife he carried in his pocket, stabbing two Chengguans to death and injuring one. He was convicted of intentional homicide and sentenced to death during the first trial, and the second trial, held in July, 2010, upheld the verdict of the first trial. The case has garnered wide online attention in China since its onset. It is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court in Beijing. Dr. Teng Biao was Xia's defense lawyer in the second trial, and the following is an excerpt of his closing argument. Several volunteer translators, Yaxue included, have collaborated on a complete translation of Dr. Teng's defense in the hope to shed light on, and call for attention to, the Xia Junfeng case and the ill system at its root. The Chinese original is here.  Painting by Xia Junfeng's son, now 12. Since the Chengguan system was established in 1997, its drawbacks have been clear. The crimes it has committed have been many and have bred bitter resentment among the population. To date, there is no national "Urban Administration Law" or administrative statutes to govern it, and Chengguan "enforcement" has never had any legal basis. Nor has there been any consistency or standards in its enforcement approach as well as its leadership structure. It has had no legal oversight but still acts as law enforcement. Its members have no clear legal definition. Their personal qualities are as varied as to have thugs and hooligans in their midst. In many cases, they rob, and work for personal gain by harassing and harming citizens at will under the name of enforcement. In this system of vague legal status and inadequate oversight, Chengguan's violent habit becomes a necessity, and a part of the system. Extralegal violence, thus employed to compensate for inadequate regulation and an absence of authority and legal deterrence, is no longer individual behavior. Such violence exists everywhere with the permission of the authorities. It is needed because of an overriding concern for "city image" and "urban management." Finally, when extralegal violence is not monitored by the people and the media, and not punished by the law, it is only natural for Chengguan members to feel justified. Using violence with impunity enables the Chengguans to see violence psychologically as their "privilege," a sign of status and pride. Since the legal and political status of Chengguan is unclear, it is only natural for its members to seek personal gain, vent their anger, and prey on the citizens they were intended to protect. Once violence starts, it has its own momentum, and, with a specific system enabling it and Groupthink encouraging it, it eventually becomes a habit and an addiction. I believe Zhang Xudong and Shen Kan would have never displayed their cruelty and gratuitous violence toward their wives and children, because in a family environment they adhered to the principles of love and decency. But in the milieu of the Chengguan's collective enforcement, they were overtaken by the desire and passion to inflict violence. Although, for Xia Junfeng's interest and for the sake of the case reaching a just decision, I as the defense lawyer must point out that Shen Kai and Zhang Xudong's actions at the time broke the law. Still, I don't just blame them. They were my countrymen, living in the same imperfect world as the rest of us. They were no doubt victims of the Chenguan system as well. I hold deep empathy toward them, and can feel their family's loss and pain, which are also the misfortune of all society. In this case, the Chenguan system has already destroyed two families; do we have to destroy a third one? We have lost Shen Kai and Zhang Xudong. Several dozen citizens have been beaten to death by Chengguans. We have already paid a heavy price for the brutal Chengguan system, and now, do we have to sacrifice justice in order to endorse an ill-conceived system and the brutality committed by its members? Must we make the judiciary an avenging hand that puts Xia Junfeng, a husband and father of a nine-year-old, to death? Chief judge and judges, In the worldwide trend against the death penalty, most countries have abolished it by law or in practice, and in the countries where it is still in use, it is reserved for the most egregiously violent crimes. It's bad enough that we have been applying the death penalty in economic or non-violent criminal cases, are we now going to apply it in cases of excessive self-defense or justifiable self-defense as well? Cao Haixin was executed for self-defense, and the tragedy is a shame in the judicial history in Henan. Today, in the 21st century, are we going to repeat the same tragedy in Liaoning? The death of two citizens is a tragedy for our society, but if Xia Junfeng were to be sentenced to death, it would be an obvious and gargantuan mistake, a tragedy unbearable and unacceptable to society that will cast a shadow on the Chinese judiciary for a long time to come. If Xia Junfeng were to be sentenced to death, many more innocent, helpless vendors will die at the hands of Chengguans. If one were to be sentenced to death for self-defense, he or she would be inclined to kill excessively and kill many more without qualms, because one can only die once. If one were to be sentenced to death for self-defense, there would be no