The Chinese media is buzzing about the possibility that eating dogs and cats might be made illegal. But is that what the Animal Cruelty Law really says?
Canadian citizen Fan Lixin (范立欣) has made a documentary that spans the years 2007 to 2009, focusing on an old couple's journey back to Guang'an city, Huilong village (回龙村) in Sichuan from the factories of Guangzhou. The documentary, made with over one million dollars in funding, will have wide release in foreign countries, but not in mainland China. In a Southern Weekly culture feature, Fan, the director, says: "There is a complex economic chain between the rich lifestyles of developed countries and the hard work of Chinese peasants who are trying to survive. At the two ends of the chain, neither party understands the other."
In 2007, on the CCTV documentary program Jishi (or 纪事 Chronicles), Fan contributed a section about the story of elder brother Zhang and elder sister Chen, which began the seed of the documentary Last Train Home (归途列车). The Southern Weekly culture feature goes on to say:
The plan [to then make the documentary] was favored and in the end was awarded funding from the Canadian government, funding from the cultural department of Quebec, funding from the Amsterdam International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival funding and the support of US independent TV ITVS. Together with the prior purchase of broadcasting rights by the UK's Channel 4, France's TV5 and a fee-charging HD TV station in Canada, Last Train Home filming budget reached one million dollars. For many Chinese filmmakers, this amount is quite extravagant.
Fan has been accused of taking foreign money, and even university professors have said (quote in the Southern Weekly piece) after watching his film that taking one million dollars means allowing foreigners to instill their economic and political viewpoints. But Fan's response is:
He gave an example: my mother is sick, and I give her a bowl of medicine, the medicine is really bitter. "She slaps me, this is so bitter, why are you making me drink it. As her son, do I continue advising her to drink it, or do I say that she's not really ill, and then pour the medicine away?"
Southern Weekly went on to interview Fan and his Chinese producer, Zhao Qi (赵齐). They talk about finding a route into other countries' TV programming with a film about the "real China."
US President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union Address Wednesday night in Washington, DC, too late to be covered in Chinese newspapers on Thursday.
Today, the Global Times ran its report on the address on the front page under a headline that put Obama's references to China in the context of a domestic-targeted speech:
Obama urges America not to settle for second place First State of the Union Address focuses on employment; namechecks China and India to push for national unity
The article quoted the two places China was mentioned in the speech. The first appeared in a section discussing high-speed railways and other advanced infrastructure:
There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.
The second:
You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China is not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany is not waiting. India is not waiting. These nations -- they're not standing still. These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They're making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs. Well, I do not accept second place for the United States of America.
The remainder of the article was devoted to summarizing the international reaction to the speech and recapping recent polls showing the American public dissatisfied with the direction the country is headed.
The Global Times' Chinese-language website is running its own poll asking readers "Do you believe that China is headed in the right direction?" Currently, 76.9% of respondents (or 1,496 votes) have answered in the affirmative.
Hengyuanxiang, a wool clothing brand notorious for its annoyingTV commercials, is involved a legal wrangle with a crafty independent businessman who claims that an image used by the company infringes on his trademark.
Yu Wenqing, the owner of the Xingyelong Garments Company Changshu, Jiangsu Province, filed his lawsuit after discovering that Hengyuanxiang was selling shirts bearing a stylized sheep's head logo — actually a character found on ancient bronzes — that he registered as a trademark in 2002. Yu is seeking 10 million yuan in compensation.
Hengyuanxiang countersued, claiming that it had created the logo in 1997 and registered it with the copyright office in 2002. The company initially sought 4,000 yuan in compensation, but amended its claim before trial to 500,000 yuan.
But as the dispute between the two companies is more than just a simple trademark infringement case, the Yangtse Evening Post reports:
Forty-four year old Yu Wenqing is the head of a private enterprise in Changshu whose Xingyelong Garments Co, Ltd. was founded in 1999. It signed a franchise contract with Hengyuanxiang to take on the manufacture and sales of Hengyuanxiang-branded jacked and sports parkas in 2001, and the company expanded in size. However, Xingyelong was investigated by commerce bureaus in Harbin, Shanghai, and Chengdu for producing fake Hengyuanxiang-branded products, and in March 2006, the two ended their relationship when Hengyuanxiang decided to remove Xingyelong as a contract manufacturer.
