Football or Hegemony: Choose One

From the monolithic blog that is known as The Huffington Post comes the following hilarious hilarious post in reaction to the FIFA Confederation Cup Finals which saw the unlikely soccer-playing Americans square off against football-playing Brazil and nearly win the series up 2-0 before those Brazillians rally back 3-2 to prevent hell from freezing over. For the convenience and edification of our readers in China for which The Huffington Post is blocked by the GFW, we’ve reprinted the complete text of the post below:

So the United States lost to Brazil in the final of the FIFA Confederations cup, in that thrilling but painful tale of two halves, with the U.S. up 2-0 only to see Brazil roar back (or rather dance and prance and glide with balletic ferocity) and win 3-2. All I can say is, thank god.

For the past sixty years, the powerhouses of international soccer (a.k.a. football) either have been empires past their prime and on the decline or countries that dream fruitlessly of empire – England, France, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, and Spain. To bestride the world as a soccer power is to not bestride it as an economic or military power. In its period of global hegemony, the United States was manifestly not a global powerhouse in soccer. It was mighty in everything but the sport that is played by more people in every corner of the world than any other. And so if the United States had magically defied the odds and the gods and beaten Brazil, it would have been the final sign that American is indeed in decline.

Of course, the United States may already be in irreversible relative decline, its near miss against Brazil notwithstanding. But for a moment at least, order was maintained. The other rising global power, namely China, shares with the United States an historical ineptitude for the game.

Argentina – with its rich tradition of World Cup prowess, its intellectual sophistication and its astonishing natural resources – was once thought of a hemispheric challenger to the United States, before Juan Peron and Evita cemented the country’s fate as a montage for an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Its victories in soccer are in almost inverse proportion to its political and economic stability.

Yet, there is the case of Brazil, which has been defying the odds and has started to demonstrate real leadership and success in today’s globalized economy. It has a confident and thriving middle class, energy independence and cutting edge use of biofuels, as well as decreasing corruption. That may explain why the national team has struggled of late, as Brazil attempts the rare feat of having both an ascendant national economy and a dominant football team.

For now, the world order is not yet dramatically upended, but as the game demonstrated and as the last year has proven, that order is in flux and the old hierarchies are unlikely to remain in place for long.

So is this good news or bad news for Americans? Perhaps it is just a strong warning for the MLS to sacrifice their aspirations for the good of the nation? Read the original at The Huffington Post »

Transformers 2 as American Propaganda and Arms Advertising

Another one to categorize under “shits and giggles” is this China Youth Daily article, as translated by the ever-heroic Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth, which outlines three arguments for how Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was a big showcase advertisement for the sale of American arms, propaganda for all countries to cooperate with the United States, and an idealization of American soldiers. An excerpt:

Watching Transformers 2 was undoubtedly an audio-visual feast. Just like the first movie, this was not just an entertainment film for the eyes and ears, because it also reflects the ideology and attitudes of America. Through this film, the intention of the American military to promote its global strategy and armament was expressed to its fullest.

First, the advanced weaponry of the American military was fully presented in Transformers 2.

The American Defense Department provided the White Sands missile testing ground to the film crew for the final battle scene. In terms of weaponry, it provided two A-10 jet fighters, six F-16 jet fighters, ten armored Hummer vehicles, two M1A2 tanks and the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

As everybody knows, these are the “traditional products” that America pushes in the international armaments market. The movie showed the mobility and excellent qualities of these products. They are going to be tempting for arms purchasers as well as nations in conflict zones. In reality, these are not the most advanced weaponry. For example, take the F-16 jet fighters that American likes to sell to conflict zones and third world countries. Although it has a mature technology, it is not the most advanced American jet fighter. The most advanced American jet fighter is the F-22, but it is not being exported. Technologically speaking, the F-22 is a complete generation ahead of the F-16.

In conclusion: You can watch my advanced weaponry in this movie! Come and buy some now! But I won’t sell you my best stuff! So even if you spend a lot of money, you won’t be able to beat me!

Is that whining I hear? Yes, definitely whining.

But then again, this is an article written for the home (Chinese) audience and insofar as it’ll negate or counter the possible propagandic influence such a movie might have, it’ll work. While many of us, when prompted, can easily see the commercial and patriotic tie-ins such a film certainly incorporates, there are many Chinese (and us) who might need a government mouthpiece to spell it out for them. This article does just that and, regardless of how juvenile some of the complaints or criticisms may be, one really needs to sit back and appreciate how fearsome American pop culture is influence is. After all, can we really argue that other nations can’t find American ideology and attitudes to run counter to their own national interests?

Read the Chinese version as posted at KDNet » or read the English translation at EastSouthWestNorth »

Post from: CN Reviews

American Hegemony Tied To Football & Transformers!

Business opportunities and insights for the underserved parts of China…

Ogilvy & Mather has published a report on China’s 4th-6th tier cities (hat tip littleredbook) that may be useful for the China entrepreneur looking beyond China’s already well-developed first and second tier metropolitan markets. Keep in mind that many of these cities are still larger and more populous than the vast majority of Western cities. The market is there, but tapping that market successfully has been hit or miss for many. Maybe this report can guide you in the right direction. Some excerpts to whet your appetite:

China’s 4th-6th tier towns, which account for 37% of China’s population, have notably different consumer cultures and retail landscapes not only from the major metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou but also from 2nd-3rd tier cities, according to “China Beyond,” a new study released today by Ogilvy China. Moreover, what works in big cities for marketing firms and brands may not work in the 4th-6th tier locales which range from prefecture level cities to county level towns. Nevertheless, a vast opportunity exists for companies that can tap into local and regional psyches and lifestyles.

The pace of development is amplified by the anxious youth and their relationship with technology. Most young people, though optimistic about the future, do not know how to use the Internet for information, education and better opportunities. Their online behavior mirrors the lackluster, drab realities of a provincial life. Brands that are able to redirect some of the pent-up energy to fuel entrepreneurship, creativity and consumerism are likely to benefit.

Families in small towns usually have two children, and their sphere of influence is arguably larger than that of the pampered big city child. This social reality offers many opportunities for marketers to become more relevant to consumers by helping to create a better future for children. They also need to be cognizant of the influence an older sibling can have on the behavior of the younger child. At the same time, there is relatively less pressure exerted upon children – since all the family’s hopes do not rest on that one child.

