|
|
-
Journalist and new media entrepreneur Thomas Crampton is now posting some of his work on Danwei.
China - and Asia - vote would for Obama, concludes the Asia Society.
The Asia Society compiled a nicely presented video of policy leaders from across Asia saying which US presidential candidate is viewed most favorably in their part of the world.
Barack Obama won hands down in countries across the region.
China would vote for Obama in part because he is from a minority ethnic group, said Shen Dingli of Shanghai's Fudan University.
"Such a minority's emergence represents a great achievement of American progress in terms of human rights and social equity," Shen Dingli said, adding that Obama's lack of experience might give some hesitation.
Indonesian respondents spoke about the significance of Senator Obama's early childhood in the country.
Somewhat ironic to poll people living in countries with varying levels of electoral and dictatorial governments about how they feel about the US elections. Wonder how Myanmar would vote? Imagine Vietnam is pro-McCain. Anyone know?
In other Obama news out of Asia, the city named "Obama" in Japan's Fukui Prefecture has been enjoying newfound fame, as Reuters reports.
NOTE: If you like this posting, you may want to check out the Asia advisors list for McCain and Obama. This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
Not long after the, er, reshuffling of several English language magazines in Beijing, this news comes out of Shanghai:
About a week ago, a source sent us the following email:
Since you carried a news item on the new Shanghai Star publications early this year when they were launched you might be interested in hearing the latest in this sad saga.
The following note is being sent to freelancers who wrote for Shanghai Star Weekend and Shanghai Star Business Journal by a representative of Bridgehead Media, the company that had subcontracted some of the production and advertising work of the new look publications from China Daily the owner of the titles:
"I am sure you have already heard that Bridgehead Media is closed and out of business, (former CEO) Greg Burnard has been misrepresenting a false investor as well as a false attorney, additionally he committed fraud and embezzlement of company funds. He is currently being sought by the police and it is our understanding he has already vacated his flat and is on the move, please let us know if you hear or see him as this will be passed to the authorities. Additionally in regards to freelance payments, as the company is out of business there will be no freelance payments available."
All of Bridgehead's employees have been laid off (around 30 to 40 people), and the Shanghai Star writers and editors have been told their May salaries, due to be paid on June 1, won't be paid until the end of the month.
Apparently Bridgehead, or what is left of it, is now telling freelancers they will eventually get paid, but not for awhile. Staff paychecks will be about a month late.
Mr Burnard's whereabouts are unknown. This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Zheng Jie This roundup of the last week's sporting news is from China Sports Today.
Zheng Jie of Sichuan Province, a wild card entry to Wimbledon, made tennis history when she reached the semifinals at Wimbledon last week (report).
On Monday, China released the head coach of the men’s national soccer team after a fruitless World Cup qualifying run (report).
Hours before the NBA draft, Chinese basketball player Yi Jianlian was traded to the New Jersey Nets in a deal that sent Richard Jefferson to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks then drafted Joe Alexander, a Taiwan-born, Chinese-speaking American (report).
The Chinese Swimming Association banned Olympic hopeful Ouyang Kunpeng for life after he failed a drug test (report). Days later, seven other Chinese athletes, including Olympic wrestler Luo Meng, were also found to be doping (report).
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 The Beijing News
July 8, 2008 Over 20 video websites were "reprimanded" and asked to "stop infringement" by China's Copyright Administration, today's Beijing News reported. These websites are accused of broadcasting "Olympic-related content" without legal authorization.
The newspaper says that "Olympic-related content", including video footage of the Olympic torch relay, has been found on these websites, with one of them being identified as Pomoho.com.
The Copyright Administration, Ministry of Information and Industry, and SARFT held a joint press conference yesterday to announce a "ban on illegal Olympic broadcasting" and crackdown on pirated "Olympic-related" content.
According to the newspaper, China's state-owned CCTV is only media in China that has the broadcast rights of the Beijing Olympic Games. Any other media must be authorized by CCTV before they can broadcast "Olympic-related" content.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
-
The infamous "Hong Laowai" together with friends (including Comrade Yutian, guest host of this earlier episode of DanweiTV) performing their own spoofed version of the classic Chinese revolutionary ballet/ drama "Bai Mao Nv" (白毛女). Truly remarkable... The role of Xi'er is played by Hong Laowai.
Directed by: Yu Tian
Lighting by: Zhu Zhu
Filming by: Wang Hai
Screenplay by: Xiao Zhu K Zi This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 "When your boyfriend wants it, tell him it's wrong..." The special report page of the July 3 issue of Southern Weekly, a newspaper famous for its liberal politics, is about an emerging chastity movement in China.
The thinking behind the Chinese chastity movement is certainly different from similar movements in the US and other Western countries.
Along with the report are three independent stories with a shared theme: the confusion about keeping chaste. Below is a translation of one of the three stories.
Modern stories of chastity
by Shen Liang
Shen Fan, a 25-year-old girl, studies philosophy in Nanjing university. Like most girls in the country, Shen Fan's chastity education is mainly from her parents' nagging and preaching, a calculation of benefit and loss involved in keeping or losing chastity.
