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Imagethief is moving -- Please update your bookmarks and RSS readers

will — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:45:00 GMT

After nearly six years at this address, and over four years with this design and on this platform, Imagethief is moving. This will be the last post on this version of the blog. Please update your bookmarks and subscriptions to the following:

Web: http://imagethief.com (without the "news." prefix)

RSS subscriptions: http://imagethief.com/feed/

The relocated Imagethief has an all-new look and feel, but the same snark you've come to know and love. The old site will stay live while I examine the possibility of migrating 1,300 old posts while keeping the permalinks alive, but no new posts will be added here.

See you at the new Imagethief.

What's on TV?

will — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:36:00 GMT

Imagethief has a theory that at any given time, any given American cable TV system will be broadcasting an episode of "Seinfeld." Admittedly, I tend to cruise the channels late, but that's what I see.

Recent travels have given me an opportunity to surf not only the channels on offer at my mom's house in Palo Alto, but also those at my in-laws' apartment in Singapore, and on my own system here in Beijing. (I've recently been watching more Chinese television, as my wife and I let the satellite package expire through a combination of disappointment with the offering and garden-variety laziness.) From what I can see, every culture has it's "Seinfelds", those shows or genres that are always on some channel somewhere, day or night. For what it's worth, here's what I observe:

Make of that what you will.

I've also observed that the available amount of quality programming on offer does not increase in proportion to the number of available channels. There is, in fact, a sharply diminishing return. This appears to be some kind of power-law relationship, and whoever works out the actual math will, I am sure, earn themselves a Nobel Prize.

Two posts you won't read

will — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:02:00 GMT

Imagethief spent the weekend writing two posts about current PR issues (well, one of them was only relatively current). However, after some reflection I've decided to kill them both. While they don't touch directly on work I or my firm is doing in China, they're both close enough to some areas we are involved in that I felt they risked violating my prohibition on writing about my firm's clients in this blog.

So why mention this here, other than burnishing my halo and reassuring my boss that I still think about these things?

Because I know I've been pretty scarce following the big Google post of a month or so ago, and I wanted to reassure readers that I am, in fact, writing again. In future I'll try to direct this energy toward writing things I can actually publish. Meanwhile, your continued patience is, as always, appreciated.

-Will

A bad case of giant sign gremlins

will — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:57:00 GMT

Honestly, sometimes I think this country is a giant juggernaut that simply can't be stopped, and other times, well, to keep things polite, I don't. Yesterday I moaned about the giant sign going up outside my apartment windows. Today, the fates have delivered me some manner of rough justice. After a displaying an obviously tortured attempt at "111" for most of the day, and then a series of random patterns, this is all that is left of the giant countdown display:

Yes, there is still one tiny, little patch of red at the very lower left of the sign. Pardon the poor quality of the photo, it's very hazy today.

They may yet get this fixed, and no amount of sign gremlins will prevent the characters from lighting up shortly. But the part of me that revels in schadenfreude (a distrubingly large part) is meanwhile enjoying these technical difficulties.

Update:

Fixed, to my great despair.

Imagine my joy at this...

will — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:48:00 GMT

A few days ago, on the construction site across the main boulevard from where I live, a set of huge characters went up, exhorting the workers to "close the gap, finish the building". OK, twenty-foot characters seemed a bit excessive, but exhortations hung on the side of construction sites are pretty common in this town.

Then it turned out that the characters lit up at night. Great. Two rows of twenty foot, illuminated characters pointed more or less straight at our bedroom and living room windows.

And then they hung an enormous screen in a conspicuous gap in the characters, and this is the result:

Yes, that's right, I have watch this sign count down for the next three and a half months. At least. Because four years of Olympic countdown times and a smattering of Shanghai expo counters just weren't enough. (Only one row of characters is visible in this photo, taken from a balcony at the eastern extremity of our apartment, but trust me, there are two.)

The photo really doesn't do justice to the scale of this thing. These characters are colossal, each well over a tall building storey in height. Maybe it's just me, but couldn't they have simply used the money to offer the workers a bonus for finishing quickly, and spared every resident of Soho New Town, Blue Castle, China Central Place, and the old local neighborhood on the northwest corner of Dawang Qiao the tyranny of watching this thing ratchet down by days for a third of the year?

Perhaps this isn't quite intrusive enough. I actually think they should have installed personal countdown clocks in the living rooms of all our apartments, and perhaps forced our TVs to display it as well any time the sets weren't tuned to CCTV's "Network News". Perhaps a refrigerator magnet, too.

This building has actually had a troubled construction. It was going strong until the beginning of 2009. Then construction wrapped up shortly before Chinese New Year, for the holiday we originally thought. But it never started again. I can only presume the backers became victims of the financial crisis. But like that building that lay fallow on Gongti, near ~~Dongdaqiao Rd.~~ Sanlitun Rd., for something like three years before finally being completed, it appears to have found fresh backing in the midst of Beijing's insane property bubble, and is now racing toward completion. One presumes the developers want to get the units offloaded before people come to their senses and realize that there is an upper limit on the investment value of a bunch of apartments nobody is living in.

At any rate, I'd like to thank them all for blotting out a big chunk of what little sky is visible from our apartment and replacing that sky with an enormous, crimson death-clock.

Also, what is up with the new CCTV tower? That thing still isn't open. Are they waiting for something to happen with the burned-out hulk of the Mandarin Oriental? That's a big pile of real estate to be sitting idle. But, then, when you're an opaque, quasi-governmental entity, maybe that just doesn't matter.

Clearing the fog around Google China reports

will — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:49:00 GMT

A quick pointer to an excellent post at the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time blog, which busts several myths concerning Google in China that have been widely repeated in the past few days, including those concerning the health of Google's business in China, whether or not they already uncensored search results here, and more. From Beijing-based correspondent Sky Canaves (@skycita), showing once again that, if you want to know what's going on in China, talk to someone who's here.

Google detonates the China corporate communications script

will — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:31:00 GMT

Imagethief stumbled blearily to his computer this morning expecting a relaxed scan of the news but found the Chinese Twittersphere ablaze with the news of Google's bombshell blog post, which went up ~~in the middle of the night~~ early this morning our time. Titled "A new approach to China", the post, by Google's Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, was essentially a public threat to withdraw from China. As such, it was as direct a challenge to the Chinese authorities as I have ever seen in a piece of public corporate communication.

The first half of the post discusses alleged hacking attempts on Google, apparently with the aims of both recovering Google source code and accessing the Gmail accounts of dissidents. But the second half of the post is more interesting. The money grafs below (emphasis mine):

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that "we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China."

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

No doubt a great deal has transpired behind the scenes in the lead up to this announcement. To save time, here's what I don't know:

Whether this is linked to rumors of Google's possible withdrawal from China and staff exodus that circulated several weeks ago.
The relative weights of the hacking issue, censorship issue and Google's business struggles in China in leading the company to make this statement.
What, if any, discussions Google had with Chinese authorities prior to making this statement (they speak of discussions "over the next few weeks"), or whether there are actually continuing negotiations.
Whether recent blocks of Google Docs and Google Groups in China contributed to this decision.
Whether Google would have done this if their business in China was stronger. China contributes a minuscule portion of Google's revenue.
What will actually happen to Google's business in China in the long run.

