[Download quicktime movie]

Note: I wish I could credit the source TV show here, but I’m not sure where it’s from. Came to me via a facebook friend.

“Hey Rick, have you mounted policewomen in Canada?”

And I says to him, “Sorry, I don’t kiss and tell.”

Ba-dump-ching!
True story, I swear…

Photo source: flickr

Person of the Year move Dalian to tears
“Totally ten local people (or group) were granted the honor of the “Civilized Touch” Person of the Year 2009 in the coastal city of Dalian, January 14, 2010.” Forget the ‘Civilized Touch’, I want to see who won the ‘uncivilized touch’ award. That would be far more entertaining. Forget the ‘Civilized Touch’, I want to see who won the ‘uncivilized touch’ award. That would be far more entertaining.

Ultimate Frisbee in Dalian?
If the winter blues have got you down, check out this marginally less-bleak video of ultimate frisbee at Neusoft’s ‘Will-they-ever put-grass-on-me‘ Field.

Just because you are unique…
This reminded me of that graphic that was going around illustrating the difference between collective Asian culture and more individualistic Western culture.

I hate sea cucumber. Good riddance…

Drowned sailors honoured
“North Korea has posthumously honoured sailors for rescuing portraits of the former and current leader from their sinking ship even as they were drowning, Pyongyang’s official media said on Friday.”

I don’t remember reading this story before, but that’s pretty hardcare.

AmCham-China Launches Dalian Chapter
“The American Chamber of Commerce in the People’s Republic of China (AmCham-China) today launched its third regional chapter nationwide, in Dalian, Liaoning Province. At the launch, Dalian Vice Mayor Dai Yuling and US Consul General for Shenyang Stephen Wickman were in attendance and made remarks welcoming the chamber’s expansion.”

Shopping meets tourism in Dalian
“Dalian residents see Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong as among their favoured travel destinations, with shopping at the top of the agenda. Conversely, shopping tours have become lucrative streams of sales for travel agents, with end-of-year and holiday destination offers snapped up.”

Cisco Networking Training Center Opens Its Doors in Dalian -> Cisco News
“The Cisco Networking Training Center officially launched its first program today (Jan 6) in the northeastern city of Dalian. Students recruited from all over China became the first participants, seeking ways to improve their employability through Cisco’s network training courses and best practices.”

Maybe Cisco can train Chinese students to build their own censorship technology?

Dalian 3D Cinema Upgraded for Avatar
Both Dalian Cineplex in Roosevelt Shopping Center and the New-Mart Cineplex at Newmart were upgraded for this film. Nice call, seeing as how the 2D versions have been banned.

Sergio The PIMP In Dalian (China)
Some Russian foreign student looks to be having way too much fun in Dalian. The videos on his youtube channel are pretty nuts!

Alternatively you can check out the mp3. I’ve also uploaded it to drop.io if you’d like to stream it here instead:

Save File: China-Google-newamericaDOTnet.mp3

dalianopolis.com : The Dalian Metropolis
Another Dalian website has sprung up. Looks to be a branch of DiscoverDalian. Someone please tell them that flash is so ten-years-ago.

Daily Dalian-Hefei-Guangzhou Flights Launched-Events on eChinacities – eChinacities.com
Good for Dalian residents to have another option for migrating South.

Dalian, China cuts emissions by treating sludge
english.cctv.com
Dalian is still dirtier than any city in Canada.

China Industrial Waste Management’s Dalian Sludge Treatment Facility Featured on CCTV
More on Dalian’s waste management.

Heavy snow hits Dalian, in NE China
Dalian doesn’t do winter all too well. Not really prepared for snow.

Dalian International Hot Spring Ski Festival
Can someone please tell me how Dalian can slap the ‘international’ prefix on every single event they put off?

For those of you who want some idea of what a Dalian winter looks like, check out these two pictures. The first is from Arthur Berman who says that Dalian was so cold that the ocean froze. The other is from Sonia Telles showing a pretty harsh-looking Xmas morning in Dalian.