Every summer and winter when she goes back to her family in Handan, Hebei Province , she watches TV with her parents, a habit she has kept for more than ten years. As always, every time there is anything about premarital sex on the TV, Shen Fan's mother does not conceal her contempt: "This woman doesn't have brains."
Aside from watching TV, "chastity education" is also permeated through small talks, for example, gossiping about friends and relatives. A cousin of Shen Fan, four years her elder, was criticized for being too close to her boyfriend by the older generation of the family. "How stupid! Doesn't she mind the man taking advantage of her," said Shen's mother.
"There are two kinds of women in mother's eyes when it comes to sex: smart ones and stupid ones," said Shen Fan. Shen Fan's "chastity education" lasted over ten years. When Shen Fan was in middle school, she hardly played with boys, let alone went to any parties. She didn't play with boys, she didn't feel she needed to. Even now, she never goes home later than 9 o'clock when she is with her family on holidays.
Sometimes her mother tells Shen Fan her own story: When she was sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, she and her girlfriends were determined not to marry peasants. Their determination paid off: after they went back to the cities, all of the "sisters" got married with government cadres, doctor and businessman—all of them urbanites. Every time Shen's mother meets these friends, she becomes even more proud of the right choice she made.
"My parents believe that the most important thing for a woman is to marry into a good family, and losing virginity before marriage is losing competitiveness, which may lead to losing an opportunity of a good marriage," said Shen Fan.
Moreover, a woman can be respected or disrespected for chastity's sake. "When my parents got married, my mother was a virgin, which made her morally confident, especially when quarreling with father."
One time when Shen Fan went to Beijing to meet with her boyfriend, she received a phone call from mother the moment she stepped into the hotel. After she knew that her daughter was with a man in a hotel room, the mother lost her temper. Shen Fan said she was shouting so loudly on the phone that her boyfriend even heard the shouting from another room. "Be careful, you know what is important." said the mother after Shen promised her boyfriend wouldn't stay.
"They would be very happy to hear that my boyfriend loves me more than the other way around. The most ideal scenario to them is that he has fallen deeply in love, while I still keep my cool," said Shen Fan, "they want tangible benefit."
Now Shen Fan has a new boyfriend, but she has not told her parents, because he cannot meet her parents' standards for a prospective son-in-law. Another thing she does not want to let her parents know is that they had sex. Shen Fan said she tries to avoid wearing warm-colored clothes because that makes her feel less guilty.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 The Beijing News
July 7, 2008 A tornado-like wind struck Beijing's suburban Shunyi County on Friday July 4. A poultry farm suffered heavy losses with about eighty thousand of its ducks killed when their pen collapsed. The big image on the front page shows the devastated poultry farm.
The farm is a main supplier to Beijing's well-known Peking duck chain Quanjude. It is not yet clear if this incident will have any effect on the price of Beijing famous roast duck.
According to Liu Chengzhi, manager of the farm, the twister struck on July 4 at around 6:10pm during a rain storm.
"It was a black one, as big as ten village houses. Trees were ripped out from their roots" recalled Liu. According to him, about 100 acres of duck pens collapsed. The estimated losses are about 3 million yuan.
The farm has since taken measures include sterilization to prevent a possible poultry epidemic break-out.
"Luckily 12,000 ducklings were in another place and survived" said the manager, "so there is hope that we will restore the farm in a month."
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
The People's Bank of China announced yesterday that it would release a special commerative Olympic ten yuan bank note, starting tomorrow.
According to a report on Sohu.com, the bank notes will have the same value as normal ten yuan notes.
The new notes feature an illustration of the Bird's Nest on the front and of the ancient Greek statue of a discus thrower on the back.
The Sohu article lists eight anti-counterfeiting featues of the new notes, including watermarks, special printing etc.
The People's Bank of China will print 6 million of the commemorative bank notes.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 A stroll in Guizhou Chinese state-owned media, journalists, bloggers, and forum posters have all written about the riots that took place in Weng'an, Guizhou Province a week ago. The story, and how it has played out in official and unofficial media, illuminates several aspects of Chinese society and media, ranging from Internet pop culture and censorship, press freedom, the government's attempts to encourage but somehow control 'information openness' corruption of local officials and popular resentment against it, and what happens when crowds get out of control.
The best summaries of the affair are on ESWN (several articles, start here), and by Jonathan Ansfield on the Newsweek blog. This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Roe Deer Yesterday in the mountains west of Beijing in Hebei Province, your correspondent stumbled into a wild deer: the Siberian Roe Deer (Capreolus pygargus). It looked very similar to the deer pictured left, which is a different species - the plain old Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) found in Europe.
Images of the Siberian Roe Deer on the Internet mostly show red or reddish fur color, but the beast I saw was distinctly grey. According to online sources, the Siberian Roe Deer's winter coloring is grey, but it seems a little hot for that already.
