Welcome to news.imagethief.com Sign in | Join | Help

November 2005 - Posts

That's So Tomorrow!

Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 12:51 PM by will
Today’s one-day in’n’out trip was the first time I have flown into Shanghai Pudong airport. With my company’s office in Puxi, I normally fly into the unglamorous but pleasanter Hongqiao, which has less of that THX1138 feel about it. Speaking of weird, Read More...
2 Comments
Filed under:

When a Blogger Meets a Blogger Coming Through Shanghai

Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2005 12:48 PM by will
My flight back to Beijing is delayed, so I have lots of extra time to sit here in an excruciatingly uncomfortable metal chair in Shanghai’s glamorous but oddly lifeless Pudong International Airport and jot down a few thoughts. It’s been a mad day. I flew Read More...
2 Comments

God Wanted us to Have This War

Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2005 6:09 AM by will
So you'd think it would have been intelligently designed, then. An interesting article from the New Yorker's Seymour Hersch on the prosecution of the war in Iraq, and the strategies for and likelihood of a potential draw-down in US troops. Most interesting Read More...
1 Comments
Filed under:

Hope for Skype in China?

Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2005 5:53 AM by will
Briefly, Chinese market analysis firm Analysys says that rumors of Skype's demise in China are greatly exaggerated. Or, at least, will prove unfounded in the long run. Their thoughts : News background: An American company Verso Technology recently released Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

Inching Towards a Police State

Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2005 4:56 AM by will
Even now, years after 9/11, after the extension of the onerous Patriot Act, powers of domestic surveillance aren't extensive enough to make the administration and the Pentagon happy. And that is exactly as it should be. A government and military that Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

Singapore Freudian Invention #23

Posted Monday, November 28, 2005 11:40 PM by will
The more straitjacked the public face, the kinkier and more disturbing the inner workings, I always say. Certainly I always say that about Singapore, as I discover more and more things that suggest that deep and twisted issues lie beneath the prim, orderly Read More...
4 Comments
Filed under: ,

And For My Long-Serving PR Consultant...A Boot to the Head!

Posted Monday, November 28, 2005 6:20 AM by will
Today, while Imagethief was pitching an interview that a client requested at the last possible minute, a foreign correspondent that he did not previously know and had the misfortune to catch at a bad time quipped, by way of sarcastic empathy with Imagethief's Read More...
5 Comments
Filed under:

The Unsinkable Dam

Posted Saturday, November 26, 2005 10:07 PM by will
This is a really unfortunate comment to go on the record with: Dam to withstand any attack, designer says By Xiao Cao ( China Daily ) Military attacks, including atomic-bomb explosions, and natural disasters, such as earthquakes, have been considered Read More...
8 Comments
Filed under: ,

Weekend PR Blog: The Harbin Water Crisis

Posted Saturday, November 26, 2005 11:23 AM by will
A couple of days ago, in response to a link I posted to his roundup of articles on the Harbin water crisis ESWN put this comment up on my site: As you are the PR expert, how would you have managed the situation? Would you have own up to the benzene problem Read More...
16 Comments
Filed under: ,

Imagethief's Handy Print'n'Save Bird-Flu Q&A for CEOs

Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 5:39 AM by will
It finally happened: a client has asked me to include a bird flu Q&A into a briefing pack for a senior executive coming to visit China. A Q&A contains theoretical questions that an executive might be asked by media, along with what we consider Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

Stuck in Harbin? Pop a Brewski

Posted Thursday, November 24, 2005 12:16 AM by will
With a little prompting from ESWN , I am going to do a longer post on the PR ramifications of the Harbin water crisis. But that will take a little time, and might not materialize until the weekend. In the meanwhile, I am pleased to note the following Read More...
3 Comments
Filed under:

Cultural Revolution Photographs Illuminated

Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 7:30 AM by will
My friend Sumner , an old Beijing veteran recently returned from a posting in Taipei, picked up a collection of old Cultural Revolution photographs over the weekend. He's scanned them and put them online , where, as Cultural Revolution photos always do, Read More...
3 Comments
Filed under:

ESWN's Harbin Water Crisis Roundup

Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2005 3:22 AM by will
The indispensable ESWN with the encyclopaedic roundup of articles, e-mails, speculation and innuendo. Sure to get your conspiracy whiskers twitching. Have a read . Read More...
5 Comments
Filed under:

You Are Talking Fish Farts!

Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2005 11:55 PM by will
Mrs. Imagethief at Udang. This has nothing to do with China or the media, but it's so magical it had to be shared. Imagethief is a keen scuba diver who has spent many a lazy hour underwater. One dive I clearly remember was at Indonesia's decommissioned Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

My - What a Big Vocabulary You Have!

Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2005 8:09 AM by will
As one of the few native English speakers in the office, I spend a lot of time copy editing things my Chinese colleagues have written or translated from Chinese. I actually don't mind this; in addition to the creative flight of original writing, I kind Read More...
10 Comments
Filed under: ,

The Dongbei Discovers Nude Wedding Photos

Posted Tuesday, November 22, 2005 5:19 AM by will
Imagethief is a misanthrope, and firmly believes that most people have no business being photographed nude under any circumstances. It's not that Imagethief objects to nudity per se --far from it-- it's just that he prefers it when it involves people Read More...
5 Comments
Filed under:

The Wicked Sin of Hotel Coffee

Posted Monday, November 21, 2005 11:05 PM by will
Yesterday I had a meeting at the Kerry Center Hotel's self-consciously fabulous bar, Centro. Centro can be an interesting place to go to in evening, if you like to observe the interactions of Korean businessmen clocked on Hennessey and expensive, eastern-European Read More...
7 Comments
Filed under: ,

Q: Why Do I Keep Two Weeks of Drinking Water at Home?

Posted Monday, November 21, 2005 8:37 PM by will
Actually, as I've mentioned before, I keep a two-week supply of both non-perishable food and bottled water in the house, along with a few other emergency and medical supplies. Recently, most of my discussion of this has revolved around bird flu, but this Read More...
4 Comments
Filed under:

It's All in the Headline

Posted Monday, November 21, 2005 8:21 PM by will
A couple of days ago, the New York Times ran an interesting article about anti-Chinese and anti-Korean comic books which have recently gained popularity. It's worth a read. The Times gave the article this headline: Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

The Beijing Summit: Dissidents are so Last Year

Posted Monday, November 21, 2005 4:53 AM by will
I haven't written about the summit yet because it was the dullest event in the history of dull events. And I won't spend much time on it now. Any time the Xinhua article carries this headline... Bush's China visit achieves "important results" ...you can Read More...
2 Comments
Filed under: ,

I Need Pre-Flight Lie Detectors Like I Need a Hole in My Head

Posted Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:55 PM by will
Imagethief already finds flying a degrading enough experience. Wait in interminable lines. Sit in uncomfortable chairs. Eat bad food sitting next to someone who is sneezing a whole catalogue of mucus out of his head. Arrive looking like one of the freaks Read More...
1 Comments
Filed under: ,

Where Got Sex?

Posted Saturday, November 19, 2005 10:28 PM by will
Imagethief is always scandalized when he sees international press coverage of Singapore that mocks country for conservative stuffyness. This is partially because deep down, Imagethief believes that, based on his long experience with the city state, he Read More...
3 Comments

Jack Ma is the Undisputed King! (For Now)

Posted Thursday, November 17, 2005 7:45 AM by will
I've been in technology, one way or another, for about twelve years now. First small time, now big time. One of the dubious benefits of my job is that I get to spend a lot of time basking in the glow of the CEOs of global tech firms. They all come to Read More...
0 Comments

That's a Big Pile of Nasty Candy

Posted Thursday, November 17, 2005 6:49 AM by will
A big shout from Imagethief to all the minions toiling away in China's candy industry. It's just been announced that they have exceeded one million tons of output for the fifth year running: China's annual candy output exceeds 1 million tons for consecutive Read More...
8 Comments
Filed under:

Imagethief's Tenth Anniversary in Asia

Posted Thursday, November 17, 2005 12:17 AM by will
Today is Imagethief's tenth anniversary in Asia. On November 17th, 1995, straight out of grad school and part-time work in radio, I stepped off an airplane in Singapore to start an Internet computer games company . I was a complete naif, tragically out Read More...
9 Comments
Filed under:

Who Is Dead-Chicken Noodle Boy?