boundaries between guilt and innocence, good and bad, life and death; and the power of the rule of law, already pathetically weak in our society, would be destroyed altogether by evil, chaos and brutality. Without exaggeration, sentencing to death a citizen who was only defending himself will have disastrous repercussions for the whole society since it would embolden the attackers and intimidate those who resist unlawful violence. While evil-doers are encouraged, victims will be harmed the second time by the court after sustaining harm first from violent crimes. The act of self-defense in the face of unlawful harm is not only a virtue but an instinct. But instead of being protected and praised, if such an act is condemned with a sentence of death, then today's verdict will hurt not only Xia Junfeng's legal rights, but also the dignity of the law itself, social ethics, and the citizens' sense of right and wrong. It is my hope that the court's decision today will indicate that our judiciary system is still able to uphold the basic sense of right and wrong and some degree of independence. It is our hope that the judiciary process of Xia Junfeng's case will show the world that the long-suffering Chinese people can draw lessons from their miseries and stand firm on the side of the rule of law and humanitarianism. |
| China’s Most Influential Micro-Blogger Banned for Criticizing Communist-Friendly Search Engine Posted: 18 Feb 2013 06:25 PM PST  Advice for Jike users: Don't search for "Dalai Lama" or "separation of powers." (David Wertime/Tea Leaf Nation) On February 17, ex-Google China head Lee Kai-fu stated on Twitter that he had been locked out of China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo for three days, ostensibly for criticizing a Party-backed search engine called Jike and its sporting celebrity director Deng Yaping. Lee, who is currently head of Chinese venture capital firm Innovation Works, is an avid microblogger who often tweets in support of independent media and freedom of information. He has over 30 million followers on Weibo, who recently dubbed Lee the most influential microblogger of 2012. Lee is no stranger to controversy–over the past six months, more than 78 of his posts have been deleted by Sina Weibo–however, this is the first time that he has been blocked entirely. His Weibo account was frozen on February 17 after he criticized Communist Party-sponsored Internet search engine Jike and its Party-appointed director Deng Yaping, a former Ping Pong champion who is regarded as one of the best players of all time. Following unconfirmed reports that Jike spent an alleged 2 billion RMB (about US$320 million) of taxpayer's money without turning a profit, and that Deng was subsequently forced by an irate superior to cut 100 staff, Lee blogged that while he declined to comment on such gossip, he had some questions:
Lee's comparison of Deng Yaping to swimmer Michael Phelps may have been a little unfair; in addition to being a ping pong icon, Deng has a Ph.D in Land Economy from Cambridge University's Jesus campus, where she researched the effect of the 2008 Olympics on China's development. She has also served on the Olympic Committee's Ethics and Athletes commissions and is a member of China's CPPCC, a political advisory body to the Chinese government.  Lee Kai-fu's social media influence was not enough to dodge a Weibo ban. (Via Weibo) However, the search engine that Deng commandeers, Jike, certainly has not been doing well. A recent report from Chinese IT statistics platform CNZZ indicates that among China's domestic search engines, Jike is used by approximately 0% of Web users, with less than 1/10,000 of total market share. According to a recent China Media Project article, Jike's search results of controversial issues lean heavily towards the Party line, omitting alternate viewpoints on topics such as Nobel Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiabo and the separation of government powers. The "gossip" that Lee Kaifu refused to comment on in his post was an article, since removed from the Internet, that contained accounts allegedly from a Jike employee stating that Deng Yaping did not understand the search engine industry. After being appointed, the article alleged that Deng "blindly" expanded her employee base, spending over 2 billion RMB on staff and equipment until forced to downsize after failing to turn a profit. She also allegedly enjoyed regaling staff during meetings with tales of her ping pong exploits. The article quoted her telling employees, "You all are good for nothing. Back when I was playing ping pong, I was always #1 and don't even know how far behind #2 was–you guys can't learn from Baidu, you have to emulate Google." This critique of Jike and boss Deng was by no means Lee Kaifu's first controversial microblog posting. Lee was one of many high-profile microblogging celebrities that tweeted in defense of Chinese publication Southern Weekend after its New Year's greeting was axed by censorship authorities in January. He also stated last September in a speech at a World Economic Forum conference held in Tianjin that social media is a way for China to deal with its corruption issue. After being blocked from Weibo, Lee reverted to Twitter, where he has about one million