Searching for further images and information, I did a Google image search on the Chinese word for Roe Deer (狍子 paozi). One of the image results on the first page was this picture:
 Deer meat strips with celery Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Tiger-Striped Neck Groove Snake
Last year on July 10, at the start of the snake season in the mountains around Beijing, Danwei published a field guide to the wild snakes of Beijing, based on Chinese sources provided by Hecaitou.
Today, 'Beijing walker' left a comment to that post:
Hi, I was walking in a gorge about 2 hours north of Beijing yesterday and saw the tail end of a snake.
It was close to a stream at 1pm. I've been trying to find out what this beautiful creature is, but I can't find a photo or description that is like it.
It was dark grey/black with two wide orangey red stripes down the sides. The stripes didn't have sharp edges, just blended back into the black. I saw about 3 feet of him and judging by his thickness, I would guess he was 5 - 6 feet in length. He looked a lot like an Australian Red Bellied Black Snake, except with the red part on the sides, not the underside.
Can anyone help identify it? Thanks.
Please leave suggestions in the comments section below. This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 The Beijing News
July 4, 2008 Today's Beijing News reported a violent death of a farmer in Ligezhuang, a village of Beijing's suburban Miyun county. The big image on the front page of today's Beijing News shows the son of the dead man crying on his knees.
Wang Zaiying was found dead in front of his torn-down house on the morning of July 13. According to an eyewitness, he was chased and beaten by three unidentified men.
It is believed Wang's death has to do with an on-going demolition project for further real-estate development in his village. Villagers were asked to give away their houses on terms that they wouldn't accept. Wang for one refused to sign the contract. Nevertheless, on May 1, his house was torn down. Wang had been keeping vigil outside of the ruins of his house since then.
Wang's son believes that the village leader was the real murderer: "These guys were sent by the village Party secretary, because my father wouldn't sign the contract." The newspaper says that the village secretary has been taken away by the police for further investigation.
A villager confirmed that some villagers who refused to accept the compensation plan had their windows broken and had bricks thrown at them.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Ji Sha's blog: "I love you, my whole class loves you" China's biggest blog host Sina has recently upgraded its blogging system. A bug in the new system has caused some revealing and laughable accidents: The real identities of some of the fans who post sugary comments anonymously on some entertainment celebrities' blogs were revealed, and turned out to be the celebrities themselves.
Self-promotion and egos aside, it seems curious that these celebrities would waste their precious time engaging in this kind of childish behavior.
Jin Sha, a singer, actress and one of the self-commenting bloggers, wrote on her blog about her feeling after what she did was exposed.
It was when I opened my blog and few people knew about it, so I just entertained myself a little bit with those anonymous posts. I didn't expect that when it was upgraded, anonymous comment became "posted by hosts". So embarrassing.
The image above is a screen grab of Jin's own 'fan' comments:
- You are so cute behaving like a little boy.
- I love you!! My whole class love you!
- Jin Sha sister you are my favorite star, all boys @%^$&*
 Zhou Jie talks to himself The image to the right is a screen grab from the blog of Zhou Jie, an actor most famous for starring as Er Kang, a charming Qing dynasty prince in the 1998 TV drama Huanzhu Princess.
- I have read your book. Great book. Support for you. Wish you well.
- I forgot, I am the first one today.
- I know you are working on Fengshenbang (a Chinese TV series) I hope everything goes well. Want to watch your new work.
- This blog reminds me of the days when you were starring in Huanzhu Princess
—All said by Zhou Jie to himself.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
-
 Lots of people buy and sell on Taobao, China's eBay Yesterday, the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce published on its website the draft of a new set if rules governing Internet commerce.
The rules, set to take effect on August 1, stipulate that all "for-profit online stores" are required to register for a license while "individuals who sell or exchange items for personal use" are not. This has aroused questions about how to draw the line between "for-profit" stores and "not-for-profit" ones.
According to a report in yesterday's The Beijing News, anyone who wants to open a home-based "for-profit" online store must have the permission of their local neighborhood committee (居委会或业委会) after consulting nearby residents, for example, the neighbors.
Trying to explain the difference between "for-profit" and "not-for-profit" e-coommerce, the newspaper quoted an explanation from Wang Jing, an official in Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce:
"If the price is negotiated and accepted by both sides, it can be categorized as "not-for-profit"; if a buyer thinks that the seller intends to make a profit, and this is confirmed by the enforcement department, then the seller will be punished for doing business without a license."
The newspaper also quoted a lawyer, Liu Huaiyang who apparently has a slightly different answer from Wang's. Liu said that the "for-profit" status should be based on whether the seller is conducting the same kind of business during a certain period of time. For example: if someone has sold a watch on the Internet, he is not necessarily "for-profit", but if he has sold 100 watches in separate deals, he falls under the definition of "for-profit".
Despite the two explanations given by the newspaper, ambiguity remains: It is likely that some online stores conduct business in a "for-profit" style like selling 100 watches for a couple of months and then selling some personal stuff like a antique watch inherited from grandfather.
Links and Sources
This article is from Danwei.org
|
|
|
|