Culture

08.26.14

Healthy Words

Alec Ash
In 1902, Lu Xun translated Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon into Chinese from the Japanese edition. Science fiction, he wrote in the preface, was “as rare as unicorn horns, which shows in a way the intellectual poverty of our time.” Not any...

New Political News Website Scolded by Party Propaganda Officials for 'Incorrect Practices'

Chris Luo
South China Morning Post
Thepaper.cn given a 'stern warning' after it likely irked propaganda officials.

Fabled Uighur Princess Coming to Chinese Television as a Cartoon

Edward Wong
New York Times
Animators in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen are creating a 104-episode cartoon series loosely based on a historical Qing Dynasty imperial consort, a Uighur woman who is shrouded in myth.

China’s Movie Industry: All That Glitters Isn’t Gold

Jeongwen Qiang and Chen Lin
Forbes
If we just looked at their success, on the surface, the Chinese film industry appears to be flourishing; but there is some cause for concern.

Beijing Independent Film Festival Shut Down by Chinese Authorities

Jonathan Kaiman
Guardian
Organizers forced to sign documents promising not to hold festival, as China's crackdown on freedom of speech continues.

New Map Shows China’s True Expanse, General Says

Edward Wong
New York Times
A new vertical map of China issued in June by the Hunan Map Publishing House, uses 10 dashes around the South China Sea to broadly delineate China’s claims to contested waters, shoals, rocks, reefs and islands there.

Reading Howl in China

Guo XIaolu
Aeon Magazine
My generation, once impassioned by the Western literature of rebellion, is now lulled by ‘Wealthy Socialism.’

China’s Xi Jinping Seeks Launch of New Media Clusters

Patrick Frater
Variety
Xi said that the new groups should be “diversified,” “advanced,” and “competitive” and said that state authorities should properly integrate and manage traditional and new media.”

China Arrests 1,000 Members of Banned Religious Cult 'Eastern Lightning'

Katie Hunt
CNN
State news agency Xinhua said that the group, which Beijing regards as a dangerous doomsday cult, cheated people, illegally collected money and "violated the law under the guise of religion."

China Chides U.S. Over Ferguson Violence, American Racism

Stuart Leavenworth
McClatchy
State media of the world’s largest country has stepped up coverage of the Ferguson violence and protests, publishing commentaries accusing the United States of hypocrisy in seeking to be a global guardian of human rights.Read more here: http://www...

Heinz Recalls Four Batches of Infant Food in China

Sui-Lee Wee
Reuters
Heinz took action after food safety regulators in eastern Zhejiang province said they had found "excessive amounts of lead" in the company's AD Calcium Hi-Protein Cereal.

Clive Palmer ‘Mongrel’ Comments Irresponsible, Says Chinese Embassy

Helen Davidson
Guardian
Australian MP insists his TV remarks were aimed at specific company, but embassy condemns them as ‘full of ignorance and prejudice.’

Apple Stores User Data in China.

Jacob Axelrad
Christian Science Monitor
What does it mean for cybersecurity?

He Exposed Corrupt China Before He Left

Perry Link from New York Review of Books
In the late 1970s, when the passing of Mao made it possible for foreign journalists to work in China for the first time in three decades, the first reporters to get in wrote wide-ranging books that addressed nearly everything they could learn.1...

China Says Over 150 “Economic Fugitives” at Large in the U.S.

Sui-Lee Wee
Reuters
The United States "has become the top destination for Chinese fugitives fleeing the law," the China Daily newspaper said, citing Liao Jinrong, director general of the ministry's International Cooperation Bureau.

China Cracks Down on Messaging Apps

Ned Levin and Min-Jeong Lee
Wall Street Journal
China says rules aim to 'Help Build a Clean Cyberspace' and safeguard national security

Media

08.07.14

Beards and Muslim Headscarves Banned From Buses In One Xinjiang City

A city in China’s remote western Xinjiang region has temporarily banned men with beards and women with Muslim headscarves from taking public buses. The extreme security measure—to be implemented for the duration of a sports competition slated to...

