China Digital Times

SECTION: Culture

• After The Olympics: The World in 2009

  

  The Economist released its annual predictions and insights for “The World in 2009″. Here is what the say about China’s new agenda:

  

  In the coming year, here is what The Economist foresees:

  - Policymakers will “strive to prevent economic growth from slowing too fast while curbing inflation” in accordance with the current stock market decline

  - The 20 year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising will bring new demands for political change, both internally and externally. Internally, the official 30 year commemorations of China’s “reform and opening” policy, and externally by hints at new reforms for the state media.

  - With the conclusion of the Olympics, politics may loosen on the public as well. With the burden of feeling “constrained by a need to demonstrate a unity or purpose” alleviated, “the result could be a year of greater social turbulence.”

  - China’s relations with Taiwan will continue along its current path with “Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou continu[ing] the efforts he has been making since his inauguration in May 2008 to defuse tensions with the mainland.”

  - Relations with Tibet will be particularly restless. As the 50th anniversary of the March 10th uprising comes closer, The Economist predicts another outbreak between China and the West.

  - January 1st will mark a new law taking effect that requires industries to cut water consumptions and use more “clean energy” to promote a more “pro-green” image, but it will be “will be very reluctant to pledge any specific targets for cuts in carbon emissions” at the November 2009 meeting in Copenhagen.

  - China, with the help of Russia, may also send a probe to Mars in the later half of 2009.

  » Read more
  • November 20, 2008 8:55 PM

• The Dead Tell a Tale China Doesn’t Care to Listen To

  

  The New York Times reports on the mummies found and exhibited in Urumqi, Xinjiang, and explores what they can tell historians about the history of the region and its people:

  The Loulan Beauty is one of more than 200 remarkably well-preserved mummies discovered in the western deserts here over the last few decades. The ancient bodies have become protagonists in a very contemporary political dispute over who should control the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

  The Chinese authorities here face an intermittent separatist movement of nationalist Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people who number nine million in Xinjiang.

  At the heart of the matter lie these questions: Who first settled this inhospitable part of western China? And for how long has the oil-rich region been part of the Chinese empire?

  Uighur nationalists have gleaned evidence from the mummies, whose corpses span thousands of years, to support historical claims to the region.

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  • November 18, 2008 11:12 PM

• Chinese Nationalism and Its Impact on Brands

  

  A recent study by Ogilvy Group China & Millward Brown ACSR China looks at Chinese nationalism from the angle of consumer culture. The research based its data on events leading up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the role of the internet in cultivating nationalistic sentiment. Media reports:

  The research, which canvassed a total of 900 Chinese citizens aged 16 to 45, found that the web had been the most significant source of awareness of the recent hostility towards foreign companies such as Carrefour and CNN. The findings showed that the gap between awareness of and participation in an event was narrowed online, with almost two-thirds of respondents stating they had taken part in the nationalistic ‘I heart China’ campaign on MSN at the time of the furore.

  In times of nationalistic fervour, Chinese brands were likely to see an increase in purchase intent among consumers, the survey suggested. A section of the participants, when reminded of the recent nationalistic activities and asked which brands they were likely to purchase in the near future, showed less interest in Carrefour and Louis Vuitton (respectively 7 and 8 per cent less than their counterparts not caught up in the situation). Meanwhile, Chinese skincare brands such as T-Joy and Dabao became more appealing by 7 and 8 per cent, respectively.

  But while Chinese consumers appear to favour Chinese products in principle (84 per cent vowed to increase their consumption of domestic brands), the survey showed quality and price to be the most important factors in a purchase decision, above national origin. Particularly for higher-priced goods, foreign brands were shown to be preferred. Knowledge of the origins of certain brands also appeared to be shaky: 26 per cent believed Olay to be Chinese.

  CDT had an earlier post on how brands have tried to use nationalism in their favor.

