Stories about Chinese from August, 2009
China and Taiwan: Dalai Lama's visit, inevitably political
Yesterday Dalai Lama arrived in Taiwan on a visit that has been denounced by China. The trip, requested by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to President Ma Ying-jeou, aimed at comforting victims of Typhoon Morakot. Dalai Lama explained in the airport that “I'm a monk. I was asked to say prayers...
Hong Kong: “Compensated Dating” and the use of Pejoratives
The life imprisonment of the “girl butcher” might have halted the case against “compensated dating” in Hong Kong for a while, but what have Hong Kong people learned from the incident? It all started with the conviction of a 17-year-old girl for soliciting compensated dating online. In Hong Kong, it...
Taiwan: Stories of the survivors from Typhoon Morakot
Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan on 8 August. The heavy rain it brought to Taiwan has caused serious damage across the country, with thousands of people evacuated from their homes. Stories abound on the internet.
Ukraine: In Chinese, Yanukovych is Yushchenko?
Evgeny Morozov of Foreign Policy's Net.Effect writes: “It turns out that when you use Google Translate to translate (from Chinese to Russian) the expression “Vote for Yanukovych” (Yanukovych was Kremlin's favorite candidate), Google gives you “Vote for Yushenko” in the translated version. Global conspiracy orchestrated by Google!”
Hong Kong: School drug testing scheme
The Hong Kong government insisted to go ahead in implementing the school drug testing scheme despite a growing concern over its violation of children's rights.
Taiwan: A Hug for Taiwan
Beeside made (zh)a video of his “free hug for Taiwan” campaign after he saw so many tragedies caused by the flood everyday (translation): “At the beginning, it was like other netizens said, people there were merely watching, no one dared to give me a hug. But this situation did not...
Blogging with HIV: “Love is still possible”
A growing number of HIV-positive bloggers around the world are using citizen media to express how they live with the virus, although speaking openly about HIV/AIDS can be difficult.
Taiwan: Southern Taiwan devastated by typhoon Morakot
On Aug. 7, 2009, typhoon Morakot landed on Taiwan. The Central Weather Bureau urged residents in Northern Taiwan to be prepared for the heavy rain and strong wind brought by Morakot. However, it turned out that southern Taiwan has suffered from more devastating landslides and floods when compared with northern...
Taiwan: Typhoon disaster and call for volunteers
Southern Taiwan has been severely affected by floods associated with Typhoon Morakot (颱風莫拉克). Billy Pan posted (zh) a link to a Google Map showing the sites of the disaster (zh) and places where volunteers and assistance are required. On Twitter taiwanfloods is regularly tweeting the latest news about the situation...
China: Prostitutes more trustworthy than government officials
A startling result of an online survey of more than 3,376 people published by Insight China magazine reveals that China's prostitutes are considered by some to be more trustworthy than its politicians, teachers and scientists! The survey found that 7.9% of the respondents considered sex workers trustworthy, placing them third...
China: Han's prejudices and discriminations towards Uyghur
The July 5 Xinjiang riot has passed over a month and the majority of Chinese netizens are still blaming the West and Rebiya Kadeer for promoting Xinjiang separatist movements. Nevertheless, there are some whispering voices popping up here and there in the Chinese Internet, like this one sentence comment at...
Hong Kong: A 10-dollar coin to pledge against political harassment
During the protests over the demolition of Queen's Pier in 2007, two of the preservation activists Ho Loy and Chu Hoi-dick filed a judicial review (30-7-2007) against the secretary for home affair's administrative decision on not declaring Queen's Pier as historical monument according to the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance Cap.53....