Posted Wednesday, November 16, 2005 8:11 AM by will
As the international bird-flu media hysteria begins to fade, CNN is mounting a lonely crusade to keep it going. For that we have to admire their single-minded dedication to the topic. Certainly your finer blogs, such as this one, would never stoop so Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

Top Signs You Are a Banana Republic

Posted Tuesday, November 15, 2005 7:47 PM by will
You sue a comedian : ASTANA, Kazakhstan (Reuters) -- Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry threatened legal action Monday against a British comedian who wins laughs by portraying the central Asian state as a country populated by drunks who enjoy cow-punching Read More...
4 Comments
Filed under:

Heroic Chinese Scientists Create Vague Medication

Posted Tuesday, November 15, 2005 9:23 AM by will
A friend recently voiced the theory that the Chinese were sitting on their bird flu problem and giving the dreaded International Heath Bureaucracy the cold shoulder so that they could hoard their bird-flu intellectual property and be the first to market Read More...
1 Comments
Filed under:

There Goes the Neighborhood

Posted Monday, November 14, 2005 8:42 PM by will
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of my fine state of California, is lunching today at the Grand Hyatt Beijing, which is part of the office complex in which I work. I am overcome with a sudden temptation to streak the lunch with "Stallone Rules" and Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

Them Chinese Ain't Never Seen No Bowl of Cereal Before

Posted Monday, November 14, 2005 6:59 AM by will
That's the verdict from New York State Agricultural Commissioner Nathan Rudgers. Mr. Rudgers, clearly a man of the world, sees big bucks dancing before his eyes as he contemplates the idea of introducing the heathen Orientals to such cosmopolitan pleasures Read More...
9 Comments
Filed under: ,

Chinese Journalist Savages China's Bird Flu Coverage

Posted Monday, November 14, 2005 6:23 AM by will
Via Peking Duck and Danwei , an interesting editorial from China's Caijing (Finance) magazine lamenting the woeful state of coverage of the bird flu outbreaks in local media. Specifically, the writer, Caijing's notoriously independent editor, Hu Shuli, Read More...
4 Comments
Filed under: ,

How to Annoy Your Chinese Hosts

Posted Sunday, November 13, 2005 8:51 AM by will
As we all know, POTUS is on his way to China for what is sure to be a masterpiece of diplomacy and open, forthright discussion. Or not, as the case might be : President George W. Bush would like to attend Christian religious services with Chinese worshipers Read More...
7 Comments
Filed under: ,

Hello Kitty Meets the Power Rangers: 5 Olympic Mascots

Posted Friday, November 11, 2005 9:27 PM by will
Imagethief's frozen and miniscule flack's heart is duly warmed to just above absolute zero by the unveiling of not one but five evocatively Chinese Olympic mascots yesterday, showing that Beijing is sensitive to the feelings of all of its provinces. Well, Read More...
9 Comments
Filed under:

Yahoo China Goes Baidu - Still Can't Find Link Between Biz & Politics

Posted Friday, November 11, 2005 12:18 AM by will
A quick look at Yahoo China's website today reveals that the usual, dazzling array of portal content has been replaced by a lean and stripped-down search-only interface in the manner of Baidu and Baidu's own inspiration, Google. And make no mistake, it's Read More...
3 Comments
Filed under: ,

Fair Warning: Light Posting Ahead

Posted Thursday, November 10, 2005 11:25 PM by will
For the next week or so Imagethief will be staggering under the burden of earning an actual living, and expects much of his early morning and evening time to succumb to the demands of an expanding workload. Expect relatively light posting for the next Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