There is a natural affinity with open spaces. In low tier cities, many engagements and interactions happen in public. This is contrary to urban people living in closed quarters, with limited capacity and range for activities. It demonstrates that brands must communicate with consumers on the move.

For instance, the hang out culture in lower tier cities means outdoor media can be used to engage rather than simply inform. Brands could tell more ’stories’ rather than a ’short message’ or ‘one key visual’. Brands could help people to hang out together in places they naturally tend to converge to. Food and beverage brands could bring people together with make-shift stools, tables and fixed umbrellas as premia.

Counterfeit brands have taken off in low tier cities as consumers desire brands that symbolize success but are unable to buy the real brands due to vast income gaps. As a result, fake FMCG and consumer durables brands are widely available in China’s lower tier cities – a different phenomenon from what is seen in the big cities where luxury brand fakes proliferate.

Mom-and-pop stores and wet markets are being pushed out while hypermarkets and open-shelf convenience stores are taking over. However, these stores stock far more local and national Chinese brands than international brands. There is also a strong appetite for “new things,” which means consumers easily tire of old brands that do not constantly change and innovate.

All good stuff for the business-minded amongst you that aren’t still enamored by Shanghai and Beijing or Hangzhou and Chongqing or…yeah. Read the rest at Ogilvy »

A business opportunities for those who want to bring down Big Tobacco…sorta…

From Slate (via Danwei) comes this eye-opening and lung-blackening expose of China’s incredibly lucrative and equally shady counterfeit cigarette industry. Barring a few potentially inaccurate factoids slipped in for extra flavor, the article will not only make you question every fag you light up, it might also tempt you into the trade. Yikes. Here’s a juicy appetizer:

Ringed by thickly forested mountains, illicit cigarette factories dot the countryside, carved deeply into caves, high into the hills, and even buried beneath the earth. By one tally, some 200 operations are hidden in Yunxiao, a southwestern Fujian county about twice the area of New York City. Over the last 10 years, production of counterfeit cigarettes has soared in China, jumping eightfold since 1997 to an unprecedented 400 billion cigarettes a year—enough to supply every U.S. smoker with 460 packs a year. Once famed for its bright yellow loquat fruit, Yunxiao is the trade’s heartland, the source of half of China’s counterfeit production.

Today, China’s fake cigarettes—knockoff Marlboros, Newports, and Benson & Hedges—are flooding markets around the globe. They fuel a violent, multibillion-dollar black market and are even more hazardous to smokers than the real thing, yet the industry is little-known.

“Most factories are underground,” a Yunxiao cigarette broker confided in hushed tones. “They’re under buildings, unimaginably well-hidden, with secret doors from the basements.” Even the village temple—topped with an arched red roof and twisting, frescoed spires—conceals a factory below, she said.

Cigarette counterfeiting is immensely lucrative, with profits easily rivaling those of the narcotics trade. While a pack of fake Marlboros costs 20 cents to make in China, it can fetch up to 20 times that amount in the United States. And though a drug trafficker might land a life sentence if caught, a cigarette counterfeiter usually receives a comparative slap on the wrist—a handful of years in jail or possibly a fine.

Already drawing pro vs. con, risk vs. benefit tables? Read the rest at Slate »

Chinese government officials overseeing the destruction of counterfeit cigarettes.

An interesting suggestion in the above article is that the Chinese central government has a “strong motive” for cracking down on these counterfeit cigarettes. This is premised upon the state having a monopoly on the legal manufacture and distribution of cigarettes, whose revenues apparently contribute “nearly 8 percent of China’s budget”. Part of me, however, isn’t so sure the government is that strongly motivated, but perhaps that may rest on differences of interests between the central and local/provincial levels of government. Even so, I can imagine implicitly allowing this sort of counterfeiting to continue simply because it brings a measure of economic growth to China. Think about it, counterfeit cigarettes not only employ unskilled masses, they’re also a huge export industry, and they appease the masses’ desire for cheap “name-brand” goods for some semblance of first-world consumption standards. Oh, and Deng would be proud: Some get rich first too.

Post from: CN Reviews

Opportunity In China’s 4th-6th Tier Cities & Counterfeit Cigarettes

BloggerInsight collected Chinese tech bloggers comments on the matter to learn more, all quotations are direct translations from their responses.

1. Why Google was singled out?

Common opinion believes Google is a well-known international company that is influential with Chinese netizens, businesses and the media.  If not Google, then who?

First, it was Google’s fault for linking to a huge amount of inappropriate content. When Google was launched in China, they knowingly entered into an agreement with the Chinese government in which they would do their utmost to make pornographic and indecent material inaccessible to the public. Clearly, Google had broken this agreement by linking to a great deal of pornographic material.

In the pursuit of profit and visitor maximization, Google’s system automatically associates and links certain keywords with pornographic content so that more visitors will use it as their preferred search engine. Based on visitors’ popular searches, it must come as no surprise that search results yield large amounts of inappropriate material.

Teenagers can easily find a lot of pornography through Google, and this kind of content is not allowed in China.

Secondly, Google is a big, international company.

There is a pretty good reason for Google to be singled out in this situation. As a well-known foreign company, Google represents a significant share of the market in China. After a series of campaigns forcing local sites to overhaul their webpages to eliminate inappropriate material, this campaign can be viewed as the Chinese government exerting pressure on international sites. Here, Google is a symbol by which the Chinese government proclaims a job well-done on cleaning up things on the home front and sends a clear message to international sites that they can’t get away with indecency.

The attack on Google may have arisen at this point because the government wanted to take some of the spotlight off the controversial Green Dam order. At the same time, by taking on a company with as much clout as Google, the Chinese government sends a clear message to corporations about their resolve and intentions for the Green Dam.

Thirdly, Google was not fully complying with the Chinese government’s internet control policy, and hasn’t been fully cooperating with government when disputes and controversies arose.

Google has always been unwilling to be investigated and blocked by the government when it comes to many issues such as Gmail.

Applications such as Google Reader and Google Documents are useful platforms for users to easily share information that the government does not approve of.  Google is adamant about providing comprehensive https services to ensure the security of SSL encryption, which makes it more difficult to be blocked by the GFW.

