Stories about East Asia from June, 2007
Korea: Media and Business
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Philippines: Taking back the “Sexy Filipina” Search Keyword
Noemi is not happy with the internet search result for the word Filipina. The blogger is urging fellow bloggers from Philippines to collectively beat the porn and smut marketers by actively using the keyword on their blogs and linking them to non-porn sites
East Timor: Growth Aspirations
Tumbleweed in Timor Lorosae feels “every country deserves the equal chance of making some developmental faux pas“
Brunei: Of Love and Trust
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.”
Singapore: Singapore's Hit Band from the 1960s
The mod-ified music blog features audio clips of an interview with two of the members of a popular 1960s local band .
Hong Kong: Media's sense of responsibility is growing?
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
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
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
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
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: The death of a celebrity, a festival for the paparazzi
Joel Martinsen from DANWEI translated a deleted blog post by He Dong, an entertainment journalist, who criticised the media circus in response to the death of a celebrity Hou Yaowen.
China: Boycotting Beijing Olympics? They have ill intentions.
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
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 is the North East Asia editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
Nevin Thompson is the Japan editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
