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December 2005 - Posts

Happy New Year!

Posted Saturday, December 31, 2005 1:27 PM by will
Sometimes it smacks me right between the eyes. What am I --a suburban northern California boy-- doing here in Beijing? How did it happen? What does it mean? Some questions are best left unanswered, I suppose. Especially in the fog of too much Prosecco Read More...
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Checkbook Diplomacy? How Dare They!

Posted Friday, December 30, 2005 6:32 AM by will
Imagethief was shocked (shocked!) to find out through this AP article on CNN.com that the scalliwags in the Chinese government are giving money to the government of Suriname. Apparently, this is being done not out of philanthropy, but out of naked self-interest! Read More...
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PR Advice: Mega-Corporations Should Never "Join Hands"

Posted Friday, December 30, 2005 1:30 AM by will
Imagethief does a lot of what we in the business call "polishing translations". This is really hack copy-editing to make sure that translations from Chinese to English are readable and not too ridiculous. Ridiculousness is a big problem, and we have to Read More...
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Real Time Propaganda and Anti-Corruption Songs

Posted Thursday, December 29, 2005 5:03 AM by will
I know what you're thinking. Whenever disaster strikes, and the pigs are dropping dead, the laborers are rioting or fifty tons of hydrazine is barreling down your local waterway, the government never seems to get it together to do the one thing that the Read More...
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Wednesday PR Blog: Media Bias Conspiracies Made Simple

Posted Wednesday, December 28, 2005 5:53 AM by will
A recent study (62 page PDF - see a summary here ), led by a UCLA political science professor and a University of Missouri economist, claims to quantify the left-wing bias of the mainstream media. Giving it far more credibility than it apparently deserves, Read More...
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How the Commies Stole Christmas

Posted Tuesday, December 27, 2005 4:50 AM by will
It's come to my attention that the godless Chinese are stealing Christmas from defenseless, pious Americans. I know I come to this issue a little late, but I didn't want to let it slip by without comment. Two articles, in particular, have caught my eye. Read More...
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Decadent Beijing Suburbanites Give Me da Bomb

Posted Monday, December 26, 2005 9:41 PM by will
A dissolute Imagethief wallows in empty, carnal indulgence on Christmas eve with a fat smoke and Finnish vodka. Jackie O. shades hide eyes full of shame. A current of dissolution runs through Beijing's expatriate professional community. The city doesn't Read More...
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Counter-Revolutionary Holidays

Posted Thursday, December 22, 2005 9:57 PM by will
I could be posting thoughtful articles that examine Chinese government media positioning and other important social issues. Or I could focus on things that bug me, which takes less time and effort. Since it's Chrismas, and I'm lazy, I'll take the latter Read More...
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Wednesday PR Blog: A 'Roo By Any Other Name Would Taste as Sweet

Posted Tuesday, December 20, 2005 11:50 PM by will
Finger lickin' good? As someone who works in the sprawling penumbra of the marketing industry, Imagethief is fairly interested in how things are branded and what those brands mean to people. For instance, what does the "Imagethief" brand mean to you? Read More...
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Harbingers of Christmas in Beijing

Posted Tuesday, December 20, 2005 12:53 AM by will
Imagethief is a fan of what we who live in properly atheist, socialist countries (like China) refer to as "the holiday season". Never mind that Christmas and western New Year are pale holiday shadows compared with the upcoming Spring Festival, which is Read More...
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Q: Is Chinese Society "Puritan"?

Posted Monday, December 19, 2005 3:39 AM by will
I saw over the weekend that the authorities in Beijing decided to pull the plug on Beijing's first gay and lesbian culture festival: Organisers had planned to hold their festival of films, plays, exhibitions and seminars on homosexuality at one of the Read More...
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It's Official: New Worst-Ever Mobile Phone Ringtone

Posted Monday, December 19, 2005 12:18 AM by will
Anyone who spends time in China, or virtually anywhere in Asia, is rapidly broken to the brutal reality that awful mobile-phone ringtones are the darkest side of the mobile communications boom. You may think that it's the ability of colleagues, clients Read More...
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Beijing Needs a Giant Monster Attack

Posted Sunday, December 18, 2005 3:50 AM by will
When you are asked to name the great, metropolitan cities of the world, you will naturally consider certain factors. It's not always size that makes the difference. If it was, then Chongqing would be the capital of the planet, a role I think we can all Read More...
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Weekend PR Blog 2: China Rebuts Everything

Posted Saturday, December 17, 2005 6:14 AM by will
Every now and then, I think the Chinese government is starting to get the idea of PR. And then they, or their proxies, do something silly to remind me that any signs of progress are purely accidental. So I was amused but unsurprised to see an article Read More...
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Weekend PR Blog 1: How Sad is That?