Fourth, Google does not run advertisements on CCTV. Google is not obligated to buy airtime on media outlets such as CCTV. Exposing that fact to the public will not influence medias’ revenues and cooperation with other advertising partners.

CCTV has no need to promote Google, because CCTV doesn’t get any ad revenue from Google, so CCTV has nothing to lose in reporting that Google’s not a “socially responsible” company. In the past, CCTV featured a story on the fake ads on Baidu. After Baidu spent over 40 million RMB on ads with the network, all the bad press went away.

What’s more, a couple of negative news stories about CCTV were revealed on the internet, including the one about CCTV terminating contracts with over 1,600 of part-time or temporary workers after the New Labor Law took effect in 2007 . CCTV’s negative news can’t hide on the internet.

Fifth, Google is an advanced search engine and is the only search engine that provides comprehensive international content to Chinese netizens.

As the largest search engine website, Google controls enormous amounts of information and data. Compared to other domestic search engines, which mainly focus on Chinese results, Google provides information from beyond China. Consequently, as long as the government wants to supervise the internet, Google will definitely be the first targeted one.

If not Google, who else? Only Google meets the conditions for this kind of assault. Additionally, there is a rumor that Google.cn’s market share has been growing, so Baidu was one of “black hands” behind this incident.

2. How do you see this incident affecting Google China’s strategic planning and user trust?

Most people think Google.cn has to and is already becoming more cooperative with the Chinese government. The fact of the matter is that from June 22nd Google.cn no longer provides international content. Google.cn has agreed to regularly report progress in restricting inappropriate material to the Chinese government. This might affect different users differently.

I think Google.cn will operate more in line with the government’s policies to a large extent. In other words, they will agree to more regulation and oversight. But I don’t think it will influence experienced Chinese internet users who trust Google more than Baidu. These users also have advanced knowledge of using Google. And most of them are familiar with the tools for accessing websites that been blocked. As less savvy netizens, Google.cn can fully meet their demands by providing what Baidu can give them.

Some people who haven’t been using Google as their primary search tool may use it less frequently, which may decrease its market share. However, a large group of new users may be drawn to it after all the media attention. Good or bad, there has been a lot of publicity for Google.

The government’s admonishment of Google will accelerate the company’s localization, which will lead to its further separation from Google.com. On the other hand, Google.cn will develop more business such as free music and Google pinyin for more profit in China. As for user trust, it has actually indirectly increased its credibility. Although it got some flack from the government, it does not change the fact that it is still a great search engine, meaning its mainstream customers will not leave. The media coverage effectively introduced Google to more new visitors.

Some people who are more trusting of traditional media, such as CCTV, who have never given Google a chance may now be even more unlikely to go there. Parents may be unwilling to let their kids use Google. This would be a great loss for the site. All the new regulations will decrease the quality of Google search results.

Human beings like doing what they are told not to. People are more inclined to do something if it is banned. I believe if customers know Google.cn has been forced to delete large amounts of useful information, they will be more likely to use Google.com.

Most bloggers said they would keep their eye on Google.cn’s developments.

3. How will this effect the way other international companies operate in China?

The international business community has been warned: what works in other countries might not work here.  China remains a unique market in terms of consumer tastes and regulations.  Companies need to follow the governments rules to succeed.

Generally speaking, in the process of localization, international companies tend to focus on consumer tastes and market share.  They make technology and content a priority, especially in the IT industry. Google merely having a quality reputation with customers is not enough to be a successful company in China. Google should have paid more attention to their public relations efforts to prevent the unexpected attack. On the other hand, they could have also cooperated with the government and adjusted their business model accordingly. For example, their Chinese subsidiary should be more independent instead of linking and indexing content from the headquarters. Also, to accelerate localization, more and more new business models are being developed locally while many traditional or new foreign products and services are simply avoiding the Chinese Market.

Increased operational costs are necessary cooperate with local government.

The direct influence of the Google event on other international companies in China is that they must reconsider the important issue of localization now. They have to regulate information more strictly in the process of localization. Internet companies will be most influenced, so it is them who have to think about the additional costs of business in China.

To the Internet industry, the Google event indicates a more severe surveillance of the internet by the government, so others have to be more careful if they want to enter the market.

To the IT industry, the event is just a warning sign telling companies that the government still has a tight control on economic development. To be more specific on the recent event, this is a message that could force companies to support the Green Dam and other similar extreme measures.

There will be greater attention placed on the problem of Internet control and the world will need to keep up with China’s attempts at internet censorship and there will definitely be more discussion on the Google case. At the same time, Chinese netizens are reminded by this incident that the Internet is not a free space.

As for the industry, IT companies that operate in China must be more cooperative with the Chinese government and enhance its internal censorship efforts.

Contributed by Mike Fung, Lucas Engehardt, Ying Xue

Post from: CN Reviews

Google Needs to Behave To Succeed, Say Chinese Bloggers

A few interesting speakers:

• Craig Halperin, Kung Fu Panda & X2
• Pierrot, Naruto & Bleach
• Wang Wei, Tudou.com

A full schedule of speakers and additional details on attendees, venture capitalists, etc. available here (in Chinese).

For those interested, limited seats or additional English information are available by contacting the below as soon as possible.

Post from: CN Reviews

5th Fantasy China National Animation Summit – July 3rd

Credit: MARK RALSTON (AFP/Getty Images)

How Dare We Feel Sorry For Ourselves…

Richard Burger’s personal blog, The Peking Duck (recently blocked by the GFW), may not be a large blog but it’s definitely one of the oldest English-language blogs about China with a small but loyal readership. Anyone who is remotely someone in the ever-incestuous English China blogosphere either know him or know of his writing, and generally think he’s a swell guy even over strong and passionate differences. While I myself have had very strong disagreements wth him recently, I’ve historically tended to nod my head whenever he shares his thoughts. Richard is returning to the States soon, and his recent posts have reflected a certain reflective mood I’m sure he’s going through. Here’s an excerpt to a particularly good post he wrote in the last week titled “The Begger“:

All of these thoughts of disgust and distaste took place in a fraction of a second. I heard the voice screaming the single word, Xie xie! Xie xie! As the barker inched toward me. I vowed not to turn around. That’s what they want, especially if you’re a laowai – looking at them gives them that window to grab your heart and your wallet. I just listened in annoyance and kept focused on my dictionary.