Here is what I do know:

Google has taken the China corporate communications playbook, wrapped it in oily rags, doused it in gasoline and dropped a lit match on it. In China, foreign companies tend to be deferential to the authorities to the point of obsequiousness, in a way that you would almost certainly never encounter in the United States or Europe. Scan any foreign company's China press releases and count the number of times you see the phrase, "commitment to China". Demonstrating "alignment with the Chinese government's agenda" is an accepted tenet of corporate positioning and corporate social responsibility work in China. This is testament to the degree of direct power that the Chinese authorities wield over the fortunes of foreign businesses in China. Even when foreign companies are in dispute with the Chinese government they tend to offer criticism obliquely as long as they have a business stake or operations in the country. Note, for example, the scrupulous diplomacy of Rio Tinto's communications concerning the detention of its employees last summer, a far more serious situation than anything Google has encountered (although also with far more money at stake).

In this situation Google has undertaken a bet-the-farm confrontational communications approach in China. They will not have made this decision lightly. Dressed up in the polite language above is what is essentially an ultimatum: Allow us to present uncensored search results to our Chinese users or we'll walk. The Chinese government is not likely to cave to an ultimatum from a foreign company, no matter how decorously delivered. As Richard Waters of the FT has pointed out, the language does leave some wiggle room for further negotiation. However, Imagethief cannot imagine a circumstance in which the Chinese government will give Google free reign, especially in the current, highly restrictive climate for Internet services. Barring some surprising developments, the clock would therefore appear to be ticking for Google.cn, if not Google's overall operations in China. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

Would Google continue with an office in China if there was no Google.cn site? They could still conduct R&D here, for instance. But Google's R&D operations in China have been troubled (remember the Sogou IME scandal?) and if the security issues are taken at face value continuing operations here in the absence of a local business to support might simply be extra risk. Consider how many China R&D operations are "PR&D", designed to demonstrate that essential "commitment to China" in support of a revenue-generating business in China. It's not that real R&D doesn't happen here, but how many companies do high-level, primary R&D in China in the absence of an on-shore business and supporting government relations program? And could Google attract talent to a pariah operation? Distraught Chinese netizens are already laying flowers at Google's China headquarters.

The Wall Street Journal's story (sub) on the unfolding situation makes some interesting points (emphasis again mine):

The common assumption, however, is that no matter how onerous the limitations and challenges faced by foreign companies in China, the market is too big and important to walk away from.

That calculation has forced a number of foreign firms to accept conditions in China that they might not tolerate elsewhere. The country has 338 million Internet users as of June, more than any other country.

Google would be the most high-profile Western company in recent years to draw a line under the kind of compromises it is prepared to make and walk away from China.

It would be an extremely rare case of a foreign company taking a stand on human rights, and placing that issue over commercial considerations. A number of foreign companies exited China after the Chinese army crushed student protesters around Tiananmen Square in 1989. But they mostly came back in the following years.

A Google withdrawal would also be an implicit rejection of the argument made by many technology companies that their presence in China overall helps expand access to information for Chinese citizens, despite censorship.

That's the very last line in the story, but I found it one of the most interesting. If you followed the original justifications offered by many American Internet companies for launching businesses in China, or the congressional hearings on the matter in 2006, you will recall that the argument that even a censored presence in China improved access to information for Chinese Internet users was central. If Google repudiates that argument it will put pressure on other American Internet firms currently toeing the regulatory line in China, especially Microsoft, and weaken one of their core public arguments for a continued presence in China. Then again, it may also represent an opportunity for them. After all, "Google" doesn't phoneticize well in Chinese, as the flap over the "谷歌" brand demonstrated. But "Bing" works quite nicely indeed.

This only the latest chapter --albeit potentially a critical one-- in the very interesting story of Google in China. Someone needs to write the book. Anyone want to step forward for that?

See also:

Rebecca MacKinnon's roundup of responses.
James Fallows' analysis on how this development fits into a broader picture of increasingly tense economic relationships for China.
Sarah Lacy in TechCrunch, citing tweets from both Bill Bishop (@niubi -- now also blogging again at Digicha) and Marc van der Chijs (@chijs).
Brief US State Department statement.
CNBC interview with David Drummond (Video - also embedded below): "We're not saying one way or the other whether the attacks were state sponsored..." Note also the silly use of the word, "cyberterrorists" by the interviewer.
Brief, relatively straightforward report from the People's Daily online (Chinese).
Chinese telecoms analyst Xiang Ligang calls it "psychological warfare", doesn't think Google will pull the trigger, and doesn't think it will be a cataclysm if they do (if I read it correctly - Chinese).

Updates:

On the corporate communications aspect, this quote from Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard's Berkman Center, in a Mercury News story (via Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine):

"In a world in which we are so used to public relations massaging of messages, this stands out as a direct declaration. It's amazing," said Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet law at Harvard Law School and co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Jeremy Goldkorn (of Danwei) at the Guardian:

The fallout will be interesting. I can't recall a single case of a major international company with operations in China taking a stand like this. As someone who agreed with Google's reasoning when it entered China, I also support this move. If it cannot operate here in accordance with its global standards, it should leave. I have given up on getting my own website unblocked by the government and am resigned to the fact that it's only accessible to people who are outside China or know the technical tricks to get over the Great Firewall.

I'd rather be outside the wall and free than inside it with the icy hand of the censor around my throat.

Wired's "Threat Level" blog on some of the considerations within Google (via @kaiserkuo).
Full disclosure: Imagethief is a supporter of foreign Internet services operating in China. Elaboration in this comment, below, in response to a point from a reader.
Isaac Mao's open letter to Google (English), via Harvard's "Difficult Problems in Cyberlaw" blog.
Xinhua English report on the statement: "'It is still hard to say whether Google will quit China or not. Nobody knows,' the official said."
Gady Epstein's column on Forbes.com: "Dreams of Internet openness in China appear to be a fantasy." Indeed.
Evgeny Morozov punctures the feelgood balloon at Foreign Policy: "If...you believe that [Google] did the right thing in China by offering their limited service (rather than no service at all), I don't see how this move could make you feel good..."

Seriously? They blocked IMDB?

will — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:51:00 GMT

Imagethief is as annoyed by the Great Firewall (or Net Nanny or what-have-you) as anyone who lives in China and uses overseas social networks. One of the great joys of my pox-afflicted Christmas vacation was having one of my annual bursts of unfettered Internet use. After months of sipping my Internet through the narrow and frequently blocked swizzle-stick of Chinese "broadband" it's always refreshing to turn the VPN off and draw my Internet through the big-bore bubble tea straw of an American or Singaporean ISP.

Still, say what you will about the GFW, it does provide those of us who live in China with one of our most enduring parlor games: Who's blocked? Why? Who goes down next? What's accessible again? What does it all mean? Buy? Sell? Hold? Stockpile turnips? Trying to read the tea leaves of the GFW is the Kreminology of 21st Century Beijing, especially for us nerdy blogging types.

Most of the time, as misguided as it might appear to us bourgeois foreigners, we can at least discern the rationale for GFW decisions. Apple highlights an album dedicated to Tibet on iTunes, so they get slapped for a while. Yeeyan starts translating foreign news a little too freely so the great, sweaty thumb comes down on them like the Monty Python foot of censorship. Microblogs outside the control of the big media groups looking a little too much like group organizing tools? Adios, muchachos. Sorry about all those venture capital deals. In its own way, the GFW is a window into the fever dreams of the Chinese government, albeit a small window in serious need of a spritz of Windex and a roll of "Brawny" paper towls.