  Conversely, that can also backfire. In Adidas’s case of using the national flag on their products, resulted in a recall of products after a protest in March of this year. From Forbes:

  Chinese reporters and consumers rose to the defense of its national flag shortly after a news report last week in Hong Kong’s Mingpao daily newspaper, saying that Adidas might have violated Chinese law, which forbids the commercial use of its national flag. The news prompted a search by reporters in China, from Shanghai to Shenzhen to western Chengdu city to see if they could find the offending merchandise on sale in China as well, only to confirm it was not, yet. But one reporter managed to confirm with Adidas’s outlet in Chengdu that the apparel and accessories had been planned for sale there in April.

  

  Adidas appropriates the Chinese flag and comes under fire (photo courtesy of All Roads Lead to China)

  Read more on the Olympic publicity on CDT.

  The entire research report can be viewed on WPP.

  See also perspectives on Design News and a summary on Golden Brands China.

  » Read more
  • November 18, 2008 2:15 PM

• Gong Li Branded ‘Traitor’ by Chinese Netizens

  

  

  As international film star, Gong Li, switches over from Chinese to Singaporean nationality, the online debate and media attention on her “Chineseness” begins. The Times reports:

  Most Netizens voiced fury at her decision to take her husband’s nationality. Commenting in a chat forum on popular portal Sohu.com, one said: “All traitors will be nailed to history’s mast of shame. We should resolutely reject any further contact with such people.”
  …
  A few, however, voiced understanding of Ms Gong’s decision, noting the pressure such stars face in China and making veiled criticisms of the constraints on life – particularly for artists – in the communist country.
  …
  But the vein of nationalism runs deep. International criticism of a military crackdown on anti-Chinese protesters in Tibet following an uprising in the region in March provoked widespread anger. And when pro-Tibet demonstrators tried to disrupt the Olympic torch relay in cities such as London and Paris, anti-Western diatribes filled internet forums.

  China does not allow dual citizenship. As the article points out, Gong Li is not the first star to change her nationality. More from Xinhua on the reaction to her decision:

  Gong’s cyber-backers said that as her husband was a Singaporean, it was quite normal for her to switch citizenship. But others disagreed, saying that her link with China was the source of her fame.

  China Youth Daily, a Beijing-based mass circulation newspaper, carried a comment on Tuesday, saying that the public should not make a fuss as it was a personal freedom to change one’s citizenship in a globalized world.

  It said the reason for the outcry was the belief that celebrities could switch their citizenship much more easily than ordinary people, and they could enjoy the benefits and rights of their new citizenship.

  For more information about living in certain areas in China, read more on the hukou system on CDT and EastSouthNorthWest and the residency requirements of migrant workers.

  Her decision may also affect her honorary standing as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. From Zhongnanhai:

  A reporter from the Huashang Daily called the news office of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The staff reiterated again and again, “Gong Li is not a member anymore. She was a member for the ninth and tenth National Committee of the CPPCC.”

  “Can Gong Li be a member again now that she has Singaporean citizenship?”

  “There isn’t any written regulation that says a foreigner can not be a member, but generally speaking, all members are Chinese.”

  Read also perspectives on The Independent.

  » Read more
  • November 16, 2008 2:17 AM

• Chinese Documentaries Show Realities Missing from Chinese Films

  

  Duowei News journalist Wan Yizhong reports (translated by CDT):

  “When friends ask me to recommend some Chinese movies, I will always tell them to watch documentaries,” Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping told Duowei News. “Even though the quality of some images seems rough, these documentaries possess a reality that mainstream movies lack.”

  On October 25, 2008, the Fourth Reel China Documentary Biennial showcased three grand prize-winning documentaries chosen out of 33 competing films from New York: “Bing Ai,” “Though I Am Gone,” and “My Dear.”

  Since 2006, the biennial event has moved the awards ceremony back to China in order to let these blacklisted documentary films that are banned from public showing return to their home country with accolades and capture the attention of the Chinese people. The awards ceremony for the Fourth Reel China Documentary Biennial will be held on November 5, 2008 at the Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art.

