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April 2005 - Posts

Imagethief is on Holiday

Posted Saturday, April 30, 2005 8:50 PM by will
A week in Bali, doing some well-deserved diving, and three days back in Singapore. May not be much posting, at least while I'm in Bali. A happy May-day to all my friends in China. Enjoy the week off! -Will Read More...
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Shock Confession: Former Asian-Woman Fetishist Speaks Out

Posted Saturday, April 30, 2005 6:14 PM by will
Recently both Howard French’s “ A Glimpse of the World ” and Rebecca MacKinnon’s “ RConversation ” blog have reviewed Sheridan Prasso’s book The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies of Read More...
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Pu Zhiqiang Op-Ed in New York Times

Posted Friday, April 29, 2005 10:35 AM by will
Activist Chinese lawyer Pu Zhiqiang ( profiled by Philip Pan in the Washington Post last year) has published a brief editorial in the New York Times , translated from Chinese. It's an eloquent comparison of the records of Japan and China that isn't very Read More...
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Another Tasteless Use of 9/11 in Chinese Advertising

Posted Friday, April 29, 2005 10:01 AM by will
A reader named Pat sent me a link to another blog by a guy in Dalian. In January he spotted a truly macabre use of 9/11 imagery in, of all things, a restaurant marquee. I highly recommend that my American friends read his original post , complete with Read More...
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Stupidity Sullies the Image of the Sport I Love

Posted Thursday, April 28, 2005 10:30 AM by will
This is off the China topic, so be warned. But my wife and I are avid divers , so this caught my attention. My old tech diving instructor sent me this article a couple of days ago, from Scotland's Daily Record online sports rag (I've removed the victim's Read More...
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The Hummer H2 and the Decline of Eastern Civilization

Posted Thursday, April 28, 2005 12:05 AM by will
I'm going to vent a little rant that has been building up for about three weeks now. I saw my first Hummer H2 in Beijing a few days ago. A Hummer H2 is a ridiculous object. It's ridiculous in the USA, surrounded by other sport utility vehicles. On the Read More...
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And we're back!

Posted Tuesday, April 26, 2005 3:25 PM by will
Apologies for today's outage. I would like to take this opportunity to point out that my blog (and website and e-mail) is hosted by an old friend in return for little more than my ungrateful barking on the rare occasion that something goes wrong. If I Read More...
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Rhetoric Continues: Japan Textbook Counter-Charges, China Daily Cartoons

Posted Monday, April 25, 2005 12:54 PM by will
So much for hopes that the rhetorical battle between Japan and China might simmer down this week, following the mini-summit between Hu and Koizumi in Jakarta. An Associated Press story, “ Japan Criticizes China Textbooks ”, here in the UK's Read More...
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Site Design Hijinks Over

Posted Sunday, April 24, 2005 9:51 PM by will
After some furious, CSS hacking I seem to have sorted out some of the issues that were bedeviing the site and preventing me from using a nicer skin. It's a bit quick and dirty, but seems to hold up in all common browsers and all platforms. This displays Read More...
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Old but Interesting: Hong Kong Anti-Smoking Ad Invoking 9/11.

Posted Saturday, April 23, 2005 2:55 AM by will
While I was cruising CNN today I came across an article featuring this image: It's from a 2001 Hong Kong anti-smoking campaign. When I first saw the thumbnail on the home page, about 1/8th this size, I actually thought it was an image of the twin towers. Read More...
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Koizumi Apologizes for the War - What Will China Say?

Posted Friday, April 22, 2005 5:51 PM by will
Just crossed CNN . Koizumi made the apology to all of Asia during a visit to Indonesia. With the Chinese government dialing back the rhetoric a bit this week, and reigning in the protests, it will be interesting to see what the Chinese response is. Update: Read More...
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More Propaganda and Death by a Thousand Petty Boycotts

Posted Thursday, April 21, 2005 12:29 AM by will
On Saturday I wrote a post about the charged language the China Daily has been using and the effect I believe that language will have on people if the Chinese coverage is similar. Word has it that the government is working to dial down the protests. But Read More...
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Busted for Annoying Hollywood and Embarrassing China

Posted Thursday, April 21, 2005 12:25 AM by will
Today’s China Daily reports on the conviction of two Americans for running a black market trade in Chinese knockoff DVDs. (Two Chinese were also convicted.) As an, ahem, occasional viewer of Chinese pirate DVDs, far be if from me to condemn these Read More...
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Textbook Revisionism – Not So Minor?

Posted Sunday, April 17, 2005 1:04 PM by will
This is an interesting article from japanfocus.org that analyzes the textbook revisions in Japan and puts them in the context of growing right-wing influence in Japan. It’s interesting because it suggests that there is more to this than many, including Read More...
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The Abstraction of Diplomacy and the Reality of Rocks Through Windows

Posted Sunday, April 17, 2005 2:43 AM by will
From my blog reading, some of the widespread conclusions about the ongoing stream of anti-Japanese protests in China are: The nominal grievances, Japan’s textbooks that gloss over culpability for wartime atrocities and generally insufficient post-war Read More...
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Q: Why haven't I written about the anti-Japanese protests in China?

Posted Wednesday, April 13, 2005 11:39 AM by will
Q: Why haven't I written about the anti-Japanese protests that have been rippling through China in the past week? A: Because this has already been very well chronicled by a number of others (presented in no particular order): Danwei sums up. Peking Duck Read More...
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Terrifying origins of my fascination with Chinese public art revealed!

Posted Tuesday, April 12, 2005 10:56 AM by will
In response to my most recent set of Chinese public art photos, my old friend Dave F. posted a comment suggesting that a dark university memory is behind this fascination. Dave and I attended the University of California, Santa Cruz. Our dorm, Porter Read More...
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Annals of Chinese Public Art No. 5: Gongti Beilu Special Tribute

Posted Monday, April 11, 2005 3:55 PM by will
I've often thought that this stretch of Gongti Beilu, which stretches from Sanlitun to the Worker's Gymnasium and is particularly rich in public art, deserved special attention. This weekend I had a chance to catalog it. Dinoball! Half chrome sphere, Read More...
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Is Craig Barrett Right? Shangai Jiaotong University Kicks Ass

Posted Friday, April 08, 2005 11:32 AM by will
From News.com , Shangai Jiaotong University , a prestigious Chinese university known for its engineering, has just soundly kicked American ass at the world finals of the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest. Read More...
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China Daily HK Edition on the Emergence of PR in China

Posted Friday, April 08, 2005 11:12 AM by will
Via the Peking Duck , a reasonably interesting article about the emergence of the public relations industry in China . Covers the differences between Chinese and overseas PR in a somewhat more even and analytical tone than I am prone to. Read More...
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The Best and Worst of Doing PR in China

Posted Tuesday, April 05, 2005 4:27 PM by will
I had a meeting with my company's global head of human resources yesterday. She asked me, as a foreigner working in Beijing, what the best and worst of doing PR in China was. There are dozens of little things that make PR different in China , but I hadn't Read More...
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The Fa Piao Lottery

Posted Friday, April 01, 2005 11:59 PM by will
If you need to claim money back for something you paid for in Beijing , you ask for a fa piao , an official receipt. Restaurant fa piaos are not like the receipts we used to get in the US or Singapore . They are often issued in denominations, like currency, Read More...
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