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July 2005 - Posts

I Never Get a Good Price on a Jiangsu Virgin

Posted Friday, July 29, 2005 2:36 PM by will
Sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant to say is that I am shocked (shocked!) to have read the following story in that quality newspaper (and certainly not scurrilous propaganda rag ) the China Daily : Mother sells teen girl's virginity for 10,000 yuan Read More...
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Better Crank Up the Chinese PR Machine In Zimbabwe as Well

Posted Friday, July 29, 2005 10:15 AM by will
If you think China's cuddle-fest with slimeball Zimbabwean dictator Robert (Buck) Mugabe is being greeted with unfettered joy on the streets of Harare, you haven't read this interesting Reuters story : President Robert Mugabe sees China as an important Read More...
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Too Much Revaluin' Is Never Enough

Posted Friday, July 29, 2005 9:58 AM by will
And bang on cue, here's our Senators insisting that China's 2.1% micro-revaluation is simply spit in the eye of good ol' Uncle Sam. From MarketWatch (excerpts): Two U.S. senators urged Beijing Thursday to let China's yuan currency appreciate further, Read More...
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Thanks to China, That's Doctor Mugabe to You, Punk!

Posted Thursday, July 28, 2005 5:53 PM by will
It's nice to see that the United States isn't the only global power capable of sidling up to squalid regimes in the name of self-interested realpolitik . For a while I thought we had the monopoly, but here's China, doing the tongue-mambo in the back of Read More...
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One of Those Odd China Moments...

Posted Thursday, July 28, 2005 1:06 PM by will
It's the little things that remind you that you're not in Kansas (or, in my case, California) anymore. One of my staff, a bright girl from Chengdu, just came up to my desk to ask if she could slip out of the office for an hour or so to attend to her hukou Read More...
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Thursday PR Blog: War on Terror? What War on Terror?

Posted Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:22 AM by will
Here's an interesting article on how the Bush Administration is recasting the “global war on terror” as a “global struggle against violent extremism”: In recent speeches and news conferences, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Read More...
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The Secret to Closing the US-China Trade Deficit: Supersize Me!

Posted Wednesday, July 27, 2005 3:02 PM by will
Is this it? The magic bullet for the trade deficit and, thus, a possible end to pressure on China to revalue the yuan? From the, er, AgReport (as in agriculture): French Fry Use Rising in China WASHINGTON - Jul 26/05 - SNS -- French fry usage in China Read More...
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How E-Mail is Wrecking My Life

Posted Wednesday, July 27, 2005 11:52 AM by will
Ya know what I hate? I hate it when someone sends me a huge, long e-mail chain with twenty nested messages and says something cryptic like, “Will, please follow up on this.” This then requires a half-hour of detective work as I saw through Read More...
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PR Shock: Disney HK Caught Euthanizing Goofy, Pluto, 38 Others

Posted Tuesday, July 26, 2005 2:52 PM by will
There are really two way to read this. Either Disney Hong Kong has the worst possible tin ear for public relations, or the official editorial policy of the South China Morning Post is “fuck Disney”. Or both. Either way, they're having a bad Read More...
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My Cleaner's Opinion on China's Currency Revaluation

Posted Tuesday, July 26, 2005 10:36 AM by will
Everybody wants to get into the act. My cleaner, Xiao Pan, has bent my wife's ear about China's currency revaluation. Using him as an extremely tiny sample to represent Chinese public opinion at large (statistically dodgy, but work with me) we can now Read More...
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The Sprinkler

Posted Monday, July 25, 2005 5:08 PM by will
My apartment has one fire sprinkler in it. This sprinkler is not mounted in the kitchen, where there is an alarming combination of open flames, oil-soaked rags, gas lines, electrical appliances and one cat litter box crammed into a very tiny space. It Read More...
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If at First You Don't Disease, Try, Try Again

