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A lot of last-minute scrambling went into getting me here to cover the 2008 Chinese Internet Research Conference @ Hong Kong University. I’ll try to go into those details later just to vent, but the important thing is that I’m here.

This event promises to be an interesting affair, with the express goal of deepening our understanding of the interaction between Chinese society and the Internet, as well as discovering the perspectives and insights of scholars studying this field.

I’ll be live-blogging this event as it unfolds. As with any academic conference, there’s bound to be a ton of research papers loaded down with with statistical jargon and the corresponding stilted academic details that seem relevant and interesting only within the ivory tower. That’s fine. Now, I’ll be taking notes and updating as we go along. If you’re following along at the same time, it may get confusing. I’ll revise for clarity and coherence with every free moment I get, as well as highlight any points I find interesting enough to mention. Additional live-blogging coverage by the fine people shown below can be found at the official CIRC blog, and I’ll be honest, so far they’ve been far faster at absorbing and regurgitating the presentations than I have been.

Note: Most italicized text are my own random comments, not those of the presenters.

Let’s get to it…

SESSION 1: New Scholars Panel: Survey Findings

1. “Don’t Blame the Internet Anymore! - A Revisit to the Internet’s Influence on Traditional Media Use and Sociability”
by Peng Tai-Quan and Jonathan Zhu, Ph.D Candidate and Professor, City University of Hong Kong.

• Existing academic research regarding the Internet vs Traditional media falls into camps: 1) Displacement: Internet use replaces Traditional Media use, and 2) Complementary: Internet use increases Traditional Media use.
• Existing acadmeic research regarding Internet vs. Sociability can also be defined with two perspectives: 2) Pessimistic: Internet use decreases offline social interactions, and 2) Optimistic: Internet use improves an individual’s social interaction scope. Pessimistic: More World of Warcraft = Less Friday night pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons games. Optimistic: Making new friends and chasing skirt by stalking them on MySpace/Facebook first.
• One of the problems with analyzing these issues is that “[w]e live in a complex, multivariate world…” In other words, the world is so complex with so many variables that trying to figure it out is ultimately pointless. Nonetheless, the Hong Kong Internet Project uses a multitude of variables in its methodology to draw conclusions about how Internet usage correlates with or impacts Traditional Media consumption and an individual’s offline social life. Amusingly, the variables for measuring “sociability” were defined as “chatting, exercising, and shopping with friends/family. Okay, I get chatting, but exercising and shopping? Are your serious?
• The results show that internet use does somewhat conflict with consumption of traditional media. This would be reasonable so long as the information absorbed through either are significantly similar to become redundant. Watching a sports game on television is qualitatively different from following updated box scores on the internet.
• However, a distinction needs to be made highlighting individuals who are simply voracious consumers of media, whether online or offline. For such individuals, internet use and consumption of traditional media are complementary rather than supplementary.
• Results also show that internet use did not seem to have much of an effect on the user’s offline sociability. At the end of the day, porn and cybersex is no substitute for the real thing.

2. “Perceived Credibility of Online Health Information in China: A Survey of College Students in Ganzhou”
by Zeng Jie and Zhou Xiang, M.A. Candidate and Professor, Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication, Shantou University.

• Their research asks three questions: 1. Why do college students search for health information online? Self-diagnosis of STDs by browsing symptom pictures? 2. How do they perceive the credibility of the information they find? Are they affected by their gender or experience with the internet? 3. What factors affect these perceptions of credibility? How does the college student’s own medical knowledge or their involvement in the searching itself affect these perceptions?
• In conducting their research, they distributed 480 questionnaires to students at universities, vocational colleges, and medical schools, out of which they received 388 responses that they then stratified by school and gender. Is it me or does the number 8 appear disproportionately more whenever the Chinese are involved?
• Some results are reasonably expected. For example, college students search online simply because it is easy and convenient to access a multitude and variety of information. Being female or male did not seem to affect how a student interpreted the credibility of the information they found online.
• With regards to the third question, they analyzed the following factors: expertness, website function, website presentation, personalization, surface authority.

3. “Uses and development of the Internet in less developed regions”
by Li Xuefang, M.A. Candidate, Communication University of China.

• How are those in less developed, rural areas using or the web productively or view the web as a tool for productivity, as opposed to just using the web for amusement (i.e. listening to music, watching videos, etc.).

4. “Information and Expression in Web 2.0: A Study of Internet Users in Shanghai”
by Zhou Baohua, Lecturer, Journalism Department, Fudan University.

• …

Concluding Session Commentary and Discussion:
Francis Lee, Assistant Professor of City University of Hong Kong, provides commentary on the forgoing research papers/studies:

1. Technically good study, but may be better if there was more discussion of the underlying conceptional arguments, such as time-displacement (more internet = less traditional media and offline social interaction) and efficiency (is internet more efficient for communicating information and facilitating social interaction)

2. Very interesting

3. Difficult to comment on as a big-city Hong Konger who doesn’t have rural life experience. Suggests elaborating further the rural context to help others better understand the usefulness or usage of the internet by rural populations and the other statistics gathered in her research.

4. What is the “concept” of Web 2.0?

Overall: All papers suggest that Chinese are increasingly sophisticated internet users. Yeah…but is anyone actually suggesting otherwise or care to suggest otherwise?

SESSION 2: New Scholars Panel: Comparative Perspectives

1. “Chinese-written Internet: Diversity and Segregation”
by Zhou Baohua, Lecturer, Journalism Department, Fudan University.

• What is Chinese internet? How is it different from China’s Internet? Despite the utter simlistic obviousness of this distinction, it is remarkable how this is lost amongst the vast majority when it comes to viewing the “Chinese.”
• Chinese internet is diverse, while China’s internet is increasingly segregated from the Chinese internet due to government interference, such as the Great Firewall (GFW). Chinese internet is NOT homogenous, despite
• Gang Tai Wen Hua (港台文化) = Hong Kong Taiwan Culture, is it bad for the youth of China? Because, you know, they’ve had too much degenerate and debaucherous British and American influence.

2. “Virtual Jingpo: A Jingpo/Kachin Techno-community?”
by Daphne Richet-Cooper, Intern, French Centre for Research on Contemporary China.