But then the beggar was too close for me to ignore her. Soon she was right alongside of me, still crying out, “Xie xie! Xie xie!” And she then crossed the line, invading my personal space – she shook my arm, forcing me to turn around to tell her to her face to please back off.

It was in that instant that my heart stopped, my mind dissolved and I felt one of those deep shivers that went straight to my soul. For the beggar was not a beggar at all. The beggar was a woman, somewhere between 40 and 50 years old, and she was leading by the hand a severely retarded young man, maybe 17 years old, a spastic whose arms were flailing as he walked. The woman was shouting “Xie xie, xie xie!” to thank people for getting out of the way so that the boy could pass without his arms hitting anyone. She was not begging me for anything, she was thanking me for allowing her to pass and exit the bus with her boy. (I don’t know if this was her son or grandson, but I do know her devotion to him was total and unstoppable.)

If the above story is too sentimental and happy, and you need something more aggravating and disappointing, here’s one of Richard’s more negative but equally poignant China memories, though it technically doesn’t belong in this week’s Weekly Review: Laowai!

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. You too have experienced panhandling and begging in China, whether on the streets or in the subways.
2. Reminders of our humanity are always good reminders, especially if we’ve lost a bit of our humanity living in what we feel to be a rather inhuman place where rather inhuman things happen all too inhumanly often.

The Seven Habits Of Highly Ineffective Expats

Steven Covey would be proud. The Lost Laowai has another fun and easy-to-digest post this past week sure to be applicable to make China expats or even short-term visitors (study abroad students, interns, etc.). The title above says it all, this post is about seven bad habits foreigners living in China tend to fall into. Here’s one:

Habit #1
Comparisons

“It’s not like this back home”
“In [insert home country back home] it’s like….”

If you’ve never heard this whine then you must not be talking to many foreigners, and if you’ve never said this then you must not talk to anyone period. For a number of people nothing here can ever be as good as it is back home, wherever that may be.

Obviously, the coffee here is not going to be as good as it is in the West. Clearly the Chinese are not experts at making hamburgers and french fries. The public transport is very clearly going to be much, much more crowded here than back home. Yes, the streets are probably dirtier here than a street in the suburbs.

These are the charms that keep China interesting, and very different from home. You will not be able to get a cup of tea back home like you can here, no Western chain will be able to satisfy your fried rice cravings, and just where are you going to spit when you have to back home?

I will never claim to be innocent of this ugly habit, but there has to be a time and place where you need to accept China for what it is, a wildly different place. While some things are better at home, there are definitely things that are better here. It is important to try to keep that in context, especially when you are experiencing the worst this nation has to offer.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. You make unfair comparisons between China and wherever you’re from or wherever you’ve had it better.
2. You routinely think about when you’re “going home” or “taking a vacation from China”.
3. You frequent the same places over and over again and many of them are foreign.
4. You find yourself in a country other than China whenever you have days off.
5. You drink a lot. Or others think you drink a lot. Even if you deny it.
6. You have an Ayi, and you purposefully live like a sloth because you have an Ayi.
7. You think you know China, understand China, get China.

V Is For Vendetta

When I said that a lot of people were outraged by the whole Green Dam and CCTV attacking Google thing, I wasn’t joking. Some Chinese netizens have taken upon themselves to become Guy Fawkes, spreading something of an open-letter titled “Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens 2009” (Chinese version, the deftly-translated English version can be found here). Here’s a preview sure to titilate:

To the Internet censors of China,

We are the Anonymous Netizens. We have seen your moves on the Internet. You have deprived your netizens of the freedom of speech. You have come to see technology as your mortal enemy. You have clouded and distorted the truth in collaboration with Party mouthpieces. You have hired commentators to create the “public opinion” you wanted to see. All these are etched into our collective memory. More recently, you forced the installation of Green Dam on the entire population and smothered Google with vicious slander. It is now clear as day: what you want is the complete control and censorship of the Internet. We hereby declare that we, the Anonymous Netizens, are going to launch our attack worldwide on your censorship system starting on July 1st, 2009.

July 1st, eh? Mark your calendars. If anything does happen, I hope it’s a lot more interesting than the proposed boycott.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. Who doesn’t dig the Guy Fawkes mask?
2. Just in case you forgot that there’s a plurality of opinion amongst Chinese netizens, and people.
3. Who doesn’t get excited by sweeping declarations? Stick it to The Man, man!

Michael Jackson Has Left The Building

The King of Pop passed away this past week. As many Americans learned of the news late evening Thursday, the Chinese learned of the news as they woke up and approached their Friday workday. chinaSMACK translated a bunch of Chinese netizen comments Friday to show us how Chinese people were reacting to news of Jackson’s death (some critical, most sentimental and respectful), Danwei showed us how many Chinese newspapers honored the singer with front-page coverage on Saturday, and shameless shanzhai-copycat Chinahush also translated some more Chinese netizen comments Sunday. Samples:

Pathetic countrymen, it is just a single foreign entertainment star. At most, it is regrettable, but is this worth all of you being so miserable? Truly making a fuss over nothing.

He was a music genius…but when he betrayed his own skin color and bleached his skin white, when he started hating his own race and changed his face so much that he no longer looked like himself, he became a monster/freak…Were it not for this, I believe he would have had a better life.

In university there was a girl who was passionately in love with Michael. Whenever she heard anyone say he was “abnormal/perverted/deviant” she would get angry and fight with them. It was from that girl that I slowly came to realize his charm! Now when I look at his stuff from 20 years ago I still get excited and thrilled! He is not just a king to me but also a a symbol of my youth!

MJ passed away~~ makes me feel very old. The superstar of a generation.