Posted Saturday, December 17, 2005 5:40 AM by will
Warning : Overtly political content. I try not to dwell too much on American political stuff unless it is specifically interesting or relevant to me in some way. There is no shortage of poli-blogs, left and right, dissecting everything that happens in Read More...
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Chinese Restaurant Calculation Made Easy

Posted Saturday, December 17, 2005 12:27 AM by will
A couple of days ago, Imagethief had lunch with four members of his team at a Chinese restaurant downstairs from our office. Choosing dishes was easy --I'll eat almost anything-- but, predictably, there was much debate about exactly how many dishes we Read More...
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Nasty Loogey Art

Posted Thursday, December 15, 2005 1:27 AM by will
Imagethief works in one of the most glamorous and famous office buildings in Beijing. In a city of drab buildings, this one is really a marvel. It is glossy and new looking, stands at the intersection of Chang'an'jie (the street the Forbidden City is Read More...
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Is Imagethief Slow Like a Swim Through Molasses?

Posted Wednesday, December 14, 2005 9:53 PM by will
Before I get into the substance, let me say that I went on a totally fruitless quest for molasses here last week so my wife could make cookies for a Christmas party. Do you know how goddamn hearbreaking it is to not be able to find molasses when you need Read More...
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I am Beijing's Decadent Man-Bitch

Posted Tuesday, December 13, 2005 1:38 AM by will
When I was back in the US recently I was often asked a deceptively simple question: "What is it like living Beijing?" This is a trap. It's a trap because no-one living in the United States wants to hear in any great detail what your experience of living Read More...
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Note to China and Japan: Both of You Need to Shut Up and Think

Posted Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:17 AM by will
The great article or book on the deep-seated mutual hatred and distrust between post-war China and Japan, may very well exist, but I haven't found it yet. Perhaps I should look harder, because it seems inevitable that the future of east-Asia will be forged Read More...
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Has the Nanny Eaten CNN.com? (No - She Hasn't)

Posted Monday, December 12, 2005 8:52 PM by will
Imagethief noticed an interesting phenomenon this morning: CNN's website vanished. Which is to say that, while every other site on Imagethief's normal morning news-surf loaded just fine, CNN refused to load from either his home or work computers. Instead, Read More...
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Avast Me Hearties! Send Their Human Rights to the Bottom!

Posted Monday, December 12, 2005 5:03 AM by will
Every year at about this time, Human Rights Day rolls around and the great and the good of the world utter sonorous proclamations about the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and point a few politically expeditious fingers at the Read More...
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Your Information is My Propaganda

Posted Sunday, December 11, 2005 5:05 AM by will
There is a fascinating article in today's New York Times on the administration's large and complex propaganda operations considering the military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and perceptions of the USA in the broader middle east. I don't have time Read More...
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The Great Chinese Fruit Sticker Debacle

Posted Sunday, December 11, 2005 1:26 AM by will
As part of a healthy and balanced diet, Imagethief eats a lot of fruit. This is partly the influence of Mrs. Imagethief, a professional nutritionist, and partly the result of Imagethief's own inclination toward all things sweet-tasting. (This last is Read More...
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Brilliant Chinese Search Engine Mash-Up & the Trouble with Baidu

Posted Saturday, December 10, 2005 10:24 PM by will
Via Bingfeng Teahouse and Massage Milk (in Chinese). It has been said that Baidu is simply a Chinese Google wannabe, right down the minimalist design of its home page (as we'll see later, this isn't entirely the case). But in China, where foreign Internet Read More...
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Weekend PR Blog: Imagethief's Handy Terrorism Talking Points for Unrelated Policies

Posted Saturday, December 10, 2005 12:25 AM by will
In combing through the usual detritus that accumulates on the Internet, by which I mean the Whitehouse web site , I stumbled onto the text of President Bush's recent address to representatives of American border control agencies in Tucson. Like most of Read More...
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Things to Like About Winter in Beijing

Posted Friday, December 09, 2005 11:55 AM by will
I have recently bitched a bit about the weather. As the novelty of winter wears off, and we get into the long, post-Chinese New Year grind of February and March, you can expect more of the same. Twelve posts a week of repetitive griping about dry, flaky Read More...
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The Chance of a Lifetime

Posted Friday, December 09, 2005 2:01 AM by will
It is a lowly and testing thing to be a mid-ranking spin doctor. We live our lives caught between our clients, who often demand subservience unpolluted by such inconveniences as strategic thinking, and the media, who think of us either as meal tickets Read More...
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For 18 Grand a Day I Hope You Get Clean Needles

Posted Thursday, December 08, 2005 4:02 AM by will
I have been following with some interest the medical bill scandal from the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. (Harbin just can't get a break, it seems. But, really, it's a nice town. You should go .) This first broke on CCTV and was Read More...
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Q: What do You Get When You Dam a Toxic River?

