Say you’re sitting at home frustrated that China’s Net Nanny (or Great Firewall) has once again prevented you from receiving subscribed feeds to (some of) your favorite podcasts. Or you’re at work, hoping against hope that the Nanny will let you – just this once – see your “authority” ranking on technorati. Or, you’re at…
All posts in Appreciations and Recommendations
The phone’s tapped, anyway
[UPDATE: Non-Dylan fans (who emailed me in regard to this): the headline refers to a lyric in Subterranean Homesick Blues: “… plants in the bed but the phone’s tapped anyway, Maggie says that many say …” For my money, there’s no better example or use of converging, er, technologies than the one that Mr. Bob…
Peng Wei’s Woven Clouds
Imagine a two-meter bolt of silk hung from a ceiling and gently painted with the ghostly image of an ancient Chinese robe swept with images and design elements from the history of Chinese art. Then, imagine a gallery filled with these ghostly garments, these woven clouds. Tonight, September 18, Beijing-based Peng Wei’s “Woven Clouds” opens…
The Pope’s China Letter: First Tangible Results?
UCAN is reporting that the Guizhou Catholic diocese will celebrate the first ordination of a Chinese bishop since the Pope’s letter to China’s Catholics was released on June 30. Father Paul Xiao Zejiang was elected the co-adjutor bishop (with right of succession when the current bishop dies or retires) in October, and the election was…
Danwei’s Model Workers
Earlier this year I established this blog with ideas for three – maybe, four – posts and a list of roughly six blogs that I hoped to recommend to others. Of those, the superb Danwei blog was at the top. Readers may have noticed danwei on my rather short blogroll; regular readers will almost certainly…
My Work is Done Here: Blogger’s Holiday Through September 4
After six increasingly lengthy posts on the subject, I am pleased to announce that Yi Jianlian has finally signed with the Milwaukee Bucks. Congratulations to the Bucks for waiting out their spoiled brat draft pick: you will soon recoup the cost (financial and psychological) of having to send a senior US senator to Hong Kong…
How to Write an Olympics Story
A few months ago I recommended a hysterical post entitled “How to write a China Article” over at Sinocidal. It’s a great piece, and the underlying point is still relevant: namely, there’s a whole lot of bad, hackneyed journalism about China being produced by first-time visitors with large expense accounts. Now, this sort of comment…
The Union is Strong
I’ll be traveling through Sunday and thus a blogging holiday has been declared through Monday, August 20. That is, no blogging for a few days. Two quick items, though, before I disappear: 1. South China Morning Post [subscriber only] is reporting that Shanghai is “dangling incentives such as belly-dancing lessons and free legal advice to…
Yi Jianlian – Walking, Talking Trade Dispute, Pt. 7
I’ve had quite a bit – and maybe too much – to say about Yi Jianlian’s apparent refusal to play for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. But I’m pretty sure that nothing that I’ve said or written was as insightful as what Jonathan Ansfield has to say on the topic over at Spot-On (found via the…
Corruption, Then and Now
Beijing has given the domestic Chinese media wide latitude in covering the recent crackdown on corrupt officials outside of Beijing (most notably, Chen Liangyu, the former party secretary of Shanghai). Partly, at least, in hopes that public recognition of the problem will quell the public’s very real anger at corrupt officials, particularly those involved in…