The one thing that I did take notice of in this discussion was that the Chinese reportedly used a tactic that I had seen before many times when I worked in China. They imposed a delay:

The Chinese premier, Wen Jinbao, did not deign to attend the meetings personally, instead sending a second-tier official in the country’s foreign ministry to sit opposite Obama himself. The diplomatic snub was obvious and brutal, as was the practical implication: several times during the session, the world’s most powerful heads of state were forced to wait around as the Chinese delegate went off to make telephone calls to his “superiors”.

I remember when I taught at a Chinese university, any problems or complaints I had concerning my housing needed to go through a hierarchical chain of command. Invariably the result of such grievances was no result at all, and I was left with the all-too-common ‘mei banfa‘ (there’s nothing I can do) feeling. Unfortunately such a structure results in messages being diluted both on the way up and down the ladder.

It took me a while to realize that while I should be respectful of the local culture, I should not mine to be trampled upon either. On a few occasions I passed the message up the chain that it hurt my feelings that leaders did not consider my situation important enough to deal with me directly. And while I’d love end off here by saying that this tactic worked like a charm, it did not. But some progress was made, and that was indeed an improvement.

I don’t have much of a political mind, but when I see news stories like this one I can’t help but wonder at what point people are going to stop tippy-toeing around hurting Chinese feelings. Since when did mighty superpowers possess the sensitivity of 3-year-old girls?

It would delight me to no end to hear Obama say, “You know what Premier Wen, it really hurt my feelings and the feelings of the America people that you did not consider us deserving of a face-to-face meeting with you.”

Microsoft’s new Chinese language microblog service Juku/Club.MSN is a total copy of Plurk. See the image below, and read all the juicy details over on Plurk’s blog.

How can something like this happen? I figure that when big multi-nationals like Microsoft spread too thin, they just can’t maintain necessary communication and management of global offices. (Note: I’m speaking at least a little from personal experience here, because when I worked for a multinational PC company back in China, I was pretty disturbed by the fact that a lot of ethics were abandoned just because you can get away with it in China.)

Sorry, We only save dead bodies | chinaSMACK

A tragic story from Hubei about how workers on a fishing boat refused to save drowning students. Initially I thought this was just another case of people not willing to risk getting involved for fear of legal action or some kind of danger to themselves (often the case when someone is knocked down in the street, for example). But here, if the story is accurate, it looks like it just came down to money.

More on Lou Jing | The Guardian

The Guardian had an interesting piece about Lou Jing, the talent show contestant who has been causing a stir in China because she of her skin color. Her mother is Chinese, but her father is African American.

The most interesting quote from the Guardian article is actually via China Daily:

“There are two factors at work here,” wrote Raymond Zhou. “Lou Jing is not a pure-blood Chinese and anyone who marries a foreigner is deemed a ‘traitor’ to his or her race. More relevant, Lou’s father is black.”

Zhou concluded: “It is high time we introduced some sensitivity training on races and ethnicities if we are going to latch on to the orbit of globalisation. People should realise that if you have a right to discriminate against another race you have automatically given others the right to discriminate against you.”

Some perspective from Kaiser Kuo | UNL.edu

Kaiser’s recent talk, Shouting Across the Chasm: Chinese and American Netizens Clash in Cyberspace, is a must watch for anyone even remotely interested in China. It’s especially interesting for us bloggers, who would do well to look at ourselves and how we write about this country.

But that’s not to say that the western media is neglecting this stuff either. MSNBC has a post, As economy grows, so does China’s trash. One big difference that I’ve noticed making the move from China to Japan is how each country treats garbage. In China, you’d see street cleaners going around in the early mornings cleaning up after others who had littered the streets. Here in Japan, individuals are required to take responsibility for sorting garbage themselves.

While I’m on the topic of dirty laundry, the dirtiest of the dirty is finally being outted down in Chongqing. Check out Malcolm Moore’s piece the biggest corruption trial in Chinese history. Check it out.

A landfill site in China