• Jingpo/Kachin = a transnational (China/Burma) group, separated by a national border but still the same social group.
• Both Chinese and Burmese governments are repressive towards minority groups. Well…that’s debatable.
• Although they are technically the same cultural group, the internet reflects and influences them to diverge and emphasis self-identity upon their geographic location and thus national lines.

3. “The situation characteristics of language on the Internet.”
by Chen Yenling, Assistant Professor, Chinese Culture University, Taiwan.

• Communications online (including SMS) can differ from communication offline. Is this like saying “L-O-L” in real life?
• How is internet language arising from growing up in the internet culture contributing to generational gaps or gaps between those “in the know” versus those who aren’t.
• Abbreviations of words like “u” for “you” is common on the internet. What about the rampant use of casual internet abbreviations and lingo in other situations/contexts, such as professional correspondence? This is common to the youth, recent graduates, but not limited to them.
• “3166″ = Sounds like “sayonara” when spoken in Mandarin Chinese. What about “914?” A cookie for the first person to explain what this means in the comments.
• Popular culture affects what words we use to express ideas. Example given of using “Brokeback Mountain” to represent “homosexuality.” It’d be cool if she started talking about the use of images as responses/comments. Even better, cat pictures. Moar!

4. “Identification, Monitoring and State Extractive Capacity: China’s Golden Tax Project”
by Ou Shujun, Ph.D Candidate, Department of Government and Public Administration, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

• Use of internet to improve tax collection. Hehehehe.
• How can the government use the internet to improve governance as opposed to how the government can control the internet?

Concluding Session Commentary: Jack Qiu, Assistant Professor, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Regarding the Daphne Richet-Cooper’s paper: Very interesting and full of potential, we should be paying more attention to ethnic minorities. Is the marginalization or erasure of minorities simply part of the process of nation-building or development? What about the difference between minorities within a country and minorities within a country (Xinjiang, Tu, Hui, Tibetans) that is represented by a external, separate state *Turks, Khazaks, Thai, Koreans, etc.).

Question from the audience to all the panelists: A minority can use the internet to create a disproportionate representation of reality. How have these studies corrected for this phenomenon?

SESSION 3: Presentation & Discussion: Chinese Internet User Survey

Roland Soong, of EastSouthNorthWest fame:

General Population > Internet users > Bloggers > Blogger Segments

Segmentation of interest: Psychographics

Three identifiable segments (not all-inclusive): Angry young people, followers, and progressives.

Usage of data from 144 million internet users.

Bloggers represent 0.74% of the general population. Of bloggers, females are more likely to be bloggers than males. Bloggers tend to visit portals and read blogs far more than general internet users. 80% of bloggers read blogs, compared to only 4% of the average internet user.

Deborah Fallows, Pew Internet Project: What has China’s earthquake done to its internet? What have we seen and what should we look for?

• China’s internet: two old myths and a new reality:
• Myth 1: China’s internet is all about entertainment. The new opiate of the masses?
• New Reality: China’s interent is about much, much more, as reavealed by the Chinese internet’s response to the Sichuan earthquake.
• Myth 2: China’s internet users chafe under government internet control and management. Definitely a myth. “The West” certainly chafes more than the Chinese themselves.
• New Reality: Could myth #2 actually become true, in a new online world triggered by the earthquake? Whereas Myth 2 was largely a false impression born out of the Western-projected values, could the widespread tragic events, media coverage, and government response surrounding the earthquake actually prompt Chinese to become more aware and critical of the government’s control of the internet?
• How can we compare the China internet response to the earthquake vs. the American internet response to 9/11?
• China’s internet responded to the earthquake as the immediate and first responder, an aggregator of content, creating of new applications, and a humanizer. What was the voice of the post-earthquake China internet? More unified voice (of shock), more humane and tempered, more spiritual/religious, more shocking images and videos (really?), more unedited and less censored.

Roland Soong comments that he became increasingly frustrated with the information on the internet after the earthquake. It is good at identifying problems but not good at providing solutions or answers. Certain answers were still best gotten through the mainstream media who had the means to find answers, by sending in investigative teams, etc. Soong expresses his doubt as to whether the internet is capable of providing the quality of information/answers that the mainstream media can. So is this the age battle between a marketplace of ideas and the confidence in authority?

Obvious response and question from the audience: What about mainstream/traditional media websites? Roland Soong responds that he mispoke and clarifies the issue as the difference between professionals and citizen journalists/amateurs/the unwashed masses.

Question from audience: Are people turning to the internet a representation of the inadequacy or censorship of mainstream/traditional media? Roland Soon responds that he agrees, and that his website features a lot of information and news translated from Chinese news sources that the Western media tends to pick up a day or two later.

SESSION 4: Myths vs. Realities

This is the theme of this year’s conference. Is the internet a social phenomenon, a marketing phenomenon, an advertising phenomenon? How we understand the internet can be shaped by different groups, by marketers or even academics.

1. “Discussion of methods and perspectives used in Internet research”
by Bu Wei, Professor, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

• Low fieldwork done.
• Perspectives usually from government or academics.

2. “The Great Firewall as Iron Curtain 2.0: the Implications of China’s Internet most dominant metaphor for U.S. Foreign Policy.”
by Lokman Tsui, Ph.D Candidate, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

• “Do you believe that China will inevitably change with the Internet?”
• Results of the Zogby International telephone survey in the United States on Jan 31, 2007: 43% yes.
• Contextual presumptions reflected by this question is that change hasn’t happened and that we’re thinking specifically about political issues such as free speech and other freedoms.
• Is the Great Firewall the explanation for assumptions or perceptions of internet-driven change (or lack thereof) in China?
• Lots of information about US governmental action targetting China internet interests.

3. “The Chinese Diasporic Cyberspace: Overseas Chinese Essentialism vs. Hybrid Transnationalism”
by Jens Damm, Assistant Professor, Freie Universität Berlin.

• Historically, the Chinese language itself, especially in mass media, linked ethnic Chinese around the world and linked them back to their homeland (mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). Think of Chinese parents in America watching Chinese channels nightly through cable.
• Today, how is the internet helping link and diversify the Chinese diaspora?
• Essentialist websites: Focus on the “essential/eternal/unchanging nature of Chinese culture.” Often PRC academic and museum websites.
• Chinese cyber nationalism.
• The role of the internet and new technologies with connecting the Chinese diaspora.