Posted Monday, July 25, 2005 5:01 PM by will
Richard, with a new development on the China disease front. Pig slaughterers are dying in Sichuan province. Doesn't seem as alarming as bird flu, but its another reminder of the dangerous animal husbandry situation that exists in China, long the cradle Read More...
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Monday PR Blog 2: Good PETA/Evil PETA

Posted Monday, July 25, 2005 4:45 PM by will
An interesing column from Verlyn Klinkenborg in the Sunday New York Times discusses the PR forces behind an anti-PETA billboard in Times Square: It turns out that [the “PETAkillsanimals.com” billboard] is one of a series of Web sites sponsored Read More...
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Monday PR Blog 1: US Military Caught Using Quote-a-tronic in Iraq?

Posted Monday, July 25, 2005 10:29 AM by will
Oops. From this morning's CNN.com (and also mentioned in Edward Wong's latest New York Times piece ), a story on two suspiciously similar quotes from “an anonymous Iraqi” that have been used in two US Army press advisories following two bombings: Read More...
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Casting Fowl Before Tigers: Harbin and Qiqihaer Photos

Posted Saturday, July 23, 2005 3:42 PM by will
Photographs from my trip to Harbin and Qiqihaer are now posted here . This photograph of a downcast balloon seller and his oddly cheery balloons is my favorite picture of the trip. Other subjects include Harbin's riverfront promenade, old Harbin, the Read More...
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The Land of Petty Shortages

Posted Thursday, July 21, 2005 11:15 PM by will
One of the obnoxious things about living in China is that imported products you like tend to suddenly evaporate from store shelves for weeks at a time. This is like a bush-league version of olde-tyme communist shortages where people used to line up for Read More...
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China Revalues Yuan - America's Problems Solved! Oh, Wait...

Posted Thursday, July 21, 2005 8:48 PM by will
Breaking news from Simon World . China has revalued the yuan, allowing --wait for it-- a 2% appreciation calculated to bring outraged howls of inadequacy from the US Congress. 2% won't do much to solve the US' structural problems. Nor would 20%, for that Read More...
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23 Million Single Chinese Men Seek Nice Chinese Girl...

Posted Thursday, July 21, 2005 7:57 PM by will
From an AFP article , a historic preference for sons, the one-child policy, and modern medicine have conspired to create a surplus of 23 million single men in China. While that is sad enough in its own right, even more disturbing are some of the methods Read More...
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The Good News: You'll Hear the Bird Flu Coming

Posted Thursday, July 21, 2005 6:13 PM by will
Just what the world needs. Birds that emulate mobile phone rings. From a DPA article via the Indo-Asian News Service website (in full): Birds imitate mobile phone ring tones Moessingen (Germany), July 18 (DPA) Birds have learnt to imitate the ring tones Read More...
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Imagethief is Back, and Fully Clothed

Posted Wednesday, July 20, 2005 3:26 PM by will
And when he has time, he will post a travelogue of his Harbin and Qiqihaer adventures, including an explanation of how he came to be having the usual "Where are you from? Where did you learn Chinese? Do you like China?" conversation buck naked in front Read More...
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Imagethief on the Road Until Tuesday

Posted Friday, July 15, 2005 7:14 PM by will
Going to be in Harbin for three days, so likely no updates until Tuesday. But when I am back I hope to be able to definitively answer the question: how sordid does one feel after paying to see a live chicken hurled into a pen of tigers? Stay tuned. Photos Read More...
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How Not to Alarm People, Lesson One: Don't Mention the Nukes

Posted Friday, July 15, 2005 10:04 AM by will
Continuing a streak of poorly-timed Chinese public statements, a Chinese general has discussed the situations under which China would use nuclear weapons against the United States before an audience of foreign journalists. I have to imagine this wasn't Read More...
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Pageantgate: A Deeper Look