Media

08.06.14

The Bizarre Fixation on a 23-Year-Old Woman

On August 4, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake viciously struck Ludian County, a township in the southwest province of Yunnan, with a death toll surpassing 400. The news swiftly hit Chinese headlines, and images of the devastation circulated widely on...

China’s Bizarre Fixation on a 23-Year-Old Woman

Lotus Yuen
Foreign Policy
Guo Meimei is being used to represent all that's wrong with Chinese charities—and maybe China itself.

China Regulator Probes Microsoft, Accenture Offices

Colum Murphy and Eva Dou
Wall Street Journal
Inspection is latest move in country's antitrust investigation of U.S. tech companies.

China Using Antimonopoly Law to Pressure Foreign Businesses

Laurie Burkitt and Colum Murphy
Wall Street Journal
Experts say Beijing seeking greater sway over prices paid by Chinese companies and consumers.

What Microsoft Has Done Right (And Wrong) In China With Xbox One

Charlie Custer
Forbes
Half a year after China lifted its console ban, allowing gaming consoles to be legally sold within the country for the first time in over a decade, China’s console gamers are yet to get their hands on anything.

The War of Words in China

Andrew Jacobs
New York Times
I didn't ask for a Wikipedia page, but a few months ago, alerted by a friend, I found that someone had created one, ostensibly devoted to my journalistic achievements, but accusing me of writing over 400 mostly negative articles on China.

The War of Words in China

ANDREW JACOBS
New York Times
These are challenging days for foreigners in China, who in the past year or so have increasingly found themselves caught up in a war of words that paint Westerners as conscripts in the army of “hostile foreign forces” seeking to thwart China’s rise.

‘Transformers’ in China: The Hidden Cost of a $300 Million Hit

Kim Masters
Hollywood Reporter
The record $317 million that Paramount’s new Transformers grossed in China in 31 days is impressive, but the struggle the studio has endured to collect a mere 25 percent of that total shows that mining gold behind the Great Wall is a daunting task.

Dozens Dead or Injured in Xinjiang ‘Terror,’ but Facts Are Few and Far Between

Emily Rauhala
Time
Two vastly different accounts have emerged about the a violent incident that occurred on the first day of the ‘Id al-Fitr festival, highlighting the difficulties of getting reliable information from the increasingly restless region.

Books

07.31.14

Leftover Women

Leta Hong Fincher
A century ago, Chinese feminists fighting for the emancipation of women helped spark the Republican Revolution, which overthrew the Qing empire. After China's Communist revolution of 1949, Chairman Mao famously proclaimed that "women hold up half the sky." In the early years of the People's Republic, the Communist Party sought to transform gender relations with expansive initiatives such as assigning urban women jobs in the planned economy. Yet those gains are now being eroded in China's post-socialist era. Contrary to many claims made in the mainstream media, women in China have experienced a dramatic rollback of many rights and gains relative to men.Leftover Women debunks the popular myth that women have fared well as a result of post-socialist China's economic reforms and breakneck growth. Laying out the structural discrimination against women in China will speak to broader problems with China's economy, politics, and development.—Zed Books {chop}

Media

07.30.14

Paper Tiger

Isaac Stone Fish & Rachel Lu
For 10 months, the fate of Zhou Yongkang existed in a space of plausible deniability. Respected Western media outlets had reported that the 71-year-old Zhou, a retired official who served as China's much-feared domestic security czar from 2007...

Fall of Zhou Yongkang Lights Up China’s Internet

Chuin-Wei Yap
Wall Street Journal
China’s social media microblogs, the country’s de facto town square, have for more than a year seethed with oblique flecks at the fate of former security chief Zhou Yongkang. 