Xingyelong had more than one hundred people on staff at that time, and Yu Wenqing had already decided to create his own brand. What no one knew at the time was that the company had registered a sheep's head trademark in November, 2001. The registration was approved in 2003, and the trademark was transferred to Yu himself in 2004. After the end of the Hengyuanxiang partnership, Xingyelong began to use the logo in large quantities on its own branded products.
Yu revealed that he chose to file his lawsuit in November 2009 because according to Article 41 of the Trademark Law, "any person disputing a registered trademark may, within five years from the date of approval of the trademark registration, apply to the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board for adjudication." "More than five years have passed since our trademark was approved, so I am confident that I will win this suit. Everything is being done according to the law."
On the website of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce's Trademark Office, this reporter found the sheep's head in question registered to a person named "Yu Wenqing" for use on twenty-five items including clothing, shoes, and hats. Apart from the sheep logo itself, this reporter also found that 羊 (sheep) and 羊羊羊 [a slogan used by Hengyuanxiang] were registered for use on twenty-five items; the registrants were companies in Fujiang and Zhejiang, but did not include Hengyuanxiang.
L-to-R: Bronze character as shown in dictionary; Hengyuanxiang's "artistic work"; image from Yu Wenqing's trademark registration
Not long after partial Internet was restored to Xinjiang, and text messaging was restored on January 17, a report emerged about criminal detentions of different people using text message to spread "harmful" information, affecting ethnic unity.
Xinjiang Tianshannet (新疆天山网) reports:
After January, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has seen a gradual recovery of the Internet and text messaging, as well as international communication services, giving different ethnic groups convenient methods for communication. But there has also been individuals who have used mobiles to make up and spread harmful information on purpose, and to a certain extent create social unrest, affecting social stability and ethnic unity. In recent days, the Public Security department has repeatedly received reports by ordinary people and has found cases where mobile phones are used to write and spread harmful information, have investigated and prosecuted a group of criminals who went against the law.
On January 17th, Ma XX sent text messages with content about splitting the country to numerous mobile phones. After sending the text message, he received a notice from China Telecom rejecting the spread of harmful information. But Ma XX did not take note and continued to send text messages to other people containing writing about splitting the country. The Public Security department, after receiving reports from the masses, quickly caught Ma XX. At present, Ma XX is in criminal detention. The case in being investigated further.
On January 20, An XX sent a text message to his friend lying about the situation of the police, disturbing social security. The Public Security department legally punished this person.
On January 18, the Public Security department caught Zhou XX, an university student who was using mobile phone text messages to spread rumors. Zhou XX candidly confessed writing terrorist messages and spreading it. As he was still a student, the Public Security department, according to the law, gave him a light punishment.
According to the Law of Public Order Management (治安管理处罚法) and the Criminal Law (刑法) any work unit and individual is forbidden from using the Internet to make up rumors, slander, publish and spread harmful information. A person who on purpose disseminates rumors and lies about epidemics and hazards, and police situations to disrupt public order; make up terrorist information, or when they know it's made-up terrorist information but still disseminates it on purpose, seriously disturbs public order, affects the stability of public order, damages the unity of the people, and will have to take legal responsibility according to the law.
The Autonomous Region's Public Security office has stated, for using the Internet and tools such as mobile messages to make up and disseminate harmful information, the Public Security department will investigate in full and punish according to the law. At the same time calling for everyone to make a unified and stable Xinjiang, and a good environment of public order needs to be sustained by everyone. They hope that the different ethnic groups and people of different circles will not believe the rumors, will not spread rumors, will not create rumors and use the Internet is a civilized way. They will automatically reject bad mobile messages and when discovering an Internet or mobile message that contains harmful information, will report locally to 110 in a timely fashion.
The mainland media is buzzing with reports about a draft law on the prevention of cruelty to animals.
Judging from the critical response the draft is already generating online and in the print media, the law will not be an easy one to pass. Originally titled "Animal Protection Law," the present title was adopted after the drafters received feedback from people who felt that talk of "animal protection" and "animal welfare" was hard to accept: "They felt that it was more important right now to protect the people's welfare," said Chang Jiwen, director of the Social Law Research Department at CASS.
