Jonathan Ansfield reports for Newsweek magazine from Beijing, where he has lived for over eight years. His freelance work has also appeared in The Asian Wall Street Journal, Wallpaper, and The News York Times. From 2001 to 2004, he served as a general news correspondent for Reuters. His main area of interest is the Chinese media and its political and market roles in democratic change.
From the department of stupid TV trivia: The makers of China’s long-awaited spinoff of The Apprentice are soliciting advice from local psychiatric experts about methods to screen applicants, according to a source familar with the situation, in an effort to assemble just the right mix of money-grubbing young execs. Xue Tu (Â≠¶Âæí), as “The Apprentice […]
Read MoreTaiwan’s next presidential election is one year off, but it’s no secret as to whom Beijing is endorsing. Official media fanfare for “Ah Ma” (ÈòøÈ©¨), likely Nationalist Party (KMT) nominee Ma Ying-jeou (È©¨Ë㱉πù), has been less than subtle of late. Over the weekend, the CCTV-4 program Haixia Liang’an (ʵ∑Â≥°‰∏§Â≤∏) featured Ma in a string of […]
Read MoreThe folk tradition of making up shunkouliu, doggerel satire known among Sinologists as “slippery jingles”, thrives today in the Chinese vernacular – mostly in the form of politically tinged gripes about social...
Read MoreWang Shuo‘s got another bad habit: the paparazzi. Fighting the demons of sex, drugs and police scrutiny as he mounts a literary comeback, the foul-mouthed writer recently agreed to tape the late-night CCTV psychiatry show Xinli Fangtan(ÂøÉÁêÜËÆøË∞à) along with his 79-year-old mother. After a teary three-hour sitting focused on a tempestuous relationship between mother and […]
Read MoreIt’s no surprise that the censors flagged the pending property law off-limits to scrutiny during this year’s legislative session – not after an ideological rumpus helped derail its passage last year. The vast majority of mainstream news outlets have obliged, taking cues from the constructive official line. The one major magazine to strike out on […]
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