Sex Ed Videos Go Viral
on November 6, 2013
A collection of sex education videos have just gone, ahem, viral on the Chinese Internet.
The Challenges of Conveying Absurd Reality: An Interview with Yu Hua
on November 6, 2013
Thus, Los Angeles Review of Books Asia Co-editor Megan Shank and Yu exchanged Chinese-language e-mails about history’s most over- and underrated Chinese writers, the evolution of an ancient language and why Yu will never read Anna Karenina on a cell phone.
Chinese F.D.I. in the United States
on November 6, 2013
This breakdown from the Rhodium Group reviews the patterns, key transactions and political developments in the US-China investment relationship in Q3 2013, including reforms, employment numbers, and the effect of the U.S. government shutdown.
China and Hollywood by the Numbers
on November 5, 2013
Consider this: Hollywood studios now make more money selling movie tickets in China than in any other market outside North America. Wanda, China’s largest real estate developer, bought AMC, the second-largest movie theater chain in the United States, and is also investing in making movies of its own. China is building theaters and adding movie screens at a rate not seen in the U.S. in decades, and Chinese audiences are ballooning.
Terrorism in Tiananmen, Politics at Peking University
on November 5, 2013
This week on Sinica, we return to our China roots with a show covering recent developments in the news including the recent terrorist attack in Beijing and political hiring-and-firing at Peking University.
Small Part, Big Screen
A Beijing Migrant Tries to Break Into the Movies
on November 5, 2013
Every morning outside the imposing gate of the Beijing Film Studio, a throng gathers to try to find a way inside. These aren’t fans, exactly. Look at their faces, the practiced way they crane their necks or square their shoulders when the man with the clipboard comes out to take their measure. This is a shape-up, the day laborer’s morning ritual: stand tall, make eye contact, get the boss to pick me.
Topics:
China’s Chilling Effect for Investor Research
Why an Unflattering Analysis of a Publicly Listed Company Can Land an Investment Researcher in Jail
on November 4, 2013
Shanghai investor Wang Weihua’s final microblog post October 12 was brief and ominous: “The police are coming.”
Three days later, Wang’s family said he’d been taken into custody by police officers who traveled more than 3,600 kilometers to Wang’s Shanghai home from Urumqi, a city in China’s far west.
Police gave the family a document saying Wang was detained on charges of fabricating and disseminating false information about securities and futures trading activity. They gave no additional information.
Apologies for a Horrific Past
The Cultural Revolution Haunts the Present
on November 1, 2013
On October 9, a farmer named Zhang Jinying appeared on the television show Please Forgive Me, a program usually dedicated to public apologies by unfaithful husbands and wayward sons. But the sixty-one-year-old Zhang’s apology had a depth and a historical weight rarely seen on that program. In 1969, Zhang had denounced one of his teachers as a “rightist,” a traitor to China’s Communist revolution and to then-Chairman Mao Zedong. Delivered near the height of the country’s Cultural Revolution, that charge led to the teacher’s public humiliation, physical abuse, and firing.
The Sound of China’s Future
On Tour in Texas, a Band from Sichuan Strains to be Heard
on November 1, 2013
It’s high noon in March and the cluttered patio of Maria’s Taco Xpress, the Austin, Texas institution, is gloriously sunny. First time visitor Gan Baishui is moments away from his band’s American debut, but the composer and musician from a fourth-tier city in southwest China you’ve never heard of looks far from psyched to be playing a gig on the sidelines of the massive annual music festival and industry conference South by Southwest (SXSW). The source of his current state might be mistaken for nerves but he’s probably just confused.
What the Heck is China’s ‘Third Plenum’ and Why Should You Care?
on November 1, 2013
China’s economy is already two-thirds the size of the economy of the U.S., and it’s been growing five times as fast.