But I have to confess I am totally mystified as to why this week the Chinese authorities decided to block the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Yes, there are most certainly entries in IMDb that are counter to Chinese doctrine ("Seven Years in Tibet", etc.), but you'd struggle to find them through the updates on development of the sequel to "The Hangover" and such. All of that "hurt-the-feelings-of-the-Chinese-people" stuff is also available in more practical and influential form on any number of other sites such as iTunes, Google and Amazon.

If anyone has a good explanation for why this happened, I'd love to hear it. Is it personal? Perhaps it's because a search for "Tiananmen" yields plenty of misguided Western propaganda while shamefully omitting China Film Corporation's feel-good National Day picture of the same name*? Who knows. Simply by virtue of its impenetrability and apparent capriciousness, this move puts the GFW dangerously close to self-parody territory. What's next to be blocked in the interest of the correct guidance of public opinion? Hello Kitty? ESPN? Funny-or-die? The mind reels.

*This was last year's lightweight counterpart to the more serious but less watchable "Founding of a Republic." Imagethief really wants to know what the deal with the girl with the accordion was. She's on the poster foreground, but in the film for all of about ninety seconds, thus constituting the sum-total of the sex appeal as far as Imagethief is concerned. This, although scant, was admittedly ninety seconds more sex-appeal than "Founding of a Republic" had.

Update:

Also blocked, for the first time as far as I know, is Imagethief. Puts me in good company, along with Danwei.

Update 2:

Apparently blocked only in Beijing. Imagethief, it seems, is suitable for the decadent financiers of Pudong, but not for the refined sensibilities of Zhongnanhai. I don't know what to think.

Think, "Die Hard", only communist, funnier and
with an accordion girl.

Paul Midler's "Poorly Made in China": Mischief, mayhem, soap

will — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:45:00 GMT

As a general rule, Imagethief dislikes business books, especially instructional ones. I find them tedious and most of them age faster than caviar on a car dashboard. There are, however, exceptions. Most of these are either books based on journalistic reporting of business events, such as, say, Kurt Eichenwald's "Conspiracy of Fools", or on personal narratives of business conducted in extremis. Tim Clissold's "Mr. China", to this day the definitive "doing business in China" narrative and probably on the shelves of many Imagethief readers, is the defining example of the latter.

One of the magnificent things about China is that it seems to provide a bottomless well of business-in-extremis stories. Like many PR pros, I followed with some interest the great product quality scandals of 2007 and 2008, not least because it has a direct bearing on my work when companies discover that something they manufacture in China is [choose one] toxic/sharp/disintegrating/radioactive/manufactured by child slaves. (That list could be extended, but you get the point.) I was thus pleased when a copy of Paul Midler's "Poorly Made in China" landed on my desk some months ago. However, it went into the long queue on my nightstand and didn't actually get read for some months until after I received it. Considering my recently ended blog hiatus, this was perhaps for the best.

In fact, despite my interest in the topic, I was a little reluctant at first to get stuck into Mr. Midler's book. From the subtitle, "An insider's account of the tactics behind China's production game," and somewhat staid cover art I was expecting something didactic, in the style of the business books I tend not to like. Do not, as the old adage goes, judge a book by its cover. I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Poorly Made in China" is in fact a well told personal narrative of Mr. Midler's own experiences helping foreign companies to arrange manufacturing relationships in South China. Once opened, I found it entertaining and enlightening (a rare combination also recently attained by Jonathan Fenby's "Penguin History of Modern China", one of the books ahead of Mr. Midler's in my queue, which I recommend to all China expats not already versed in modern Chinese history).

Most of the story concerns Mr. Midler's work with an American client manufacturing personal care products (e.g. soaps and shampoos) in China. What could go wrong with soap, you ask? Plenty, it turns out, and the story revolves around the struggle of Mr. Midler and his client to maintain quality standards (of the product, the packaging, the factory sanitation -- you name it) in the teeth of entrenched Chinese business habits that seem to give rise to corner-cutting at every imaginable opportunity and a few unimaginable ones. From this main thread Mr. Midler branches off into other interesting stories and illustrations.

"So what?" you may be saying to yourself. Chinese manufacturers cut corners at every opportunity. What else is new? Even my Singaporean mother-in-law knows this. "Keep a hand on your wallet," she warned me when I announced my intention to move myself and her daughter to China six years ago. Needless to say, my personal experience here has been much more positive than she expected, but much of the mainstream reporting on the product quality crises of the last couple of years took a similarly one-dimensional China-as-villain tone.

With that in mind, the value of Mr. Midler's book is two-fold. First, Mr. Midler tells his story as someone who, despite all the frustrations and adventures, seems to never have lost his basic affection for China. He never falls back on the trope of villainy. "Sister", the owner of the Chinese soap factory that figures in much of the book, is presented not as a criminal or predator, but as someone trying very hard to succeed in a particular business context. This leads to the second, and main value of "Poorly Made in China": Mr. Midler does an excellent job of explaining in a readable way that context of Chinese business, and the social, cultural, and economic forces that have shaped the practices of people like Sister. He explains how western buyers and Chinese businesses have created a delicate and sometimes dangerous symbiosis in an environment of ruthless competition, price pressure and complex webs of relationships. The book is critical, but not judgmental, which I found refreshing.

Even if you're not in manufacturing or dealing with the consequences of manufacturing problems (as we PR people sometimes do), you may find the book interesting as a study in the forces that have shaped Chines business over thirty years of turbocharged economic growth. Many of these forces that have shaped Chinese manufacturers may be at work in your industry as well. They're certainly at work in mine. Against this reality, efforts such as the following, while admirable for the move toward international public communication, seem modest indeed.

Disclaimer: The publisher and author provided Imagethief with a complementary review copy of "Poorly Made in China". Make of that what you will. Imagethief gladly accepts review copies, but cannot guarantee that he will read or like books furnished.

Note: Title of this post with apologies to the marketing team for the film "Fight Club".

Photos from Christmas in California

will — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:22:00 GMT

Hi, Zach-o-philes

Photos from Zachary's Christmas trip to California are now online on my Flickr page. Click here for the Christmas set. More may be added later as I get pictures from other cameras. The set includes photos of Jesse, Abby and Zoe also. Samples below.

We're back, plus the great Christmas pox of '09

will — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:57:00 GMT

On Sunday Imagethief arrived in Beijing from two well-earned holiday weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area. Flying with Zachary), now 22 months, is always an adventure. He's a well traveled kid, but a well-traveled two year old is like a well-traveled troglodyte. Even at their best, social habits are wanting. I'm not especially superstitious, but I knew we were headed for trouble on the return flight when, at about the International Date Line, the woman seated across the aisle from me said, "He seems very well behaved." Thus jinxed, the last three hours consisted of full-on, bawling meltdown as we became one of those families that other people on airplanes dream of pushing out an open door 35,000 feet above the trackless, ice-clad wastes of Siberia. During one particularly tantrumy spell I even dreamed of pushing myself out.

