Stories about China from October, 2005
China: Am I A Journalist
EastSouthWestNorth asks: “Am I a journalist?” His answer: “If I wanted to become a traditional journalist, I would have become one. Instead, I became an independent blogger by my own choice because the freedom and style appeal to me.”
China: Shanghai in Pajamas
A new blog has an unhealthy obsession: taking pictures of people wandering Shanghai in their pajamas.
China: Sprucing Up Blogs
Chinese blog service Bokee.com has launched a tour of campuses to teach students how to make more interesting blogs.
Taiwan: Ally Lost
Coming Anarchy comments on Taiwan's latest diplomatic loss: Senegal now recognizes Beijing.
China, Taiwan: Map Mess
When Google Maps labeled Taiwan a province of China, the company received protests from Taiwanese — and anger from China at its efforts to change the label. Then Google removed the legend. But all still doesn't seem right. Angry Chinese Blogger notices the difference between when one searches for Taiwan...
China: Guide to the Blogosphere
China bloggers have been praising China Blog List, a collection of English language weblogs focused on China assembled by John of sinosplice.
Effect Measure on Facing the Global Bird Flu Threat
With recent reports of avian flu in Western Europe, the disease is clearly no longer East Asia's problem. It's a dilemma for the world. Last week I emailed Revere, the pseudonymous leader of Effect Measure, a public health group blog. Since its inception in late 2004, Effect Measure has been covering the global response to avian flu. My goal was to discuss the pandemic fears and what the world -- and ordinary people -- can do to prepare for it.
Revere, an environmental epidemiologist in a senior faculty position at a major research university, has 40 years of experience in medicine and public health. He is also one of the individuals behind the Flu Wiki, an Internet-based experiment in community mobilization and knowledge-pooling to face the feared epidemic. He paints an alarming picture. "If a pandemic is going to happen (and we don't know how to predict if it will or not with certainty), it will happen whatever we do," he writes. "There will be no "outside" for help to come from, so each community needs to prepare to cope on its own." In previous flu pandemics, hundreds of thousands of people went sick or died, leading to massive disruptions as workers failed to show up to work and instead surged into ill-equipped and ill-prepared hospitals ill-prepared.
Revere sees two big tasks ahead: managing the consequences of a potential pandemic, and building (or rebuilding) the world's rotting public health infrastructure.
Taiwan, China, Singapore: Debunking a “History” Book
The View from Taiwan‘s Michael Turton reposts an email from from a National University of Singapore professor critiquing the myths, fabrications and inaccuracies that plague a recent book on the 15th century voyages of the Ming dynasty navy.
China: Power Player
Musing Under the Tenement Palm reads the tea leaves in the probable absence of traditional prisoner releases before George Bush's state visit to China in November.
China: Too Much IP Law
Mutant Frog Travelogue has a paradigm shift: It's not that there's no intellectual property law in China; the problem is that there's too much of it.
East Asia: Bird Flu Fowl
Effect Measure is a blog run by public health experts and epidemiologists. They are very worried about what they call the bird flu iceberg.
Wikipedia Blocked in China
Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia based on collaboration and participation is now blocked in many areas in China. On the main page on Wikipedia in Chinese, a sentence appeared:”Some users in mainland China are finding accessing problem temporarily for unconfirmed reasons”. It also asked the users who can visit the...
China: Guardian Explains, Others Respond
asiapundit rounds up the skeptical reactions to the Guardian‘s explanation that reporter Benjamin Joffe-Walt's exaggerated description of Lu Banglie's injuries at Taishi was caused by temporary insanity. Bingfeng Teahouse helpfully classifies who's on what side of the Taishi affair, and Fons reflects on the end of the foreign correspondent.
Japan: Yasukuni Visit
Yaw and Mog passed by the Yasukuni Shrine during PM Junichiro Koizumi's visit on the anniversary of the interment of fourteen war criminals there and asks what Japan gains by provoking its neighbors. Says vincentvds of Achikochi: “Japanese prime ministers should stay away from Yasukuni.”
China: A Prostitute's Life
Over at WoW, the blog of journalism students at Beijing Foreign Studies University, a fascinating, tragic account of the dashed dreams of a murdered prostitute.
China: One Chinese, Please
Danwei reports on efforts to eradicate non-standard Mandarin (i.e. Hong Kong or Taiwan accents) from mainland TV.
China: Fons on Guardian Beating
On his blog China Herald, Fons Tuinstra explains his fence-sitting position in the increasingly acrimonious debate over the beating of Lu Banglie for bringing Guardian correspondent Benjamin Joffe-Walt to Taishi.
China: Ground control to Major Yang
Yeohaeng Ilgi is in Beijing, watching endless media coverage of the launch of the Shenzhou VI spacecraft in a spooky re-run of 1950s space fever.
China: Trust no-one
ESWN shares his philosophy of blogging, China reporting and critical thinking, saying that no-one gets a monopoly on the ‘truth’, whatever their credentials, especially where this ‘thing’ called China is concerned.
China: Taishi update
ESWN once more rounds up commentary in the China-related blogosphere to recent events in Taishi village, Guangdong province, especially the Guardian‘s report on the beating of Lu Banglie. And Sun Bin flags a report (in Chinese) that is being posted on feedback and comments forms around the Web, giving a...
China: Blogspot unblocked
Danwei reports that Chinese Web users now have access to Blogspot blogs and the Google cache, but suspects the move is a result of more efficient blocking using “forbidden” keywords.
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