When Media Attacks

By Gady Epstein, Jeremy Goldkorn & more on October 29, 2010

This week on Sinica, we find out what happens when the media attacks and China is caught in the crossfire. Specifically, recent weeks have brought us two prominent cases of bad press for China as the country gets caught in loaded battles fought by unrelated parties. In the first, an American political advertisement raises the specter of a U.S. economic collapse. The second is more homegrown, as two giants in the dairy industry are caught spreading lies to promote short-term sales.

 

A Very Superior ‘Chinaman’

By Richard Bernstein on October 28, 2010

Charlie Chan, the fictitious Chinese-American detective from Hawaii, makes his first appearance in the movie Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) looking out the window of an airplane while flying over the Pyramids and the Sphinx. We next see him, looking awkward and unhappy, on a donkey, which takes him to the headquarters of an archaeological excavation in Luxor. There he announces why he has come, his polite manner verging on the deferential: he has been hired by the French Archaeological Society to investigate the disappearance of some ancient objects on the black market.

Recent Considerations on China

By Kaiser Kuo, Gady Epstein & more on October 22, 2010

As backdrop for this podcast, Sinica would like to remind our gentle listeners that the word quisling comes from Norway, that barbarous queen of northern Europe whose parliament has recently been condemned internationally for its involvement in a series of bizarre pagan rituals which have no place in any civilized country and are—of course—anathema to all involved in our operations. As such, we urge all Sinica listeners planning a European ski vacation to consider gracious Finland instead.

‘A Turning Point in the Long Struggle’: Chinese Citizens Defend Liu Xiaobo

By Perry Link on October 18, 2010

It would be hard to overstate how much the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo on October 8 has meant to China’s community of dissidents, bloggers, and activists. Not only has it lifted their spirits tremendously; many also view it as a possible turning point in the long struggle to bring democracy and human rights to their country.

A Hero of the China Underground

By Howard W. French on October 14, 2010

As a poet and chronicler of other people’s lives, Liao Yiwu is a singular figure among the generation of Chinese intellectuals who emerged after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Unlike the leaders of Beijing’s student movement, people like Wang Dan and Wuer Kaixi, Liao had no part in organizing street demonstrations and has never explicitly engaged in political activism. Also unlike them, he never fled the country, a fact that has doubtless helped preserve him from becoming irrelevant within China, the fate of a great many émigré dissidents and authors.

The Question of Pearl Buck

By Jonathan D. Spence on October 14, 2010

The announcement by the Swedish Academy in November 1938 that Pearl Buck had been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature was met with sarcasm and even derision by many writers and critics. They were not impressed that this was the third choice by the academy of an American writer in a mere eight years—the first being Sinclair Lewis in 1930, the second Eugene O’Neill in 1936.

Jailed for Words: Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo

By Jonathan Mirsky on October 11, 2010

On October 8, Liu Xiaobo became the first Chinese to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and one of only three winners ever to receive it while in prison. The Oslo committee had already received a warning from Beijing not to give Liu the prize because he was a “criminal,” serving eleven years for “subversion of state power.” After Oslo made its announcement, Beijing labeled the award an “obscenity.” By Beijing’s standards it certainly is.

Beijing’s Bluster, America’s Quiet: The Disturbing Case of Xue Feng

By Richard Bernstein on October 10, 2010

Quiet diplomacy, as it’s called, has served for years as the principle guiding U.S. relations with China: the theory is that it is far better to engage the Chinese government quietly, behind the scenes, rather than through more robust public confrontation. This approach, recommended by most influential experts on China, has been followed in political and economic dealings, and even when the human rights of American citizens are at stake. But how effective is quiet diplomacy in practice? Two cases have made this question urgent.

Market Transformation for Urban Energy Efficiency in China

on October 1, 2010

The acute energy shortage faced by many Chinese cities has dragged down local productivity and living standards. Cities are motivated to actively seek solutions to minimize the gap between energy demand and supply. This project aims to lay out practical and replicable approaches to promote the market transformation of energy efficiency in China. Bulk procurements and financing of energy efficiency projects have emerged as promising mechanisms to build the energy efficiency market, while their development in China is still in their infancy.

Embed Code: 
View the PDF on Document Cloud
He Jianan
Topics: 
Energy
Urban Life
Keywords: 
Energy Efficiency
Organization: 
Global Environmental Institute