This Week: Kaiser Kuo hosts a discussion all about China’s best-known gadflies: artist-cum-activist Ai Weiwei and writer, auto racer, and blogger Han Han. So join us as we talk about who both of these public figures are and why they have gained so much attention both inside China and in the foreign press. We will look at how both are perceived domestically and abroad, talk about why they haven’t been silenced the way other equally vocal critics have been, and ask if it even makes sense to speak of them in the same breath. Following this, we close with a quick discussion of the Wangjialing mine rescue you’ve read all about in the newspapers.
Our guests this week are Austin Ramzy, Beijing-based correspondent with Time magazine, and Will Moss, public relations expert and author of the blog Imagethief. We also have contributions from Charlie Custer, publisher of the translation blog China Geeks, and Gady Epstein, Beijing bureau chief for Forbes magazine, who remembers his first interview with Han Han back in December 2002. Finally, Sinica regular Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor of Danwei.org, helps put both stories in an international perspective.