Recently we reported on the arrest of dissident intellectual Liu Xiaobo and police interviews with dozens of other signatories of Charter 08, the pro-democracy manifesto released during a period of sensitive anniversaries last month. The number of mainland scholars, artists and writers who have been questioned by authorities about the …
Breathtaking Stuff
If you have an idle moment, visit the Hedley Index. It tracks air pollution in Hong Kong and is run by the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health. The Hong Kong Government has its own widely criticized Air Pollution Index, which is not based on current international understanding as to what constitutes healthy or unhealthy …
What’s Black and White and Craves Flesh?
Gu Gu, of course. As AFP phrases it, “A Beijing Zoo panda known for his bad temper has tasted human blood for the third time.”
On the Road in Northwest China
From Lin Yang, who spent New Year’s on the road:
Not everyone is having a hard time during the financial crisis. Over the New Year’s holiday, I took my dad on a road trip to visit our old hometown in Ningxia, where the temperature was 5°F. Having spent twenty years in the bleak mountains of that region in northwest China, my dad was
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Real Estate in China: Some Reason to be Cheerful
I have written in the past (and, it now seems, over optimistically) about how China’s economy is different and why that might help it weather the current crisis better than some other countries. One reason is its unique hybrid economy that mixes rigid state control with wild west free market capitalism. The central government control in …
John DeFrancis
My neighbor Jeremiah Jenne has a post on his Jottings from the Granite Studio blog today about the death of China scholar and linguist John DeFrancis. DeFrancis is well known for the popular Chinese language textbooks and dictionaries he compiled. When I hear his name I go back to Chinese 101, as in “Please turn to page 70 of your …
Zhang Ziyi Does It Again
Way back in the mists of time when this blog was launched one of our first posts was a picture of actress Zhang Ziyi canoodling with her obviously western boyfriend at an L.A. Lakers games. There was a good deal of silly stuff on the internet accusing her of being a traitor to China etc etc. There was an similar outbreak when news broke …
Alarming Headline of the Day
From Reuters: “China faces wave of unrest in 2009.” Last month Simon wrote about whether Beijing could maintain social order as the economic crisis unfolds. A prominent mainland publication says the answer is most likely “no.” The Reuters report states:
China faces surging protests and riots in 2009 as rising unemployment stokes
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And the runner-up is: Edison Chen
Just a couple weeks ago, TIME named president-elect Barack Obama Person of the Year. Second place went to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. In Hong Kong, public broadcaster RTHK held its own POY poll. While the top spot also went to Obama, #2 went to Edison Chen, star of the city’s most notorious celebrity sex scandal. It’s not …
Milk Detentions a Rash Move
If a government prevents parents from protecting or speaking out for their children, it frustrates a fundamental human drive. Thus the Chinese authorities embarked on a highly risky course when, over the weekend, they detained five parents of children made ill by melamine-tainted milk formula. The parents had planned to attend a news …
A Big Jump in State Security Arrests
Over the past year China arrested nearly 1,300 people for endangering state security in the restive western region of Xinjiang, according to a story in the state press. The story (here in Chinese, and cited here in this AFP piece) says 1,154 of the suspects were formally charged. Those numbers are nearly double what was reported for the …
Milk Powder Mass Mailing
From time to time, mobile phone users in China receive a mass mailing text message that’s not the usual maddening spam (companies offering to supply illegal satellite dishes or equally illegal receipts for everything from airplane tickets to rent and of course offers for wonderful but amazingly cheap apartments). Mostly these non-spam …
Reaching for the Heavens in Beijing; A New Day and a New Year
This is not a shot of China’s latest space launch but the newly completed Guomao Phase II Tower lit up for the new year. Or possibly an SOS to an aliens who actually understand how our ailing economy works. There don’t seem to be many of us earthlings around who fall into that category these days. As President Elect Obama said in …