The definition of "hell on earth" is touching down in Beijing during the blizzard of the century after a twelve-hour flight in steerage with a sleepless toddler who is entering the hallucinatory/psychotic stage of fatigue. Beijing's taxi drivers had collectively decided to wait the whole deep-freeze out, so the taxi queues looked like round-the-block Depression-era breadlines with luggage carts. This is when something unprecedented happened: We were invited to the front of a queue by Chinese people. Say what you will about Beijing, but it's a great town to have a kid in, even if that kid is in twelve-gauge, double-barrel meltdown.

The drive home took another hour as we slo-mo fishtailed our way along the No. 2 airport express way, which resembled a snowed-in version of Iraq's famous "highway of death" from the first Gulf War. Nevertheless, we made it home just as the last of the twilight slid away. Three boiled dumplings later, the kid went to bed. As I lowered him into his crib, he flashed me a huge and utterly sincere grin (as opposed to his normal, cheesy and exaggerated one), as if to say, "Father, from the bottom of my heart bless you for putting my tired ass to bed." The last time I was that happy to go to bed myself I had just watched the sun rise after a poor-man's bender of Red Horse '40s and Taco Bell while still in college. This I do not recommend for anyone over the age of 22.

I'd been counting down to this Christmas holiday since roughly August, when I went on blog hiatus and commenced five months of particularly grueling work. In my head, I constructed all these fantasies of two weeks of complete indolence and gluttony. These plans were duly torpedoed by my son, who had diarrhea on the plane. This turned out to be caused by a stomach flu that infected me, both my parents and my sister-in-law. After spending our third day in Palo Alto sponging up toddler-vomit (from the rug, the hallway, the dog) and with me paralyzed with fever on the couch, we took Patient Zero (formerly Zachary) to a local clinic in Palo Alto. There the doctor said there was nothing much to do but wait it out, and asked us if we'd had direct contact with his vomit or feces. I had a flashback to changing runny, poop-sodden diapers in the matchbox-bathroom of United steerage three days before. In such a confined space perhaps Iron Man or a trained doctor in one of those plague movie bunny suits could have avoided direct contact with fecal matter. I, however, could not. (Also, thanks to the American health system, I still have no idea how much I'm being charged for this consult.)

The upshot was that I spent the whole first week of the holiday with no appetite whatsoever, which means I probably gained a little less holiday weight than usual. But I also had to apologize to everyone else who was laid up, including my mother, who spent an un-festive Christmas day in bed with a fever (on top of wrestling with an automotive soap opera too complicated and depressing to recount here). My sister-in-law paid us back, however, as she and my brother traded their infant daughter's cold for our stomach flu. Zachary had the pleasure of being sick in both directions, but with completely different secretions. You gotta love parenthood.

Nevertheless, Imagethief made the best of his vacation under the circumstances. With an heroic effort in week two, I'm pretty sure that I compensated for most of the first week's caloric deficit. You can accomplish splendid things with egg nog if you put your mind to it. Plus, Elliott Ng of CNReviews, whom I also saw recently in Beijing, was kind enough to treat me to a burrito the size of a Pres-To-Log over an extensive conversation about China blogging. That alone probably put a pound back on.

This brings me to two announcements. First: The great Imagethief blog hiatus is officially over. I'm not sure what kind of pace I'll maintain, but I intend to get back to regular blogging and it won't be hard to top the average of two posts a month since last August. Thanks to any remaining readers who have stuck around for five months of relative inactivity. Your Imagethief decoder rings are in the mail.

Second: One reason why I have the time to blog again is that I have started a six-month sabbatical from work in order to return to my languishing Chinese studies. In fact, it's only a partial sabbatical as I will still be working a couple of days a week so I don't have to dip into my savings and can keep my family's visas and health insurance in good order (the insurance thing is looking pretty key after Christmas). But three days a week will be spent with my tutor and my nose in the textbooks and Chinese newspapers. A hat tip to my employers, who have been spectacularly cooperative about the whole thing. This is pretty experimental, and we'll see how it all goes, but I'm excited.

Finally, I'd like to wish all readers a belated by sincere happy new year. Here's hoping 2010 is better than 2009, and that the teens are an improvement on the naughties.

Happy new year from patient zero!

Imagethief digs into PR in China with Blue Ocean Network

will — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:23:00 GMT

Update: Due to the obnoxious autoplay of the two videos, I have removed the embedded versions so as not to drive people who visit the site rather than using RSS totally insane. You can follow the links in the paragraph below to view parts one and two. -Will

A couple of weeks ago I and Saina Silverman, late of Edelman and now independent, sat down with the online video channel Blue Ocean Network for a discussion about public relations in China. Over the course of an hour we talked with host Caitlin Rhodes about the nature of the industry in China, the kinds of skills people need to do PR in China, whether or not you actually need to speak Chinese, what we look for when we hire or interview people, ethical issues and more. The discussion is now online, in two half-hour segments (part one is more about the state of the industry, perceptions of the industry in China and different kinds of PR companies; part two is more about hiring, skills and what it's like to work in PR in China). Both segments are also embedded below. They start playing automatically, so if you're hearing some kind of cacophony, pause part two.

For those disappointed by the sober tone of my recent brief standup for YouKu at Ad:Tech (Kai, I'm talking to you), there is a somewhat higher ratio of Imagethief-style wiseassery in this discussion. But only to a point, as I was in polite company. In retrospect, I should have lost the tie. But I did go out of my way to not wear the same outfit that I wore for YouKu.

Remember that whole Xinjiang thing?

will — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:49:00 GMT

A quick pointer to Josh's "Xinjiang: Far West China" Blog, which has an interesting update on the state of Internet access in Xinjiang. Events of the past few months have pushed Xinjiang out of mind, but it seems the situation there is a ways from what might be considered normal, even in China.

Interviewed by Youku about (naturally) online video

will — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:23:00 GMT

On the sidelines of Ad:Tech Imagethief was cornered for a brief interview by the video sharing service Youku. The results are below. Won't be anything in this brief discussion that my audience doesn't already know, but you can check out the seasonal goatee.

No Chinese subtitles, I'm afraid, which may explain why one of the two comments on the video's page at Youku is, "听不懂听不懂!!!!疯了" and the other is, "German?"

Diving with the whaleshark at Dalian's Tiger Beach

will — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:12:00 GMT

Dive nerds: This weekend I went with Steven Schwankert of Sinoscuba to dive in the whaleshark tank at Dalian's Tiger Beach Marine Park. Here's a little video of the weekend's fun. It was shot on an iPhone (I didn't really plan on making a video), so please excuse any crappyness.

Updates:

Somewhat lower-resolution but China-friendly Youku version here.
China Daily's photos of the whaleshark's arrival in Dalian.
Information on Sinoscuba's next trip to dive with the shark, on January 23

Previous China diving video with Sinoscuba: Imagethief and the top-secret dam of Panjiakou (diving the Great Wall in Tangshan in 2008).

Imagethief's underwater photography gallery.

Obama, the Great Wall and Nixon's Ghost

will — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:40:00 GMT

With everyone else on the planet weighing in on Obama's visit to China last week, I didn't want to miss the party. I wrote a brief article for the website of the magazine Foreign Policy comparing Chinese and American press coverage of the visit. The title and blurb are theirs (the title is much better than mine, but I never used the phrase "Tricky Dick"), but the rest is all Imagethief, in somewhat mainstreamed form as this was written with the blessings of my employers.