Posted Thursday, December 08, 2005 3:25 AM by will
Imagethief is certainly not an expert in such things. He knows little of hydrology, dam engineering, or petrochemical spill management. He is as a babe in the woods on this issue. But, at a purely intuitive level, it seems to Imagethief that if you dam Read More...
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Meet the Neighbors

Posted Thursday, December 08, 2005 12:04 AM by will
I sometimes think that Beijingers act obstreperously simply for the sheer joy of it. They seem to be world-beaters at identifying the little things they can do to annoy other people for their own fun and entertainment. It's the only way I can explain Read More...
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Signs Your Number is Up on the Road to Badaling

Posted Wednesday, December 07, 2005 5:22 AM by will
It pains Imagethief to draw mirth from what is, after all, a terrible tragedy. But, as Imagethief is a heartless bastard, he will draw it anyway. Terrible accidents happen to people who don't deserve them. Sometimes, upon reading about such a catastrophe, Read More...
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Harbin Aftermath: Government Vows to Thoroughly Scape All Goats

Posted Wednesday, December 07, 2005 1:53 AM by will
Catastrophes are fun to watch, but not nearly so much fun as the aftermath of kicking, screaming and recriminations as blame is liberally heaped and fingers pointed. Katrina lasted only a day, after all, but the operatic fallout has reverberated for weeks, Read More...
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The Great Chinese Hotel Polo Mint Conspiracy

Posted Tuesday, December 06, 2005 8:47 PM by will
As a PR pro, Imagethief, perforce, spends a lot of time at PR events. Much of my travel across China has been for PR events, with the consequence that I can tell you all about hotel rooms in Shanghai, Chengdu and Shenzhen, but very little about the cities Read More...
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Tuesday PR Blog: Criticism of US Coverage-Buying in Iraq Misses the Point

Posted Tuesday, December 06, 2005 4:22 AM by will
Don't get me wrong. The fact that the US government is buying coverage is, in fact, abhorrent. I'll get to why that is, and why it's not PR, in a moment. But first, I want to make one point up front. As dismal as the fact that we have to pay for positive Read More...
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China Daily Covers the Shandeng Tobacco-Smuggling Deaths

Posted Tuesday, December 06, 2005 4:01 AM by will
Or, rather, they run Ed Cody's Washington Post story in full (with attribution). Considering the implication of the local authorities in shady dealings and the attendant local civil disorder, I find that pretty surprising. Are they sending a message to Read More...
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Xinhua Sees Nothing Suspicious in Nazarbaev's 91%

Posted Monday, December 05, 2005 3:02 AM by will
Good to see that appreciation for a healthy democracy is alive and well at Xinhua, where I stumbled onto a glowing article about the thumping election victory of Kazakh president for life , Nursultan Nazarbaev. Mr. Nazarbaev is clearly a man beloved by Read More...
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China Cracks Down on Anonymous Mobile Phones

Posted Monday, December 05, 2005 12:04 AM by will
So much for my anonymous SMS gambling and p*rn ring. I guess it's back to making an honest living. When I arrived in Beijing, with all my police-state preconceptions and conceptual baggage, one thing that amazed me was that any black-hatted anarchist, Read More...
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Bingfeng's Frustration

Posted Sunday, December 04, 2005 8:54 PM by will
Bingfeng had what sounds like a frustrating run-in with the Nanny over the weekend, and his reaction has given me my first good laugh of the week. Bingfeng, my sympathies! Go have a read . Read More...
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Banal Observation of the Week: It's Damn Cold

Posted Sunday, December 04, 2005 8:39 PM by will
Weather observations are a touch banal, but winter dropped on Beijing like a glass anvil this weekend. No joke; the transition was shocking. On Thursday it was autumn, and you could wear a sweatshirt and a light leather jacket out during the day. On Friday Read More...
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Taking Bets: Will Flickr and Scoopt be Blocked?

Posted Friday, December 02, 2005 5:23 AM by will
An interesting hypothetical question from the Wolf at Silicon Huton. When will the Chinese government realize the potentially disruptive nature of Flickr and new mobile phone photo upload site Scoopt , and get around to blocking them? As the Wolf writes: Read More...
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Van Nguyen Died For Your Sins: Executions as Public Communication

Posted Thursday, December 01, 2005 7:18 PM by will
The Australians were doomed from the start, literally and metaphorically. They were doomed because they misapprehended the nature of capital punishment for drug offenses in Singapore. They thought of it as retribution, or punishment. This is wrong. Drug-offense Read More...
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