  Hu Jie, who was blacklisted:
  Hu Jie, a native from Nanjing, won one of the grand prizes at this year’s biennial for his 60-minute historical documentary, “Though I Am Gone.” He served in the army for 15 years, and then he graduated from the Department of Oil Paintings at the People’s Liberation Army Art Academy and worked as a Xinhua News Agency Reporter. After he resigned, he joined a group of people to take wedding photos and became a photographer for a living. His attitude towards life is no different from a normal person. However, what sets him apart is that he has filmed documentaries dealing with sensitive issues before, such as “Seeking Lin Zhao’s Soul,” which forced officials to blacklist him.

  What kind of conditions existed in China when Hu Jie came out with his documentary? Hu Jie and Zhu Rikun, a Chinese documentary operations engineer also from New York, collectively tell a story: “One time, I was in Beijing filming a documentary event. At one point, I wanted to screen Hu Jie’s documentary, but because we could not expose the documentary ahead of time, I told him to secretly come to Beijing from Nanjing and patiently wait for my notification,” Zhu Rikun said.

  “One day, as it was nearing midnight, I received a phone call from Zhu Rikun asking me where I was. I told him my approximate location, and he made me wait for his car on the street. Half an hour later, I was seated in his car, and after an hour’s drive he took me to a house located on the outskirts of the city. Inside the house, I saw the showing of my documentary.”

  Because Hu Jie’s “Though I Am Gone” touches upon sensitive issues during the Cultural Revolution, it was banned in China. Hu Jie himself was blacklisted by the government. The Fourth Reel China Documentary Biennial’s evaluation of the above-mentioned film is as follows: “The noble temperament and the questioning nature of the work are like a whip, flogging the sleeping reality. The film’s clean and simple black and white colors and the cross-editing of photography and videography — the visual elements became a witness to prove and reveal evidence; all these elements leave an extraordinarily intense and lasting impression on viewers, and the kind of suffering and repressed emotion continues through to the end of the film.”

  Before the film’s screening, Hu Jie told Duowei reporters, “Although my documentary cannot be released domestically in China and thus is unable to generate income, I am still very content when I see it being duplicated and sold on the black market because in this way, I can still spread my work in China.”

  Increasing numbers of documentary filmmakers and activities
  Due to the simplified and ubiquitous digital recording technology, no one knows exactly how many people in China are shooting documentaries as more ambitiously vocal Chinese have participated in the movement to record China. Beijing Film Academy professor Hao Jian believes that “as the numbers of people increase, the people within our field of vision are in the hundreds.”

  During the Third Bienniel in 2006, Chinese peasants filmed simple, black-and-white silent documentaries to help the European Union carry out the “Plans to Spread the Image of the Autonomy of Chinese Villagers.” In the midst of those plans, the European Union subsidized ten Chinese peasants and trained them to shoot documentaries on grassroots democracy.

  Commenting on the way independent Chinese documentaries have become an alternative livelihood for the people, the Beijing Broadcasting Institute professor Cui Weiping said to Duowei: “Many people help other people shoot films for advertisements, and most people engage in the advertising industry. Some people, after shooting a commercial for five months and earning 100,000 RMB in profit, will invest this money in documentaries.”

  For the documentary filmmakers, the greatest problem isn’t making a living, but having their documentaries censored and unable to enter the market through normal distribution channels. Professor Hao Jian said to Duowei: “The making of independent documentaries in China isn’t a normal occupation and lacks normal commercial activity. Because feature movies are able to gain commercial value through the participation of film festivals, and at the same time documentary film makers are crammed in a run-down room of a rented building, filmmakers of feature films usually have better living conditions. The government’s criticism of independent documentaries is usually negative, and thus the government will not let them enter the market.”

