Several authors of a “danmei” fiction website were recently detained by authorities. The injustice is so glaringly obvious that I can’t stop myself from saying something.
Danmei (or “boys' love”) fiction is particularly interesting only to a minority. The idea comes from Japan and refers to female-oriented fiction featuring idealized romantic relationships between two males, mostly as manga works.
This week on Sinica, we go to the Olympics in recognition of what is unarguably the biggest story coming out of London: the spectacular performance of Chinese swimming sensation Ye Shiwen and the subsequent allegations of doping and anti-competitive behavior by the international and particularly American media which has—unsurprisingly—prompted a defensive backlash throughout the Chinese Internet.
Seven days a week eight hours a day, the members of the Sanjin Shanxi Opera Troupe impersonate princes, generals, and emperors. These performers are keeping alive one of China’s oldest traditions: its opera. Almost every region of the country has its own style of traditional opera; the Sanjin troupe performs Jinju, or Shanxi-style opera, which developed in the north China province where its members work. In conditions that range from scorching heat to freezing cold, Sanjin’s actors sing, dance, and mime stories of love, treason, and wars in front of mesmerized audiences.
China’s state media on Thursday attacked what it said were arrogant and prejudiced views of the country’s athletes at the London Olympics. After several days where Chinese competitors have been in the spotlight for winning golds, and drawing questions about doping and ethics, the official Xinhua News Agency and the People’s Daily both accused the “Western media” of making up stories.
The large banner at the front gate of what used to be called Daxing Ecological Community has been changed to read “Civilized City.” A showroom by the nearby supermarket is locked up and empty while a little further away, near a scenic lake, lies a rubbish dump of dry toilets, piles of blue excrement buckets, and recycling containers.
The Chinese Communist Party has always put great emphasis on smooth surfaces, maintaining political “face” through a decorous exterior. Men at the top dye their hair black and every strand must be in place. But sometimes there are cracks in the smoothness and outsiders are given a glimpse into the mafia-like world that lies behind it.
A twenty-six-year-old woman who moved to Beijing from a distant town for work could be a poster child for urban China’s latest housing market phenomenon: skyrocketing rents.
The woman, surnamed Fang, said goodbye to Liaoning province three years ago for a job that paid 2,400 yuan monthly and a one-room basement apartment on the Third Ring Road shared with a workmate that cost her 600 yuan a month.
The Chinese Communist Party has always put great emphasis on smooth surfaces, maintaining political “face” through a decorous exterior. Men at the top dye their hair black and every strand must be in place. But sometimes there are cracks in the smoothness and outsiders are given a glimpse into the mafia-like world that lies behind it.
Authoritarian regimes have traditionally relied heavily on controlling the flow of information that their subjects receive as a critical element of maintaining political power. The Chinese Communist Party is no different: they have an extensive and well-funded propaganda apparatus that’s integrated into all aspects of the Party’s operations, coupled with a sophisticated set of tools that are used to control the Chinese public’s access to alternative sources of information. After decades of maintaining a fairly successful monopoly on the flow of information, the party-state’s current approach is much more calibrated and nuanced. It seems to be based on the principles of modern flood-control techniques: allow a greater flow in certain channels when necessary to take the pressure off the highest risk zones. While these techniques are generally successful, recently we’ve seen how freak events and unexpected storms can overwhelm systems that are based on routine handling of high probability events.
