@Cheng Yuting: I have become an officially registered voter for the general election of Chaoyang district People’s Congress, and I have decided to run for election as an independent candidate. The significance of being an independent candidate includes: 1. To practice democracy. I’d like to explore the route to democracy while I am young, to exercise my rights and responsibilities as a citizen, and to attribute my enthusiasm and ideals (to democracy); 2. To promote public legal education. In our society, we all yearn for democracy and rule of law, but we rarely realize the real significance of elections. So I’d like to explore the route–the route of exercising rights that are protected by the constitution. 3. To repay the community.

本人已登记为北京朝阳区人大代表换届选举选民，现决定以自荐参选人身份参选。自荐参选意义有三：1、实践民主，在青年之时探索民主之路，行使公民之权利与义务，使得热血理想有归有属；2、普及法律，当下社会人人向往民主法治，却鲜有人知选举真正意义，故吾探路，探宪法赋予权利之路；3、回报社会。

Among the 1800 comments, some have questioned whether her real intention was to market herself, but many users including celebrities and famous intellectuals have expressed their support for Cheng. Below are some examples of their supportive tweets:

@Xiaoshu: Such good news! We’ve got another citizen participating and she’s also such a beauty. There’s one more optimistic reason to be one step closer to civil society. But this route can be bumpy. Please take care of yourself.

@Yaoge: As the first professional model independent candidate who won the first place of the 2010 Asian Games Etiquette Volunteer Selection Contest, she’s not only a outstanding professional model but a responsible citizen as well.

@Yu Jianrong: I’m supporting any citizens who’d run for the election, for it is a right guaranteed by law.

@Xing Lida: I’m supporting you, Tingting!

@Zhou Zhixing: Another friend has joined the line of independent candidates. I’m supporting you!

@Tian Weihua: Congratulations! Cheers!

Below is a picture of Cheng holding a book with a friend’s child. The title of the book reads “Interpretation of China’s Election Law of National and Local-level People’s Congress,” which has been a popular reference book for many independent candidates.

Below is a picture of Cheng standing in front of her neighborhood committee where she can officially register for vote.

Read more about the independent candidates for local election in China via CDT.

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When seven-foot, six-inch Yao Ming dunks a basketball, does the world smile on China? When pianist Lang Lang, the Chinese Liberace, sparkles in concert, does China’s political star glow a little brighter in the firmament of nations? And when Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, the richest person of Chinese descent in the world, banks another billion dollars on shrewd investments, is the image of the Chinese nation also enriched?

That’s what China’s leaders are hoping for as they enlist 50 Chinese celebrities in an unprecedented international advertising campaign to improve the country’s global image. The charm offensive is set to begin this September, ahead of celebrations for the 61st birthday of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, and will also feature Olympic diving diva Guo Jingjing, film director John Woo and movie star Jackie Chan. The famous 50 will appear in 30-second television commercials as well as a 15-minute promotional film selling China’s virtues to the rest of the world.

In the words of the State Council, China’s cabinet, the campaign will present an image of “prosperity, democracy, openness, peace and harmony” as a counter to the negative stereotypes about the country that its leaders have long blamed the Western media for promulgating. How effective this strike will be, however, remains highly uncertain.

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Yang has created new programming for TV — including one of the first shows targeting women — and set up sites on the burgeoning Chinese-language Web. She has bought print publications; she sells credit cards; she’s even hawking a co-branded jewelry line with Celine Dion. She and her husband, Bruno Wu, are one of China’s richest couples; Forbes has estimated their wealth at about $300 million. All of which has led the foreign press — and her own handlers — to rarely miss an opportunity to call her the Oprah of China.

It’s not a fair comparison: The clapping session is an apt metaphor for the ways in which the Chinese-media marketplace — and Yang herself — is fundamentally more constrained than the American. There are the constantly changing government regulations; television, says Jeremy Goldkorn of the Beijing media blog Danwei.com, “is the most tightly controlled of all Chinese media because it remains the one truly mass media. There are a huge variety of rules and restrictions on TV content, and they change regularly.” And there is her generation’s own worldview; China’s fortysomethings entered adulthood as their nation simultaneously opened up (under Deng Xiaoping, to get rich was seen as progressively more glorious) and closed down (Tiananmen Square in 1989 imprinted on their young minds that breaking the rules was not the path to glory).

Yang Lan, 42, has done wonders to achieve what she has so far, being careful to maintain her above-the-fray image while morphing with the fast-shifting landscape. “You do what you can do,” she says with a sigh in lightly accented, fluent English. Some of her ventures have succeeded — her interview show has been one of the past decade’s megahits — while others, including her Sun TV network, have been huge flops. Through it all, she has held on to her biggest asset: her fame. Liu Yingqi, vice president of China Life Insurance Co., which sponsors New Girl in the Office, says, “She’s the audience’s Yang Lan, society’s Yang Lan.” But the same country that has embraced her and elevated her to such success has also kept her from being the woman she wants to be — Yang Lan’s Yang Lan.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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In the late 18th century, China was probably the biggest economy on earth. When British envoys came to plead for trade, the Emperor Qianlong dismissed them grandly.

But China fell into revolutions, war, famine and chaos. Only since 1979 has it risen again. Next year it will probably surpass Japan, leaving America as its only rival. And as it does so, Chinese businessmen will take the world stage for the first time.