  At the moment, support for Chinese independent documentaries comes from the common people. Some celebrities and civil organizations have provided the funds to establish some documentary film festivals such as the Chinese Independent Film Festival in Nanjing, the Clouds South Documentary Festival, the Chinese Documentary Exchange Week at the Songzhuang Art Museum, the Beijing Independent Film Forum and Chinese Independent Documentary Film Festival. In the fall of 2006, Li Xianting set up the Li Xianting Fund at the Song manor to collect 34 independent Chinese documentaries. The top donor was Fang Lijun who gave 100,000 RMB. Professor Cui Weiping told Duowei, “Chinese officials don’t care much for these. However, occasionally, they will look into some films and blacklist the people they don’t like. Hu Jie was blacklisted in this way.”

  Beijing Film Academy professor Hao Jian said, “In China, the propaganda films that Zhang Yimou has shot for the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai World Exposition have been categorized as documentaries. The documentaries conserved by the government officials are known to possess Zhang Yimou’s style. I used to be the art director or supervisor of some of these films, but I am sure I am not the one who has directed such a style into these films.”

  Hao Jian used three key words to link the independent Chinese documentaries: reality, ethics, and language. He especially takes notice of the language of the documentaries and discovers that there is a huge disparity between the independent documentaries and CCTV aesthetics: “Because of my background in mainland China, when I am watching independent documentaries, I always wonder, ‘Will the CCTV censorship officials let these documentaries pass?’” Hao Jian said, “In comparison with the CCTV aesthetics, not only do independent documentaries have the drive and courage to confront reality, they also have vigor and conciseness in language.”

  Hao Jian said to Duowei, “Independent documentaries have presented reality. Its original and concise language is even more powerful than the language in Shen Shaomin’s “I am Chinese” in its representation of the artistic style in the contemporary age.” Hao Jian believes that in China, a new documentary code of ethics is being created: “That is, ‘It’s okay. You can process the footage, but you must tell the audience what you did.”

  - See also:
  * Hu Jie’s full documentary “Though I Am Gone” via YouTube
  * A profile of Hu Jie from journalist Zhao Minglei’s blog
  * An excerpt from Out of Mao’s Shadow, by Philip Pan, which tells the story of Hu Jie’s efforts to document Lin Zhao’s life and death (Read CDT’s interview with Pan about the book.)

  Hu Jie’s documentary about Lin Zhao can be seen in full on YouTube.
  Part 1/11:
  

  » Read more
  • November 15, 2008 10:10 PM

• China’s Ethnic Mongolians Hang on to Identity by a Thread

  

  Tim Johnson of McClatchy Newspapers reports from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia on efforts by ethnic Mongolians to preserve their culture in the face of widespread assimilation:

  Over the last six decades, China has kept an open-door policy on migration to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and now only one out of five people in the region abutting Russia and Mongolia are ethnic Mongolian. Activists say the influx has overwhelmed them and imperiled their culture.

  [...] What happens in Inner Mongolia might seem like a footnote in the story of social changes that are accompanying China’s economic rise and massive population boom. The issue of preserving ethnic identity is weighted with politics, however. It resonates in restive Tibet in the southwest and in Xinjiang to the far west, where minority Tibetans and Muslim Uighurs use the example of Inner Mongolia to explain why they resist migration by China’s majority Han ethnicity.

  [...] A setback to Mongol ethnic identity has unfolded since 2001 with the forced relocation of some 650,000 nomads and herders from their ancestral pastures to urban areas. Mandated by the government, the “ecological migration” is aimed at reducing overgrazing, which has increased sandstorms. Much of the overgrazing was caused in the 1990s by an inflow of Han farmers who were rushing to raise goats in Inner Mongolia to feed a global boom for cheap cashmere sweaters.

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  • November 14, 2008 9:27 PM

• China Jails Rioters, Criticises Officials

  

  Six rioters in the June mass incident over a teenage girl’s death in Guizhou have been jailed by state officials. Many others are still detained and are waiting for their sentences.