Article nine of the draft law was the most eye-catching part:
This reporter learned that the Cruelty to Animals law (draft for expert feedback) states that for individuals, the illegal consumption or sale of the meat of dogs or cats may result in a fine of up to 5,000 yuan, up to 15 days in prison, and a signed statement of repentance; companies or organizations can be fined between 10,000 and 500,000 yuan. Supervision will be undertaken by public security agencies, which will set up a uniform hotline and assign responsibilities to other departments.
Following the Chongqing Evening News' lead, most news outlets ran their reports under headlines like "Dog meat eaters will face up to 15 days in jail." Driven by the framing on news portals, the section on cats and dogs attracted the most animated discussion online.
Some commentators questioned whether people in northeast China, where dog meat is part of ethnic Korean cuisine, and in Guangdong, where dogs and cats are eaten for their purported medicinal properties, will submit to the eating habits of the rest of the country. Others called the law an example of the blind adoption of western ethical standards without regard for China's cultural context.
According to a poll reproduced in today's Information Times, 64% of more than 37,000 respondents to an online poll were dubious about the appropriateness and enforceability of the provisions.
However, the Oriental Morning Post reported today that initial media reports had misinterpreted the draft law by overlooking the word "illegal":
Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn, January 27, 2010 10:19 AM
Danwei's event tonight on the future of mobile media is now fully booked and registration is closed.
Today we published the last in a series of short Q&A pieces with media and digital experts. Today's answers are by Richard Robinson.
Robinson is founder and CEO of Kooky Panda mobile gaming company and a serial China tech entrepreneur dating back to the first dot com boom when he co-founded Renren.com. He is also the man behind ChopSchticks, which organizes stand up comedy events in China.
1. What will the biggest thing in mobile media in 2010 be? Media includes games, news, apps, video, podcasts, SMS novels etc. etc. An information or entertainment product that can be viewed, played or interacted withon a mobile phone.
If you look at Japan after the uptake of 3G, then gaming and novels saw huge increases. Video has been mainly a disappointment (can't really even make money online...) and apps will continue to grow, but I think in the longterm the whole app store concept will lose steam and most everything will be done through the browser just as it's done in Japan and in the PC based internet universe.
2. How is the job market going to change because of mobile media?
Hmm, in the short term I don't see any dramatic changes, but according to a Morgan Stanley Mobile Internet Report by Mary Meeker, mobile internet will be more than double the size of fixed line internet in the coming years so that rising tide will lift all boats and increase the overall market size directly affecting jobs of course.
3. What type of companies will make money? Examples?
The bigger, established players like Kong Zhong and QQ will continue to do well in the mobile space and I believe that the mobile gaming companies focusing on socially connected mobile games will virtual items will do well also.
As one of China's most prominent film directors, Zhang Yimou has no shortage of critics who try to top each other in their put-downs of his latest screen efforts. The same goes for Zhang's off-screen activities as well: the Olympic opening ceremony had its share of detractors, and neither of his recent operas — an adaptation of Turandot for the Forbidden City and a staging of The First Emperor at the Met — was a resounding success.
Now Zhang's involvement in outdoor music and lights extravaganzas has drawn sharp criticism from the vice-mayor of a city in southern China.
In 2003, Zhang directed "Impression: Liu Sanjie," an adaptation of a Zhuang myth staged against the fabulous scenery of Yangshuo, Guangxi. The performance was a boon to local tourism and led to four more "Impression" productions and countless imitations across the country.
Not all of them have been successful, writes Jiang Zongfu (姜宗福), vice-mayor of Linxiang, a city within Yueyang, Hunan Province. In a caustic essay posted on the Rednet BBS on January 22, Jiang accused Zhang and his collaborators of creating productions that were far too large for the tourist spots where they were staged, collecting substantial fees while leaving local governments and businesses holding the bill.
Today's Modern Express summarized Jiang's argument. His entire post is translated below:
Zhang Yimou is No Savior; Do Not Create "Impressions" Blindly
by Jiang Zongfu, vice-mayor of Linxiang / Rednet
Not long ago, I went around to a number of tourist destinations across the country in search of the secret to improving tourism in Linxiang. Everywhere I went, my hosts made special arrangements for me to see an outdoor performance set against a scenic backdrop, and the more of them I saw, the heavier my heart felt. The crush of "Impressions" with their humongous investment and clichéd performances have thrown the country's tourist destinations into chaos. And the bedlam is in no small part thanks to Zhang Yimou!