Obama, the Great Wall, and Nixon’s Ghost

Not since Tricky Dick's historic 1972 trip to China has any U.S. president's visit been truly groundbreaking -- but both the U.S. and Chinese media strove to add drama to Obama's recent Beijing foray, in radically different ways.

State visits are all about harnessing symbolism. When Henry Kissinger went to China in 1971 to negotiate for Richard Nixon's historic visit, the Chinese agreed to time the announcement of the invitation so that the American press could hit their then-weekly news cycle. Nixon's visit the following year symbolized the end of more than 20 years of antagonism.

All subsequent U.S. presidents visiting China have struggled with Nixon's legacy. Some things have changed since 1972, not least the antediluvian idea of a weekly news cycle, but presidential visits to China remain more symbolic than substantive. Years of diplomatic spade work drive actual policy changes, leaving government communication offices, pundits, and journalists to construct a narrative from stage-managed vignettes, choreographed meetings, and turgid communiqués, or to pull odds and ends from the margins. Different agendas produce different narratives, and sometimes the real picture emerges from the totality of coverage, like a poster emerging from a mosaic of small photographs.
...read the rest at Foreign Policy.

I didn't get into why the American press coverage was the way it was. So, amongst the various post-mortems, you should read James Fallows' two posts (here and here) on that topic (citing some experienced China hands), and why much of the coverage was a disservice to the trip.

Word through the grapevine is that despite the standard-issue happy press coverage in Chinese media, reviews of the visit from inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are not especially positive and that the Central Publicity Department (or Propaganda department, depending upon your mood) and state media are annoyed that the exlusive went to Southern Weekend (more on that issue from Jason Dean of the Wall Street Journal Beijing bureau here). Given the pretty hostile reviews in the US, it seems like it was a tough week for the president. Oh, well. Better luck when Mr. Hu goes to Washington, perhaps.

"Hey, Rahm, think a wall like this could keep the White House press corps away?"

At Ad:Tech on Wednesday

will — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:24:00 GMT

Imagethief will be moderating the digital PR panel at Ad:Tech Beijing (or, as they style it, ad:tech) tomorrow (November 18, Wednesday). Panelists will include Hong Kong-based Jeremy Woolf, SVP and global social media practice lead for Text 100; Vincent Li, digital lead for Edelman Beijing; and Jeffrey Wu, COO of CIG Advertising. Our blurb:

The Evolving Role of Digital PR
Everyone knows the Internet is important for communication. Everyone knows social media is critical. Everyone has heard about “the conversation.” But what does all this really mean? Behind the received wisdom, hype and buzzwords, how is the Internet really affecting marketing and communication, and how can companies use it thoughtfully and effectively? And are gaps being left unfilled as PR and ad agencies with different strengths vie to lead the digital space? This panel will bring together experts from agencies and companies using the Internet to communicate to discuss these issues and question the assumptions that drive much online communication.

Join us if you're there. More details here.

Sail a river of moonshine at Guizhou's expo pavilion

will — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:47:00 GMT

From the strange PR files comes this article in today's Shanghai Daily about the Guizhou provincial pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. The theme is apparently liquor and girls. This seems like a winner on many levels (after all, it worked for the NFL), but the implementation is a bit weird:

The province will make the liquor the centerpiece of its pavilion because it's world famous, Yang said. The liquor won the gold prize at the Panama World Expo in 1915 and became renowned across the world.

A highlight of the pavilion will be a giant upturned bottle of Moutai that pours water on a model of the earth. The water then starts a brook.

The organizer will add a little liquor to the water so the smell spreads across the pavilion.

Under the theme "Charm of the Summer Resort," the 600-square-meter pavilion in China's giant provincial hall that surrounds the China Pavilion has been called a "well-dressed Miao girl" by organizers. It will incorporate elements such as a wind-rain bridge, waterfalls, minority masks and the province's silver accessories.

Seriously? A river of moutai-scented water dousing the world? And dancing girls? If you've not tried moutai, this may not strike you the same way it does me. For those of you who haven't had the privilege, imagine a mixture of Southern Comfort and potato vodka brewed in the crank case of a Soviet-era Ursus tractor. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's different. And don't miss the artist's rendition of the pavilion on the second photo in the article. You'll never view traditional Miao head wear the same way again.

I shouldn't be surprised by this marketing approach. Having recently spent a tedious three hours watching every single provincial float go by in the big National Day parade (more on this soon if I can make the time), it seems to me that provincial promotion is verging dangerously into self-satire territory. As a friend pointed out, the Xinjiang float was an oil derrick suspended on a rainbow on a flying carpet, with a side order of colorfully-dressed ethnic minorities standing on a giant fruit basket (image here if you think I'm making it up). Considering the whole procession, I had never seen such an agglomeration of spiky, retro-future design, colorful ethnic outerwear, and industrial cliches.

It seems that we can expect a similar approach at Expo. Get your shot glasses ready.

Hat tip: The excellent Adam Minter.

Note: Yes, I'm still on hiatus, technically. But how could I resist?

Smells like...victory. And sorghum.

Photos from a day trip to the Mutianyu Great Wall

will — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:20:00 GMT

Hi, everyone

After a long absence, here are some new photos of Zachary, taken during a day trip to the Mutianyu Great Wall, outside Beijing, along with Olivia's brother, Glenn. You can find the new photos on Flickr here. Other photos from that day out (which don't all include family members) can be seen here.

Don't scoop the reporter who interviews you, and other PR basics

will — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:28:00 GMT

Note: As threatened, Imagethief is coming out of hiatus from time to time, when things catch his eye.

Last Wednesday, the 21st, the IT news channel of giant Chinese portal Sohu published the transcript of an interview of Sohu CEO Charles Zhang by Hong Kong-based BusinessWeek journalist Bruce Einhorn. All well and good, you might think. Chinese portals regularly translate and run foreign media articles, and it makes sense that a portal might want to run a high-profile interview with its boss. But there were two problems. First, the interview was on the rather sensitive topic of the dueling IPR lawsuits between Sohu and Youku. Second, BusinessWeek hadn't run the story yet.

Alerted by YouKu, BusinessWeek presumably put pressure on Sohu because the Chinese interview transcript vanished by the next day, along with many of the reprints on other Chinese websites. If you're curious, and read Chinese, a few instances remain online. The BusinessWeek story by Mr. Einhorn is also now available online. It is interesting to compare the two, although Imagethief suggests reading the transcript with some caution for reasons that shall be explained below.

Imagethief has no idea what transpired between Mr. Einhorn and Sohu in arranging and conducting the interview, but I'd bet actual money that an agreement for Sohu to publish their own transcript of the interview was not part of the deal. Another Western business journalist told me today that such a move was pretty likely to piss off a publication on any number of levels. Really, I didn't have much trouble guessing that on my own. In general, Chinese companies have a lot to learn about working with Western media, but I can't imagine the Economic Observer, 21st Century Business Herald or Caijing (even with its current woes) sitting still for such a move either. The fast removal of the transcript from Sohu suggests that publication took BusinessWeek by surprise.

There were a couple of problems with what Sohu did. First, and most basically, they used a journalist's interview to create and publish material that pre-empted that journalist's story. That's just plain rude, and probably won't be soon forgotten. As a media organization itself, Sohu, of all companies, should know better. But it goes beyond that. Mr. Einhorn is an experienced journalist writing for a publication with a reputation to protect. As you would expect, his story on the lawsuits between the two companies is balanced and includes quotes from both Sohu and Youku.