followers, tweeting, "I've been blocked from Weibo for three days, [but] everyone can find me here." In a subsequent tweet, he cited Xi Jinping's statement earlier this year that the Party must accept "sharp criticism" from non-communists. Online reaction to Lee's involuntary hiatus from the Chinese blogosphere appears subdued; many appear unaware that he has been blocked, as his name and profile can still be searched. User @YongquanH asked, "He got blocked for saying some unknown search engine was wasting money? Is one limited to singing praises?" One reason for this muted response may be that few Chinese Web users are aware of Jike's existence; many of the 2,000 Web users that responded to a January 18 report about Jike's miniscule share of China's search engine market commented that they had never heard of the site. Others said that they had never used it. Some wondered what Deng had done with the billions of RMB allegedly invested in the Jike venture. User @鸟宿池中树 wrote, "Just because you're good at ping pong, it doesn't mean you're good at everything. Do you think you're Superman?" To be fair, perhaps more blame lies with those who appointed Deng to a position for which she may have been simply unqualified.         |
| Setback for Chinese Democracy: Why Protest Leader Admits He “Regrets” Taking Charge of Wukan Posted: 18 Feb 2013 05:44 PM PST  A man in Wukan rides past an announcement for a new construction project in June, 2012. (Remko Tanis/Flickr) "I am afraid when the phone rings, afraid of seeing people, and afraid of hearing the door bell. Why? Because I can neither stand nor sit; can't say yes or no; can't speak the truth nor tell lies. It's hard to say anything." These words are not from dissidents, but Lin Zulian (commonly referred to by his former name, Lin Zuluan), who led the southern Chinese village of Wukan in a 2011 anti-government uprising and is now the town's democratically elected leader. That uprising, a grassroots response to the local government's selling off land without giving villagers proper compensation, has given way to what many have seen as a bold democratic experiment in Communist China. One of the goals of a democratic village government was to recover the land villagers had lost. But according to Dragon Television, Shanghai's provincial television station, Wukan is now facing serious difficulties. A history of setbacks Some of Wukan's problems are not news. In September, 2012, several Western media outlets revisited Wukan and reported on the slow progress of its democratic experiment. Then, areas of dissatisfaction included villagers' "expectations gap" between the promise of democracy and its messy reality, meddling by county-level governments, and suspicions that the whole enterprise was simply a political move by Wang Yang, the former Guangdong province Communist Party chief who was known to eye a seat on China's elite Politburo Standing Committee. Additional obstacles have now begun to emerge. Wukan is dealing with a dearth of outside investment due to concerns over its political stability, a village leadership that lacks governing experience, and in-fighting within the village administration itself. As one villager told a reporter, "All of Wukan is dissatisfied. First, we villagers overthrew the corrupt officials, but the new administration has done nothing [to get land back]; they got nothing back and have not given us an answer…We'll take anything [at this point]." Surveying unbought luxury residences whose bare porches had begun to sprout grass, reporter Jin Song concluded that "currently many investors do not dare to invest in Wukan…because there is still no consensus about whether to lease the recovered land or to transfer it, the village committee is unable to monetize it." Meanwhile, infighting is worsening between elected village leaders and those activists left on the outside. According to Yang Semao, deputy director of the governing village committee, "The village committee only has seven people…, [but] there are dozens of influential activists and it's impossible for everyone to join the committee. Now they're going all out to attack, defame, and stymie us." Lin feels the same way. He told a reporter, "Recently I have been under way too much pressure; some irrational villagers are making trouble in village committee." Lin accused them of "provoking and instigating" in order to "overthrow" the new committee. This has already affected committee members. Zhang Jiancheng, who was responsible for land resources and public security, resigned on January 29. Even Lin has felt compelled to to install cameras at home out of family safety concerns. When asked whether he regretted leading the 2011 protest, Lin said, "I think I do regret it now. My personal interests were not at stake in that protest, and neither are they now. Why should I have gotten involved? … Why did I go looking for trouble?" Besides the in-fighting, the committee is also facing confusion about how to translate wishes for villager autonomy into real terms. As Zhang said, "Our democracy is still in its infancy … For example, when our Villagers' Oversight Committee was first established, no one knew how much power it had and it was always having conflicts with our village Party branch and village committee." Lin