William A. Callahan is Professor of International Politics and China Studies at the University of Manchester, and Co-Director of the British Inter-University China Center at Oxford University. His recent publications include Cultural Governance and Resistance in Pacific Asia (2006) and Contingent States: Greater China and Transnational Relations (2004). Professor Callahan gave permission for an extract from his latest book, China: The Pessoptimist Nation, and kindly wrote the introduction below. The book is available from OUP and Amazon.
China: The Pessoptimist Nation shows how the heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Through a careful analysis of how Chinese people understand their new place in the world, the book charts how Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings in a dynamic that intertwines China’s domestic and international politics. China thus is the pessoptimist nation where national security is closely linked to nationalist insecurities.
China: The Pessoptimist Nation; extract from Chapter One
by William A. Callahan
Many credit (or blame) Samuel P. Huntington for making us think about the international role of civilizations in the post-Cold War era. But civilization has been an enduring theme in Chinese discussions of foreign policy and world order for millenia. As we saw at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics, China’s concept of civilization provides a national aesthetic that unites elite and mass views of identity and security in the PRC. This book will show how China’s current structure of feeling that looks to national pride and national humiliation is an outgrowth of China’s “Civilization/barbarian distinction” [Huayi zhi bian]. Both of these structures of feeling work to integrate the party-state’s propaganda policy with grassroots popular feelings.
China’s domestic policy of “harmonious society” and its foreign policy of “peacefully rising” in a “harmonious world” are both based on the idealized view of Chinese civilization as open to the world, and tolerant of outsiders. Hua, which has come to mean both “civilization” and “Chinese,” more literally means “magnificent” and “flourishing,” and is a homonym for “transformation.” Rather than seeking to conquer those who violently challenged it, we are often told how China’s magnanimous civilization inclusively embraced difference1. Even when China itself was conquered by outsiders, the attractiveness of Chinese civilization was able to assimilate non-Han groups: nomadic Mongolians were transformed into the Yuan dynasty that built Beijing’s Forbidden City. Pre-modern China thus utilized the soft power of Confucian rituals to unify All-under-Heaven [Tianxia] through attraction rather than conquest. The PRC’s current foreign policy, we are told, likewise is based on the “Peaceful Orientation of Chinese Civilization.”2
The story of Zheng He is presented as prime example of how China’s peaceful rise will, to quote Zheng Bijian, “transcend the traditional ways for great powers to emerge.”3 While European imperial fleets smuggled opium and established colonies, Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He’s massive fleet explored Asia and Africa on seven voyages of peace and friendship. Beijing now promotes this positive view of Chinese power both at home and abroad: to celebrate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He’s first voyage, in 2005 China’s State Council designated the day Zheng began his first voyage as a new national holiday: July 11th is now “Navigation Day.” China Central Television celebrated the first Navigation Day with an eight-episode documentary, and China’s post office issued a special commemorative stamp. Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui explains the contemporary significance of Zheng He’s voyages by stressing how they “promoted the peaceful co-existence of various civilizations, demonstrating China’s cultural tradition of friendship in international relations.”4
Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn, January 26, 2010 10:33 AM
Danwei's event tomorrow night on the future of mobile media is now fully booked and registration is closed. From now until Wednesday, we will publish short Q&A pieces with media and digital experts, thoughts on the future of the media industry in a 3G world.
Today's answers are from Tangos Chan, Vice President at China Growth Capital and editor of the China Web Radar blog. His answers in Chinese are on the Opposite House blog.
1. What will the biggest thing in mobile media in 2010 be? Media includes games, news, apps, video, podcasts, SMS novels etc. etc. An information or entertainment product that can be viewed, played or interacted withon a mobile phone.
As more mobile phones with better functions emerge onto the market, more users will see mobile phones as a tool for getting onto the Internet.
So on the whole, wireless services based on the Internet will be welcomed by users, especially wireless SNS and wireless social games. And in 2010, microblogging services hosted on web portals such as Sina mocroblogging might drive Twitter-type instant information services to explode in the wireless applications sphere.
2. How is the job market going to change because of mobile media?
Most Internet providers will place more emphasis on mobile phone users in 2010, so they will need to develop wireless applications or interfaces, and drive the need in recruitment markets for talented people in wireless development or designers of wireless applications/interfaces and testers.