Posted Friday, July 15, 2005 9:43 AM by will
As usual, Angry Chinese Blogger shames my trivialization of the issues with a deeper look at the story and issues behind the Miss Tibet scandal: The 2005 Miss Tourism-Malaysia pageant is not the first time that Tashi has fallen foul of Beijing's anti-Tibetan Read More...
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Another Brick in the Great Firewall

Posted Thursday, July 14, 2005 2:10 PM by will
Tim Johnson of Knight-Ridder (the news service of the parent company of Silicon Valley newspaper of record, the San Jose Mercury ) has written two interesting stories about the Great Firewall. One is about the western firms supplying the bricks that help Read More...
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Monthly Trip to Hell

Posted Thursday, July 14, 2005 12:00 PM by will
I try to limit my trips to the Bank of China to one a month because they invariably cause cardiac damage by making my blood pressure shoot up to something approximating the inside of a nuclear reactor's cooling vessel. But some things just can't be done Read More...
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You Won't Be Beaming Your Seditious, Yanqui Entertainment Into My Provinces!

Posted Thursday, July 14, 2005 11:11 AM by will
Just to prove that the US isn't alone in its commercial xenophobia, here is a Reuters article (via the New Zealand Herald ) on new restrictions on content cooperation between foreign media companies and Chinese city and provincial broadcasters. Apparently Read More...
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Accursed Reds Stealing American Oil in Fiendish Global Takeover Plot!

Posted Thursday, July 14, 2005 10:59 AM by will
Well, that seems to be the general sentiment being expressed in this week's congressional hearings on CNOOC's bid for Unocal. Yes, it's time for my weekly grind on this issue. From a Reuters story , a sample of the thoughtfully analytical rhetoric on Read More...
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Stop the Presses: OK to Suck Keg After All

Posted Thursday, July 14, 2005 10:02 AM by will
An update from Danwei on the critical formalda-beer situation. Turns out we can all relax and order another round of tall Yanjings: Beijing residents can breathe easier today. Yanjing Beer, Beijing's largest brewery and the producer of 11% of the nation's Read More...
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Don't Look Up...

Posted Thursday, July 14, 2005 9:55 AM by will
A warning from our apartment management to all residents posted in our elevators yesterday: Please don't throw trash out your windows as it is discourteous to residents living on the bottom floor. Yes, among others. Perhaps the rest of Beijing was fencing Read More...
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Brave, New, Censored World

Posted Wednesday, July 13, 2005 12:00 PM by will
Via the Peking Duck, a link to an interesting story in Slate on the CCP's vision for the future of the Chinese Internet. Spooky and discouraging. Richard picks out the following quote from the story: Networkwise, China will soon be like a country with Read More...
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No Wonder The Yanjing Buzz Is Oh, So Good

Posted Tuesday, July 12, 2005 8:08 PM by will
From Danwei - another simple pleasure bites the dust: We're in the middle of a heat wave here in Beijing, and there's nothing so refreshing as kicking back with a cold one. So it's not exactly welcome news to learn that 95% of China's domestically-produced Read More...
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Chinese State PR Error No. 137: Meddling in Beauty Pageants

Posted Tuesday, July 12, 2005 2:08 PM by will
I have a running theory that the Chinese government is seriously PR deficient. They take absolutist positions, use inflammatory rhetoric, and do little things that undermine their cause by appearing petty and heartless. Case in point: this article from Read More...
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Cheap Chinese Coffins in the US - Another Fiendish Plot?

Posted Tuesday, July 12, 2005 1:52 PM by will
Is there nothing that the Chinese won't make more cheaply and export back to bargain hungry American consumers? The Chinese have started shipping cheap coffins to the US: Chinese casket makers have captured less than 2% of the U.S. market since entering Read More...
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Drop the DVD and Back Away Slowly!