  In addition, the local government has been criticized for their response to “long-standing disregard of rampant crime in the county and incompetence in maintaining public security.” More, from Reuters:

  China handed sentences of up to 16 years in jail to six people for rioting after the suspicious death of a teenage girl, but also criticised the local government for incompetence, state media said on Friday.

  Thousands of locals mobbed government offices in Weng’an county, Guizhou in late June. The local police headquarters was torched and police vehicles wrecked after claims spread that authorities had covered up a teenage girl’s death.

  … Police had said the teenage girl had killed herself by jumping in a river, but residents said the girl had been raped and murdered by a relative of a senior government official.

  » Read more
  • November 14, 2008 7:11 PM

• China Outlaws Lip-synching after Olympics Row

  

  In response to the furor over the Olympics lip-synching incident, China is set to ban the practice of pantomiming to songs. From Telegraph:

  Now, the Ministry of Culture plans to name and shame performers caught lip-synching.

  Those who are caught miming twice will have their performing licenses revoked, according to proposed new legislation.

  Sun Qiuxia, an official with the Ministry of Culture, said: “People who perform for profit should not cheat audiences with fake singing or by pretending to play instruments.”

  Lip-synching has long been common practise in China. Yesterday, one Chinese pop star claimed that less than 20 per cent of singers actually sang when performing live.

  » Read more
  • November 14, 2008 6:56 PM

• Naming the CCTV Tower (or Why “Big Underpants” is Better Than “Hemorrhoids”)

  

  

  With all the building going on in Beijing, the CCTV (China Central Television) station also has a new structure and a new nickname to go with it. Time’s The China Blog reports:

  Names, especially nicknames, pet names and the like, can be incredibly literal things in China. If you are fat, there’s a good chance people will call you “fatty.” If you have a big beard, people will call you “big beard.”

  The same goes for iconic structures. The Great Wall (or literally, the “long wall”) doesn’t leave a lot of doubt as to what it is. Many of the famous new buildings that have gone up in Beijing recently have been given their own tags by the people. The National Center for the Performing Arts is known as the “Duck Egg.” The National Stadium is known as the “Bird’s Nest.” They’re both humble yet fitting names for these grand edifices.

  The people at China Central Television are apparently not so happy with the public’s nickname for their gleaming new headquarters. The building, which was designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren, consists of two slanting towers that are joined by sections on the ground and two horizontal sections at the top to form a continuous loop. It is an architectural and engineering marvel. To the people of Beijing it is simply, “Big Underpants.”

  The name has yet to permanently stick. See the Top Ten Great Buildings on People’s Daily for more structures and their nicknames.

  » Read more
  • November 13, 2008 2:52 AM

• Hanggai: Chinese Punk Looks To The Past

  

  NPR profiles singer Ilchi, a former punk rocker who has returned to his Inner Mongolian roots and traditional folk music:

  The otherworldly sound of throat singing echoes through a small Beijing cafe. Singer Ilchi is producing two sounds at the same time. Just 28, he’s already undergone a musical odyssey. Once the leader of the punk band T9, he raged in profanity-laden songs about the frustration of modern life. But his direction changed, and he now serves as one of the leading forces pushing a folk-music revival.

  “I felt we modern people need to understand more about our past,” Ilchi says.

  For Ilchi, that means a pilgrimage into his own past. An ethnic Mongolian, he was born in Inner Mongolia, which is part of China. But he moved with his family to Beijing at the age of 12. Three years ago, on a journey of musical self-exploration, he returned to Inner Mongolia. There, he learned the traditional art of throat singing, and searched for old folk songs in danger of being lost. He started to write his own music for his band Hanggai, including a song about his tobshuur, a two-stringed Mongolian banjo.