At the same time because Android mobiles and iPhones are increasingly used by Mainland users, developers who base themselves around these two operating systems will be welcomed.
What type of companies will make money? Examples?
The spread of wireless will mean that more wireless advertising services will be needed and these companies, like Madhouse, will benefit. An increase in demand for wireless application software may drive the development of download websites for wireless applications. Developers for wireless social games will benefit from the increased use of wireless SNS.
We have already learned China's local level tourism authorities are capable of coming up with the wackiest ideas when it comes to marketing.
To their credit, the tourism bureau of Zhangjiajie in Hunan just announced earlier today that the reputed "South Pillar of the Heaven" (南天一柱) aka "Pillar between Heaven and Earth" (乾坤柱), a 150 meter tall rock which is supposedly the archetype of sci-fi movie Avatar's fantasy world, was rechristened to "Hallelujah Mountain" － a tribute to Cameron's sensational blockbuster as well as a smart ploy that has the potential of raking in tens of millions of foreign tourist dollars.
According to Song Zhiguang, the director of the scenic area management committee:
"... the renaming is not xenophilia. We are simply trying to be accommodating to people's wishes. Zhangjiajie is the world's natural heritage. The gorgeous beauty of it doesn't only belong to the Chinese people, it also belongs to the whole world. By changing the name from South Pillar of the Heaven to Hallelujah Mountain, we are sending a message: Zhangjiejie doesn't only belong to the world, it embraces the world!"
Google’s recent moves in China have captured global attention about censorship and Internet controls in China, eliciting protests from inside and outside China.
But there is a much more entertaining protest about China’s web controls circulating on the Internet–”网瘾战争 War of Internet Addiction”. It is an hour long video, “shot” almost entirely with in-game video from World of Warcraft, satirizing the government’s attempt to “harmonize” China’s Internet with forced installations of “Green Dam Youth Escort” and the travails of Chinese World of Warcraft players over the last several months. It is quite brilliant.
The first part of the video, with English subtitles, is embedded below. You can find links to China-hosted versions of the video without subtitles on Tudou.com on Digicha.
Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn, January 25, 2010 4:26 PM
Danwei's event on Wednesday this week on the future of mobile media is now fully booked and registration is closed. From now until Wednesday, we will publish short Q&A pieces with media and digital experts, thoughts on the future of the media industry in a 3G world.
Today's piece is by Benjamin Joffe. He is a veteran of the mobile and Internet industries in Japan, Korea and China. He is the founder of Plus Eight Star, a cross-market and cross-culture strategy & innovation consulting company specializing in Asian telecom and Internet.
1. What will the biggest thing in mobile media in 2010 be? Media includes games, news, apps, video, podcasts, SMS novels etc. etc. An information or entertainment product that can be viewed, played or interacted with on a mobile phone
App stores will take quite some time to spread but have good potential, maybe rather in 2011.
Games and mobile communities are the two that should grow most.
Video and podcast will remain confidential due to limited appeal and high data usage bringing an unsatisfactory user experience.
Despite strong usage initially, mobile novels might have a problem with content moderation.
2. How is the job market going to change because of mobile media?
I don't think mobile media is going to create so many jobs - also many mobile industry people lost theirs when regulation changed a few years ago - but job seekers might use mobile to find various jobs!
Three years ago in Japan I remember discussing with a soon-to-graduate student who was using her mobile to get job offers forwarded. It can surely be done in China using SMS and WAP as data plans are becoming cheaper.
3. What type of companies will make money? Examples?
Mobile gaming, mobile SNS companies can leverage virtual goods.
Mobile advertising continues to grow with data usage and as ad agencies learn more about mobile.
Pure ad-based media mobile services will have a hard time, while mobile could become extensions of existing media properties, increasing their reach. China Mobile already distributes widely (to millions of users) a daily mobile newspaper!
The wild card: maybe location-based communities will have a chance? Two services, FourSquare and Gowalla are getting many excited in Silicon Valley based on this concept - I think they would require significant improvements to work as businesses, but usage might grow in China too once local entrepreneurs figure how to "culturize" them.
Today's award for "most out of touch newspaper" goes to the Yangzhou Times, which has finally discovered the Grass Mud Horse more than a year after it exploded onto the Chinese Internet.