The transcript published on Sohu, however, included only brief questions and Mr. Zhang's responses. Sohu's introduction presents the transcript as "an interview with BusinessWeek journalist Bruce Einhorn", which is literally correct, but appropriates BusinessWeek's credibility for a one-sided view on a contentious issue. That same introduction characterizes Sohu rival Youku extremely negatively, saying that the discussion would, "reveal the details of Youku's piracy and rights infringement." Not much balance there. BusinessWeek might run executive Q&As, but it's safe to say they wouldn't stake out such a negative position in an article that didn't give Youku space to respond, and that wasn't backed up by copious facts and extensive reporting. Interviews are raw material. A transcript of a single interview is not a story, and putting BusinessWeek's name on the interview is a misrepresentation.

Readers also have no way of knowing if the transcript is accurate or how it may have been edited. Any Q&A interview is likely to be edited, but a publication editing a Q&A for tightness or focus is not the same thing as a company editing a transcript to better present its point of view. Imagethief knows from experience that editing of interview transcripts by PR teams is common practice in China (many journalists expect a transcript by e-mail following an interview), and a reading with a critical eye is well advised. However, the imprimatur of BusinessWeek on the transcript implies that BusinessWeek itself had the final cut, not Sohu. That looks like another misrepresentation.

It's sensible policy for companies and PR teams to record their own versions of interviews with journalists. A recording enables you to check the accuracy of final quotes, provides leverage if you need a correction or clarification, and can help out if the journalist has a problem with their own recording (it has been known to happen). Recorded interviews with experienced spokespeople can also often be good source material for messages, sound-bites and other content. However, publishing or leaking recordings or transcripts in their entirety is a bad idea if you want to preserve your media relationships.

There is only one situation in which I would suggest to a client publishing verbatim portions of an interview transcript. If a story has already run with an inaccurate or wildly out-of-context quote that I feel misrepresents a spokesperson or client company, and if I can't get the publication to correct the quote or issue a clarification, I might suggest that the client publish an appropriate excerpt of the transcript on a PR page or company blog. I would only recommend an excerpt, and I would include an explanatory note of why the excerpt is being published and a link to the original article. I would also notify the publication that I was going to do this.

Running the transcript also hints at a deeper issue. It would have been simplicity itself to have a Sohu journalist interview Mr. Zhang for the exact same responses (or to put the same material on Mr. Zhang's blog, which appears to have been fallow since July). An admittedly cursory search of Sohu today didn't turn up any such articles since the founding of the Alliance last month. Why not?

News organizations are generally disinterested (as opposed to uninterested) in the news they are reporting. When reporting on issues in which they have an interest, such as the fortunes of their parent companies, good news organizations take pains to be balanced in order to preserve their reputations. There are op-ed pages and blogs for points-of-view (not to mention the occasional leaked letter to ownership). Sohu is hardly a disinterested party in the lawsuit with Youku or in the fortunes of the Online Video Anti Piracy Alliance, which it founded and largely speaks for. Running the transcript of the BusinessWeek interview might just have been a mistake. Or it might have seemed like a way for Sohu to have the best of both worlds: A splendidly one-sided interview that carried that authority of a respected, international business magazine and that didn't seem to compromise their own newsroom.

But in the long run you can't have it both ways. And for a company listed on America's NASDAQ, annoying Western business media in attempt to have it both ways is probably not a great PR strategy.

Disclosures: I found out about this episode from a friend who works for Youku. In my job I also regularly work with journalists from Sohu's news organization, all of whom are completely professional. I have no opinion on the merits of the various lawsuits flying back and forth between Youku and Sohu.

Note 2: This post was accidentally temporarily published in unfinished form. There are only minor changes of wording between that version and this version.

The only version of China's National Day Parade you need to watch

will — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:16:00 GMT

An outstanding video from photojournalist Dan Chung, who was in the stands for yesterday's National Day parade and has produced a three-and-a-half minute version with a mix of time-lapse and slow motion. Much more watchable the tedious CCTV version (which, airplanes aside, felt like it was all in slow motion). More on the parade from me soon.

Also worth your time is Danwei's collection of October 1st front pages from Chinese newspapers.

PS: I am not "back". This is just another one of those hiatus interruptions I said would happen.

Video: Tanks roll in Beijing for the PRC 60th anniversary parade rehearsal

will — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:41:00 GMT

We interrupt this hiatus, as we threatened we would from time to time, to bring you some video from this evening's dress rehearsal for the upcoming military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. As it happens, the mustering area for many of the armored vehicles participating in the parade is just north of my apartment complex, in a large empty lot with a convenient rail spur (they didn't drive the tanks all the way in).

This evening at about 4PM they started blocking Dawang Rd. between Guanghua Rd. and Jianguo Rd. (which becomes Chang'an Ave, the main east-west drag along which the parade will roll). Starting at about 6PM literally dozens, perhaps over a hundred self-propelled guns, armored personnel carriers, missile launchers and such began assembling on the road.

Yes, I am aware of the lingering symbolism of tanks on Beijing streets, and don't think it didn't occur to me as I was watching. However, as you'd expect the mood among the onlookers was festive (although the mood among the police and the many inconvenienced motorists was somewhat less than festive). It was a strange sight to see. I shot video of much of the activity. Unfortunately, it was shot from an iPhone, so make some allowances for quality. But check it out. The tanks start from about 30 seconds in and pretty much keep on going for the remaining six minutes (although this is edited together from several shots over an hour or so). Admittedly, it gets a little tedious after tank number 50 or so, so don't feel you have to watch the whole thing.

Update:

They brought the tanks back to the staging area by my apartment complex at 2 AM last night. I had never thought about this until I watched them rolling by this evening, and had them roll back in during the wee hours, but tanks are really loud.

Also, don't miss the Blue Detachment of Women and similar pix from China.org.cn's series of photos of preparations for the parade. Guaranteed to fulfill all your Soldier of Fortune boot-wearing Asian paramilitary vixen fantasies*. Where were these girls during the Olympic opening ceremony? Hat tip: Chinatravel.net.

*Not that I have any.

Note:

Certain military pedants (and I say that with affection) among my community of friends have pointed out that technically there is only one "tank" visible among the various armored vehicles on display in this video. This is true and duly noted, but it was felt by the author of this space that the word "tank" would function nicely as a headline-friendly and easily understood euphemism for "armored vehicles". Your indulgence is, of course, appreciated.

In the US, plus photos of Zach and Olivia in the courtyard

will — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 10:15:00 GMT

Zach and Olivia are currently enjoying a trip to the US, which means dad is living the exciting bachelor life in Beijing. This consists mostly of watching TV, it turns out. Which means its not really all that different from my actual bachelor life, back in the day. Zach and Olivia will be in Palo Alto for another week and a half or so.

Zach is adding words like crazy these days, in both English and Mandarin. It's been fun listening to him learn to speak. I expect his trip to the US will yield a bunch of new vocabulary, much of it probably having to do with Nana's dog, Lucy.

While we were all in Singapore I treated myself to a new camera lens. Recently, on a Saturday in the courtyard, I had a chance to try it out on my favorite subjects. The results can be found on Flickr, here. That set is a mix of old and new photos, and the new photos start here, if you want to concentrate on them. A few starters below.

Enjoy!