appeared to be on the verge of giving up, saying he looks forward to having a young and capable leader take over. The importance of central power Since its February 13 posting on the official Sina Video Account and on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, this video has caused wide discussion on the Chinese Web. While a minority—mostly apparent Maoists—have argued that democracy is simply wrong, a plurality of comments call for time and patience, stressing that more permanent and systemic changes will be necessary before Wukan's fragile democratic experiment can succeed. To them, Wukan's hardship is neither accidental nor surprising, but instead a reflection of deeper problems rooted in Chinese political practices and the ambiguous and subtle relationship between grassroots initiatives and top-down policies.  A man reads a public announcement from the town government on the process of getting land back that was illegally sold by the previous local government of Wukan. (Remko Tanis/Flickr) In China, Wukan's democratic election model may not be able to survive without support from the central government. @朱启臻, a professor from China Agricultural University, wrote: "In China, no group can survive and develop without the central government's support. Wukan protested, [but] authorities are very likely to 'wait-and-see', with some [hoping for failure]." User @复旦陈云, an associate Professor of School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, commented: "After the [1978] Xiaogangcun incident [where a village in Anhui province secretly experimented with ending China's disastrous collective land policy], the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee gave it validation and promotion. However, after the Wukan protest, there was no related …promotion, and this is the source of Wukan's isolation problem. " Such comments are not mere Communist boilerplate. In the recent history of Chinese political reform, almost all successful bottom-up efforts enjoyed final approval from the central government. As Prof. Chen pointed out, Xiaogangcun began as a dangerous experiment, but was ultimately promoted as a model nationwide. This incident is seen as the beginning of China's decades' long policy of Reform and Opening. But the stars had aligned for Xiaogangcun; in the 1970s, central authorities were eager to reform the Chinese economy and move past the disasters of the Cultural Revolution. Moreover, the reform was economic in nature and did not threat the dominant position and leadership of the Communist Party. Wukan is a bit different. As @清溪渔夫 commented: "The trouble facing Wukan is that it is a political experiment, which the government seemingly compromises [on] but secretly opposes." @小木a加个V吧 noted that political reforms must proceed differently: "The differences between Wukan and Xiaogangcun is this: economic reform is bottom-up, while political reform is top-down." Politics, or business? But the political and economic eventually converge. While the Wukan protest two years ago ignited hope and debate both home and abroad about Chinese democracy, the fever, at least in Wukan, appears to have cooled. Both villagers and netizens are focusing on more practical issues – investment and property rights. Some doubt whether democracy was ever the core issue. @吕新雨12, a professor of journalism at Fudan University, wrote: "Wukan's true problem is the capitalization of rural land, but media hyped it as a democracy question and ignored the real issue. The village committee does not have the ability to solve this problem. The development of urbanization is the root cause. And that is why such land conflicts are so intensive in Guangdong." The combination of business and political power has long been a common way of doing business in China. Wukan, already freighted with symbolic baggage, is trying to become an exception to this rule. Both politicians and businesses as yet unaccustomed to this new model. Weibo user @胡说习惯 praised the spirit of Wukan's reforms, but ultimately concluded: "It's hard to make [the Wukan reforms] long-lasting. The investment environment has been damaged, which means the market is not in favor of this small scale political climate. Capital is always chasing power, and democratic election weaken this power." Viewed from this perspective, elections and democracy are not a singular solution, but a tool. User @玻璃罐子里的苍蝇 echoed this view, writing, "What Wukan villagers really want is money. Using democracy to solve the Wukan problem sounds great, but actually it is not the right prescription … Wukan's follow-ups are reflections of the embarrassing situation of democracy in China. Democracy is still a luxury for us, just someone's talking point. "     |
| Citizens Document Extreme Water Pollution in China Posted: 18 Feb 2013 04:25 PM PST As the effects of China's toxic smog problem in mid-January continue to reverberate through the country, severe water pollution has recently been brought to light by online campaigns calling for a reality check on the state of rivers across the nation. Leading the campaign is Deng Fei (@邓飞), a former investigative journalist and now a prominent social activist, who invited people [zh] to snap photos of rivers and post them on the microblogging service Weibo.