Questions from the audience:

• What term should we use to refer to China’s internet regulation/censorship other than the Great Firewall if it is such a problematic Cold War-esque term? Lokman Tsui replies that as an academic he’s good at finding problems but not solutions.
• Jeremy Goldkorn, of danwei.org fame, makes another failed attempt to advance “Net Nanny” to replace “Great Firewall.”
• Jens Damm emphasizes his attempt to give a “post-modern” definition of “diaspora” as opposed to the “diaspora” laden with Jewish connotations.

SESSION 5: Roundtable - Corporate Action and Responsibility

Moderated by Rebecca MacKinnon, Assistant Professor, Journalism & Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong, featuring…

• Issac Mao, Co-founder, CNBlog.org
• Charles Mok, Chairman, Internet Society of Hong Kong.
• Ching Chiao, VP Community Relations, DotAsia.
• Joshua Rosenzweig, Manager of Research and Programs, Duihua Foundation
• Duncan Clark, Chairman, BDA

Discussion:

Questions from CIRC 2005:

• The Internet is changing China..but how is China changing the Internet? Many discuss the former, far fewer explore the latter…
• Role of business: What is the role of Internet and telecom companies–both foreign and Chinese–in helping to shape China’s standards, practices, and regulatory norms? Points at Cisco, Yahoo, Google, etc…
• Companies are sandwiched between governments and users.
• Quote: “Ultimately, to succeed in China, businesses must assume the goals of the Communist Party as their own.” - “Mr. X,” a “foreign media entrepreneur based in China” in the Far Eastern Economic Review.
• Foreign companies sayL “We have no choice…we have to abude by the same rules that apply to Chinese companies, or we can’t do business here.”
• Question: Is it really true that they have absolutely no choice whatsoever? Obviously not. Are companies acknowledging that they have choices?
• Rebecca MacKinnion has been doing some blog censorship testing, by posting various content across 17 blog hosts to see how they if and how they censor.
• Different websites have different censoring methods, and sometimes would even censor content from China’s own Xinhua news.
• Can we frame this issue as “consumer rights” instead of falling into the traditional “Cold War” framework of interpretation?
• Race to the bottom? As the China market becomes increasingly important, will we see companies and standards become more “Chinese?”
• MacKinnion ask Isaac Mao: Can this “consumer rights” perspective be applicable in China?
• Isaac Mao: Hard to know what the government wants, since there isn’t necessarily a single “government” player. Chinese people not yet comfortable with the concept of consumer rights. Google is so “jian.”
• MacKinnion ask Joshua Rosenzweig: Is there a solution for companies to determine what information they can or cannot hand to the government?
• Joshua Rosenzweig: Companies need to know what to do, a policy, with regards to what they’re going to do when the government comes knocking on your door. It can’t be US-centric, and must reflect the actual situation in China. Uses case of Yahoo and Shi Tao. Chinese constitution grants Chinese citizens all basic rights, but also states that such rights are subordinate to the interests of the state and the security of the state. Duihua tries to talk about the problems in China in the context of similar problems in the U.S.
• Duncan Clark: US Internet companies have overplayed their hand, they’re generally doing poorly in comparison to local entities. Chinese companies will bump into the lack of institutional change within China. They won’t have access to lucrative Western markets without some recriprocity. Echoes what Isaac Mao said about different parts of the government (central, provincial, municipal, etc.) having their own motivations and desires.
• MacKinnion asks Charles Mok: Can Hong Kong companies set or be an example for Chinese mainland companies?
• Charles Mok: First question is just “what is a Hong Kong company?” He believes many HK companies do not actually have a strong sene of corporate social responibilities beyond what their basic legal responsibilities and liabilities are. The closest thing by HK companies is when they complain about their corporate e-mail getting blocked by China. HK companies only get concerned if it gets in their way of doing business. Second question: Do HK companies feel they have a role to play? If we look at the media, we already see a lot of self-censorship. So can we expect companies to be the guardians of free speech in Hong Kong? “I doubt it.”
• MacKinnion asks Ching Chiao: Interested in your comparative perspective from a Taiwan perspective.
• Ching Chiao: The past 8 years have been DPP-oriented, so much so that even the websites have noticably become more “green” in color, where the color of green somehow represents the website’s love for Taiwan. One good thing in Taiwan is that the internet has been regarded as a communication/information tool, and hence hasn’t been severely subjected to surveilance and control.

For anyone in Hong Kong, various people from the event will be sharing drinks tonight at The Pawn, located at 62 Johnston Road in WanChai. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we start at 9:00am.

This is part two of One Bao blogger Zhai Minglei’s post about his conversation with Jet Li. Jet Li talked about his experience of running a privated own NGO in China and why and how to work together with state-own NGO China Red Cross. Part one is here. 

Our own Rules

Maybe some people don’t understand Chinese charity system, but One Foundation is not coming (to you) to complain. We never suggest anything, never complain or criticize. We only do what need to be done. We work under the current system, that’s why we found Jet Li One Foundation Project under the name of China Red Cross. Any donation to One Foundation via Red Cross are managed by One Foundation, Red Cross can’t use a penny. But we have to get Red Cross’s consents and approval whenever we want to use the fund. It is a two-way surveillance which is designed under China’s current system. We want to cooperate with Red Cross and maintain a platform to work together.

We have 15 full time workers (13 before the earth quake). We raised 63 million RMB from over 700,000 individual and get links from over 100,000 web pages to our website. A dozen major portals, such as Tecent.com, Taobao.com and MSN Live are our partners.

In the meanwhile, One Foundation has provided a platform for 70+ grassroots NGOs to work together. We leverage our legal identity (under China Red Cross) in China to aggregate grassroots strength. Therefore, One Foundation is organized under western style rules - hard ware, but operated in Chinese style management arts - software.

What can a grassroots NGO do?

My biggest learning in Sichuan earthquake rescue on what ONE Foundation or other grassroots NGOs can do is: Helping the government in the blind spots. Governmental relief is not always detailed oriented. For example, the government might only responsible for shipping the relief materials to towns with a certain population, but not to remote smaller villages. So we organized people to carriage food and water to the remote villages. We need helps from local grassroots NGOs to accomplish this mission and they made it. I was moved by them.