Five-year retrospective -- Imagethief on hiatus until 2010

will — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:24:00 GMT

Imagethief arrived in China on June 6th, 2004, a naive and wide-eyed whelp of just 36. The last five years have been quite an education, and it's an older and (incrementally) wiser Imagethief who corresponds with you today. China years are like dog years. It's not so much the frequency of events as the amplitude. China seems a nation always on the threshold of crisis, with about one reliable trip per year over that threshold.

Let's be honest: I'm addicted to the rush. To be a foreigner in China is to live in a state of perpetual voyeurism, like being a guest in the household of a proud but slightly dysfunctional family. For someone who enjoys writing, this is solid gold, and for five years this blog has been the collecting point for various scribblings on current events in China. There are more talented writers out there, and certainly more talented voyeurs, but I've been thrilled at how many people have taken the time to read and comment. The blog has been the starting point for many of my best friendships in China. It is also, as I've discovered, read by a good share of the foreign-correspondent community. For a PR man, that's gratifying.

So I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read, comment and e-mail. And to let you all know that I'm going take a little time off from the blog. Anyone who's been reading for a while will know that I write a lot less than I used to (and anyone who hasn't been reading for long can track the trajectory here). Partially this is a result of changes in my life, including expanding professional responsibilities and, more importantly, the birth of my son in early 2008. But it's also the result of a bit of creative weariness. Since June 12, 2004, I've written just a shade under 1,300 posts. At the risk of stating the obvious, that's a lot.

So I'm going to put the blog on the shelf for a few months to give myself a chance to restore a little creative vigor. To anyone out there who is devastated by that news and is now reaching for a fistful of sleeping pills, it's just a freakin' blog for chrissake. Get over it. But also, this is not retirement. Imagethief will return in early 2010, so keep that entry in your RSS reader alive. In fact, it's entirely possible that the occasional post will go up in the meantime, but it will be strictly an as-and-when thing.

Yes, I realize a hiatus is blog readership suicide. But, really, what's it going to do? Bottom out my ad rates?

Meanwhile, if you want to stay in touch, you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Friendfeed or just send me an e-mail at dwmoss at gmail dot com. Facebook and Friendfeed largely echo my Twitter feed, but they also catch my occasional photo and video uploads. If you "friend" me on Facebook, please identify yourself as an Imagethief reader or I'm liable to ignore you.

I don't want to leave you empty-handed. I did miss the actual fifth anniversary of Imagethief, but it's not too late to celebrate. In commemoration of a half-decade of snarky, juvenile ranting, here is the chronology of my stay in China as documented in selected Imagethief posts. Even if you don't read the actual posts, the topics are a nice recounting of five years of life in China, at least via the things that catch the eye of a PR man. It's also a wonderful reminder of how cyclical China news topics are. Or, perhaps simply how cyclical my own interests are.

See everyone in 2010.

Five years of life in China as seen through Imagethief

2004
Just one, as many 2004 posts were banal expat observations, like the one below.

Nothing here is in English: Imagethief fresh off the boat and stating the obvious in his first post. June 12, 2004.

2005
The most prolific year, following a six month hiatus that started when I began working in Beijing.

Singapore Straits Times journalist detained in China: Ching Cheong is arrested in China. May 30, 2005.

Why American Internet firms betrayed me, not China: MSN censors controversial words. American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 1. July 4, 2005.

Cheap Chinese coffins in the US -- Another fiendish plot?: America agonizes about cheap Chinese coffins. July 12, 2005.

Remain calm -- The killer pig flu is under control! Pig flu! Aaaaarrrrggghhh! August 2, 2005.

No "Half Life" for China's half-pints: China cracks down on violent video games. August 6, 2005.

Keep your filthy orgy off our wall: A foreigner is photographed taking a leak on the Great Wall. Scandal! August 10, 2005.

Run silent, run cheap: America agonizes about Chinese submarines. August 12, 2005.

Only 79,000 attempted intrusions ? Chinese cyber-spies are slacking! America agonizes about Chinese hackers. August 22, 2005.

Do you, uh, Yahoo? You're busted! Yahoo gets in trouble for complicity in the arrest of a Chinese journalist. American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 2. September 8, 2005.

Shanghai narrowly averts dastardly Japanese architectural plot: The Shanghai World Financial Center changes its round cut-out to the now infamous "bottle-opener" shape. October 18, 2005.

American Internet firms in Chinese peril: American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 3. November 2, 2005.

Qianmen and Xianyukou alley get the chai: The "redevelopment" of one of my favorite areas of beijing begins. November 6, 2005.

How to write a generic China bird flu story: Bird flu! Aaaaarrrrgghh! November 8, 2005.

Hello Kitty meets the Power Rangers: 5 Olympic mascots: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, Nini. November 11, 2005.

The Harbin water crisis: Tons of benzene spill into the Songhua river. Chinese press reports blow a local cover-up. November 26, 2005.

China cracks down on anonymous mobile phones: The regulator tries to enforce real-name registration for phone numbers. Still trying. December 5, 2005.

2006
The golden age.

The martyrdom of Michael Anti -- Analyzing Microsoft's motivations: American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 4. January 5, 2006.

Congress to grill US net firms on China: American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 5. January 14, 2006.

Quick thoughts on Chinese media Google-trashing: Chinese media question Google's right to operate. American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 6. February 23, 2006.

China broadcast shocker -- SARFT to limit period dramas: Because they might give kids the wrong impression. Not to be confused with a July, 2009 order with similar content. March 3, 2006.

Socialist concepts of honor and disgrace -- Now translated: Remember this? Since superseded by the more compact and flexible "Harmonious Society". March 15, 2006.

Protest banners fly near new CCTV headquarters: And they're still working on the goddamned thing. April 16, 2006.

Bill Gates and Hu Jintao in the gaze of the Mighty Thought-o-Tronic: Hu Jintao visits Microsoft. One of my favorite deployments of the Thought-o-Tronic. April 19, 2006.

Q: What do my Chinese colleagues think of Bush and Hu? George W. Bush and Hu Jintao meet in Washington. It goes less than smoothly. April 21, 2009.

Shanghai commits ironic PR suicide: Shanghai gets pissed at how it is depicted in a silly, American action movie. May 17, 2006.

The strange case of the disappearing blockbuster: The Da Vinci Code is yanked during its run in China, for murky reasons. June 13, 2006.

Foxconn shoots themselves, Apple in the foot: Foxconn causes PR trouble for Apple. Not to be confused with recent developments involving the unfortunate suicide of a young Foxconn employee. August 29, 2006.

The elephant in the newsroom: Imagethief dismisses China's ambitions to become an International news power. October 22, 2006.

Olympics mean a softer touch for foreign correspondents, maybe: Sorely tested in the breach. December 2, 2006.

E-Bay E-jects from China: American Internet firms in Chinese trouble, part 7. December 20, 2006.

2007
The year I lived in Shanghai.

Once again, Starbucks ain't the problem with the Forbidden City: I leap to the defense of the ill-fated Starbucks. January 17, 2007.

Principles are good -- What happens when they are tested? American tech firms announce a set of "principles" for operating in democratically challenged regimes. January 21, 2007.

And for the fake ant-breeder, death! The great Shenyang medicinal ant pyramid scheme of '07. (I wrote about it in more detail here.) February 15, 2007.