  Watch a Hanggai Promo Video:
  

  And footage from the Shetland Folk Festival 2008:
  

  » Read more
  • November 11, 2008 10:00 PM

• Forbidden City Restoration an Experiment in U.S.-China Teamwork

  

  A New York-based preservation group recently finished a decade-long collaboration with Beijing to restore a corner of one of its most famous relics. From The Los Angeles Times:

  “The Forbidden City is huge and . . . there was too much work to do; therefore, our country didn’t have the energy, time as well as enough money to manage this part of the palace,” said Wang Shiwei, senior engineer of the Palace Museum’s historical architecture department. “It is the first time the Palace Museum is cooperating with a foreign organization to repair its facilities comprehensively.”

  Palace officials visited the Peabody Museum and other venues to witness firsthand U.S. techniques of cultural restoration.

  The pressure was palpable: They were undertaking the renovation of a sacred icon unchanged from the times of Imperial China.

  » Read more
  • November 10, 2008 7:29 PM

• Harmony- the “Universal Value” of Culture

  

  The trend in Chinese ideology is going back to harmony (和谐) as a “universal value.” The term “harmonious society” (和谐社会) has been used before by Hu Jintao. As discussed in the fifth annual Beijing Forum 2008, Xinhua reports:

  The pursuit of harmony is a basic value and the fundamental spirit of Chinese culture, State Councilor Liu Yandong told representatives of the 2008 Beijing Forum on Friday.

  She said the concept of harmony had become a key criterion in many types of relations: among peoples, between individuals and society, among nationalities and states, among cultures and between humans and nature.

  “It is especially important for academic and educational institutions to promote multinational cultural communication under globalization,” said Liu.

  The [Beijing] forum will focus on the environment, the Olympic spirit and the global financial crisis.

  On ChinaHopeLive, blogger Joel writes about “harmony” in Tianjin on the local level, and how “harmony” is a shift from the official Olympics propaganda of being “civilized”:

  During the buildup to the Olympics, the parks and neighbourhoods were saturated with slogans and posters about acting more “civilized” (讲文明). This meant curbing embarrassing common public behaviours that were likely to make China look bad to foreign guests during the Olympics (honking everywhere, shoving and crowding instead of lining up, etc.). This was connected to China’s highly sensitive national image/”face.” Before the “be civilized” campaign, when we first arrived in Tianjin, everything was about “sanitation” (卫生), and this meant clearing away the dirty, poorly-regulated street markets.

  Now that the Olympics are over, the emphasis seems to have shifted back to an even bigger propaganda buzz word: “harmonious” (和谐). This apparently means get along, stay out of politics, and don’t cause trouble for the rulers; it reflects a very well-founded fear of social instability. This shift in emphasis was most evident to me when in a nearby neighbourhood they painted over some Olympic propaganda slogans with a new slogan that said, “build civilization,” only to come back a couple days later, paint over “civilized” and replace it with “harmony.”

  What difference does it make? I can’t say. There are always older slogans hanging around somwhere; you can still find stuff about sanitation and being civilized painted on walls. You can even find stuff about “thinking scientifically” and “liberated thought.” But with the end of the Olympics there’s a sharp drop in the amount of “be civilized” slogans to be seen; there’s definitely been a shift in emphasis.

  
  “Establish a peaceful Tianjin, construct a harmonious society.”
  创建平安天津，构建和谐社会
  chuàngjiàn píngān Tiānjīn, gòujiàn héxié shèhuì

  Read more on “harmonious society” on CDT.

  And yet there is another disagreement on defining “universal value.” Wang Peng (王朋) argues that the debate over universal values goes back to Maoism as it relates to “class struggle.” World-China Forum translates the article:

  Recently in China there has been fierce debate about “universal value.” Some “scholars”, officials, “educational officials,” and others oppose China’s development toward democracy, freedom, constitutionalism, and human rights by opposing universal values. What they say about political reform is only a type of administrative reform, not the real political reform to “put constitutionalism into practices.” Their opinions run against the tide of history. While their flame is high now, anyone can see that it is only the last radiance of a dying class. They can only rely on methods such as media monopoly, education monopoly, or even state violence to inculcate the society. Very few people now believe them.