Grassroots NGOs have their unique features: independent and allying. A grassroots NGO can’t be as big as giant government organization or cooperation, but need to be flexible and located wide-spread. They should not be merged. Once merged, they are no different from governmental organizations. One foundation’s role is an assistant to the government, who makes public’s voice heard as a coordinator, but not a trouble maker.

Problem in Relief 

As China has special regions for economy development (such as Shenzhen), there should be some “special regions” for commonweal. One Foundation wants to be one of these special regions. During the Sichuan earthquake relief, One foundations Project’s relationship with China Red Cross is a special case. We are under the China Red Cross HQ directly. The leaders in Red Cross are very wise and open. They accepted some of our suggestions very quickly. A privated owned foundation changed state-owned  Red Cross. But  regional Red Cross chapters are usually under double supervisions from: local government and China Red Cross HQ, which will create conflicts. For instance, China Red Cross HQ wanted to ship a batch of important relief materials to Shifang(什邡), but the province government wanted to ship them to Jiangyou (江油). At the end, local Red Cross had to follow the lead of local government. Another problem is not enough man power. For example, the traffic to our website and Red Cross website  increased 10 times on the first day after earthquake. We have the support to solve the server overload problem very quickly. But Red Cross doesn’t have the right resource to fix it,  rumor saying the site was hacked very soon.

So One Foundation never rants. If complaining helps, we will do it. Have you ever seen a situation where rants can change the system and regulation?  Rants about China have never stopped, but there are still plenty of enterprises thriving in such a problematic environment. Why some people can achieve their goals in such hard conditions?

A Global Family

The total amount of charity fund raised in China is RMB 2 billion in 2002, 10 billion in 2006 and 30 billion in 2008. But it only accounts for 0.075% of our GDP. In US, the number is several hundred billion USD, 2.75% of US GDP. Differ from other NGOs in China; we want to build a healthy recycle of fund raising and relief, we committ to a long term charity, a sustainable and responsible model.

Currently, natural disaster relief is still our number one focus. We also focus environmental protection, medical treatment, education, poverty problems. We will hold an annual global charity forum in BoAo Asia Forun forwww.boaoforum.org/. It will be like a temple fair, or a trade show, or a speed date. All we want to do is allow NGOs from the world to share their visions, and let Politian’s, entrepreneurs, managers and NGOs to meet up.

One foundation, one family. This is our vision. Not just what we say, but what we do.

- End

Other resources:

• Danwei: The Chinese Red Cross and its critics
• China Cross Road: Questioning China’s Red Cross: A New Blood Sport? 
• Blogging for China: Red Cross in the Crosshairs
  
• One Foundation: Annual Financial Report & Fourth Quarter Financial Report (April 19th, 2007 - April 17th, 2008)

One Foundation: 1 Yuan to Spread the Disease of LOVE (壹基金：一元钱启动爱的传染病)

The blogger behind One Bao（一报）- One Person’s Newspaper （一个人的报纸） is a former Southern Weekend (南方周末) jounalist Zhai Minglei (翟明磊). I got to know him in CnbloggerCon 07. I am a long time reader of Southern Weekend since middle school, and was very exciting to meet a real person behind this paper. Besides One Bao, Minglei also self-funds a monthly magazine called Minjian <民间> with a few good friends. Personally, I especially enjoyed our conversation about Longjin tea leaf as Minglei shared his secret on how to find a good tea seller in Hangzhou.

A few days ago, I read Minglei’s blog about this conversation with Jet Li (李连杰), the Chinese Kungfu icon. Just as Minglei expressed in his preface of the following report, I too was very curious about how the One Foundation works with China Red Cross in Sichuan earthquake relief. I was also interested in the “sustainable charity” idea of Jet Li and want to help to spread the word.

The following article is translated from Minglei’s blog <壹基金：一元钱启动爱的传染病>. I will break it into two parts. I skipped a few paragraphs but tried to keep the most essential messages in the original post. - Min Guo
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Seven days’ ago, Jet Li contacted me and wanted to talk with the blogger behind One Bao. He read my reports of Xintuofeng Volunteer Journal which mentioned the China Red Cross problems and sees One Bao as an independent thinking media. He wants to get my opinions on the One Foundation model from the perspective of the benefits it offers toward society. And I was very curious about Jet Li’s points of view in the Sichuan earthquake relief. Thus, we had a long talk in a hotel room, the two of us and his assistant.

To be honest, I was a bit surprised at what Jet Li has achieved. I have a stereotyped impression about celebrity charity foundations. But meeting Jet Li was an eye opening experience for me. Jet Li wanted to know if One Foundation could be accepted from NGOs’ perspective. I believed Jet Li and One Foundation is really exploring a Chinese NGO model. He has a very clear and original idea. So I wanted to publish Jet Li’s idea and get your feedback.

Talking about Jet Li’s attitude to China Red Cross, I agreed on him. Because he has the right attitude: no rants, no proposal, no criticism, but only action. As an grassroots independent media, One Bao and other bloggers want to reserve the right to criticize Red Cross and make suggestions. But One Bao should not be a one-person’s blog with one voice. So I prefer to publish various kinds of opinions. I hope Jet Li’s idea can stimulate a deeper discussion on China’s NGOs problems and opportunities for improvement.

In writing up the post, I removed my questions in our conversation but kept the original words from Jet Li which can help you to understand him without interruption. - Zhai Minglei May 31 2008

Minglei in CnbloggerCon 2007 (left 2)

>>>>>>>

壹基金：一元钱启动爱的传染病
One Foundation: 1 Yuan to Spread the Disease of LOVE

Jet Li:

I am a survivor of the Indonesian Tsunami. My family was on vacation in the Maldives the day when Tsunami came. The Maldives are composed of islands that are less than 1.8 meters high. During the 30 seconds of the Tsunami, sea water flooded the whole island we stayed. My little daughter was washed away; I was holding the hand of my elder daughter standing in the water with water above my ears. I felt the despair of death… Afterwards, I thought with introspection: in face of disaster, money and names are meaningless; lives are all equal. What should we - the lives that survived, do to live a meaningful life?