Media

07.30.14

Say It Ain’t So, Zhou

It was an exchange perfectly tailored for modern Chinese politics: alternately unscripted and cagey, chummy but laced with a hint of menace. At a Beijing press conference following a Chinese Communist Party meeting in early March, a reporter for...

Conversation

07.24.14

Alibaba: How Big a Deal Is It?

David Wolf & Duncan Clark
When Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba goes public some time after Labor Day it is expected be one the largest initial public offerings in history. This week, a story in The New York Times shed light on ties between Alibaba and the sons and grandsons...

Chinese Blogger Jailed For ‘Rumor-Mongering’

Rakyat Post
A Chinese blogger known for criticizing the ruling Communist Party was sentenced on Wednesday to six-and-a-half years in jail, state media said, as authorities pursue a crackdown on online “rumors”.

Chinese Social Media Shrinks by 7% During Internet Crackdown

China Digital Times
According to China Internet Network Information Center, the number of Chinese Internet users logging on to social media websites declined by 7.4% percent in the first half of 2014 amid a year of slow Internet usage growth.

Media

07.22.14

All Hail ‘Fatty Kim the Third’

David Wertime
It’s North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un as the world has never seen him. In a three-minute clip that has accumulated over 200,000 views after its early July posting on Chinese video site Tudou, a crudely photoshopped Kim dances on the street,...

Media

07.21.14

Everybody Hates Rui

He may be widely reviled in his home country, but oh, what a resume: The son of an author and screenwriter; a graduate of the prestigious China Foreign Affairs University; a Yale World Fellow; and state-run China Central Television (CCTV)’s best-...

China Supplier Sold McDonald's, KFC Expired Meat

AP
Associated Press
McDonald's and KFC in China faced a new food safety scare after a Shanghai television station reported a supplier sold them expired beef and chicken.

Edelman, Rui Chenggang, and China PR

David Wolf
Silicon Hutong
Operating ethically is seen as naive at best, and culturally imperialist at worst (“how dare you impose your values on us!”).

China’s Response to the MH17 Tragedy? Condemn the West

Hannah Beech
Time
Despite memories of decades of Cold War frostiness, Beijing is now quite chummy with Moscow.

Alibaba’s IPO Could Be a Bonanza for the Scions of Chinese Leaders

Michael Forsythe
New York Times
Firm didn't reveal deep political connections of its investment backers, Boyu Capital, Citic Capital Holdings and CDB Capital.

Anti-corruption Drive—Anchor away: A Famous Newsman is Detained

Economist
In the midst of an ongoing anti-corruption campaign popular, jet-setting China Central Television “Economic News” anchor Rui Changgang is questioned.

Alibaba Plans IPO for After Labor Day

Telis Demos
Wall Street Journal
 Chinese e-commerce giant plans robust 'roadshow' to pitch deal.

Conversation

07.17.14

How to Read China’s New Press Restrictions

David Schlesinger, Orville Schell & more
On June 30, China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television posted a statement on its website warning Chinese journalists not to share information with their counterparts in the foreign press corps. Most major...

Chinese Communists’ Adultery Ban – A Propaganda Stunt?

Martin Patience
BBC
Just when you thought the Party was taking a puritanical stand, the newspaper said that when authorities had previously accused officials of “moral corruption” they defined this as having more than “three mistresses”.

Advice for Journalists in China: Hire a Lawyer

Malcolm Moore
Telegraph
This week, hundreds of thousands of Chinese journalists are expected to receive their new official press cards. But to qualify, they each had to sit a new exam designed to strengthen their ethics, professional conduct and knowledge of...

Blood-Drenched Chinese Story to Finally Grace Big Screen … in Korea

Lillian Lin
WSJ: China Real Time Report
The film “Chronicle of a Blood Merchant,” based on the 1995 novel of the same name by best-selling Chinese writer Yu Hua, has finally begun shooting nearly 14 years after it was first announced. But it won’t be a Chinese film.