The Grass Mud Horse (草泥马), an alpaca repurposed for use as a juvenile pun on a common curse (操你妈), appeared in online games, hoax dictionary entries, and online forums, and then made the leap to the real world in the form of plush toys. But it's been many months since netizens have gotten worked up about the animal's antics.
The Zhuyuwan Zoo in Yangzhou has just acquired a pair of three-year-old alpacas from Hangzhou, and the Yangzhou Times anticipates the animals receiving more attention in the upcoming Year of the Tiger than the zoo's tigers.
The article inside follows the same basic model as a report aired on Beijing TV last March: a description of the weird creature, an amused reference to its popularity among Internet users, and a brief explanation of how it came to China.
Naturally, there's no mention of the dirty pun that made it all possible.
Earlier this month, Beijing's subway operating company announced that it would no longer allow newspapers to be sold inside subway stations. Increasing passenger volume, it said, had made in-station news-stands a safety risk.
However, the Beijing Daily Messenger, which has a close relationship with the subway, would still be permitted to continue its free distribution inside the stations. Naturally, Beijing's other papers were furious at this decision, and the general public was not too thrilled to find its reading choices suddenly curtailed.
After nearly two weeks of criticism, the Beijing Subway announced that it was amending its order. On Thursday, a press spokesperson announced three changes it would be making to the way it currently handles newspaper distribution:
Where space permits, erect newsstands outside the entrance to stations;
Following a safety evaluation, standardized newspaper sales and other commercial services may be permitted in stations on new lines;
Free distribution of the Beijing Daily Messenger will be moved from the stations themselves to ground level.
The Beijing Times recorded a conversation with Jia Peng, the subway's spokesperson:
1. What will the biggest thing in mobile media in 2010 be? Media includes games, news, apps, video, podcasts, SMS novels etc. etc. An information or entertainment product that can be viewed, played or interacted withon a mobile phone.
Mobile SNS and mobile game (thinking of DeNA of Japan)
2. How is the job market going to change because of mobile media?
Mobile media is definitely changing the job market: more mobile application development companies and individuals will emerge; ISP and phone manufacturers will seriously spend more effort on app stores and educating the market; IT companies (media, SNS, video, search etc.) need to better understand the market and find the best way to extend their services on mobile devices; etc.
Mobile media will soon be the battle field for everyone. But in 2010, I am sure how much impact it will have.
3. What type of companies will make money? Examples?
a) Mobile portal site or mobile search portals, such as 3g.cn or other web search engine, like Baidu;
b) Mobile browsers, such as UCWeb;
c) Mobile game operators, such DeNA in Japan;
d) Mobile ads, probably MadHouse in China or AdMob of Google.
Two senior officials of the Chinese Football Association have been detained by police in connection to a match-fixing scandal.
Soccer News ran its report directly on the front page under the matter-of-fact headline "Investigators take in Nan Yong." Also detained was CFA vice-president Yang Yimin. Nan and Yang were questioned by investigators on January 15 and subsequently taken into custody.
Professional football in China has long been plagued by bribery and corruption, and authorities have been cracking down over the past two months. Late last November, sixteen people, including players, coaches, and officials, were arrested.
And earlier this month, the State Council established a supervisory committee to spearhead the fight against football corruption. Ironically, Yang Yimin was the CFA official who spoke about the committee to the media, as in this Global Times report:
Yang Yimin, vice president of the Chinese Football Association said that under the supervision of the committee, scandals like illegal gambling and "black whistles" where referees are bribed can be avoided.
Also with the involvement of Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the interests of football players can be effectively protected.
A Soccer News sub-head also notes that Jia Xiuquan, the former coach of Shanghai's Shenhua squad, has "disappeared." Jia is the most prominent coach to be ensnared in the current anti-corruption campaign.
Details are still a little fuzzy. The Yangtse Evening Post had a slightly different take on the situation in its snazzier front-page layout: Nan Yong and Yang Yimin are both "missing," while Jia Xiuquan (identified as former coach of the national under-17 team) has been detained by investigators.
Other reports, including an article in the China Daily, add Zhang Jianqiang, an official "formerly in charge of referee arrangements [who] now oversees women's soccer at the CFA," to the list of those detained.
