“Walk A Pig on My Bike (2012)”

By Sun Yunfan on June 18, 2013

“Walk A Pig on My Bike (2012),” from their double-disc second album Some Other Scenery (2012), is a new rendition of an earlier song by the Guangzhou-based folk band Wu Tiao Ren. The twenty-one songs from this album (nineteen, including this one, are sung in the local dialect of Haifeng county in Guangdong province, the hometown of band members Amao and Renke, both on guitars and vocals here) are vivid sketches of both historic stories of the Haifeng region and the contemporary lives of drifters in Guangzhou.

“Water Runs East for Ten Years, Water Runs West for Ten Years”

By Sun Yunfan on June 18, 2013

“Water Runs East for Ten Years, Water Runs West for Ten Years” is a song by the Guangzhou-based folk band Wu Tiao Ren from their first album, A Tale of Haifeng (2009). The songs on this album celebrate the sentiments and everyday lives of small-town bums living in the transforming Haifeng county in Guangdong province, the hometown of band members Amao (guitar) and Renke (accordion). Amao and Renke sing the whole album in the Haifeng dialect except for one track called “I’ll Let You Know When There Is A Problem.”

The Local Folk

An Interview with Indie Band Wu Tiao Ren

By Sun Yunfan on June 18, 2013

In the liner notes of their 2009 début album, A Tale of Haifeng, Guangzhou-based indie folk band Wu Tiao Ren tinkered with the Communist party slogan “Lizu xiancheng, fangyan quanqiu,” which translates roughly: “See the world from our county’s perspective.” The phrase often appears on banners in small towns where locals hope to sell their products abroad.

What Paintbrush Makers Know About How to Beat China

By Adam Davidson on June 18, 2013

Chinese manufacturers long ago wreaked havoc on the U.S. textile, apparel, toy and electronics industries, but the disruption came slowly to the brush business. Companies have employed two strategies to stave off Chinese competition: 1) change everything all the time, or 2) don’t ever change a thing.

Business, Economy
Imports and Exports, Manufacturing

Chinese State Media Warns Against Extradition of Edward Snowden

By Heather Saul on June 18, 2013

 

Chinese newspaper, The Global Times published an article calling for China to “safeguard its interests”, describing extraditing Snowden back to the US as a “betrayal of Snowden’s trust.” The editorial published on Monday argued Mr Snowden’s leaks had cost the US its image of defender of a free internet.

 

Law, Media, Politics
Edward Snowden

Will Bond Market Tidying Trigger Clean Sweep?

on June 18, 2013

China’s financial regulators are rewriting rules for the interbank bond market after criminal investigations early this year led to the arrests of several well-known bond traders and exposed serious flaws in the market’s supervision system.

The changes affect several agencies and more than a dozen market areas, from the trader account application process to bond issues and settlements. Rules governing bond trader and supervisor qualifications are also being tightened.