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The tragedy of China's international communication

Posted Wednesday, October 15, 2008 8:39 AM by will
Don't miss James Fallows' superb story in Atlantic Monthly on China's national communication woes. Fallows gets into all the things that China does to undermine its own attempts to improve its international image. It's a fascinating read for anyone interested Read More...
7 Comments

The trouble with vox pop

Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 5:25 AM by will
Imagethief, being an arrogant son of a bitch and a bona-fide member of the Ivory Tower Elite, is seldom interested in what the common man has to say. Nothing gets me to change the channel faster than an "iReport" segment on CNN, or the BBC equivalent. Read More...
14 Comments

Foreign media vs. Wang Wei II, plus the trouble with transcripts

Posted Friday, August 22, 2008 1:36 AM by will
Via the China Digital Times , this outstanding excerpt from the transcript of Wednesday's IOC/BOCOG press conference (the ninth in a wretched series, we are informed). I've excised some back and forth between the question and response: South China Morning Read More...
5 Comments

Foreign media incidents during the Olympics: So much for detente

Posted Friday, August 22, 2008 1:27 AM by will
The latest incident report from the Foreign Correspondents Club of China is out. It doesn't make for pretty reading: BEIJING: OFFICERS ROUGH UP AP PHOTOGRAPHERS, SEIZE MEMORY CARDS August 20, 2008: Two Associated Press photographers attempting to cover Read More...
3 Comments

Olympic match-up II: Foreign press vs. BOCOG spokesman Wang Wei

Posted Wednesday, August 20, 2008 1:11 AM by will
This New York Times article is a few days old, but I didn't have time to get to it when it first came out. Apparently some of the press conferences got a little scratchy as journalists got frustrated with BOCOG's oblique responses to any question not Read More...
36 Comments

Hopeless adventures in vulgarity control

Posted Thursday, July 24, 2008 5:04 AM by will
The downside of scanning something like thirty Google alerts a day is that you lose productivity and fill your head with random crap. The upside is that you sometimes notice strange juxtapositions of news. For example, the following two Reuters stories: Read More...
0 Comments

Spontaneous Olympic joy by decree and other news

Posted Monday, June 16, 2008 6:28 AM by will
Cliff Coonan has a story in showbiz trade Variety that examines the broadcasting problems I posted about last week. The article is something of an omnibus piece on current Olympic issues. Among other things, it gets into the organizers' efforts to develop Read More...
6 Comments

Weekend Olympic roundup

Posted Monday, April 28, 2008 12:57 AM by will
Imagethief is aware that this blog is at risk of becoming "all Olympics, all the time". This isn't intentional, but when you write about PR, communication and China its rather hard to ignore the symbolism, conflict and dueling narratives swirling around Read More...
14 Comments

China to meet DL's representative: Spot the difference in language

Posted Friday, April 25, 2008 6:20 AM by will
From CNN.com, a report that the Chinese government will meet with a representative of the Dalai Lama. This strikes Imagethief as something that be the result of a piece of external advice. You know, it would really look good if you would at least sit Read More...
21 Comments

He's not speaking for me...

Posted Tuesday, April 22, 2008 7:11 AM by will
I am trying to figure out if "Mr. Fred J.M. Slot" (who's English is just slightly suspect) is taking the piss in this letter to Shanghai Daily : ON behalf of myself and many of my friends I would like to apologize to the Chinese people for the way the Read More...
28 Comments

The New York Times has free PR advice for China

Posted Wednesday, April 09, 2008 11:54 AM by will
Responding to recent reports that the Chinese government is seeking external counsel, they write : After facing major protests in London and Paris as the Olympic torch made stops on its journey to Beijing, the Chinese government is said to be looking Read More...
21 Comments

Something to worry the Darfur activists

Posted Tuesday, April 08, 2008 10:15 PM by will
Imagethief just dragged his weary self off of the eleven hour flight from Beijing to San Francisco, where he is spending a couple of hours before connecting on to San Diego. Having been following the what's been following around the Olympic Torch Relay Read More...
13 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

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...
33 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
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