Posted by Joel Martinsen, January 21, 2010 2:25 PM
Qingyuan Daily: It's only good if the readers say so
The first issue of the new year is traditionally a time for newspaper editors to address their readership directly and either recap the achievements of the past year, or lay out some vague goals for the coming one.
On January 1, the Qingyuan Daily, the mouthpiece of the party committee of a city in northern Guangdong Province, ran the following New Year's greeting under the byline of editor-in-chief Pan Wei:
We're Working Hard for Reader Praise
by Pan Wei / QD
The mockup of the final newspaper of 2009 has been reviewed, and another year has come to a close. Another year of hard work for my colleagues and I. Why all of the effort and hard work? One simple reason: reader praise.
What sort of praise?
Praise to the face is flattery; praise from a friend is favoritism; praise from leaders is encouragement; praise from myself means that I feel fine.
So what kind of praise, then?
Third parties. In mid-October, 2009, at a head-to-head competition held during the Ninth National Newspaper Editors Seminar on News Photography and Summit on 60 Years of New China News Photography, this newspaper was awarded third prize in the National Outstanding Newspaper Photo-Feature Award. It was one of just sixteen papers at the national, provincial, and prefecture levels, and one of three prefecture-level papers, to receive an award. Jury-member Gu Zhigang, a professor at Fudan's School of Journalism, said, "Qingyuan Daily grasps the essence of news photography — high impact — and represents the future direction of the news pages of municipal party newspapers. Qingyuan Daily's creative vision takes shape in its pages to grip readers' attention. It is a worthy model for other municipal party papers to study."
Colleagues. The head of the Shaoguan Daily, located like us in northern Guangdong, said last month that he was envious of two things we had: a newspaper run with a degree of culture, and a large number of high-quality advertisements.
Businesses. Ad clients say that a good newspaper is one with effective distribution. So a newspaper with lots of ads is a good newspaper.
The editor-in-chief of this newspaper says: the best newspaper is one that does not cause trouble.
My colleagues and I wish the readers of Qingyuan Daily a happy new year!
Southern Weekly, which picked up the editorial in its January 7 issue after Pan's final words had caused a stir online, offered some quotes from other media workers:
"When I first saw the piece, I thought it was a fake and went to check it out in the Qingyuan Daily itself," said He Xiongfei, editor of New Weekly. He located the New Year's greetings in the newspaper's electronic edition. "I don't think most journalists would think that way."
"A good newspaper is one whose reports are responsible and are beneficial to society. Whether or not they cause trouble is absolutely not the measurement,' said Zhan Jiang, a media scholar, said that the editor's remarks were ridiculous. "To quote Marx, newspapers work tirelessly to expose those in power. In asking politicians to run newspapers, our government requires that they supervise; it does not ask them to avoid trouble. At no time can they brush aside a newspaper's task of supervision by public opinion."
Journalist Wang Qianma found it hard to express his feelings on the subject. "For an editor-in-chief to say such a thing, I can only say that he's preserving his meal ticket but abandoning his professional integrity." Zhang Tiehui, marketing director of China National Radio's Voice of the Economy program, ridiculed the piece: "Newspapers that don't cause trouble are the best toilet paper."
William A. Callahan's China: The Pessoptimist Nation: China: The Pessoptimist Nation shows how the heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Through a careful analysis of how Chinese people understand their new place in the world, the book charts how Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings in a dynamic that intertwines China's domestic and international politics.
The WTO ruling: a half victory at best: In August 2009, a World Trade Organization panel ruled against China's system of monopoly control over entertainment products. Was this the victory supporters hailed as the dawn of a new day for American and global entertainment companies in the China market?
Urban China: Work in Progress: Urban China: Work in Progress published by Timezone 8 is a collection of works based on Urban China magazine. Below, its editor Brendan McGetrick gives us permission for an extract as well as a section from his own introduction to the book.
+ People: Lolita Hu (2004.07): Novelist, essayist, editor of Playboy, frequent traveller to India: Lolita Hu life does not match with what you imagine when you first hear her English name.
+ Chinese reggae pioneers (2004.03): Maybe Chinese doctors started using some of the local herbs in their remedies because something different happened in Jamaica: Kingston's Chinese population was involved from the earliest days with the down and dirty ghetto music that became reggae.
(on the mainland)
(blocked in China)
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