Stories about East Asia from August, 2007
Morocco: Cheap Chinese Plastic
Everything Morocco questions why there's so many cheap plastic products “made in China” being sold in the traditional artisan souks of Fez.
All out war in southern Philippines
War is raging in the island of Basilan, located in the southernmost part of the Philippines. An all-out war was recently declared by the government against the Abu Sayyaf bandit group accused of beheading 14 Marines last month. The military offensives have displaced thousands of families and imperiled the peace negotiations between the government and other Muslim rebel forces.
China: A social Reporter's Internal Notes
ESWN translated a BBS post on a Southern Metropolis Daily reporter's experience in dealing with the police, migrant workers, security guards and village officials in Shenzhen.
Japan: Robot cat
James from Japan Probe reported on the a T.V commercial on the sale of robot cat in Japan. There are three youtube videos to demonstrate the robot cat's emotion.
Japan: Living in the Internet Cafe
Mari summarized a survey by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare concerning the social status of people who linger in the the Internet cafe: The reason why people stay...
Korea: Korean Beef VS Non-Korean Beef
The Moon Festival, one of the biggest festivals, is coming soon in Korea. One of the customs is to send gifts to relatives or people to whom you would like...
Myanmar: Fuel Price Protests
New Mandala reports on the continuing protests against the fuel price rise in Myanmar.
Thailand: Online Video Sites Down, YouTube Works
Bangkok Pundit says Thai people can now access the previously banned YouTube site but couple of other video sites are not working.
Singapore: Unlikely Allies
Little Bridge finds African students taking the side of Chinese students in a campus fight with Mongolian students.
Japan: Executed Death-Row Inmate was Mentally-Ill
Asia Death Penalty outlines the results in a report by Amnesty International indicating that one of the death-row inmates killed last week in Japan, Hifumi Takezawa, was mentally ill.
Japan: Life out of a Manga Kissa
Results of a survey just released by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has found that thousands of people across Japan bordering on poverty live their lives out of Internet cafes or "manga kissa". Bloggers this week reflected on the significance of the results.
South Korea: E.Land Workers Strike
Workers from a local supermarket E.Land has been on strike for two months against the employer's termination of non-regular workers contract. Jamie from Two Koreas has some updates on the...
South Korea: Lee Myung-bak Doctrine
Lee Byong-chul from Ohmynews reported on the presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak foreign policy, in particular his attitude towards North Korea and U.S.
Japan: Soy Sauce for Ice-cream
Edo from Pink Tentacle introduced a new popular food product, a type of Tamari soy sauce specially designed for use on ice cream.
China: Feedburner Blocked Again
William Long reported: Feedburner, the most popular and powerful worldwide RSS service provider, is blocked by Chinese authorities. Last year, Feedburner had also been blocked temporarily.
China: Exploitation in Summer Holiday
Tan Weishan reported the exploitation of student workers by a shoe factory in Dongguan. More than a hundred secondary school kids spent their summer holiday working 12 hours a day...
Hong Kong: An Old Man Wishing To Live In Jail
Luqui Luwei commented on a recent news about an 78 years old man who committed a minor crime in order to go to the jail so that he could at...
China: Actor Not Martyr
Ge da-xia from Yaoblog commented on Zoula's citizen reporting practice and argued that citizen reporter should be social actor, not martyr; and that report should be about the incident to...
China: Websites Forced To Close By Police
Vapano from a data company D2EX reported that many Internet Data Centers have received notices from Gong-an (Police department) which forced them to close down thousands of websites. To prevent...
Chinese cartoon cops patrolling websites
From September, 1st, Beijing’s new virtual cops will be active on 13 of China’s portals, including China’s biggest blog-hosting services, Sohu.com and Sina.com. By the end of the year, the virtual police’s patrols are expected to cover all websites registered with Beijing servers.
China: The anxiety of China's Bureau of Broadcasting and Film
Chong from interlocals translated an article from 1510.com about the recent move of the Broadcasting and Film Bureau in banning the Phoenix TV (one of the cable TV services).
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