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Frivolous Friday: China Beat Goes Hollywood
Frivolous Friday: China Beat Goes Hollywood
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Last year saw some curious news stories appear that linked China with Hollywood, from ones involving Mia Farrow’s critical views of the Beijing regime, to ones reporting Paris Hilton’s trip to Shanghai to attend an MTV awards show, to ones detailing sex scenes being cut from the version of Ang Lee’s film so that it could be showed in the PRC. With these still fresh in China Beat’s mind, this week’s “Frivolous Friday” offering takes the form of quiz, which tests the pop culture acumen and in some cases also the Sinological savvy of our readers. (Answers as well as …
Beijing Olympic Faq #1: Politics And The Olympics
Beijing Olympic Faq #1: Politics And The Olympics
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Last year the International Olympic Committee (IOC) invited me to write an essay on the Beijing Olympics, and “The Beijing Effect” was published in the July-September 2006 issue of The Olympic Review. At the end of that essay I wrote, “China hopes that it will change the Olympic Games, but is the West really open to that possibility? Are we truly ready for ‘One World, One Dream’?” Since that article appeared in the official magazine of the IOC, it is not implausible that Beijing decided to answer my question. On August 8, 2007, Beijing marked the one-year countdown to the …
This Day: The Nanjing Massacre, Kate Merkel-Hess
This Day: The Nanjing Massacre, Kate Merkel-Hess
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
On January 25, 1938, The New York Times ran a single piece about the on-going occupation of the Guomindang capital, Nanjing, by Japanese troops. Hallett Abend wrote for the Times:
“Stripping away all the Japanese excuses about military necessity…the stark fact remains that the conditions in Nanking one month and ten days after the victorious Japanese Army crashed the gates of China’s former capital are so lawless and so scandalous that Japanese authorities continue to refuse permission to any foreigners except diplomatic officials to visit the city…Again on Jan. 7 Japanese authorities apologetically admitted to the writer that conditions in …
Daily Reads—The Sequel: Five Valuable More-Than-Just-China Asia Sites
Daily Reads—The Sequel: Five Valuable More-Than-Just-China Asia Sites
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Last week, our blog-list focused on sites specifically devoted to the PRC or Taiwan, but astute commentaries on and information related to China Beattopics sometimes shows up other kinds of places on the web. With this in mind, we’ll be doing at least two sequels—this one on sites we value that have an Asian focus but are not China-specific, then another later on that deals with sites that have a global purview (but periodically have insightful things to say about Chinese themes).
1. Japan Focus
Since this site’s editor, Mark Selden, is the author or co-author of several important books …
5 Good Short Reads On China Beat Topics–All By People Who Aren’T China Specialists
5 Good Short Reads On China Beat Topics–All By People Who Aren’T China Specialists
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Academics focusing on China, like other area specialists, tend to place a high value on formal training in the language and culture of the place we’ve devoted ourselves to teaching and writing about. We think (and I’m no exception) that most of the best scholarly work on Chinese issues has been done by people with this kind of training. And the people outside of the academy that we pay the closest attention to—journalists, free-lance writers, business commentators, policy analysts, etc.—tend to be those who have had some training in Chinese studies, or know the language and have demonstrated a primary …
Taelspin For Monday, January 21, 2008
Taelspin For Monday, January 21, 2008
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
This past Christmas, AIDS activist and new daddy Hu Jia was arrested by Chinese authorities. He is currently in detention and his lawyers have been denied access, while his wife and newborn son remain under house arrest with extremely tight security. This month a You Tube video appeared, filmed by Hu and his wife last year, that can only be described as “Reality TV for Those Under Government Surveillance.” Rebecca MacKinnon, one of the best bloggers on the media and China today, gives a searing analysis of the situation. For more on Hu Jia, the blog Black and White Cat …
Taelspin For Sunday, January 20, 2008
Taelspin For Sunday, January 20, 2008
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Taelspin will glean the best of the China blogosphere for your reading enjoyment. Suggestions and comments on blogs or posts we missed are always greatly appreciated.
This has been rumored for awhile here in Beijing, but the Angry Chinese Blogger gives the lowdown on the decision by some of the top Olympic teams to avoid staying in Beijing during the games. Reportedly, teams from Europe and America are making arrangements to stay and train in (and this is sure to be particularly galling to the Chinese) Japan out of concerns for pollution, food safety, and other issues. No idea how …
Why China’S Dollar Pile Has To Shrink (Relatively Soon)
Why China’S Dollar Pile Has To Shrink (Relatively Soon)
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
James Fallows has a piece in the February, 2008 Atlantic on what he calls “The $1.4 Trillion Question” – why China continues to accumulate $1 billion a day in relatively low-return American assets (mostly Treasury bills), why this can’t go on forever, and what it could mean if this pattern of investment ends abruptly rather than slowly. On the whole, it’s a good introduction, with some useful background on the people responsible for making the central government’s investment decisions. (The point that one of the two key figures, unlike his counterparts almost anywhere else, has never invested for himself, or …
Following A Recipe: When Op-Ed Pieces On China Go Wrong
Following A Recipe: When Op-Ed Pieces On China Go Wrong
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is visiting Beijing and the Daily Telegraph has a dour op-ed piece written by Bruce Anderson in today’s edition. Anderson argues that China’s reemergence as a great power is not nearly as worrisome as the prospect of China’s failure.