How to turn one terrible scandal into two: The China Railway 12th Bureau Group Company is caught trying to cover up a subway construction collapse in Beijing. April 2, 2007.

American IPR hawks, remember the little people: America threatens China with WTO action over piracy. I plead for mercy. April 10, 2007.

Melamine hogs: America agonizes over lethal Chinese pet food. Early harbinger of the melamine scandals of 2008. April 26, 2007.

Did the "Genocide Olympics" influence China? Mia Farrow fires a broadside against China's human rights record in the run-up to the Olympics. May 16, 2007.

I say "tomato", you say "massacre", let's call the whole thing off. Debating the nomenclature of whatever it was that happened in Tian'anmen Square twenty years ago. May 20, 2007.

Technology at work in Xiamen chemical plant protest: The Xiamen PX plant protests. June 1, 2007.

China's food crisis PR strategy: Blame everyone else: The monster Chinese food quality crisis scandal of 2007. June 4, 2007.

China launches successful anti-piracy campaign against movie pirate: Pirates of the Caribbean is yanked from planned distribution in China, for murky reasons. June 17, 2007.

Nobody said media whoring would be easy: The rise of Zuola, China's first celebrity "citizen journalist". June 23, 2007.

Lessons from the great cardboard bun hoax of '07: CCTV is caught airing a hoax story on bad steamed buns, reminding everyone why it is so widely loved and respected. July 19, 2007.

...and sometimes they blow up in the faces of PR risk-takers: The product quality scandals, continued. Mattel comes a cropper. August 2, 2007.

Bang! China shoots its own Olympic PR in the foot: Foreign correspondents covering a protest outside Olympic headquarters are arrested along with protesters. August 7, 2007.

Imagethief discusses "Incorruptible Warrior" on BBC radio: A videogame designed to teach proper, Chinese values to spotty youth. August 7, 2007.

China's new labor law won't just make work for lawyers: The new labor law comes into force. November 12, 2007.

China moon photos -- That's all the conspiracy theory you can manage? China orbits the moon. The Chinese don't quite believe it. December 6, 2007.

What to make of Edwin Maher? Foreign CCTV9 news anchor Edwin Maher runs headlong into the teeth of the Chinese expat blogosphere. December 10, 2007.

Gumby's love-child named Shanghai World Expo mascot. Introducing Haibao. Who here wants to see him impaled on a stick and roasted in a campfire? December 20, 2007.

Hijacking the Olympic agenda, big time and small time: TV personality Hu Ziwei accuses her husband of having an affair, in a live press conference. His press conference. His Olympic press conference. December 29, 2007

2008
Back to Beijing for the Olympic year. I actually wrote very little about the actual Olympics, despite attending. It was, to say the least, well covered elsewhere.

Let me tell ya about Edison Chen's dirty photos: The Edison Chen scandal. To this day, the most viewed post ever, thanks to people looking for the photos. I find that funny since, having seen the photos, I can report that the only way to get less erotic photos of naked people would be to sneak a camera into a nudist colony for octogenarians. February 13, 2008.

Steven Spielberg pulls out of the Olympics: Oh, man. This won't look good in the brochures. February 13, 2008.

Scandalous death of a propaganda image: A faked photo of Tibetan antelopes near the Qinghai-Tibet train is caught out. Not to be confused with a similar episode involving a tiger. February 24, 2008.

Tibet and the trouble with unassailable national myths: Analyzing the role of communication in the Tibet unrest. March 19, 2008.

Imagethief does Beijing's new Terminal 3: The Olympic airport opens. It's really, really big. Which is pretty much the most that can be said for it. April 8, 2008.

Jack Cafferty brews more trouble for CNN in China: It's official: CNN is the most hated foreign news organization in China. April 16, 2008.

Inside Carrefour's crisis management in China: Anti-French protests after trouble in Paris during the Olympic torch relay. April 30, 2008.

5/12, 9/11 and three minutes on Monday afternoon: The devastating Sichuan earthquake of 2008. I attend the memorial in Tian'anmen Square. May 21, 2008.

The mysterious outage of video sharing site 56.com: They never fully recovered. June 14, 2008.

An unfortunate glimpse into my Olympic stream of consciousness: Tweeting the opening ceremony. August 8, 2008.

Why I don't care about the opening ceremony's fraudulent footsteps: Olympic scandals, part 1: August 12, 2008.

Gymnasts, now and then: Olympic scandals, part 2: August 14, 2008.

iPhone girl: Brilliant Apple PR or lucky accident? Foxconn gives Apple good PR. For once. September 6, 2008.

Coke and Huaiyuan: Let the PR slanging begin: Coke's failed attempt to purchase Huiyan. September 11, 2008.

Melamine in Sanlu milk powder? Now that's a crisis! The great melamine food scandals of 2008. September 15, 2008.

Illegal baby part 2: I fought the law and the law won: Incidental to everything else in 2008, my son was born. And was almost immediately in trouble with the Chinese authorities. October 5th, 2008.

Pardon me, but who gives a damn about Gong Li anyway? Gong Li takes Singaporean citizenship. Chinese netizens have the entirely predictable reaction. November 16, 2008.

2009
Bring it on home.

It's official, China has eleventy-billion Internet users: China becomes the number-one Internet using nation on earth. A highly over-rated fact in Imagethief's opinion. January 14, 2009.

China to spend RMB 45 billion beefing up its international media: Imagethief dismisses China's ambitions to become an International news power. Again. And in more detail here. January 14, 2009.

So what are you getting mom for "Serf Liberation Day"? A really strange holiday. January 21, 2008.

Mandarin Oriental Beijing goes Irwin Allen: Part of the new CCTV compound burns down, unleashing a vast outpouring of sympathy for CCTV online. Oh, wait, that's not sympathy... February 9, 2009.

What the "grass mud horse" means and doesn't mean: Rise of a Chinese Internet meme. March 13, 2009.

Chinese cyberspies? Sheer lies and heinous fabrications: America agonizes about Chinese hackers. Again. April 9, 2009.

Oh, Jackie: Superstar Jackie Chan opens mouth and inserts his flying feet at the Boao Forum for Asia. April 21, 2009.

Hubei cigarette purchasing plan extinguished: Hubei officials had been ordered to smoke more cigarettes... May 7, 2009.

Consultants say hardened Chinese death-nerds are coming for your daughters: America agonizes about the Chinese linux. May 13, 2009.

Down the quarantine rabbit-hole in Shanghai: Swine-flu! Aaaaarrrrrgggh! May 19, 2009.

Why I'm not in a tizzy over China's new Internet filtering software: The Green Dam Youth Escort fiasco. June 8, 2009.

Rough for Expo with all those robot fights breaking out in that nameless city: Shanghai gets pissed at how it is depicted in a silly, American action movie. Again. June 29, 2009.

Riots in Xinjiang and the price of omission: Xinjiang explodes. July 7, 2009.

Annual best-of and most-popular collections

Best of Imagethief 2008

Best of Imagethief 2007

Best of Imagethief 2006

Best of Imagethief 2004/5

My other project.

The Onion, Chinese edition

will — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:52:00 GMT

Funny stuff from satirical newspaper, The Onion. They've been "sold" to a Chinese fish company. This has been all over Twitter the last day or two, but for those of you who aren't on Twitter, you can find it here.

Don't miss the website of The Onion's new owner. It's funnier than the stories.