Monday, November 10, 2008
There’s more than one way to skin a cat. And there’s more than one way to report a story. For example, will dozens of Chinese-made passenger planes soon be winging their way through the skies of the United States? After this last week’s news, most readers and viewers here in China would probably say yes. […]
How much is 1.9 million yuan? Just under US$280,000. Translated from today’s Southern Metropolis Daily:
Cell phone mysteriously “leaves the country”
3-day bill comes to 1.9 million yuan
Something weird happened to Mr Ding, a company manager in Shenzhen. He hadn’t left China, but his cell phone generated roaming fees in three countries. In just three days, the […]
Saturday, November 1, 2008
I can’t speak, read or write Welsh, so I haven’t got the slightest idea what gyfieithu means. Neither did Swansea council when they put up this bilingual road sign:
From the BBC:
When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.
Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council […]
The National Art Museum of China is taking part in the Heresies Project - a retrospective of Mexican photographer Pedro Meyer. (Today’s the last day if you want to see it.) One visitor wondered what this photograph was about…
…so he looked at the title plate:
搬运工 means porters, dockers or stevedores. Could it be that HIV […]
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Ten Years Chopping Wood wrote quite a sad post the weekend before last about leaving his job at a national newspaper after nine and half years. (Links: original Chinese; translated excerpts in English.)
Quote:
I can’t put together clearly the reasons why I want to end my journalism career now. I got weary of the job several […]
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Just after I posted my translation of three blog posts by Xu Zhiyong about the black jail at the Youth Hotel in Beijing, he and others went back again, trying to secure the release of another petitioner. Once again, the guards resorted to violence. Meng Zhang at Global Voices has translated excerpts from Xu Zhiyong, […]
I love this diagram in so many ways that I shamelessly stole it from Farley Katz at the New Yorker. It’s part of a “Cartoon-off” with Randall Munroe.
Katz draws the Internet, as envisioned by the elderly.
(Message to my Dad: Don’t read any more of this. There are rude bits.)
Speaking of young people on the internet, […]
(See also: Rape and beatings in a Beijing “black jail” hotel)
The Youth Hotel in Beijing which does a side trade in locking up petitioners
Up until 2003, Custody and Repatriation (shourong) centers were used by the big cities to detain people without permits to work and live there before sending them back to where they had […]
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Late September in Beijing:
The Europeans will continue to expect the highest standards, just as China’s own consumers are demanding the same…. But in the meantime I shall continue drinking my own favorite, er, milk, er, product, er, er, which I enjoy and which does not make me nervous.
Early October in London:
Peter Mandelson is in “good […]
Friday, September 12, 2008
New advert for language classes joins older government health warning:
“Teacher Hu’s English CAN SPREAD AIDS“
(h/t Hecaitou)