“If China succeeds, there will be a price. The West would lose power. But Chinese success is much the lesser evil. Imagine what would happen if that huge and powerfully armed nation became a failed state.”
Fair as it goes. China is a large, powerful, and nuclear-armed nation. A collapse of the Chinese state would likely …
Self-Promotion Saturday: China’S Brave New World
Self-Promotion Saturday: China’S Brave New World
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
My latest book—and my first that is virtually free of footnotes, includes lots of first-person anecdotes, and has some chapters that combine equal parts historically informed analysis and playful musings—went into production a year ago. At the time, I didn’t realize quite how much of a “best of times, worst of times” year 2007 would turn out to be for the appearance of a work like China’s Brave New World—And Other Tales for Global Times, which strives to offer an alternately serious and whimsical look at ways the PRC and the world at large have been changing.
On the plus …
Frivolous Friday
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Rachel DeWoskin’s Babes in Beijing is only one example of an increasingly frank discussion over the past few years of the experiences of foreign women in China. Anna Sophie Loewenberg, a journalist and filmmaker, has been making videos about her life in China (with particular focus on love) for the past year or so under the title Sexy Beijing. You can find more, including contemporary news briefs, at the Sexy Beijing YouTube page or homepage.
The popular American television show, America’s Next Top Model (hosted by Tyra Banks), took its final episodes to Shanghai and then Beijing last fall. Below, …
Our Daily Reads: Best Of China Blogs
Our Daily Reads: Best Of China Blogs
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
The contributors at The China Beat read a lot of China blogs. Here is a primer of a few of our collective favorites. We welcome you to add your own must-reads (or plug your own blog) in the comments section.
Best One-Stop Source of Information: China Digital Times
Best Media Blog: A tie between Danwei and China Media Project
Best Industry Blog: China Law Blog
Best News Blog: Beijing Newspeak – Written by Chris O’Brien, a language polisher/rewrite artist for Xinhua, a fascinating and frequently hilarious look behind the scenes of Chinese media.
Best Issue Blog: China …
In Case You Missed It: They Chose China
In Case You Missed It: They Chose China
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
In the opening scenes of Shuibo Wang’s 2005 documentary, “They Chose China,” American soldiers dressed in the long, padded winter coats of the Chinese military cluster around a microphone to explain the international threat posed by McCarthy’s witch hunts and U.S. intolerance for freedom and democracy. The documentary tells the story of these twenty-one American soldiers, held as POWs by the Chinese during the Korean War, who refused repatriation after the 1953 armistice.
Through a mix of archival footage, Chinese and American TV clips, and contemporary interviews with one of the few surviving defectors, Wang tries to unearth why the …
Five Good Short Books On China: A Guide For Readers With Limited Attention Spans
Five Good Short Books On China: A Guide For Readers With Limited Attention Spans
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
This list is for an imaginary couple who are about to take their first trip to China and have made it clear to me that they only have a limited amount of time to spend reading up on the country in advance. Or, perhaps better yet, they’ve been honest enough to tell me that they won’t start to read up on China until their plane actually takes off, and they want some ideas of what to cram into the limited space of their carry-on bags. Though busy, these imaginary friends (I do have real ones, but none that have asked …
On The China Beat
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
China has been looming ever larger in the global economy and the global imagination in recent years, and the international chatter about the country hit a crescendo last year with reports about things like lead paint, moon shots, an architectural face-lift in the capital in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games, high growth rates, a rising middle class, and ever sharper divides between haves and have-nots. As China draws more attention from the Western media and its readership, the need for storytellers and interpreters of China has also grown. As China scholars and writers who are concerned about the way …
After The Avalanche
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Most Taiwan observers expected a convincing KMT victory in last Saturday’s Legislative Yuan elections, perhaps even a landslide. What we got was an avalanche, with the KMT garnering 81 of 113 seats (71.68%), as opposed to a paltry 27 for the DPP. The scale of the rout was unprecedented, especially since the KMT ended up with just over 51% of the popular vote, as opposed to approximately 37% for the DPP, numbers that do not differ that dramatically from those of past elections.
A wide range of factors contributed to the DPP debacle, including profound concerns with the slow pace …
Anniversaries: The Rise And Fall Of Wang Mang
Anniversaries: The Rise And Fall Of Wang Mang
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
We subscribe to an online encyclopedia to help one of my sons with homework, and because I placed the order, their “This Day in History” feature comes to my inbox. China rarely figures, which isn’t that surprising. After all, they need brief, punchy items that will catch readers’ attention, and that means items familiar enough to a general audience that a five word title is understandable, and that only three sentences are needed to remind us of what happened and why we should care. So I’m not crusading for “1644: Manchus enter Beijing with the help of Wu Sangui” to …