He doesn’t know that in China there is a group of fans who are infatuated with him, who will go crazy for him, who will always support him…once again: Goodbye, we love you.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. Michael Jackson.
2. Wow, the Chinese also liked Michael Jackson?! Didn’t know we had that in common…
3. Wow, the Chinese can also be haters?! Didn’t know we had that in common…

Do Cool Stuff With Cool Chinese People

Because everyone who does parkour, biking, skateboarding, dancing, and rock climbing are automatically “cool.” Okay, the biking not so much, especially in China, unless its super aggro-mountain-jumping biking because then that’s kinda cool in a nation of bicyclists. As expected, we’ve got another Adam Schokora Fifty-5 entry for this week’s Weekly Review and this time he’s offering a list of websites for Chinese “alternative sports enthusiasts”. If you’re good with Chinese and looking to meet some like-minded locals for…I dunno…jumping between building ledges together, Adam’s links may be a good starting point for you:

:: online communities in China can link people together based on common interests. Sometimes, these interests are located online — gaming, net lit, online video, tech — but often times people are involved in offline pursuits that they wish to share with their netizen friends. Some communities / discussion forums are national in nature and connect people from across the country. Others are more locally-focused and serve as online outposts of a groups that meet frequently in the real world. Although each of the following activities takes place offline, practitioners meet online to plan events, share videos, seek help with techniques, or shoot the breeze with other people interested in the same thing.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. You do cool stuff and you’re looking to make some cool local friends to do that cool stuff with.
2. Because you’re cool.

That’s it for this week. Have a link to a blog post that shouldn’t be missed? Be sure to share it with everyone in the comments, and don’t forget to tell us why you recommend it!

Post from: CN Reviews

Beggars, Expat Habits, Netizen Revolution, Jackson, & Parkour

For those who aren’t familiar with what’s going on, here’s a quick 12 point summary of this entire ludicrous mess:

1. Government announces that web-filtering and censorship software called “Green Dam Youth Escort” (silly direct English translation of a more reasonable sounding Chinese name) is required to be included with all new PCs sold and shipped after July 1, 2009. This initiative is packaged as helping parents protect their children from pornography and other “vulgar content” online.

2. Chinese and foreign internet users outraged.

3. “Green Dam Youth Escort” tested and hacked, confirming that the software censors political content that Chinese government doesn’t want its people to see. It also does a rather poor job of its advertised purpose of blocking porn, with a plethora of false positives and false negatives, and generally sucks. Oh, and apparently it stole its code from an American software company. Wheee!

4. Chinese and foreign internet users outraged.

5. CCTV airs news broadcast attacking Google China (but not Baidu) as corrupting China’s youth by providing links to pornographic and “vulgar” content. This news report featured Google’s search box suggestion feature, which automatically “suggests” to currently popular search terms as you type in your search query. CCTV showed how a search for “son” on Google suggested vulgar content like “mother-son incest.” Yikes, right? The report also featured an interview with a university student, named Gao Ye, recounting how his friend became “absent-minded” after discovering porn through Google. Other state-controlled media follow suit.

6. Chinese and foreign internet users outraged.

7. That university student, Gao Ye, is found by China’s human flesh search engines and revealed to be an intern for CCTV, confirming widespread suspicion that the yet another ridiculous CCTV interview was likely scripted or directed. “Gao Ye” then becomes a censored term on Google.

8. Chinese and foreign internet users outraged.

9. On the evening of June 24th, reports flooded in around the internet that various Google websites were blocked and inaccessible throughout China, in what everyone suspected to be the Chinese censors either “warning” Google (for its unhealthy content of course) or just completely losing their minds. Access was shortly restored for many, though for some, it remains either intermittent or still blocked.

10. Chinese and foreign internet users outraged.

11. A Chinese internet user discovers that all those incestuous and “vulgar” search suggestions on Google aired in CCTV’s smear campaign against Google were actually fake. In the days leading up to the news report, all of these searches were artificially generated (perhaps through computer programs) in order to trick Google’s search box suggestion feature to show these “searches” as “popular.” All of these search originated from…Beijing.

12. Chinese and foreign internet users outraged.

So yeah, there we go. Okay, maybe that was really only six points (seven, if we include a point for “outraged”) but long-time Chinese blogger Wang Jianshuo has a 10 point review if you want to compare notes.

It is difficult to imagine what the next big development will be, especially given that the Chinese government hasn’t really backed down from the Green Dam issue. In fact, as we saw above, it shamelessly brought its massive propaganda apparatus to bear in supporting Green Dam through deception and defamation. While Google has, in some ways, benefitted from the increase in attention (of the bad news is good news variety) CCTV brought to it by wrongfully setting up and scapegoating them, the entire fiacso still leaves a wretched aftertaste in everyone’s mouth. More disheartening still is that none of us really know what can be done about washing it all away. The Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software will still be deployed on all new computers in a few days time, and CCTV and Xinhua will remain the primary mainstream media of China even if their credibility has been eroding and eroding with the average Chinese citizen.

Has any of this outrage, both foreign or domestic, accomplished anything in combating the systematic and institutional wrongs inherent in the acts of censorship, propaganda, and coercion above?

Post from: CN Reviews

Green Dam & CCTV’s Attacks On Google – 12 Point Review

China Yuhuatai Revolutionary Martyr Memorial in Nanjing.

Was a revolutionary martyr’s name written incorrectly when a memorial was replaced? His relatives toil for 30 years without result.

June 25, 2009
Source: Yanzhao Metro Post (Hebei)

When elder brother Song Fu (宋富）was martyred during the revolution (1945-1949), his name was carved into a martyr’s memorial, but thirty years ago when the memorial was replaced, Song Fu’s name is suspected to have been incorrectly written as “Zhu Fu (朱富).” To correct his elder brother’s name, Song You has toiled for a full thirty years, but has yet to succeed in having the carving corrected.

Sacrificing his life at Changyi, Elder brother was named a martyr

59-year-old Song You lives in Funing county’s Taiying Town, Village 5. When his brother Song Fu was killed, he had not yet been born, however he has learned of his brother’s life from the remembrances of his fellow soldiers and from the book published by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, “Certificate of Revolutionary Martyrs.”

Song You says that his brother Song Fu joined the Funning county detachment of the revolutionary army in 1945. In early 1947 he left for battle in Changyi county with his unit. He was killed by a Guomindang air raid near Zhangge village. He was 18 years old.

Afterwards, Funing’s detachment entered the 12th military area. In the summer of 1947, Song You’s family received the “Notice Book of Martyrs Killed in Action” published by the 12th military area. Late that year, the relevant departments constructed a revolutionary martyr’s tower at the former site of Yingzhen. The names of Song Fu and 298 fellow martyrs were carved into the stone.