Chinese Media Blast Fox News Host Bob Beckel Over ‘Chinamen’ Rant

Abid Rahman
Hollywood Reporter
“The Five” co-host’s discriminatory remarks have caused a storm of controversy and anger in China, echoing calls in the U.S. for him to be fired.

China TV Anchor Known For Fatriotic Views is Held in Corruption Probe

Los Angeles Times
For years, TV news anchor Rui Chenggang has been a China booster and an icon for China’s global “soft power” push. But in a development that’s shocked the nation, Rui has been detained on suspicion of corruption, the scourge of the system he has...

21st Century Fox to Sell Its Stake in China’s Bona Film Group

Clifford Coonan
Hollywood Reporter
Investment group Fosun raises its stake as Bona CEO Yu Dong buys the Fox stake, saying the move would not affect ongoing co-productions, including "Bride Wars."

How Will Cyber Spying Impact U.S., China Relations?

Bloomberg
Bloomberg
Asia Society Senior Fellow Jamie Metzl discusses cyber spying and U.S., China relations and the re-militarization of Japan on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

China Aims to Justify New Media Restrictions

Te-Ping Chen
Wall Street Journal
China moved to justify and explain a series of new restrictions on its media that tightened the government’s control of information in the world's No. 2 economy.

Media

07.08.14

Changing the Chinese Embassy’s Address to Liu Xiaobo Plaza Is a Silly Idea

I rarely agree with the Chinese Embassy in Washington, but an amendment making its way through Congress has made me unlikely bedfellows with Beijing’s Washington diplomats.Representative Frank Wolf (R-Va.) has sponsored an amendment to rename the...

Chinese Social Network For Moms Gets $20 Million

Steven Millward
Tech in Asia
A Chinese social network for mothers has secured US$20 million in series B funding to help it grow. LMBang already has 20 million registered users, of whom 2.6 million are daily active users.

China’s State Media Goes Into Overdrive Over the Marco Polo Incident

Te-Ping Chen
Wall Street Journal
President Xi Jinping led other members of the leadership to the area on the western outskirts of Beijing where 77 years ago Japanese troops attacked Chinese soldiers. The 1937 skirmish led to Japan invading much of eastern China and...

China Box Office: ‘Transformers’ Now No. 1 Film of All Time

Clifford Coonan
Hollywood Reporter
After only 10 days in release, Paramount’s Transformers: Age of Extinction has become the top-grossing movie of all time in China with $222.7 million in ticket sales, eclipsing the $221.9 million grossed by James Cameron’s Avatar. The 3D tentpole...

Alibaba Founder’s Recent Deals Raise Flags

Juro Osawa
Wall Street Journal
Some investments by Jack Ma and partners were made on behalf of Alibaba or funded by a loan from the company.

Is Xi Jinping Trying to Provoke Anger Against Japan?

Celia Hatton
BBC
More than 1,000 top Communist officials, military veterans and young children, turned out for a highly choreographed memorial marking the Marco Polo bridge incident which sparked the Sino-Japanese in 1937.

Two Studies of Modern China: ‘Age of Ambition’ & ‘The New Emperors’

Isabel Hilton
Guardian
Evan Osnos examines a changing China through gentle reportage, while Kerry Brown provides illuminating forensic analysis of its vicious power struggles

‘There Are No Rules in China’

Alexa Olesen
Foreign Policy
When dissident author Murong Xuecun returns home, he says he will tell Beijing authorities they can come and get him.

Media

07.02.14

The Mogul Takes Manhattan

Lunch at Central Park's Loeb Boathouse is an elegant affair, popular among well-heeled tourists and alumni networking associations for its lakeside view and excellent service. But on Wednesday, June 25, the restaurant hosted hundreds of...

Top China Military Official General Xu Caihou Accused

BBC
One of China's most senior military officials has been accused of accepting bribes and expelled from the Communist Party, state media report.