Our round-up of some of last week's highlights from China's English-language blogosphere:
Imagethief is glad to hear via the China Daily that CCP members are taking public-relations courses to better equip them in their relations with the media. He imagines what one of these PR training tools, a role-played interview, might look like with senior party officials. Looks like he doesn't have much faith that things will change overnight.
Beijing Newspeak writes on the difficulties facing Xinhua reporters trying to investigate accidents, which is a surprise given the news agency's perception as the government's official mouthpiece. However, sources are afraid of getting those dreaded black marks on their records since blame inevitably has to be placed on someone. Good reporters thus have to find ways to get info they need, either through cunning or the "I'll tell on you" tactic. We suggest giving free Xinhua t-shirts and hosting awesome happy hours; always works for us.
Looking to buy a new place in Shanghai? Catshanghai recently did, and has summarized the entire process in 13 easy-to-follow steps. One tip we'd like to add from our own personal home-buying experience: if the sellers start throwing out "V" signs and high-fiving each other behind your back after you agree on the sales price, go back and start negotiating again.
The TIME China Blog notes that no government officials have been punished or charged with anything in the Shanxi slavery scandal, and quotes a former senior party cadre who believes that by not cracking down more aggressively, the government is missing an opportunity to demonstrate their progressiveness and responsiveness to citizens' concerns. "They can't bring themselves to lift the cover off the box for fear of what they might discover inside."
Ogilvy China Digital Watch wonders if the Chinese web companies that are copycatting Western business models and designs can, due to the necessity of building their own Chinese-based infrastructure, drive longer term innovation. The author writes: "As Web 2.0 applications become more and more popular in China and a growing legion of Chinese developers familiarize themselves with the latest tools, we believe that China’s oft-disparaged 'clones' will in fact make real contributions, and give back to the development communities they’ve borrowed from." We hope to see the same happen with Chinese reality shows.
Picture by monkeyking via Shanghaiist Contribute Page.
Read the complete post at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/shanghaiist/~3/136324184/china_blog_para_5.php
Posted
Jul 22 2007, 08:29 PM
by
Shanghaiist