“Public Charity” (公业)

With the idea to set up a charity foundation, I visited and researched the NGOs and charity operations in Taiwan, India, Thailand and America. Then a special idea came to me: I wanted to set up a sustainable foundation. Why?

Perhaps you’ve noticed, the most popular response in the world to a disaster is a business/economic model, or a fashionable model. Mainstream media and newspapers start to report, people express their emotion and love in a very short time intensively. Emotions explode with intensity and foundations start to raise funds for relief. But after two weeks’, people are become more ignorant to issues relating to the disaster. In two months, people are no longer talking about the disaster. For example, we don’t know what happened to the people suffered in the snow disaster in early 2008. We don’t know if those people really get any help today.

My model is different–it is a kind of “Public Charity.” My ideal foundation is a fundamental charity facility much like the water and electricity utilities to a city. It can support a relief of a disaster for two or three years. The “public charity” is not driven by the influence of trends, but is driven by a custom of giving.

Eggs without Chicken 没有鸡也生蛋

I didn’t find the right model even after research into the current foundation models in the world. I would like to talk about my preliminary impression on global foundations. I grouped them into two types. One is “big foundation.” It uses the interest (investment income) of the fund’s endowment to provide for annual program funding. These foundations are more popular in US and usually have over hundred years’ history. They are like chicken that can lay eggs each year. The other type is regional foundations, such as Tzu Chi Foundation (慈济) from Taiwan and Christian foundations in the world. People’s religion believes are the basis of these foundations.

But both models are not going to work in China. I don’t want to complain about the regulations. Maybe the Chinese government is also considering if people will accept public foundations. I am willing to think in the shoes of the government. Anyway, the reality is: there are very few public foundations. And according to regulation, 70% of the funds must be used for relief annually, only 10% is allowed to use for profitable investment; otherwise, the legal person (法人) must pay back the loss himself/herself. As a result, the rate of growth of foundations in China is highly constrained. The regional foundations have very limited coverage in China.

My question is: can I have eggs without chicken?

One Yuan starts to spread the disease of LOVE 壹元钱启动爱的传染病

I have found this model: all from ONE.

One, is a mysterious number in China. “The Tao begot one. One begot two.”(道生一，一生二)

One Foundation is oriental.

One Foundation, One Family. The Earth is a family, the Earth is one

One foundation is beyond religion, politics, culture and language. If an alien visited the Earth, he/she would not see a specific person, but Humanity as One. So the Earth is one family. We are one, not two. We are global.

One means “from zero to one”. If “zero” is doing nothing, “one” is doing something. It is a fundamental difference. So, we are advocating each person to donate one yuan every month:

One Person + One Yuan/Month = One Family

Assume that we have 500 million cell phone users among 1.3 billion population in China. If everyone gives away 1 yuan per month, we will have 6 billion a year. If each Chinese gives away one yuan a month, we will have 15 billion a year. One yuan is not an economic liability to anyone, but it reflects the liability as a citizen to the sociality.

We don’t need money from big corporations. For example, when I visited Microsoft, they felt very relieved when I told them, “we don’t need your money.” But then I would ask them to give away 1 yuan from each employee’s monthly salary, or donate 1 percentage, or .1 percentage of the profit of selling one product.

That’s right; we are starting a movement to spread the disease of love, as a Harvard economic Professor said.

This is not an easy step in China. We want to change “do a good deed a day”(日行一善) in Chinese traditional culture into “do a good deed a month”. Of course, we won’t disagree if you want to donate 1,000 Yuan at once, but we don’t encourage it. We hope you can do it every month.

Why 1 Yuan? It is the easiest step from psychological research. Once a donor makes the first movement, he/she will be rewarded psychologically. Thus, it can cultivate our own Chinese charity culture and our citizen consciousness. We don’t want enterprises to donate too much cash each time there is a disaster. It is not sustainable.

Root in China, Help the World 立足中国, 救助全球

One foundation’s model is 1 person + 1 dollar/yuan + 1 month = 1 big family. We have invested 2 million in two years to research the right model.

During the research, we found four problems:

1. There are no NGOs with high credibility in China.
2. There is not a very transparent system in operation.
3. There is no a clear and long term vision for most NGOs.
4. There is too much hassle for a Chinese to donate.

Every step in our operation is designed to address the above problems. We have Deloitte as our global auditor. We enable donation via cellphone. We set our goal to help the global one family thus to build our credibility in public.

You are the best judge on this model. According to our research: the potential donation capability is 34 RMB/year for high school graduates, 400 RMB/year for college graduates. In the past one year, we accepted donations from 710,000 individuals of total amount 47.6 million RMB, i.e. average 65 RMB/person.

We have partners around the world. BBDO, Ogilvy, Disney…are all our partners. Our consulting firm suggested that it is acceptable for business to donate 0.1 percentages of profits psychologically. Since One Foundation was founded on April 17, 2007,there were five major disaster in the world, and we have helped them all. Root in China but help the globe, One Foundation is the only one.

Being part of the new OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup, I’d like to do my bit to help not just readers of techblog86, but the entire Asian Web 2.0 world.

Right now, Asia is still — unreachable to the masses. The main problem here has something to do with language. Except for in probably Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, English is not what they speak locally. This creates the odd and yet totally understandable situation where the local Web is abuzz with — well, buzz, pardon the pun, and yet the outsiders are left totally clueless as to what’s happening on the inside. Regardless if it’s in Beijing, Bali, Busan, or Bangor Seri Begawan.

There’s also this thing about stereotypes that we might want to — you know, demystify. China is shrouded mystery — our exports are more a la Mao, Great Wall, farmer hats than Xiaonei, the Mozart Line in the Beijing Subway System, or indeed, the stuff you use every day (look out for that increasingly ubiquitous refrain MADE IN CHINA). Japan is still very much a bullet-train, nearly-robotic nation with kids going crazy on mobile phones. To the Chinese, even we have local stereotypes of the Koreans (those in the south, that is): a bit too much Da Chang Jin and a showering of Korean pop star ads on bus stops has gotten China into hanliu, or “Korean heat” mode.

For “tech nations” in Asia, it’s probably only Japan coming out with anything “big”. Xiaonei is very big in China, but nowhere else. Daum is a Korean household name, but outside the Korean peninsula, it’s probably mistaken for Daim, a brand of chocolate in Europe.

