PandaPassport.com – China Blog

This is astounding.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Some interesting stories from the China blogosphere this week.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

Over on ChinaHush there’s a pretty astounding photo series about pollution in China. Somehow it surprised me that they were taken by a local photographer, because typically it’s the foreign press who tend to display China’s dirty laundry like this. Or at least, that’s what I’ve come to expect. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s an interesting story from China Digital Times about a student from Xinjiang and how he was denied service from a net bar and a hotel in Shenyang.

When I spoke to Ilham Mehmut, president of the Uighur Association of Japan, last week he told me that Uighurs all over China were not permitted access to net bars. You can’t even send snail mail there, he said. I was skeptical as to whether or not this was true, but this story (above) from CDT corroborates it. Service denied based on ethnicity. That is not cool. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that I’m here in Japan, watching the latest happenings in China is still pretty fascinating. Like many people, I was shut out from CCTV’s live video broadcast as it was little better than a choppy slide show on this side of the water. But from what I hear, most people weren’t too impressed by the CCTV coverage, especially the Japan haters who must have been mortified to see Toshiba make an appearance : Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of interesting links from around the interwebs on the big 60th anniversary party marking the founding of the PRC coming up on October 1st:

What did Mao Zedong really say?

A Hunan man remembers that day 60 years ago, and claims that Mao never said that famous line ‘Today the Chinese people have stood up.’ Instead, according to the man, what he actually said was ‘ The central government of the People’s Republic of China was founded today.’

Not quite as catchy…

But given the amount of media manipulation that was to follow in the next 60 years, maybe this deception was appropriate.

Ordinary Chinese warned to stay away from huge anniversary parade

Looks like they’re going to be firing chemicals into the clouds again to make sure there’s no rain. The most discouraging point raised in this article is that regular folk are being told not to come out to watch the parade. The authorities don’t want anyone watching from their balconies either. You’re supposed to watch the parade go by from inside your closed windows. Bummer.

I remember seeing stuff like this leading up to the Olympics too. So many of China’s problems can be traced back to this tendency to hide shit under the rug while you put on a happy public face.

China: A crowd-sourced translation of The Lost Symbol: is this copyright infringement?
Crowd-sourced anything in China has massive potential. I’m wondering what company is going to strike gold by harnessing China’s numbers in the right way, mechanical turk style.

Driver Violently Arrested & Fined For Helping Stranger | China Digital Times (CDT)
Preying on good samaritan types. Classy… Police officers need pocket money too I suppose.

Sino-U.S. Relations Deteriorate Because of Internet – BusinessWeek
Some sensible commentary from Kaiser Kuo. I can see this “Red Necks vs Red Guard” phrase catching on.

Unfaithful Fiance Gets Pregnant, Publicly Beaten By Man | chinaSMACK
This is one of the saddest phenomenons in Chinese society. Not just the beating itself, but the guys that stand around an do nothing. Good samiritan-types are rare in China. From a bystander’s point of view, it’s safer not to get involved.

Global Voices: Blue Dam activated
After a failed Green Dam rollout, China looks like it may have caught on. Say nothing to the public, just install.