Shanghai Scrap

For those who follow these things, there’s been quite a bit of UFO news in the Chinese media over the last week. The fun started on June 23rd, with reports that a UFO had been seen and photographed near Congqing – during a laser light show. Following previous practice in covering UFO sightings, Xinhua reported the story straight-up, no commentary. And then left us hanging with this:

Shanghai UFO Research Center confirmed the pictures were not altered. The director of the center said a team will begin to examine the photos to determine if the UFO is genuine, the report said.

The Shanghai UFO Research Center? I’ve spent the last thirty minutes trying to track down these people, but with no luck. If anybody out there has contact info, I’d be very grateful for it. In the meantime, the diligent researchers at the “Above Top Secret” discussion site seem to have determined that the Congqing UFOs is nothing more than a lens flash.

[Update: A couple of helpful folks left comments providing me with the Shanghai UFO Research Center website, which can be found here.]

Which brings me to last Thursday, and the rather curious declaration – by an astronomer at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing – that UFOs “have been visiting Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province, every five to 10 years for the past three decades.” Shanghai Daily, following the above-mentioned just-the-facts approach to Chinese UFO reporting, drops this fabulous commentary-free history: (more…)

I’ve derived no small amount of pleasure – and blog posts – from the news releases on the official Beijing Olympic website. So, in thanks for more than a year’s worth of material, I am going to humbly offer (and email!) this tip that I hope will enhance Beijing’s reputation as the host of the best – and greenest – Olympics in history:

The National Stadium, or Bird’s Nest, was made from recycled steel!

Just remember: you read it first at Shanghai Scrap.

Now, I’m not sure why I’ve picked up on this fact before Olympic PR Central, especially because – this week – Olympic PR Central has been going out of its way to tell the world about the high-tech steel used to build the Bird’s Nest. Could be that – unlike me – they don’t spend much time following the ebb and flow of China’s steel recycling industry. If they did, they’d know that Wuyang Steel – the manufacturer of the 110mm Q460 steel used in the Bird’s Nest – is also one of China’s leading consumers of scrap steel. For those interested, a photo of Wuyang’s fabulous scrap piles can be found on the company’s website, here. Somewhat unrelated, but … photos of the largest (and longest!) steel scrap piles in China – or the world, for that matter – can be found in Zhangjiagang, and in this photo:

I’m not going to get into this now, but let the recycled Bird’s Nest Steel serve as one more example of the tight connection between environmentally-sound manufacturing and high-quality manufacturing (more Shanghai Scrap thoughts on that topic, here).

I’ve long been an admirer of Evan Osnos and the fine reporting that he’s done for the Chicago Tribune and the New Yorker. He has a keen and subtle eye that finds narratives, and details, where other reporters might only find platitudes.

So it was with some anticipation that I awaited his latest work, “Jesus in China,” ambitiously billed as an examination of the transformative effects of China’s ongoing, and explosive, Christian awakening. Developed jointly by the Chicago Tribune and the PBS Frontline documentary series, the project includes two components: a series of articles published by the Chicago Tribune, and a 30-minute Frontline documentary.

Osnos has received quite a bit of praise for this work, with some going so far as to call it groundbreaking. I’m sorry to say that I disagree. In many ways, in fact, I find “Jesus in China” to be a step backwards from the more nuanced understanding of contemporary Chinese Christianity that has developed over the last few years, especially from reporters (like Jim Yardley of the NYT) willing to delve into the complicated dynamics that exist in today’s “open” church communities. (more…)