· June, 2007

Stories about East Asia from June, 2007

Korea: Media and Business

  30 June 2007

Last June, a reporter at a magazine, Sisa Journal, wrote an article related to Samsung. It was not a good story for the image of Samsung. Through friendship with Samsung and pressure from it, the magazine’s vice-president, who had a position as the president of a Samsung branch newspaper, asked...

Iran:Persepolis pulled from Bangkok Film Festival

Cityboy informs us that the Bangkok International Film Festival dropped Marjan Satrapi's prize-winning animated movie,Persepolis.The blogger says Iranian embassy in Thailand announced that Festival managers responded positively to a request from the Iranian Embassy in Bangkok.The movie follows Satrapi's life through the 1979 Islamic revolution,war and mass executions.

China: New Governmental Organization

  29 June 2007

Lianyue criticized the local non-governmental organization in Xiamen for speaking against conscience and praising the PX project (a huge chemical factory campus) in an interview with foreign reporter (zh). He renamed the NGO into new governmental organization.

China: Western movies insulting Chinese?

  29 June 2007

Chong translated Lu qui lu wei's commentary on the censorship of Pirates of the Caribbean . The censorship department argued that Chow Yun Fat’s character (a Singaporean Pirate) in movies smears Chinese people’s image.

Japan should work with China to tackle photochemical smog problem

  29 June 2007

Some scientists have been arguing that air pollution in China is responsible for increased incidents of photochemical smog in Japan. Kaz points out Japan's responsibility as a nation which suffered its own pollution in the past and says that Japan should build a good working relation with China in order...

China: Luxurious Buildings and Shanxi Bricks

  29 June 2007

CCTV News investigation team asked the Tianya community to submit information concerning extravagant and luxurious building in China (zh). There were many submission. Cha Jing highlighted one of the comments: Without building all these, where to sell all those bricks (produced by slave labour) in Shanxi? (zh)

China: Victims of slave labour

  29 June 2007

Tan Weishan posted some photos of the victims of slave labour in Shanxi brick kiln, one of them lost his legs because of the supervisor abuse. He was dumped in the middle of the mountain in 2002. Eventhough he had won the court case and the brick kiln had to...

Japan: Distance between NHK and Government

  29 June 2007

The recent appointment of Komori Shigetaka, who is a close acquaintance of PM Abe Shinzo, as an NHK's management committee member has raised a controversy over the possibility of the government's intervention in public broadcast. Blogger Miepong draws on and analyzes discussions in the Japanese blogosphere as well as mainstream...

Japanese Enlist for Billy's Boot Camp

  29 June 2007

Billy's Boot Camp has hit Japan, and Japanese bloggers are talking all about the show's star, Billy Blanks. Athlete of the year in the USA Karete Hall of Fame and actor in a number of American action-adventure feature films, Blanks has now brought his show to Japan, where it is making the rounds of local TV stations, drawing reactions from bloggers.

Brunei: Of Love and Trust

  28 June 2007

Old Man has some wise words for people who want to test the fidelity of their lovers. “Testing is bad. Because half of those tested would definitely fail. At the very least, it will bring doubt to the relationship. Doubt is not good to a relationship.”

Hong Kong: Media's sense of responsibility is growing?

  28 June 2007

Joel Martinsen from DANWEI translated the Beijing News’ interview with Zhang Guoliang, head of Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po (文汇报), about the changes to Hong Kong's press environment. In the interview, Zhang claimed that “Hong Kong media's sense of responsibility is growing”. However, earlier this year, a survey by Hong...

China: Bloggers take on drugs

  28 June 2007

June 26 was the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, how did your local blogsphere cover it? China took an integrated approach this year: celebrities, posters, online video, petitions and coverage of a public trial of convicted traffickers.

Korea: 6.25

  27 June 2007

It was 6.25, the 27th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. The day was quiet. Very few special events compared to the past. How do Korean bloggers consider the Korean War? They expressed what this date means to them in the past and at the present. Dolstone2002: 어렸을때...

China: Revised draft of emergency response law

  27 June 2007

The revised draft of emergency response law has dropped the ban and fine of unapproval report on natural disasters, public health incidents or industrial accidents. David Bandurski from China Media Project has summarized the responses from the Chinese media on the new draft.

Hong Kong: 10 years

  27 June 2007

Lu Qui Lu-wei from 1510 wrote about her experience in Hong Kong for the past 10 years as a professional new immigrant from China (zh).

China: Boycotting Beijing Olympics? They have ill intentions.

  27 June 2007

From Mia Farrow to François Bayrou to US Congressmen, every news or report about boycotting Beijing Olympics has provoked rounds of anger from China's netizens.  In a widely cross-posted blog post Boycotting Olympic: A farce doomed to failure, Wang Chong, a political commentor, grouped the boycotting Beijing Olympics advocators into...

China: The China Opportunity

  27 June 2007

Fons tried to address the question: “Are you positive or negative about the effects of China on the world?” put forward by international delegations at China Herald.

About our East Asia coverage

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

Mong Palatino
Mong Palatino is the South East Asia editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.