This world we’re living in is increasingly wired up — more and more. It’s time for people to dump stereotypes and look at each nation in close-up, and at face value. I think OpenWeb.Asia has what it takes to get people excited about real developments in the Asian Web 2.0 arena.

Part Two: Shanghai PVG May No Longer Suck

After passing through for one reason or another, I’m often compelled to express my disappointment with the sheer inanity of mainland China’s international airports. For all the overwrought grandeur of their exterior architecture, they’ve repeatedly let me down with senseless interior design, poor construction quality, and the lack of confidence-inspiring, waiting-passenger-amusing, branded amenities like…I dunno, Starbucks. Reassuringly, I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Let’s take Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport (PVG) for example. I mean, Shanghai has been a pretty happenin’, cosmopolitan city for awhile now, right? PVG itself is pretty darn new too, having only opened less than 9 years ago in late 1999. So…what’s with the wrist-slitting interior lighting? Why do the grimy, smelly Terminal 1 restrooms remind me of mental asylums? And just why the hell are they located in the basement level anyway?

In contrast, you have the mega-mall that is the Hong Kong International Airport (HKG), where it is more about shopping Bvlgari, Cartier, Prada, Fendi, Gucci, Coach, etc. etc. etc. than about flying anywhere. Seriously, does anyone really need to buy a 6.4 carat Tiffany & Co. diamond engagement ring right before their flight?

In contrast, there’s also the spit, polish, shine, and arigato gozaimasu of Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT)…where the most retarded questions you could possibly ask are cheerfully answered, with the utmost respect for your ancestors, by the cutest Japanese airport personnel.

Both airports are fantastic examples of what an international airport hub for a major international city should look like. Up until now, Shanghai’s PVG Terminal 1 just didn’t cut it. It might look nifty from afar but for anyone who has travelled, it was an embarassment for a major Chinese metropolis like Shanghai.

However, the new Terminal 2 at PVG opened earlier this year and lucky for me, my Air China ticket to America meant I would finally get a chance to check it out. Accordingly, I didn’t have high expectations and frankly, I didn’t have any expectations whatsoever. I’m pretty jaded. Therefore, and fortunately for PVG, I was completely surprised to find something so utterly remarkable that I not only called my friends to share my sudden delight, I’m also writing about it.

Like Terminal 1, there’s plenty of cold steel, concrete columns, and marble expanses in Terminal 2. Unlike Terminal 1, however, there was an abundance of natural lighting, warm wood surfaces to break up the bleak white and grey, and (see above) a huge zen-like indoor waterfall. HoMedics, anyone? The latter was honestly revolutionary enough that everyone walking by took out their cameras to take pictures of this most incredibly inspired airport design feature…in of all China. Oh, and the restrooms not only had comfy baby-changing rooms with seating for weary mothers and weary fathers, I daresay there was even a pleasant scent about them. Lastly, the ultimate coup de grace for any modern traveller: free wi-fi internet and plenty of easily accessible electrical outlets for our laptops and gadgets.

Shanghai’s international airport is finally half-way respectable.

Of course, its not as good as HKG…yet, but it definitely has potential…so long as no one screws it up. As with so many things in post-Mao mainland China, the bar was simply set so low that basically any half-decent improvement results in–and deserves–ecstatic praise. This was a half-decent improvement and we should give them credit where its due. Now, it still has a lot really random, low-quality retail and dining (like Hope Star Coffee & Cate), but there were some known brands and even an Ajisen Ramen. Now the KFC by the Maglev Station won’t have a monopoly on my dining patronage.

Bravo for Shanghai PVG. Next up: Beijing Capital International Airport.

UPDATE:The wifi is frustratingly unreliable, consistently hanging every so often and resulting in serious disruptions to any effort at productivity. In better news, there are a lot more respectable dining and shopping than I previously noticed and mentioned (though still not more than HKG). They have a Burger King.

I love the new public holiday calendar started in 2008 which we have a few more 3-day long weekends. June 8 2008 is the first time we will celebrate Duanwu Festival (端午节) as public holiday (maybe since I was born) in mainland China, although it has been a public holiday in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan for some years. We will be off on June 9 Monday this year.

Duanwu (端午) as a name is less well-known than Dragon Boat Festival (龙舟节). It is also known as “五月初五” - the fifth day of May in Chinese Luna calendar. Qu Yuan (屈原) and Wu Zixu (伍子胥) are two figures that are highly related to this holiday. Qu Yuan was committed a suicide by jumping to a river called Miluo River (汨罗江) in BC 278, and Wu zixu was ordered to suicide by his respectful King in BC 478. These two great men from 2,000+ years ago died on May 5th, both for patriotic reason: They saw their own countries were in danger but the Kings wouldn’t take their proposals to protect their lands. Duanwu is the day to memorize them - Chinese have the long history to memorize patriots died for the reasons don’t really make sense today.

But the traditional celebrating activities: dragon boat racing and Zongzi eating are for Qu Yuan. Zongzi (粽子) is a kind of bamboo leaf wrapped dumpling made from sticky rice. It was said that people throw this kind of food into Miluo River (汨罗江) where Quyuan died to feed fishes thus to protect Qu Yuan’s body being eaten. They also raced dragon boat on the river to scare away the fishes. I am not a dragon boat fan, but a Zongzi lover.

I still remembered a “joke” circling on emails last year about Zongzi (粽子) :

It is said that a senior manager was relocated to China one month before Duanwu festival. And the company gave Zongzi to all employees as a way to celebrate this traditional holiday. The next day, this senior manager was asked how did he like the Zongzi. And he said:” It is very delicious, but the skin of the dumpling is a little too hard.”

I know sometime it is difficult to figure out how to eat a Chinese dish. It is always a challenge to figure out weather the skin is eatable. [for Zongzi, the answer is no.] And there are always different flavors of Zongzi in South China and North China like dumpling. I grow up in a small city in West Guangdong (广东) and we ate a kind of plate flavor Zongzi that is served with suger powder at side. But in Shanghai, the most popular Zongzi is “Meat Zong“ (肉棕) which has a piece of pork in the middle of sticky rice. A bit north in Henan (河南), people usually eat sweet flavor Zongzi stuffed with green bean or red bean.