Digest: Interesting Chinese Journalism and Blogging Comment

Posted Thursday, November 10, 2005 8:14 PM by will
The Shanghai Bloggers' Conference is provoking a flood of media coverage of blogging in China, completmenting the usual navel-gazing at which bloggers and journalists generally excel. Here are some of the thoughts and observations on Chinese journalism Read More...
3 Comments
Filed under: ,

China Bloggers Learn Hard Lessons about International Media

Posted Thursday, November 10, 2005 1:56 AM by will
From Asiapundit's Myrick, himself a representative of the dreaded International Media, an interesting post about Chinese blogger Wang Jian Shuo's interview with the BBC, and his observations about talking to foreign media organizations. Wang's own post Read More...
3 Comments
Filed under: ,

Quiz: Lollipop Net Enjoy Mental

Posted Thursday, November 10, 2005 12:01 AM by will
Can you spot the relationship between these four words? You could if, like me, you had just been down at the Oriental Plaza Watsons buying tampons for your wife. I mention the tampon part because part of being a guy making such a purchase is putting on Read More...
5 Comments
Filed under:

Inevitable Problems from Fake Poultry Vaccines in China

Posted Wednesday, November 09, 2005 8:31 PM by will
The apocalypse factor ratchets up another notch with this AFX story (from somewhate more sanitized Xinhua coverage in English, here ) revealing that the new outbreak of bird flu in China's northeastern Liaoning province could become a "disaster" thanks Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

Update: Terror Warning in Beijing - Bogus?

Posted Wednesday, November 09, 2005 7:58 PM by will
Or really about Jordan? Update at bottom. Reports have surfaced this morning that the Chinese police have been contacting luxury hotels in Beijing and warning them of a possible terrorist threat. Here is the warning from the website of the US embassy Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

Shock News: Chinese Journalists are Miserable

Posted Tuesday, November 08, 2005 5:24 AM by will
From Xinhua, a story that I hope kindled some small sense of irony in the hack who wrote it. According to a survey by a (no doubt totally disinterested) headhunting company, many Chinese journalists hate their jobs: BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Most Read More...
6 Comments
Filed under: ,

How to Write a Generic China Bird Flu Story

Posted Tuesday, November 08, 2005 1:01 AM by will
Bird flu may not be sweeping through the human population, but it's sure sweeping through the media. It seems that every newspaper and wire service has packed their Beijing reporter off to the poultry-infested boonies of China (which begin right outside Read More...
7 Comments
Filed under: ,

China's Provinces Scratch for Olympic Gold

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2005 11:53 PM by will
This is an interesting article from the Associated Press on the efforts by several Chinese provinces to get their local wildlife or symbols named the official mascot of the upcoming Beijing Olympiad. These regions are hoping to make money from merchandising Read More...
6 Comments
Filed under:

That Took All of Five Seconds

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2005 11:38 PM by will
Actually, a bit longer than I expected. From AP, Mini-p*rn on video iPods : SAN FRANCISCO - Purveyors of p*rn and entrepreneurs who spied a niche when Apple Computer Inc. unveiled its video-playing iPod are proving that sex even sells in tiny packages Read More...
1 Comments
Filed under: ,

Snakehead Fish Ravaging the Potomac – Imagethief Has the Solution

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2005 8:39 AM by will
The Washington Post reported this weekend that escaped Asian “snakehead” fish are running wild in a Virginia tributary of the Potomac River. The hardy fish, which first started appearing in the American wild in Maryland a couple of years ago, have, naturally, Read More...
3 Comments
Filed under: , ,

Idiots on Ice

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2005 6:22 AM by will
Warning: Shameless friends-and-family post. Last night the first big wind of the season blew into town, dispersing the lung-dissolving miasma of pollution that had settled over the city all week in less than three hours, and replacing it with six months Read More...
1 Comments

Qianmen and Xianyukou Alley Get the Chai

Posted Sunday, November 06, 2005 4:37 AM by will
Qianmen has always been one of my favorite parts of Beijing. I have a long walk that I enjoy taking through Beijing from either Guloudajie or Jishuitan subway station down past the lakes, through Beihai Park, along the Forbidden City, across Tian'anmen Read More...
7 Comments
Filed under:

