Archive
May 1, 2004
At China Digital News, a summary of how AnnaLee Saxenian of the Berkeley School of Information Management and Systems, and Orville Schell of the School of Journalism, talk and muse, respectively, on the influence of the internet on China. [Update: and many more talk summaries, make sure to read the succeeding entries as well. I particularly enjoyed the more technical talk by Tom Vest on "Internet Development in China", where he talks about the structure of the internet in China and argues that a monopoly on the national Autonomous Routing Demand (ARD), ie the number of ways China is connected to the international internet, will ultimately be harmful to the Chinese use of the internet. I agree, but I see this more as a warning of a potential outcome and think that Tom would agree that the network will evolve as political and economic circumstances change.]
Sinofiles confirmed my suspicion: the reason that the Ma Jiajue case is getting so much coverage is that people sympathize with him. Ma Jiajue was a university student in Yunnan who hammered four of his roommates to death, ran away, and was caught and sentenced to death. He came from a poor family, was very smart, but prone was to episodes of depression and isolation. I think the combination of being discriminated against for his family background, and the grueling academic life that so many Chinese are familiar with combine to make him a pitiable figure in the eyes of many Chinese.
7-11 has arrived in Beijing.
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May 2, 2004
The Chinese-input-in-Linux action is going down at the LinuxSir BBS.
Lawrence Lessig, meet Chairman Mao: Zheng muses out loud about copyright and satire of Cultural Revolution posters.
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May 3, 2004
How embarassing: front page of the People's Daily, a photo essay titled “五一”黄金周期间不文明现象曝光, "Explosion of unicivilized behavior during the May 1st Golden Week". Still, Tiananmen Square looks really great covered in grass. It gives the ubiquitous photoshopped pamphlets and billboards in Beijing a little more credibility.
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May 4, 2004
Today's episode of Chaoshi Yingjia (超市赢家, Supermarket Winners), China's version of Supermarket Sweep, was the laowai episode; Bill Holm would call it the "Old Barbarian" episode. Each team consisted of a couple, one person a Chinese national and the other a foreigner. The funniest moments were when the girl on the green team pretended not to know how to eat some kind of eggplant snack, 将茄子, and made the host of the show eat them with her; also, at the end of the show when the red team won, the guy gave a wushu demonstration (see the last picture, and note the message "Shaolin tradition?!" on the screen).
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May 5, 2004
The Internet Time Group has pictures of the China blogger dinner at the Berkeley China's Digital Future Conference.
A critique of the Jian Guobiao essay by the translator himself on 东南西北, "Let Freedom Ring":
Jiao showed a blind admiration for the American political system, using it as the standard towards which everybody else ought to be moving. Obviously, he has not been paying attention to the details of what has been going on over there right now. The United States is a deeply divided country, with a great deal of hostility and hatred among political camps. I will simply say that I would not wish a fate like that on any other country.
Not on China? or Afghanistan? Saudi Arabia? Sudan?
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May 6, 2004
Taiwan law orders one-way writing:
Official Taiwanese documents can no longer be written from right to left or from top to bottom in a new law passed by the country's parliament.
All texts must now go from left to right, like western languages, although arts and literature are not affected.
My, my. As far as I know, many book are still printed right-to-left, top-to-bottom. I wonder how Japan has dealt with this issue. (via random($foo))
Just when you thought 大山 had moved off the radar screen, he's back! He will be starring in Court Painter, a drama serial debuting this month about Jesuit court painter Giuseppe Castiglione who served several 18th century Chinese emperors. The Chinese site for 《宫廷画师郎世宁》 has more text and pictures, as does Sina.com.
Via Just A Gwai Lo, the Chinese Language and Culture forums have an RSS feed.
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May 12, 2004
The Tianjin TV Tower, Lomo-like.
The Asian Animal Protection Network (亚洲保护动物网) monitors abuse of animals in Asian countries, and has some pretty graphic pictures of the dog meat market in Xichang (city that hosts China's premiere spacecraft launch facility, in southwestern Sichuan Province).
We see no difference between pig eating and dog eating. The degree of objection lies in the methods of rearing, transport and slaughter rather than in the choice of species.
Via the Oriental List, a choice quote from the LA Times story Olé? No Way, Say Chinese:
"As people's lifestyles have improved, they've become more and more sensitive toward animals," said Wang Shi, secretary-general of the Chinese Culture Promotion Society, a government-linked civic group. "It's becoming a universal value, like Western classical music."
Lidya Liu would have a field day with that one.
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May 13, 2004
Via an old (2003) story by Topku, the Financial Times has an online Chinese version, 《金融时报》, of which I was not aware. Topku sees this as a part of the same global strategy that the Wall Street Journal pioneered in opening their own Chinese web site in January of 2002, the 《华尔街日报》. It's interesting to note, though, that the Wall Street Journal has versions in simplified and traditional characters, defaulting ot traditional, the character set used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. On the other hand, the Financial Times has no obvious link that I could find to a traditional character version, so they must be leaning towards an audience based in the mainland, and perhaps Singapore.
For students of English/Chinese, the Financial Times offers a Story of the Day, where an article in English has been translated into Chinese and set side-by-side with the original English for comparison. Very nice! A great complements to Roddy's News in Chinese.