Longhua Cemetary in Shanghai. Source: Marc van der Chijs.

Family name miswritten? Relatives toil for 30 years without result

Around 1971, Funing county decided to construct the Yanghe reservoir and requisitioned the land on which the memorial tower was built. Afterwards, the county rebuilt the revolutionary martyr’s monument.

In 1978, the Shiren village people’s militia accompanied their commander, Song You, in conducting a memorial ceremony at the revolutionary martyr’s monument. At that time he discovered that his brother Song Fu’s name was nowhere to be found. Furthermore, within the original 299 names of martyrs there had without reason appeared one “Zhu Fu 朱富.”

“Was my brother’s name incorrectly written as “Zhu Fu 朱富”? Filled with suspicion, Song You began to address this concern to the appropriate departments. Even so, this issue has been procrastinated now for 30 years.

Ministry of Civil Affairs has yet to reach a final decision

After this reporter contacted the Taiying Town Municipal Government head, Chen Suzhen, Mr. Chen began to explain that the monument erected in Taiying county was first built in 1947, but according to the “Certificate of Revolutionary Martyr’s” Song You’s brother, Song Fu was killed in 1948. Whether the name has been miswritten or there actually was a person named Zhu Fu, remained impossible to say in his view.

Later, this reporter contacted the section of the Fuying County Municipal Government. A worker there said on the phone that this question would need to be directed to the city Bureau of Municipal Affairs and further stated that a written notice had already been sent out. He would not give any other explanation aside from the notice.

This reporter called the phone number for the city department given to him by the worker many times without result. When this reporter contacted Song You he expressed that he had never received any sort of written answer regarding his brother.

Just for comparison: A North Korean Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetary.

Post from: CN Reviews

Martyr’s Name Miscarved On Monument, Family Ignored

Disappointed to the Point of a Sick Stomach

In the last post , I predicted that Google’s traffic would increase dramatically after China Central Television’s (CCTV) reporting on the vast amounts of pornographic and vulgar content accessible through links on Google China. I made this prediction based on my understanding of communication and the psychology of netizens. I got this message today:

Hecaitou, you were right!

On June 18 at 6:00pm, the Google.cn’s comprehensive traffic ranked 22nd with 25,100 people per million visiting the site. And today (June 21 at 8:00pm), the Google China climbed to 20th place with 26,700 visitors per million.

On 18th June:

On 21st June:

If the manuscript for The Heart of a Teenage Girl（少女的心 by Simone de Beauvoir）had not been banned, it would not have gained such hype and people would not have clandestinely copied it by hand at the risk of being exiled to Xinjiang. In actuality, the plot of the book is pretty simple, the writing is not particularly great and it lacks originality. In an attempt to tarnish Google China’s reputation, CCTV just got more people to visit the site – free advertising.

For all the flack thrown at Google in China, it can never be blocked. It would be really bad press for China if it were to restrict access to the search engine, especially with Obama making a visit in the fall. For now, we can expect to see more small attempts to undermine Google from the likes of CCTV. Google will reciprocate accordingly, while knowing full well that their brand is secured.

Regretfully, despite the increase in visitors to Google after CCTV’s attacks through various channels, its ranking only went up three places. What this means is that CCTV’s influence is on the decline. I often hear that many TV programs on CCTV reach less than 5% of viewers but I could not believe it, thought there were so many people were fooled by TV media. However, I was wrong, people really have become wiser. According to the online statistics, a large percentage of the CCTV audience only watch TV series and the weather forecasts. (Even when the audience watch news on CCTV, very few of them believe its content) If CCTV had any kind of true influence, this kind of attack on Google should have yielded far more dramatic outcomes.

I had thought that after this event Google would have been able to capture more market share and to be a close competitor with Baidu. However, I would never have imagined CCTV’s influence has declined to such an extent.

Note: BloggerInsight is collecting more Chinese blogger’s comments on the Google China situation, more coming soon!

Huang Zhaolei, Mike Fung and Ying Xue contributed to this translation.

Post from: CN Reviews

Chinese Web Insights: CCTV’s Attacks Increased Google’s Traffic

I remember China Daily publishing an informative piece about The Chinese Wave. Some excerpts are as follows:

Twenty years ago, it was a dream for most Chinese. China’s first approved foreign tourist destination for Chinese travelers was Thailand in 1988. In November of 1988, travel agencies in Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong province, started to organize Chinese travelers to visit Thailand. Before that, beginning in 1983, mainland residents could only tour Hong Kong and Macao.

For a whole generation of Chinese who still had vivid memories of how people with overseas relatives or connections were investigated and persecuted during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), going abroad seemed to be out of question.

Taiwan Today gave out a different picture. The statistics are turning tables now. Blame it on the A(H1N1).

A sense of shock has overtaken travel agents and hotel operators, who had expected endless business opportunities to accompany the arrival of mainland tourists. Instead business has plunged by 70 percent.

Oh well. Business also has its ups and downs. But something is consistent even through the surging and dwindling of tourist numbers.

It is that there is a similar image pointing to the Chinese tourist.

I always enjoy going back to this UC Berkeley student’s account of Mainland tourists in a restaurant in Taiwan. It is a picture common among locals witnessing the great Chinese wave.

I will be quoting her post as a whole, so please do check out her blog afterwards.

She arrived on a whim. A. is the first friend to visit me in Taipei who actually speaks and reads Chinese, so meeting up was a simple matter of instructing her on which shuttle bus to ride and which stop to disembark. She came on the same day as the first official batch of tourists arriving on direct flights from China, a news item that has kept the media buzzing for a while.

First night’s dinner was at my favorite shabu shabu restaurant. It was good to see business hopping as usual. At some point, an extra rowdy crowd entered and claimed over half of the first floor. Unfamiliar accents and vocal registers pricked through the low buzz of collective dinner conversations, which puttered out into silence when one man stood up to the buffet line and started bellowing instructions to the half of the room that had just arrived.

Such silence, the sound of realization — Oh. They’re here.

The man ended his speech (I’m not even sure what dialect he was speaking) with a shrill “LAOBAN! LAOBAN!” calling the store manager over to where he stood. If nothing else, that action would’ve been a dead giveaway that this crowd wasn’t from around these parts. “What do you do if you’re trying to get the manager’s attention?” asked A., earnestly.

