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March 2008 - Posts

The trouble with stage-managed media tours...

Posted Thursday, March 27, 2008 6:05 AM by will
...is when the extras don't play their assigned roles : A government-managed visit by foreign reporters to Tibet's capital backfired Thursday when Buddhist monks disrupted the tour, screaming that there was no religious freedom and that the Dalai Lama Read More...
14 Comments

Improving pre-Olympic PR: A thousand little things

Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:44 AM by will
A few days ago, a journalist asked me if a grand gesture, like a release of imprisoned dissidents, would be a good pre-Olympic PR move for the Chinese government. I told him that I thought at this point any such maneuver, no matter how positive, would Read More...
10 Comments

The gulf between foreign and Chinese expectations of the Olympics

Posted Thursday, March 20, 2008 1:37 AM by will
Forbes national editor Mike Ozanian has written a short but bleak blog post assessing the prospects for the Olympics on Forbes' sports business blog: Violent clashes in Tibet and China’s support of Sudan during its genocide of the people in Darfur tell Read More...
12 Comments

Tibet and the trouble with unassailable national myths

Posted Wednesday, March 19, 2008 7:23 AM by will
Outside of Young Frankenstein there isn't really any such thing as a "good time" for rioting, but this might be an especially bad time for China to have a bout of punishing ethnic unrest. It hasn't really been a banner start to the Olympic year so far, Read More...
32 Comments

IOC chief on Tibet: No boycott

Posted Sunday, March 16, 2008 1:48 AM by will
The temperature is rising. From AP, via CNN : The president of the International Olympic Committee rejected the idea of boycotting the Summer Games in Beijing over China's crackdown in Tibet, saying it would only hurt athletes. "We believe that the boycott Read More...
11 Comments

YouTube blocked, unsurprisingly

Posted Saturday, March 15, 2008 9:53 PM by will
Since last night, most likely due to the posting of video of the Tibet demonstrations, some of which is reposting of material from major news organizations (such as this, from CNN ). Via Danwei and Shanghaiist . CNN and BBC have been regularly blacked Read More...
14 Comments

Why I've been scarce: Zachary Lee Moss

Posted Saturday, March 15, 2008 6:47 AM by will
Born last Sunday, March 9th, 12:12AM in Beijing. Mom's eyes, hair and skin. Dad's nose and ears (oh well). Also known as Li Weizhi (李 苇志) in accordance with the best numerological tradition, which was very precise about the total number of strokes that Read More...
32 Comments
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Chinese tweets on Tibet

Posted Saturday, March 15, 2008 6:31 AM by will
Dave at Mutant Palm has been scanning and translating Chinese tweets (Blogspot -- proxy needed in China) on the Tibet situation from local Twitter clones and comparing them with International ones. It's worth having a look at some of the sentiment zipping Read More...
4 Comments

Movie ratings will put China on the express train to pornoville: Official

Posted Wednesday, March 05, 2008 5:47 AM by will
And yet another NPC symptom: bureaucrats are saying ridiculous things. From Xinhua . Read the whole thing before I get stuck in: Regulator: China not to implement film rating for the moment BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China won't adopt a film rating Read More...
8 Comments

Top signs the NPC is in town

Posted Wednesday, March 05, 2008 4:05 AM by will
First, today's top four headlines on the China Daily website: China sets 4.8% inflation target for 2008 (The headline is linked to the NPC digest page, the actual story is here ) Taiwan independence "doomed to fail" "Taiwan independence" activities have Read More...
4 Comments

Is it OK to sing "Tibet" in a crowded Chinese theater?

Posted Tuesday, March 04, 2008 8:24 PM by will
Despite years as a college radio DJ, Imagethief has never had much time for Bjork. I find her pretentious to a degree not entirely compensated for by talent. But, then, I think the future of pop music died when Led Zep broke up, so you may want to control Read More...
26 Comments

祝你两会快乐!

Posted Monday, March 03, 2008 6:00 AM by will
Imagethief was interested to see Xinhua banging the "life is wonderful for foreign correspondents in China" drum again today. This time the unlucky spokesperson for the complete and blissful satisfaction of foreign media was Itar-Tass' Andrew Kirillov, Read More...
9 Comments

Repeat after me: Clumsy suppression will make your scandal worse

Posted Monday, March 03, 2008 5:53 AM by will
Danwei covers the story of how Tongzhou's mayor either shot himself in the foot (metaphorically speaking), or was shot in the foot by one of his underlings when an unflattering photo of him was published in the local paper. Over the Spring Festival, Southern Read More...
0 Comments

Shouldn't China be the number one Internet nation on Earth by now?

Posted Monday, March 03, 2008 5:06 AM by will
In January, CNNIC, the organization that administers the Chinese portion of the Internet, released its 21st Statistical Survery Report . This was a big deal because it included the startling fact that at the end of 2007 China had a whopping 210 million Read More...
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