A "Members Only" Restaurant

Posted Friday, November 04, 2005 10:56 PM by will
Having written a couple of times recently about Chinese virility tonics, I was interested to see the restaurant review from this week's edition of That's Seven Days in Beijing , the weekly e-mail entertainment update from That's Beijing magazine. It features Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

Where the Diseases Come From

Posted Friday, November 04, 2005 6:22 AM by will
Anyone who wonders why foreign China bloggers indulge in such constant black humor and prodding about the China's place as the cradle of novel diseases, and the government's slovenly reactions to them should read today's Peking Duck post on the topic, Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

Improper Use of an Inflatable Woman and Vitamins for Old People

Posted Thursday, November 03, 2005 11:21 PM by will
Here's a funny post from Wanbro , via the revitalized Horse's Mouth . It refers to an old China Daily article lamenting the quality of China's sex toys: The toy woman was supposed to be his "sex comforter". Li had bought "her" from a local sex shop for Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under:

The Great Kimchi Scandal of 05

Posted Thursday, November 03, 2005 8:09 PM by will
In this era of bird flu, diplomatic tensions, Asian arms races and such sometimes you have to take a moment to focus on what's truly important. Like nasty parasite eggs in your pickled cabbage. There is nothing Imagethief likes better than a spicy Korean Read More...
2 Comments
Filed under: ,

Compelling Evidence: Imagethief Rethinks Chinese Virility Tonics

Posted Thursday, November 03, 2005 5:10 AM by will
I have long been dismissive of such traditional Chinese "virility tonics" as tiger penis, rhinoceros horn and the grilled goat-penis-on-a-stick* flogged out of the tourista snack market behind Wangfujing. Peasant superstition and hokum, I scoffed. I scoffed Read More...
13 Comments
Filed under:

Thursday PR Blog: American Internet Firms in Chinese Peril

Posted Wednesday, November 02, 2005 11:36 PM by will
I like talking with journalists because, naturally, they have a way of asking interesting questions. The same journalist who got me thinking about corruption in PR hit me with a poser while we were talking: "Name a successful American Internet firm in Read More...
18 Comments
Filed under: ,

Bird Flu Post 186: Chinese Authorities Cancel Themselves Out

Posted Wednesday, November 02, 2005 8:13 PM by will
Note : Title changed from the original, free-spirited but un-descriptive, "Bird Flu Post 186: Pissing in the Zesty Onion Dip of Transparency." Back when I was in fourth grade, with one finger up my nose and the other leafing through Captain Marvel comix, Read More...
0 Comments
Filed under: ,

The Asian Exception: Singapore Rejects a Free Press

Posted Wednesday, November 02, 2005 12:08 AM by will
In a very interesting roundup of articles on press freedom, Simon, of Simon World, posted a segment of a South China Morning Post article (subscription) in which former Singaporean PM Goh Chock Tong makes a vigorous and unapologetic defense of the country's Read More...
3 Comments

Dessicated and Poisoned but Building Character

Posted Tuesday, November 01, 2005 11:30 PM by will
Every now and then, especially in Autumn, Beijing has a perfect day. When the temperature is mild, the air clear and the sunshine bright, you can see the Western Hills in the distance and the city's often shrouded colors pop into glorious life. On days Read More...
2 Comments
Filed under:

Political Caricature: How You Know a Nation is Mature

Posted Tuesday, November 01, 2005 2:56 AM by will
The unrepentant lefty in me glowed with shadenfreude at the cover of this week's edition of The Economist . My cheap thrills aside, it made me think that I've always enjoyed editorial cartoons; especially political cartoons. When I was at university in Read More...
0 Comments

Are PR and MNCs Corrupting Chinese Media?

Posted Tuesday, November 01, 2005 12:29 AM by will
The week before last I had lunch with a foreign correspondent who asked me if there was corruption in PR in China. Although I was only providing background, and not speaking to him on the record, I was, to put it politely, diplomatic in my answer. Ever Read More...
17 Comments
Filed under: ,