“You go find him,” I said. Most Taiwanese people just don’t stand in the middle of a restaurant and hail the manager over on account of the sheer volume of their voice. And actually, for all I know, maybe most Chinese people don’t either.

S’gonna be an interesting summer…

The Taiwanese have always been curious of the Chinese and vice versa. Considering they are similar in a lot of ways and are simply different in social experiences, this curiosity just rings the bell.

Post from: CN Reviews

The Chinese Tourist (In The Eyes of The Taiwanese)

Riding China’s Trains

Jalal from the Lost Laowai Blog recounts his good, bad, and ugly experiences riding a long-distance Chinese train from Shanghai to Hubei. Short-distance trains are often a very cost-efficient alternative to flying in China, but the long-distance, sleeper, multi-day trips can be incredibly brutal, especially if you’re a poor college kid going back to your hometown during Chinese New Year and all you can afford is standing room only for your 48 hour ride…with everyone else in China. An excerpt:

I remembered why I sometimes enjoy long train rides. Of course, with a hard seat ticket anything over 8 hours becomes a test of mental and physical toughness; but journeys in the sleeper carriages can be a great opportunity to socialize, practice your Chinese, people-watch, or just kick back and catch up on some reading. Of course, you might run into a couple of clowns, like I did on the way to Hubei, but you takes the rough with the smooth, right?

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. You’ve always been curious about taking the train instead of the plane in China.
2. You’re wondering if Jalal’s experiences remind you of your own.

Anti-Democracy Sentiment In Action

Allie Shi over at Shanghaiist indulged those of us who love hearing what Chinese netizens have to say about anything by translating a bunch of their reactions to the Iranian election controversy. The comments selected are sure to prickle quite a few hairs though:

“现在选举演变成几十年所未有的对抗和骚乱，不知道自由派做何感想？ ——————用军队干呀！敢对抗，杀死他几十万人算个球！反正伊朗人多！军队的枪是干什么的？真是傻瓜。”
“The Iranian presidential election evolved after decades but now is triggering so many protests and riots; I am not sure how the liberal wings of the party would think? Use the army. Whoever fights against the government should be killed. There are so many people in Iran so killing several hundreds of thousands is not a big deal. What does the army do? Foolish (Iranian government).”

“支持内贾德。他是世界上仅有的三个敢于对美国说不的国家领导人之一。他是有骨气有勇气的领导人。”
“I support Ahmadinejad. He is one of the only three leaders of the countries who say no to America. He is a brave and dignified country leader.”"

戈尔输给小步什的时候，小步什也是作弊的，但戈尔比较理性，能以国家安定为重，宣布失败。穆萨维他们有美国支持，但没有大多数伊朗人的支持，输了还不心甘。 ”
“When Bush was elected as the American president, he cheated too. But Al Gore was rational and admitted that he lost because of national stabilization. Mousavi has America as his biggest backer but not many Iranian supporters. He should admitted that he lost.”

Yikes, eh? Quick, go find some other Chinese…

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. You’ve been watching the Iran election fallout.
2. You’re not sure if democracy always works either.
3. You’re part of the 50 cent gang.
4. You’re a masochist who secretly enjoys reading fenqing comments.

Interview With CEO of Chinese Post-90s Generation SNS 360quan.com

And it’s a white guy! Alice with Danwei, the department store that achors the mall of China blogs, posted an interview with Dan Brody talking about China’s post-90s internet culture. Dan Brody is CEO of 360quan.com, “the smallest of the first tier SNS sites, and biggest of the second tier.” Their social networking service/site is focused on China’s youth, particularly those infamously born in the 1990s often stereotyped for their loose morals, goth/emo/punk leanings, and proclivity towards taking exaggerated photos of themselves…and then photoshopping them to be even more exaggerated. Here’s part of the interview:

Danwei: Is 360quan.com unique?
DB: There’s obviously lots of other social networking sites, but each has it’s own niche. For instance, Douban.com is more cultural, and Kaixin001.com is for white-collar office workers － but that’s basically all about branding. All large websites in China have basically the same demographics. For instance, bands and music never accounted for MySpace’s traffic in the US; 90% of their traffic is still just regular people talking to each other. And Xiaonei.com is supposedly just for students, but they have more members than there are students in China.

We position ourselves as the post-90s generation, very hip trendy and new, and we have strong branding on this by finding cool kids on the website — kids who play parkour, graffiti artists, punks — and promoting them. That’s our branding, but by definition cool people can never be the majority of our users, because cool people are only a small percentage of any social group. The people who use our website are the same people who use other large websites in China. What each website does is to feature and promote a group of people who are most interesting for them to associate with their brand.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. Great insights into Chinese youth culture.
2. Great insider insights into the Chinese SNS business and market.

Nail Houses In China (and around the world)

Nail houses are not the same as hair salons, though those of us with quick and dirty minds might occasionally confuse the two given the right context. Nail houses refer to those stubborn homeowners or tenants who refuse to sell or vacate their property to a developer that has already purchased and leveled the surrounding buildings to build something new (and hopefully more profitable). They’re called “nail houses” because, well, they stick out like a nail. *badabing!* This post comes from a non-China blog called Deputy Dog, but nonetheless features 3 nail houses from China (2 from America, 1 from Japan) with some great pictures:

perhaps the most famous nail house in history was situated on a huge mound of dirt in chonqing until april 2007, at which point it was demolished by exhausted developers after battling for 3 years and eventually parting with ¥1m. the house’s owner, mrs wu ping, was the only person from 241 properties who refused to leave when asked in 2004 in order to make way for a new shopping centre. she really dug her heels in and the story quickly spread around the world by way of the intertubes. there’s an interesting interview with mrs wu here. following some searching, see what i believe to be the site of wu ping’s old house here on google schnapps.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. Everyone loves a rebel, especially in the face of evil monolithic greedy capitalist land developers! Especially if the latter are Chinese! *shakes fist*
2. Oooooh, nifty pictures.