The best Zongzi in Shanghai area is the Zongzi from Jiaxin (嘉兴), a small city between Shanghai and Hanzhou (杭州) in Zhejiang province. And the best brand is Wu Fang Zhai (五芳斋), a Zongzi maker since late 19 century. You can buy them from supermakets or visit the stores. Must try it out if you are in China. A twit has anounced that he plans to eat Zongzi for 3 days in the coming long weekend.

Address of all stores in Shanghai:

地址: 上海黄浦区四川中路136号(近广东路)
Add: 136 Sichuan Zhong Rd. (closed to Guangdong Rd.) (tel: 021-63210018)

地址: 上海黄浦区南京东路720号第一食品商店内
Add: 720 Nanjing Dong Rd, inside the First Food Department Store

地址: 上海徐汇区浦北路938号(近虹漕南路)
Add: 938 Pubei Rd (closed to Hongcao Nan Rd)

地址: 上海徐汇区天钥桥路40-90号汇联商厦1楼(近肇嘉浜路)
Add: 40-90 Tianyaoqiao Rd, in Huilian Plaza

地址: 上海静安区大沽路254号(近重庆北路)
Add: 254 Dagu Rd. (closed to Chongqing Bei Rd) (tel: 021-63753085)

After a long spell in Shanghai, and aside from a few trips to Hong Kong and Taipei here and there, I’m now writing from beautiful Los Angeles. Officially, I’m here to visit family and friends. Unofficially, I’m here to get a healthy helping of good old American mad-cow. Neither In-N-Out nor Claim Jumper will know what hit them (unless I can somehow make it to the House of Prime Rib).

Of course, I’m not here to bore you with my culinary misadventures in the States. Instead, I wanted to take this opportunity to share my random observations as I made my way out of Shanghai and transferred through Beijing before collecting my luggage at Los Angeles.

Part One: Shanghai Metro Pat-down

After the recent bus explosion fire that had quite a few Chinese friends wondering if the Shanghai Metro system was safe from those dastardly Xinjiang terrorists, I actually wondered: just what sort of security does Shanghai have to stop random terrorists from running into People’s Square and creating an unfathomable disaster. That is, other than the logic disaster of trying to board before letting people off…during rush hour. Rarely have I seen any reasonable security in Shanghai’s metro stations, and it honestly looks all too easy for someone with hidden explosives and malicious intent to just walk on in and obliterate the mob of humanity that uses the metro system daily. With the Olympics quickly approaching and Chinese domestic media scaring the populace with occasional reports of terrorism threatening to derail (heh) China’s rightful ascension to international glory, I thought they’d ramp up security or something. It never felt that they did…

…until I, of all the harmless-looking people in the world, rolled my luggage into the metro station this past Tuesday afternoon.

As I fumbled to stuff my 10 kuai into the ticket vending machine, a station attendant immediately and briskly walked over to me. At first, I actually thought she was coming to offer, gasp, customer service! Pleasantly flattered, I quickly tried to politely wave her off to let her know there’s no need as I understood how to use the machine. But no, she neither cared where I was going or whether I knew how to pay for fare; she just wanted me to open my luggage to show her the explosives I was surely hiding. Oh.

I, of course, complied. I set my luggage down and flipped it open. Interestingly, she didn’t seem too bothered by the brick-like bulk hidding in one corner of my luggage wrapped mysteriously in yellow graphing paper and a baijiu giveaway bag. I mean, national product or not, it could’ve been flammable baijiu, a fatty amount of explosive C4 plastique, or something equally dangerous, like 6 month F visas. No, instead, she poked warily at my Calvin Klein Escape deodorant. I quickly explained its purpose for masking unpleasant, women-luring, body odor. Confounded, she had no choice but to let me continue with my journey.

Four kuai ticket in hand, and suitcase zipped shut again, I quickly entered the station. I glanced back only briefly, you know, to make sure I wasn’t being tailed, due to my pleasing aroma, and made my way towards Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport.

Imagine a conversation like this:

Lee (Chinese): Eric, which university did you go to?
Eric (American): I went to UC Berkeley.
Lee: oh, I didn’t know it. Where is it?
Eric: ….

Elliott brought up an idea called”Cultural literacy” the other day as our colleagues in Uptake were very surprised at he telling everybody that he didn’t know about “Liu Xiang” (刘翔), “Lu Xun” (鲁迅) or “Zhe Jiang University” (浙江大学) which is a a top university constantly ranked at top 10 in China. It is the same scenario that a Chinese is asking an American what is “UC Berkeley” while maybe all well-educated American assume people have some knowledge about US will also know about “UC Berkeley”.

Definition of “cultural literacy” from wikipedia:

Cultural literacy is the ability to converse fluently in the idioms, allusions and informal content which creates and constitutes a dominant culture. From being familiar with street signs to knowing historical reference to understanding the most recent slang, literacy demands interaction with the culture and reflection of it. A knowledge of a canonical set of literature is not valuable when engaging with others in a society if the knowledge stops at the end of the text - as life is interwoven with art, expression, history and experience, cultural literacy requires the broad range of trivia and the use of that trivia in the creation of a communal language and a collective knowledge. Cultural literacy stresses the knowledge of those pieces of information which content creators will assume the audience already possesses.

I hope the following list of Chinese University Ranking can help you out of embarrassment from the conversation at the beginning, when your Chinese friends expect you to know they are from big names but all you have to say is “I don’t know about it.” This list is from a <2008中国大学评价> (2008 China University Review) by Wu Shulian (武书连).Wu is leading a group to evaluate universities in China Academy of Management Science (中国管理科学研究院). This review and ranking has been running for 12 years in 2008. The completed list is published as a guidebook for high school students to choose colleges every year.

As in the West, there are many different ranking every year, each ranking has different approach or measurement. Knowing university in No. 10 or No. 15 is less important than having the idea that it is a pretty well-known top 20 U.

