Stories about East Asia from June, 2006
Myanmar: Google Blocked?
Search Engine Journal links to a Times of India report that mentions Myanmar's blocking of Google's search engine and email service. Referring to China, where Google started a censored local Google.cn service, the editor of Search Engine Journal says “I highly doubt, in this situation, that the blocking of Google...
Philippines: Tourism in Philippines
The blogger at pinoysphere invites reader to check out a Philippines tourism video. The bloggers wonders why Philippines does not feature in people's travel plans. “Asian tourist destinations usually featured in Swiss travel brochures and catalogues include Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, India, and even Laos and Cambodia. The Philippines, inhabited...
Thailand: Persistence Pays
Boon, a recent graduate in Thailand is happy that he stuck by his decision to study a tougher engineering subject even though initially he wanted to switch over to easier alternatives.
Vietnam: Hanoi Food
Noodlepie asks if there is a single Saigonese who loves Hanoi food and manages to stir up an interesting debate.
Indonesia: Jakarta's Next Governor?
Martin Manurang is hoping that an exceptional candidate wins the election for Jakarta's next governor and helps bring in positive change.
China: Senior high reflections
Recent high school graduate le journal de Ahom blogger Ahom Guo finishes up his four-part look back at his high school years with the discovery that his high school is renowned for its progressive approach to education: “Teachers in Xiao-Shi rarely interfere students’ private affairs, meanwhile in other schools, ‘shit...
China: Those left behind
Seen on Andrés Gentry's eponymous blog is a short but wrenching video looking at those left behind in China's mad rush towards development, including video shot by the villagers themselves of those being forcefully evicted and defending themselves from armed attacks by the police.
Hong Kong: Chinese commander charged
Following on the heels of a similar case in Beijing recently, as seen in Nathan Madsen's Xanga blog and Confidential Reporter's Confidential China, a high-ranking naval commander in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has been removed from his post after charges of corruption and keeping mistresses were brought against...
Hong Kong: Shopping technocrats
Given that many goods can be found at lower prices in Hong Kong than in mainland China, is it a surprise that the Flagrant Harbour blogger would bump into the Communist Party of China fourth in command Jia Qinglin's entourage in a shopping mall during the leader's visit there this...
North Korea: Art and nature
“Unlike a lot of North Korean ‘Juche Art’ which tends to give kitsch a bad name, writes the Kotaji blogger of the same name in ‘Art and nature in North Korea.’ “I actually think some of the book covers from the 50s and 60s are rather nice and accomplished pieces...
China: Uyghurs extradited
“The two uighurs (Yusuf Kadir Tohti and Abdukadir Sidik) detained in Kazakhstan and at risk of extradition to China (against international conventions) have, tragically, been extradited to China. They are at risk,” writes Celia at China Activist Weekly, “of torture or even execution.”
Taiwan: Chen corruption scandal
“Is President Chen [Shui-bian] implicated in any of the scandals that have surrounded him lately?” asks Politics From Taiwan blogger David. “Who knows. However, it's encouraging to see that there are real investigations going on into these cases…”
North Korea: Test-fire fears
As fears increase that North Korea will go ahead with plans to test fire a long-range ballistic, North Korea Zone blogger Barry Briggs looks at the situation in ‘Why Haven't They Launched?,’ in which he writes: “if China can prevent the launch, the US will refrain from direct action; which...
China: What expats read
What do expats in China most like to read? The ‘hottest blog’ for June at ChinaBlogList.org was Sex and Shanghai, a British man's explicit accounts of all the woman he has sex with.
China: Tips on raising kids
Shanghai-based Sinosplice blogger John Pasden found a book in a supermarket recently, ‘100 Things Parents Should Not Say To Their Kids,’ and translated a few. Number eleven: “Be careful. If you trip, I'm not going to help you.”
Japan: PM goes to Graceland
Perhaps having realized his trips to the Yasukuni war shrine were losing him votes, as seen on Mutantfrog, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is making a trip to a different, more widely-accepted shrine.
China: Artist-blogger leaves
“Tomorrow I'm leaving Guangzhou again,” writes choreographer-blogger Frances d'Ath at Supernaut. “I'll be back in October.“
Vietnam: Street Dessert
Vietnamese God talks about his favourite street dessert in Saigon.
China: Crazy Football Commentator
Huang Jianxiang , one of the most popular football commentators of China Central Television, or CCTV, has been in the center of a controversy recently seen in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere, for his overexcited comments during a World Cup playoff game, in which Italy won a 1-0...
China: Victims of China's Cultural Revolution, your stories can always be blogged (3/4)
Currently unable in today's political climate to have his years of research into the stories of those persecuted as right wing elements during China's ultra-left Cultural Revolution published, blogger-journalist Ran Yunfei (冉云飞) has since found an outlet in his blog. Last month he gave a lecture on his findings in...
Global Food Blog Report #22
#1: Klephblog, no doubt over-caffeinated, writes "How Coffee changed the Modern World," a great essay about this fruit of the Gods: This wondrous plant is a native of the new world and was sprung on an unsuspecting European public as these shores became colonized in the 15th century. By the...
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