8 Successful Tips On Being A Successful Government Official

More hair-raising this week comes courtesy of Fool’s Mountain, where they post a translation of a letter written by a Jiangsu government official to his son containing 8 pieces of advice for joining the world of politics that would make Machiavelli (the Italian, not the rapper) proud:

1. Don’t seek truth, and don’t search for the essence of things.

Leave these tasks to intellectuals. The credo you have to firmly keep in mind: “as long as it is advantageous to oneself, it is correct.” If you have difficulty to grasp this, then follow this simplified principle: “whatever the higher-ups promoting is correct.”

2. Not only you have to be a liar, but also you have to be a virtuoso liar.

You should build a habit of telling lies. No, actually you should treat it as a mission with the goal that you are able to believe your own lies. Prostitution and politicians are very similar professions. The difference is that being an official is to sell one’s mouth. Remember, your mouth does not belong to you anymore once you become an official. You have to say according to what you need, not what you think.

Plus six more gems. If there is anything morally redeemable in this, it is the final non-enumerated bit of advice:

These are the principles of being an official. Think carefully now, if you can do all of these, your will have a smooth sailing career. Not up to the task? It’s high time to switch to another profession.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. You’re a politician/government offiicial, or looking forward to a career in politics/officialdom.
2. You’re a marketer/salesman, or looking forward to a career in marketing/sales.

Europe As Center Of The World

Jottings from the Granite Studio is a favorite for many English China bloggers in our small little admittedly incestuous English China blogosphere. By “incestuous”, it isn’t that we all know each other (and engage in depravities), but we all know of each others’ writing. Jeremiah is a history teacher in Beijing, China and “a PhD Candidate at a large public research university in Northern California” (Go Bears?) who regularly posts some really great stuff on China. This past week, he decided to take to task an op-ed column written by a student from a university in the American South, highlighting the all too common perception most people have of China, particularly those who have never been to China (and some who have, and even continue to live here):

The Chinese mentality is nothing new. If one delves deep into the history books, they can find that the Chinese have possessed such a thought process since their earliest days. They were, and remain, “The Middle Kingdom” or “The Central Nation.” (In fairness, the Europeans have often thought of themselves as “The Middle Earth,” but they at least have the geography to back it up.)

Ok, I’m not a Europeanist, but has anyone not named J.R.R. Tolkien ever used the term “Middle Earth” when thinking of Europe?  And exactly what kind of maps do they use at this school to geographically “back up” Europe’s location in the middle of the earth?

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. Scenes of ignorance getting taken down amuse you (as they do me).
2. Middle Earth, yeah!
3. Quotes like “answering questions and questioning answers” and “not letting students become too comfortable in certainties” resonate with you (as they should everyone).

China’s Dissidents Are Self-Serving Attention Whores

Okay, not quite, but Alice Liu from Asia Times Online (via CDT) brings some critical perspective to a lot of Chinese “digital dissidents” (many of whom actually live in China) that many bleeding-heart liberals champion are fond of championing. Her opinions, or the opinions she represents, may divide some of you with activist leanings:

So what drives him to be a citizen journalist? Does he care about the current political situation in China, or is it just means for self-promotion? Probably more of the latter. Zola has been accused by some of accepting money from his interviewees, which he does not deny, saying he needs to raise funds somehow.

Many bloggers from the “me generation” are just like Zola. They may appear rebellious, and committed to exposing scandals, but they do this mainly for self-satisfaction or fame. The majority of these bloggers are not politically adventurous, and most, like Zola, won’t criticize the communist authorities. In short, they are apolitical.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. As many have argued before, a person’s character and agenda can be just as important as what that person does or says. At the very least, it’ll help you better understand what they may really be doing or saying.
2. Wut?!? Zola is GOD! BLASPHEMER!

CCTV Embarrasses Itself Yet Again

In what may be a continuation of the last few weeks’ ongoing Green Dam debacle, CCTV ran a news piece pointing a big fat (burning?) CCTV finger at Google.cn for providing search results with links to “vulgar content” that is officially prohibited in China. They also featured an interview where some “university student” expounded on how online porn basically turned his classmate into a zombie. The fact that “vulgar content” is quite ubiquitous (sex sells…always) even in the supposedly “sanitized” Chinese internet was not lost upon the legions of Chinese (and foreign) netizens who quickly scratched their chins wondering why Google was singled out when Baidu is just as bad. A small human flesh search then also discovered that the “university student” CCTV featured was actually a CCTV employee. Ouch.

English-language blogs that covered aspects of this story included:

• GVO: CCTV’s propaganda campaign against Google.cn
• Danwei: State media blames Google for porn
• ESWN: CCTV vs Google.cn & <Focus Interview> Interviewed Its Own Intern
• chinaSMACK: Chinese Netizen Reactions To CCTV Attacking Google

The “university student’s”  famous last words:

I feel that the pornographic or obscene information on the Internet is particularly harmful.  The harm becomes especially big when it is linked by Google.  There is a fellow student of mine. He had been somewhat curious about this sort of thing.  So he visited pornographic websites and he ended up being very absent-minded for a while. Then the state began an anti-pornography campaign.  He did not go there for a while and he got better.  Then he found out that when he went through search engines such as Google.cn with many users, he could still reach these kinds of websites.  So he went back to visiting those many linked websites.  He suffered a relapse.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. Hahahaha…
2. Hahaha…
3. Haha…
4. Ha.

More Ways To Get Around That Blasted GFW

Not a week goes by without Mr. Schokora getting a mention and yet again he gets one most deservedly. He should get a Adam Schokora corner or something. Oh wait, that’s his blog. Anyway, this week’s hella awesome “Friday 5″ post shares tips and tricks on how to circumvent China’s Net Nanny, that royal pain in the ass that stops you from visiting websites the Chinese censors don’t want you visiting. The entire post itself is rendered as an image instead of text, a common trick some bloggers use in hopes of evading text filters.

Adam, if you’re reading this, I’m waiting for your tweet asking me to update this post because you cleaned up this post by, I dunno, adding links via HTML image maps. That would cement your niubi status.

Why This Should Matter To You:

1. Knowledge is power.
2. Power is access.
3. Access is freedom.
4. Freedom is knowledge.

That’s it for this week. Have a link to a blog post that shouldn’t be missed? Be sure to share it with everyone in the comments, and don’t forget to tell us why you recommend it!

Post from: CN Reviews

The Good, Bad, & Ugly Of Trains, Youth, Politics, Dissidents & CCTV