Top 30 China Universities in 2008

1. Tsinghua University (清华大学): Beijing
2. Beijing University (北京大学): Beijing
3. Zhejiang University (浙江大学): Hanzhou, Zhejiang
4. Shanghai Jiaotong University (上海交通大学): Shanghai
5. Nanjing Univerity (南京大学): Nanjing, Jiangsu
6. Fudan University (复旦大学): Shanghai
7. University of Science and Technology of China (中国科学技术大学): Hefei, Anhui
8. Huazhong University of Science and Technology (华中科技大学):Wuhan, Hubei
9. Wuhan University (武汉大学):Wuhan, Hubei
10. Xi’an Jiaotong University (西安交通大学): Xi’an, Shanxi
11. Jilin University (吉林大学): Changchun, Jilin
12. Zhongshan University (中山大学)：Guangzhou, Guangdong
13. Sichuan University (四川大学): Chengdu, Sichuan
14. Harbin Institute of Technology (哈尔滨工业大学): Harbin, Heilongjiang
15. Shandong University (山东大学):Jinan, Shandong
16. Nankai University (南开大学): Tianjin
17. Tianjin University (天津大学): Tianjin
18. Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学): Beijing
19. Central South University (中南大学): Changsha, Hunan
20. Southeast Unversity (东南大学) : Nanjing, Jiangsu
21. Xiamen University (厦门大学): Xiamen, Fujian
22. Renmin University (中国人民大学): Beijing
23. Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics (北京航空航天大学): Beijing
24. Dalian University of Technology (大连理工大学): Dalian, Liaoning
25. Northwest Polytechnical University (西北工业大学): Xi’an, Shanxi
26. Tongji University (同济大学): Shanghai
27. South China University of Technology (华南理工大学): Guangzhou, Guangdong
28. Chongqing University (重庆大学): Chongqing
29. East China Normal University (华东师范大学): Shanghai
30. Lanzhou University (兰州大学): Lanzhou, Gansu

There is almost at least one top university in the provinces along our coast line, from Liaoning to Guangdong, except of Guangxi and Hainan (which was part of Guangdong). Xian and Nanjing were the capital cities for many dynasties in China history. The advantages in politics and economy attracts more talents for these areas.

One defect of this ranking is that it didn’t include the specialized universities for language, medical and law, etc. And the private colleges are not included either. It’s more focus on the “research capability” of a university.　But all the above 30 universities with other 20 universities are “the universities that Education Dept. invests directly to build and development” (教育部重点建设高校) which I understand as “these 50 universities get more funding from the government”. And a freshgraduate from the top 50 universities will have a greater chance to get a Shanghai Hukou (户口) according the Hukou application score system.

Check out here to visit the websites of these universities.

复旦光华, from West Lake in Hangzhou.

There are times when the places and times of your life coincide with significant historical events. Those moments in time and space can come and go, but you are left with a sense of being a small part of history.

For me, one of those moments was the summer of 1989 in Hong Kong, nineteen years ago. I had secured a summer internship in Hong Kong from a small consulting and trading firm. I was excited about the summer, and also following closely the events in China.

I flew into Hong Kong, most likely on June 8, 1989. Prior to boarding my plane, I was following the massive rallies and demonstrations in Hong Kong mourning the victims of the cr4ckd0wn a few days earlier. After a typically harrowing landing at Kai Tak airport, my 7th aunt picked me up. I expected the hustle and bustle of one of the most densely populated places of the world. But instead, the city was eerily quiet.

My aunt told me that riots had occured earlier that day in Mongkok, on the Kowloon peninsula, and the city was shut down by the police. There were motorcycle police driving around and a few cars, but hardly any pedestrians. I had been to Hong Kong a few times before, but never saw the city deserted like that.

I think the city felt like it was perched on the edge of history. There was growing anxiety, increased by the June cr4ckd0wn, about the impending 1997 handover to China. At that time, there was no pledge of 50 years of stability from the Chinese Government. The doctrine of “one country, two systems” was hard to believe that summer for Hong Kong residents. People were glued to their TV sets. I watched Pearl Channel, Jade Channel and devoured the South China Morning Post and the International Herald Tribune, tracking the aftermath of the protests. Yes, I even bought a slew of Giordano t-shirts, commemorating the various student leaders.

In that moment, Hong Kong seemed caught between the East and the West. Hong Kong still had the feel of a British colony, with an appointed governor from the U.K., a very limited form of democracy, and defective “British National (Overseas)” passports that did not granted the right of abode in the home country. There were certainly grievances against the British government, and plenty of pride in being Chinese. But the colony had freedom of speech, freedom of press, personal liberties, and especially that summer a sense of responsibility to speak out. And many people felt the unstoppable movement toward reunification in 1997 and their own personal stake in the outcome of events in China.

Despite the fashionable sentiment that Hong Kong’s best days are in the past, I still feel Hong Kong has a special role to play in China’s future. During the next day, as we come up on the 19th anniversary of June 1989, I will be thinking of that summer in Hong Kong and the sense of history in the making. Jia You Xiang Gang!

source: AP Photo/Vincent Yu via Hong Kong Today

UPDATE 6/5:  some related links on the general sensitive subject - Brendan OKane (h/t ChinaLawBlog), SydneyMorningHerald, Hypocrisy.com, PekingDuck (h/t Kai Pan).

Last week, Christine Lu and I had the pleasure of meeting with some great people involved with CNBloggerCon. This was related to our concept of bringing a small group of Western bloggers and social media people to Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou immediately prior to CNBloggerCon on November 15-16.

We want to do our best to support the committee’s goals and to support the Chinese blogosphere. Our own objective is to create a forum for Western bloggers and Chinese bloggers to build greater mutual understanding and relationships. We were encouraged by the discussions to feel like we had shared and compatible objectives!  UPDATE: Clarification…just in case this is not crystal clear…Christine and I are NOT part of the CNBloggerCon committee, we were MEETING with members of the CNBloggerCon committee!
Here are some pictures from the meetups. I’ll blog more about the feedback later!

Beijing

Isaac Mao and Shizhao, both CNBloggerCon committee members. Also Thalia Kwok of ChinaOnTV.com

CNBloggerCon member Tangos Chan of China Web 2.0 Review. Also Kaiser Kuo of Ogilvy Digital Watch.

Christine Lu and myself

Shanghai

Bruce Wang, Yuan Zi, and Ying Xue, all of the Shanghai CNBloggerCon committee. Also Min Guo of CNReviews.

Another picture of Ying, this time smiling!