Some economists warn that China is stoking up its own asset bubbles and running the risk of a banking loans crisis. Others see a nation full of confidence, sure it will overcome transient booms and busts on its march to prosperity.

As China grows in wealth and power, we have selected 10 business figures who will make a difference. Some could become household names in the next decade. This is not a rich list. It does not rely on measurement. It is an attempt to identify flair and innovation as well as sheer financial power in this complex, mystifying nation.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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It will be THE game of Day 1 of men’s basketball at the Beijing Olympics: China vs. the United States, the 21st century’s emerging superpower challenging the 20th century’s titan.

The new 18,000-seat arena is already sold out. Many will be watching for just one of the hoopsters expected on court that Aug. 10 night: Yao Ming, the 7-foot-6 chiseled giant from Shanghai who has made it big in America’s NBA.

China’s superstar.

Just three decades ago — a heartbeat historically but a lifetime in a country changing as fast as China — the Communist Party allowed just one person to tower above the rest: Mao Zedong. As the toiling masses were made to recite, he was China’s Great Helmsman, its Great Leader (“May he live forever!”), the “Reddest Sun in our Hearts.” Propaganda posters showed Mao with a Jesus-like aura.

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Chinese Hollywood actress Zhang Ziyi was accused of lip-synching during the annual Spring Festival evening gala broadcast live on Wednesday night. The China Central Television (CCTV) program enjoys top audience ratings worldwide among Chinese.

Zhang, 29, an internationally recognized Chinese actress, lit up the stage with a pink outfit that drew envious gasps from ordinary girls.

She sang “Fairy Scattering Flowers(天女散花),” which was specially composed for her by leading musician Ji Zhongping. Zhang was alone on stage during the performance.

Comments at Sina.com, a major Chinese news portal, were not too kind. Posters said that her performance was just ordinary and she had no real singing skill; it was just her fame that got her audience attention. The complaints about the program started to appear almost as soon as the show signed off at about 1:00 a.m.

See the video clip of “Fairy Scattering Flowers” via Youtube:

© Sophia Cao for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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What has turned the ordinary girl into a famous movie star and what has made her so successful? The video clips below tell about Ziyi Zhang’s success story, from the National Geographic Channel via Tudou.com

（Tip: speed may not be good, try pausing the clips for a couple of minutes and then play.）

Part 1:

(...)
Read the rest of Video: The Portrait of Ziyi Zhang (15 words)

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According to traditional Chinese concepts, L√º, now China’s most famous supermodel, is not pretty at all. Some say the narrow-eyed, flat-nosed and thick-lipped girl is even considered ugly. Nevertheless, that does not stop her from shining on the global catwalks. Below is a group of her fashion photos taken on the Great Wall.

Photo source from Wenxuecity

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Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi ranked No. 2 on the new Forbes magazine list of the World’s Most Powerful Women. She followed Angela Merkel, the first woman to become chancellor of Germany.

Forbes noted that Wu continues to help lead a government that oversees an economy whose gross domestic product may soon eclipse Germany’s, making it the third-biggest in the world….[Full Text]

[Image of Wu Yi via Wikipedia]

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Past a guarded gate on the outskirts of this city sits one of the world’s largest factories. In dozens of squat buildings, it churns out gadgets bearing technology’s household names — Apple Inc.’s iPods and iPhones, Hewlett-Packard Co.’s personal computers, Motorola Inc. mobile phones and Nintendo Co. Wii videogame consoles.
See the manufacturing camp and the amenities for its workers.

Few people outside of the industry know of the plant’s owner: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co….[Full Text]

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…Their relationship has captivated the Chinese media, and speculation about the wedding ceremony has been rife in recent weeks.

It reached fever pitch after the two were spotted posing for wedding photographs at a scenic location in Zhejiang province last week….[Full Text]

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Cross-talk performer Hou Yaowen died of a heart attack in Beijing over the weekend. Hou, son of the even more famous cross-talk master Hou Baolin, was 59. Hou’s sudden, premature death has had domestic media – both online and off – following the story to a degree that prompted entertainment journalist He Dong to mock the media circus on his blog. Here’s a translation:

…A while ago, Huang Ju died. At that time I immediately wrote something up, but as soon as I posted it on my blog, it was automatically deleted. Then I received a system email: “We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.” I then thought that it must be great to be a comrade leader, you can die in peace, or at least the system controls by the higher-ups won’t allow the general public to mourn chaotically – at any rate you can’t say anything. Because there are norms, see….[Full Text]

Photo: Hou Yaowen (from Sina via China Daily)

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Deng was born in Taiwan. She became famous in 1968 after a performance. In 1973, she won the prize for “Best New Singing Star.” She had such a sweet and melodious voice that touched billions of Asians. Her folk songs and romantic ballads lived in people’s hearts and are still popular today.

The following videos are some of her most popular songs.
“Your Sweet Smile ÔºàÁîúËúúËúúÔºâ”

(...)
Read the rest of Music Series: Forever Pop Diva – Deng Lijun (15 words)

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Nina Wang, formerly Hong Kong’s richest woman, has left her fortune to her feng shui adviser, her lawyer says.

Businessman Chan Chun-chuen, 48, was the sole beneficiary of the multi-billion-dollar estate, he said. Ms Wang made the decision because Mr Chan understood her “personal philosophy”, he said.

The announcement sets the stage for a possible court battle, amid reports of a second will in which Ms Wang promised her money to a charitable trust.[Full Text]

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