Posted Tuesday, July 12, 2005 1:42 PM by will
Rumblings from the authorities that China will start cracking down harder on pirate software and -horrors!- pirate DVDs. Not that I would ever stoop to anything so low as, ahem, buying pirate movie DVDs, but if were such a criminally inclined person I Read More...
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The Cricket Seller is Back

Posted Saturday, July 09, 2005 12:27 PM by will
It's summer in Beijing! How do I know? Not because of the searing heat, corrosive air or ghastly assortment of shirtless, obese men with their trousers rolled up to their knees. I know because the cricket sellers are back in the hutongs: You can hear Read More...
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The Barricading of Blue Castle Part the 4th: Checkpoint Charlie

Posted Saturday, July 09, 2005 10:47 AM by will
We now live in isolated splendor, completely undisturbed by the rest of Beijing. Unless, that is, you count the noise of the jackhammering of some old foundation work, which began outside my bedroom window this morning at 730 AM. It has now been almost Read More...
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China Astounds World, Does the Impossible: Unifies US Congress

Posted Tuesday, July 05, 2005 9:29 PM by will
Unfortunately, in opposition to its interests. Honestly, there may be a brilliant PR slagfest going on behind the scenes, but publicly the rhetoric on both sides is pure cold war. I really think China, as a state, is PR deficient. They don't seem to understand Read More...
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It's Official: Flacks in China Raking in the Dough -- Imagethief Still Not Shopping for Porsche

Posted Tuesday, July 05, 2005 4:26 PM by will
Yes, it's official, from China HR website Zhaopin.com , via state English-language rag China Daily . Technology flacks in China are in desperate demand, with salaries rising between 18 and 24 percent. I'd be out test-driving a Maserati right now, except Read More...
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Give a Man a Fish and He'll Eat for Day; Give Him a Hyundai and He's an Asshole for Life

Posted Tuesday, July 05, 2005 3:22 PM by will
The replacement of Beijing's dilapidated and terrifying Xiali taxis with spanking, new Hyundai Excels is giving the Taxi drivers here a bad case of superior attitude. I first ran into this attitude over Chinese New Year when I was making daily trips to Read More...
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No Need to Travel - Land Disputes Right Here in Beijing!

Posted Tuesday, July 05, 2005 1:04 PM by will
It always seems that the peasant land disputes that I read about take place in some distant part of China that I have only a vague notion of. But it turns out that it's happening right here in my back yard as well, courtesy of Olympic re-development. Read More...
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The Horse Explores America's Heart of Darkness

Posted Monday, July 04, 2005 9:42 PM by will
On the same topic as my previous post, Gordon, at the Horse's Mouth, has contributed an op-ed piece on Chinese censorship to his local newspaper in the US (it was originally a letter to his senators). The article, which Gordon has posted on his blog , Read More...
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Why American Tech Companies Betrayed Me, Not China

Posted Monday, July 04, 2005 5:45 PM by will
American technology companies are helping China censor the Internet. I am angry and disappointed -- probably more than the Chinese people actually affected. Yet, in a world full where corporate amorality is often taken for granted, why does this bother Read More...
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ACB: Textbooks for Japanese International School Siezed

Posted Sunday, July 03, 2005 11:03 AM by will
Angry Chinese Blogger last Friday wrote an interesting post on a siezure of textbooks meant for a Japanese international school here in China --a school primarily for the children of Japanese expatriates-- because they didn't toe party line. Here are Read More...
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How the Other Half Lives - Inside Zhongnanhai

Posted Friday, July 01, 2005 3:35 PM by will
The superb China Digital Times has published a link to a Tom.com photo series showing the inside of the Zhongnanhai leadership compound. This is the gated part of central Beijing, west of the Forbidden City, where senior government figures live in relative Read More...
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Friday Grab Bag: Japanese Whaleburgers, Hong Kong Hoteliers, Rebecca MacKinnon, Ching Cheong and CNOOC

Posted Friday, July 01, 2005 2:23 PM by will
I'm too hassled and busy at the moment to put together a bunch of posts, but there are a few things I wanted to comment on today. Rebecca, if you read this, I apologize for grouping you in such dubious company. First, the China Daily Cartoon of the Week: Read More...
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