His call touched a nerve and many went online to voice their anger over polluted rivers. Photos posted by netizens show waste and litter scattered along river banks.  A collection of microbloggers' photos of river pollution near their hometowns by Snapshot of Pollution (＠家乡污染全民拍). According to the Chinese Ministry of Supervision, over 1,700 water pollution incidents are estimated to occur every year. The World Bank, in a 2007 report titled The Cost of Pollution in China, labeled water pollution a "significant problem" in China's rural areas, putting the number of premature deaths caused by water and air pollution at 750,000 per year. Describing the pollution, @xiaotaiyang1988 (@土豆_连种带挖) said:
@FlyOnTheSea (@海阔依飞) wrote sarcastically:
Some Chinese media have also joined the crusade against water pollution. The Beijing News (@新京报), a paper known for its hard-hitting journalism, presented [zh] a horrific picture on its official Weibo account:
Even the People's Daily (@人民日报), the official mouthpiece newspaper of the government, has weighed in [zh] and issued a grave warning on its Weibo account:
As the chatter in the cyberspace heats up and draws more media attention, there are indications that efforts to expose the extent of water pollution have taken a turn. Laywer Gang Yuanchun (@甘元春律师 ) posted a message on his Weibo account:
The message was later deleted, pointing to the sensitivity of the issue. Environmental degradation remains as much a grave public concern as a challenge for China's ruling party. China's obsession with fast economic growth over the past decade has taken a heavy toll on its environment, enraging a public that is not content with only materialistic benefits. On July 28, 2012, thousands of people took to the street and stormed a local government office in Qidong, a city in China's coastal Jiangsu province, over worries of water contamination by a nearby paper factory. And in January of this year, Global Voices reported on residents in the city of Handan who drank and bathed in toxic water when left uninformed by the government about water contamination. The balancing act between boosting a slowing economy through industrial output and possible social unrests triggered by public health crisis presents a daunting political calculus for China's authorities. Written by owen · comments (0) |
| Chinese Farms Breed Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Posted: 18 Feb 2013 03:11 PM PST In 2011, human consumption of antibiotics in China was ten times the global average. Because overuse of the drugs can give rise to resistance in the bacteria they target, the Health Ministry has repeatedly promised to cut down on unnecessary use. Overconsumption among humans is not the only problem, however. Among the various side effects of China's surging meat consumption is the large-scale adoption of American-style intensive farming techniques, including routine preventative dosing of animals. A paper published last week by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Science and Michigan State University documents the consequent proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria at three large pig farms around China. From Maryn McKenna at Wired:
Overuse of antibiotics in agriculture is still a major problem in the United States, where 80% of all antibiotics sold are consumed by farm animals and the industry has fought beak and trotter to resist regulation. In a New York Times report last September, Sabrina Tavernise summed up the stakes:
See further discussion of "the doomsday scenario of a world without antibiotics" at the Bulletin of the World Health Organization in 2010, and a Telegraph report on antibiotic overuse in China and its dangers from the same year. Last month, Shanghai-based researchers shed new light on one process by which bacteria develop resistance. From Alice Yan at South China Morning Post:
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| ‘China’s Leonard Cohen’ Calls Out Corruption Posted: 18 Feb 2013 11:28 AM PST NPR's Louisa Lim profiles singer Zuoxiao Zuzhou, who has been described as "China's Leonard Cohen" by Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies, and as the most important musician in China by Ai Weiwei.
Short samples of Zuoxiao's music are included in the audio version of the report. Four full tracks are also available for streaming at NPR.org, with more at the artist's own site. The singer's battle to prevent the demolition of his home has attracted considerable support online. His comments on Chinese people's supposed passivity echo those of author Yan Lianke, who said recently that intellectuals, including himself, "haven't taken enough responsibility. They always have an excuse, saying they don't have a reason to talk or don't have the environment". See also a 2010 interview with Zuoxiao Zuzhou at The China Beat and considerably more information on his official site, via CDT. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Why 100s of Thousands of Chinese are Suddenly Searching for This Chow Chow Posted: 18 Feb 2013 08:24 AM PST  Where are you, Xiaoxiao? How much would you pay to get your pet back? For one man living in Chengdu, China, the answer is an apartment potentially worth one million RMB (about US$160,000). And that valuation has sent the Chinese social media into a dog-searching frenzy. The original post, from user @家居曹老师 on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, was retweeted more than 340,000 times and generated more than 51,000 comments. An apartment at a prime location in one of China's largest cities is a precious commodity. It is especially so to many young social media users in China, who cannot afford to buy but face social pressure to acquire a stable dwelling before they marry. As an economist might say, the demand for real estate from potential mother-in-laws in China is quite inelastic. So everyone is joining efforts to find Xiao Xiao, the chow chow that went missing on February 8, or at least joking that they want to. Weibo user @厶人爱an厶人疼 wrote, "I've caught more than a dozen dogs on the street today. I've taught five chow chows to say that their name is Xiao Xiao, but the rest have not admitted that they are chow chows yet."  Trust me. I'm a chow chow named Xiao Xiao Thousands of social media users decided maybe their own pets are a chow chow named Xiao Xiao after all, no matter if they are a golden retriever, a cat, or a turtle. @熊猫Pan-da tweeted a photo of his cactus plant, writing, "It's time to tell you the truth. You are a dog named Xiao Xiao. I brought you back from Chengdu and dressed you up as a cactus plant. Let's go. Let's get the deed and the key!" The one person who does not find any of this amusing is the owner of the missing dog. The man, a self-described home furnishing expert in his 60′s, tweeted about the missed opportunities to spend time with his son, who attended a state-owned athletics school from the age of six to 20 and did not live at home. Xiao Xiao, to @家居曹老师, is "a family member worth more than one million RMB."     |
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