11.19.08
Posted in Awesome, Law and Order at 12:27 by ODB
The register is reporting that China is about to take measures to clamp down on lip-synching:
China’s ministry of culture has announced a clampdown on miming professional musos, marking an end to lip-synching and fake guitar strumming…
…the new regs will not affect amateur performers such as Lin Miaoke, who famously mimed Ode to the Motherland at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
The ministry’s Sun Qiuxia said it would first “consult with the public over the next few weeks, before agreeing final details of new rules on commercial performances”.
Nator, in case you were worried, the new regulations will not apply to Air guitar, so we are definitely still on for next Friday!
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10.25.08
Posted in Awesome, Law and Order, Media/Internet at 10:10 by ODB
As reported by Ars Technica:
Those who are using pirated versions of Windows—particularly those in China—are getting riled up over Microsoft’s latest tactic to “encourage” them to purchase legit copies. The software giant recently began issuing an update that changes users’ desktop backgrounds to a black wallpaper with a reminder to switch to a legal copy of Windows as part of the Windows Office Genuine Advantage program. Now, Chinese users in particular are getting up in arms over the tactic, saying that Microsoft is violating their rights and isn’t thinking of its users.
How dare they! Read the rest of this entry »
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09.28.08
Posted in Awesome, Beijing, Chinese Nationalism, Technology at 22:53 by ODB
The story of Chinese astronauts conducting their first ever space walk has been all over the news today.
China catapulted itself into the upper reaches of space science yesterday, becoming only the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the United States to successfully conduct a spacewalk.
Sorry but I fail to see all the excitement, what exactly is the big deal?
It appears that astronaut Zhai is only the 298th person in the world to have conducted a space walk. There were no scientific or technological breakthroughs being made.
Seems to fall a little short of those black holes being made in Switzerland.
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09.03.08
Posted in Law and Order at 14:26 by ODB
According to initial reports by the Hong Kong Apple Daily and the Telegraph, a gang of murderers were arrested in Guangdong recently.
Police in South China have reportedly arrested nine suspects for murdering elderly or infirm villagers and selling their bodies.
The corpse-selling operation was designed to help wealthy families to avoid having to cremate their relatives.
Cremation is mandatory in most areas of Guangdong. Proper burials, traditionally an important sign of Confucian filial piety, were outlawed by the Communist Party in many areas in order to conserve farmland and avoid superstition.
Families who bought corpses from the group swapped them with their own relatives and sent them off for cremation. They could then bury their loved ones in secret.
As many as 400 people may have been killed, according to Apple Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper which conducted an investigation into the practice.
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08.11.08
Posted in Awesome, Beijing, Industry, Traffic and Infrastructure at 13:28 by ODB
Just took this photo with my cell phone on the way to lunch.
A London black cab with Beijing colors colours…
NATOR ADDS: China Car Times had some info on this back in May.
ODB ADDS: I know Israel was also testing these cabs out a few years ago, as they are supposed to be more secure with the driver being in a separate compartment from the passengers.
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08.10.08
Posted in Olympics at 16:50 by ODB
It seems Ha’aretz, Israel’s leading newspaper, shares some of our views on the opening ceremony. Here are a few excerpts:
I should have been excited, but I wasn’t. I sat a few dozen meters from the track at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium and was one of the 91,000 lucky individuals who had tickets for the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games, an event that dozens of millions of Chinese and many other millions around the world would have loved to attend.
…
Still, from where I sat, the ceremony looked soulless. No doubt, the production was grandiose and the ceremony rich in color, but it was somewhat schematic and mechanical, even a touch militaristic.
Note: In the original Hebrew article (which was much better), the words “maybe even fascist” appeared after the word militaristic.
In my opinion there were two emotional moments that stood out. The first was when giant Chinese basketball player Yao Ming walked alongside a little Chinese boy who barely reached his knees. The second was when members of the Spanish delegation started to dance while circling the stadium, ignoring the pleas of Chinese organizers that they complete their round.
…
Yimou was quoted in the ceremony’s program as saying his aim was to put together a happy event. Going by Friday’s final product, he failed.
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Posted in Olympics, Politics, Sports at 12:29 by ODB
As reported by The Jerusalem Post, an Iranian swimmer refused to race in the fourth heat of the 100 meter breaststroke alongside an Israeli swimmer.
“This isn’t the first time this has happened and it doesn’t surprise me anymore,” Olympic Committee of Israel General Secretary Efraim Zinger told The Jerusalem Post.
“My heart goes out to the Iranian athletes. In the Athens Olympics one of their sportsmen, who was a gold medal favorite, had to pull out because he was drawn against an Israeli.”
“There’s no place for this kind of behavior in the Olympic movement and it’s a shame it continues.”
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08.06.08
Posted in Beijing, Olympics at 13:19 by ODB
I just witnessed some sort of helicopter exercise just above Jiaodaokou in Beijing, a first for me in China. For approximately five minutes, three helicopters (they appeared to me to be French-made Dauphins) circled above the Jiaodaokou intersection, before heading east.
While one helicopter stayed at a high altitude the other two repeatedly descended on the intersection and then ascended again. At one point one of the helicopters descended so low it looked like it was landing on one of the four-story buildings surrounding the intersection.
Was this some exercise in rapid deployment of troops? Looked like it to me.
Note: The picture is not of the actual helicopter I saw but of a helicopter closely resembling it.
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06.17.08
Posted in Industry, Law and Order, Media/Internet at 13:31 by ODB
I just finished reading a fantastic piece in BusinessWeek - Inside the War Against China’s Blogs.
The article describes how a new market has emerged for companies who help monitor China’s blogosphere and help fight negative and potentially brand damaging remarks before they turn into a PR crisis. These services cost anywhere between USD 500 and USD 25,000 a month, as the article quotes, and major clients of such firms include Toyota, Nike, Carrefour, McDonald’s, and many others.
What caught my eye was this :
Plenty of companies are willing to pay for positive spin. PR outfits hire students to write postings that boost certain brands and criticize the competition, says a staffer at a Western PR firm in Beijing.
Chinese Web Union is candid about doing this. It pays thousands of people to write nice things about clients, and it compensates forum leaders who spread positive information and quash bad publicity.
So basically, some companies are paying for a positive spin… and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are companies paying for a negative spin…
Heck, for USD 25,000 a month, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some “PR companies” that are doing both at the very same time…
“War is good for business” — The 34th rule of acquisition.
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05.13.08
Posted in Beijing, Law and Order at 12:48 by ODB
I saw Nator’s post on the Wisdom of Crowds in China, and have a few things to add.
Nator understates how dangerous it actually was. There was a constant push of people who were trying to enter the under-passage from four different entrances. Nobody outside could actually see what was going on underground (there were no cameras then, there are now, however). It was very dangerous and very crowded as more and more people were trying to get in, making it very difficult to get out. Although we got out safely, it could have ended just like it did on that bridge in Miyun.
Chinese police, true to their form, were less interested in the potential danger and seemed to be more worried about me taking pictures of the situation, that’s why the officer there is charging me…
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