There is some anger being expressed by Chinese citizens about foreign media reporting on the Tibet protests and violence. To a certain extent it is justified. Showing pictures of Nepali security forces beating Tibetan protesters and labeling those pictures as Chinese violence is at best sloppy, at worst a lie. And I keep wondering why […]
It’s been quite some time since Yahoo mercifully closed down its news discussion boards. Especially at times of crisis, whether real or perceived, they could make you lose almost all faith in humanity. Below is a translation of one Chinese person’s reaction, posted on Woeser’s blog, to the same phenomenon in China. Text in square […]
I was half way through translating a personal account of the situation in Lhasa by a Han Chinese resident when the inevitable happened - ESWN finished it first. Right now, his post is inaccessible on the mainland because of three keywords that trigger the net nanny: J*khang, Ram*che and P*tala (* = o). This is […]
Monday, February 25, 2008
There’s a very impressive collection of flags that has been circulating for some time, showing various interesting and disturbing facts about each of the countries involved. I saw it for the first time last night at ProState in Flames. A quick Google search identifies Icaro Doria, a young Brazilian designer, as one of the creators […]
Thursday, January 31, 2008
A few weeks ago Xinhua’s Chinese-language website ran an article with the headline “US NEWSPAPER: THE OLYMPICS - A MOMENT THAT MAKES CHINA PROUD.” It’s essentially a translation of another article in the Christian Science Monitor from a few days earlier: “THE OLYMPICS IN CHINA: A MOMENT FOR PRIDE - AND WORLD SCRUTINY.” When one […]
Saturday, January 26, 2008
For two years, Beijing Olympic organizers have been telling us that Nini the Fuwa is a swallow:
Every spring and summer, the children of Beijing have flown beautiful kites on the currents of wind that blow through the capital. Among the kite designs, the golden-winged swallow is traditionally one of the most popular. Nini’s figure […]
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The article translated below was published in the summer of 2001 in the Freezing Point supplement of the China Youth Daily. Not long after that, Hu Jia met Zeng Jinyan. Now he’s under arrest, accused of incitement to subvert state power, but there was a time when Hu Jia wasn’t seen as a threat. […]
Saturday, January 19, 2008
I’ve been wondering when someone would post Prisoners in Freedom City on Youtube. Now someone finally has. It’s Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan’s documentary, filmed in 2006, about his house arrest and her being constantly tailed. They turned the tables on the state, filming the very people who were watching over them.
Here’s Part 1. […]
Zeng Jinyan with her two-month-old baby, under house arrest in Freedom City, managed to make a brief appearance on Britain’s Channel 4 News. Video here.
John Kennedy’s translation at Global Voices of early Chinese blog reactions to Hu Jia’s arrest has now been blocked in China, but still available via proxy. So I may as […]
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The BBC’s website has a piece by Michael Bristow about the pop-up notices that appear on our computer screens at CCTV. It’s pretty accurate and gives three true examples. But “pretty accurate” can still be misleading. The problem part of the article is the first two sentences:
When journalists at China’s national broadcaster CCTV log on, […]