· December, 2008

Stories about Chinese from December, 2008

The Death of Ai Iijima, the End of an Era

For many men in Taiwan, this Christmas Eve was a day of regret and disappointment. It is not because that at this eve some of us would need to spend a significant amount money to please our lovers--thanks to the endless bombing from merchants and commercials. And neither it is because that others would be upset due to lack of lovers for the holiday--yes, for most people, Christmas in Taiwan is more like Valentine's Day--perhaps the forth or the fifth one. It is that in the era of closure on any discussion of sex issues, an ex-AV porno Japanese actress who accompanied us during much of our private time, and later successfully transformed into an entertainer in show business, was found dead in the afternoon at her house in Shibuya, Tokyo: her name is Ai Iijima.

28 December 2008

Taiwan: Winners of Citizen Journalism Award

Peopo, a unique and successful citizen media project presented by Taiwan's Public Television Service(PTS), just announced the second Citizen Journalism Award winners. The five video reports are about the disaster...

23 December 2008

China: Nationwide Teachers’ Strike

Since this October, teachers in Sichuan, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong went on strike, demanding a salary raise. According to local media report, the strike started from Sichuan...

19 December 2008

China: Commissioner scrutinized by netizen detectives

Zhou, Commissioner of Housing Bureau in Nanjing, stopped developers from cutting down the real estate price, claiming it was for the sake of people. But rebukes never stop as what people expect is right the opposite. Netizen detectives set out to run after clues of corruption from past news reports and pictures, from which two crucial evidences show up: cigarettes and watches. They even find out that he has a brother who is exactly a developer.

18 December 2008

When you've been in Taiwan too long

SpinalCord shared an absolutely hilarious but also down to earth article exemplifying the most possible outcome in 261 items if a foreigner stays in Taiwan for too long…

15 December 2008

China: Charter 08, to be free and fearless

At the Eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Dec 10, 303 prominent intellectuals and human rights activists in China, jointly...

15 December 2008

Hong Kong: Pride Parade 2008 – Celebrate Love

In this coming weekend (13 of December), a coalition of civic groups will organize a pride parade to celebrate diverse love expression. Although Hong Kong is a global city, to organize this parade is not easy at all, the government, public service sector and conservative Christians do not even try to hide their discrimination.

12 December 2008

Taiwan: police evict Wild Strawberries

In the early hours of this morning police forcibly evicted students from the Wild Strawberry movement [report also in Chinese (zh)] from Freedom Square in Taipei. The students had maintained...

11 December 2008

China and France: Boycott of French Goods

On December 1, an article appeared in China.com urging a nationwide boycott against French product in order to protest against the meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Dalai Lama....

10 December 2008

China: Protestors and petitioners penned up into madhouse

It is a story about petitioning, protest and madhouse. Reading the story, I am almost drowned by a sense of desperation infused in what Mr. Sun has gone through all these years, but also very much touched by Mr. Shi’s courage to expose such a scandal to public. I know, this would be a story worth record, and translation.

8 December 2008

Taiwan: President out of mind?

Social activist Wobblies says on his twitter(zh): “Knowing that Ma refused Dalai Lama's visit to Taiwan, I began to think that my father's friend is correct. He said that this...

4 December 2008

Taiwan: Newspaper for the Immigrants

Bao Bon Phuong, a unique immigrant-focussing Vietnamese newspaper celebrates its second year from its first issue in Dec. 2006. On its blog(zh), the editor 張正 Zhang Zheng writes : “Everyday,...

4 December 2008

Hong Kong: Murphy’s Law

Erynnyes from Those were the days said that the SAR government in Hong Kong is under the spell of Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Any...

3 December 2008

Taiwan: HIV+ Bloggers’ Love for Life

For most of the bloggers in Taiwan and around the globe, Dec 1st is World AIDS Day, but for HIV+ bloggers everywhere, everyday is AIDS day. Two days ago I yelled on my personal twitter: "Does anyone know any HIV Positive bloggers?" I soon received a reply.

1 December 2008

China: AIDS blogger Li-xiang's unextraordinary life

Now about 30, he contracted AIDS in a blood donation when he was only a high school student. He started blogging in 2005, writing about his life, ideas, and occasionally HIV treatment. He loves beautiful girls, and has a girlfriend. He is now more a social worker than merely a patient, and always inspires his fellow patients with a light heart. But there are no less depression, desperation, and people's indifference, even open insult left on his blog. This is Li-xiang, an AIDS blogger.

1 December 2008

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Oiwan Lam
Oi wan Lam is the North East Asia editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.