  Judging by Marxist theory of class analysis, the current debate over “universal value” in our society is actually a class struggle; it is theoretical debate among China’s different classes. Those who endorse universal values represent advanced productive forces of working class and civilized capitalism. Those who oppose universal values are crony capitalists and represent backward productive forces of savage capitalism. Those who doubt universal values are many people at the lower-level social ladder with reliance on backward productive forces and are petty bourgeoisies in extreme difficulties.
  …
  This controversy over universal values once again proves the class theory of Marxism: in many cases, academic debate in social sciences in the final analysis is a debate of economic interests in society.

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  • November 8, 2008 5:39 PM

• Extreme Nationalists Versus Nihilists In China

  

  EastSouthWestNorth translates a piece by China Youth Daily, Liu Handing (刘汉鼎), detailing two extremist groups emerging on the internet, the Chinese left (pro-China) and right(anti-China). Using examples from the last couple of years, especially the Beijing Olympics, the author describes the internet battle between the two. They are described as frequently angry and irrational and though they are on opposing sides, they are similiar in their method of attack:

  The people from these two extremist camps represent the people on the Internet with the greatest urge to express themselves. Their voices are extreme and acerbic in order to be more readily heard. Therefore, when these voices are magnified, they will overwhelm other more “varied” voices. The majority is accustomed to keeping silent and therefore they are directly ignored. When one segment is overwhelmed while another is ignored, the remaining public opinion may be just the “mobs” from the extreme right and left wings.

  This is because these two extremist views may drive a nation towards the same dangerous goal. The extreme right welcomes the world to oppose China while the extreme left encourages China to oppose the world. The two goals end in the same place with the isolation of China in the world.

  Each thought has its reason to exist. Perhaps, the value of these two extremist opinions from “angry young people” is to alert people to stay far away from them. When you act on the basis of “anger,” you are hurting the nation and its people and therefore you end up achieving the opposite of what you intend.

  » Read more
  • November 6, 2008 2:18 PM

• Reformist Emperor Guangxu Was Poisoned, Study Confirms

  

  From Danwei blog:

  Guangxu, the second to last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is best known for his unsuccessful attempt to modernize China by instituting reforms to the system of government in 1898. The so-called Hundred Days Reform aimed to adopt a constitutional monarchy.

  The reforms turned out to be short-lived, just like the emperor himself. On November 11, 1908, the 37-year-old emperor died suddenly in the Summer Palace where he had been under house arrest since 1898, when the Empress Dowager Cixi launched a coup against him. Even though the death was officially announced to be caused by disease, it has been the subject of speculation.

  Even in his own day, the cause of death was disputed. The emperor’s doctor’s diary recorded that Guangxu had “spells of violent stomach ache”, with his face turning blue. Such symptoms are consistent with arsenic poisoning. Actually, three persons were suspected behind the murder. The empress, her eunuch Li Lianying, and general Yuan Shikai, who betrayed Guangxu in the last days of the reforms and directly caused their failure.

  » Read more
  • November 3, 2008 5:18 PM

• Melamine Scare Worries Asia’s Trick-or-Treaters

  

  This Halloween, parents are talking about being positively spooked by the possibility of melamine-tainted candies. AP reports:

  “I’m trying to find things that don’t have any milk — that’s the key,” she said. “Nobody is really going for the chocolate. This time, Halloween is going to be lots of jellies.”

  But Beauchamp [a parent in Bangkok] said it was difficult to determine if a product originated in China, complaining that labels in Asia often had so many languages that the writing was too small to read, and in some cases were covered with Thai-language labels that she couldn’t understand.

  She pointed to a bin of small chocolates wrapped in bright foil and covered with white, Thai-language stickers. “This one here is probably 100 percent Chinese, and I won’t touch it!”

  » Read more
  • October 31, 2008 5:35 PM