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May 16, 2004
Yum.
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May 17, 2004
无知少女 does not mean "uneducated young girl".
Walter Hutchens at Maryland has interesting news about the new Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
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May 18, 2004
The US has issued its annual human rights report, "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy." The range of reactions are predictable. CNN calls their article "U.S. issues delayed human rights report", and begins with:
The second annual report was to have been released earlier this month, but it was delayed in part because State Department officials believed it would not be taken seriously amid stories of abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Not be taken seriously
becomes more evident if we look at foreign news reports. The Sydney Morning Herald is straightforward: "Prison scandal blunts human rights report". The Chinese press sends two messages: one in English, another in Chinese. China View, the English wing of the Xinhua news service, chooses to be more circumspect by summarizing an article in the British Telegraph that cites a 'cloud' of POW abuses
discrediting the report.
The more fun—albeit predictable—reaction is in the Chinese-language press. The headline of the Xinhuanet website today is 美国人权报告是史无前例伪善
, "American Human Rights Report Is a Historically Unprecedented Example of Hipocrisy". I'll quote the front-page blurb:
驻伊美军残酷虐待伊拉克战俘的野蛮情景还历历在目。5月17日，美国国务院发表了人权报告。主要内容是吹嘘美国如何在全球100多个国家和地区“帮助推动民主和人权”。这份报告发表的时机和引起的反响耐人寻味。
The barbarous circumstances of cruel mistreatment of POWs by American soldiers in Iraq is still being layed out for the eyes of the world. On May 17th, the US State Department issued a Human Rights Report, the main thrust of which is to boast about how the United States has "helped to promote democracy and human rights" in over 100 countries across the globe. The timing of and motivation behind this report should be carefully considered.
Historically, human rights has been a sticking point between China and the United States, especially in issues of trade. Before the granting of permanent favored-nation status on China by the Clinton Congress, Chinese abuses of human were a topic of discussion in Washington each year. The Bush administration has been surprisingly lenient and pragmatic towards China in this respect, likely because it is more pro-free-trade than anti-human-rights-abuses.
And because it's obviously not getting enough press in the US media, Xinhuanet brings us coverage of the 2004 Miss Universe pageant. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer also has a nice photo album.
John at Sinosplice has an interesting post on his Chinese blog about an alternate form of the character 考
.
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May 19, 2004
Congrats to Eric and Apple! Doesn't he look like Harrison Ford in this picture?
Katie Beth posted a bunch of new pictures.
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May 22, 2004
From Archaeo News, 3000-year-old Chinese tomb found:
The discovered cemetery covers an area of more than 115 acres and includes about 10 tombs built into the side of the Fenghuang Mountain in Qishan County, near the city of Baoji in the province. The tombs are aligned in the shape of a pyramid, with the biggest one at the top. The number of tombs increases on the lower levels, said sources with the Shaanxi provincial Archaeological Research Institute. Archaeologists from Peking University, Shaanxi provincial and Baoji municipal archaeological institutes are surveying the site.
The Zhou dynasty held power from BCE 1027-777. Archeologists have discovered many Shang and Zhou tombs in the western, lesser-populated half of modern China.
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May 28, 2004
I'm not sure exactly what to use it for, but maybe you will find a use in the Joint Donor Database for Development Cooperation in the People's Republic of China, a project of the United Nations.
This database provides up-to-date information of Development Cooperation projects that are implemented in China by a host of bilateral and multilateral agencies, participating in this project.
Through the Beijing LUG mailing list, the Beijing Macintosh Union, 北京麦金塔用户会, or "北Mac" for short.
The Beijing Macintosh Union is Beijing's international user community. We unite a varied community of Mac users, both local and foreign, both novice and veteran, both young and old, in the Chinese capital.
Our meetings are informal and are open to the public. We welcome everyone. You do not even need to have a Mac to join our meetings. All it takes is Mac interest...
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May 30, 2004
Chris Waugh:
I can think of people who's Chinese, at its best, was functional enough to get a feed at McDonald's, who've been told they speak fluent Beijinghua when they're drunk: Probably because all drunks sound like Beijingers, regardless of what language they're speaking.
Human calligraphy: if I was clever, I'd think of a pun to go along with this one. If I remember correctly, Stephen Chow does something similar in The Flirting Scholar.
Preparing a Chinese wedding feast pictorial.
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May 31, 2004
matti of the Oriental-List (get it?) took some measurements on the Shanghai Airport high-speed maglev. Very impressive:
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0-100 km/hr
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45 s
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100-200
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47 s
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200-300
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42 s
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300-400
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52 s
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400-430
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20 s
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full speed from 52 s
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400-300
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50 s
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300-200
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40 s
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200-100
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37 s
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100-0
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55 s
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total time 7 min 20 s
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Thomas has more info:
Taxi fare Pudong airport to central Shanghai: RMB 140.
whereas
Maglev to Long Yang Road: RMB 50, plus taxi fare to central Shanghai RMB 40, or
subway for RMB 2-3 depending on destination.
Time-wise not so much gain, may be max 10-15 minutes.
Operation hours still 08:30 - 17:30.
Fifty two seconds of travel above 400km/hr sounds like fun.
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