· November, 2007

Stories about East Asia from November, 2007

China: Relation Between Doctor and Patient

  30 November 2007

Zengying points out (zh) that the relation between Medical practitioner and patient is very tense in China. A major reason is the marketization of medical care, which turns the relation into purely “buying” and “selling” of service. And there isn't any mechanism to solve the conflict between the hospital and...

China: Editor's House Raided by Police

  30 November 2007

According to Zhen Jin-yan, the Shanghai police searched Zhai Minglei's (Chief Editor of Minjian) home yesterday and confiscated 41 copies of Minjian and his computer's hard disk under the charge of illegal publishing.

China: Visiting AIDS’ Village

  30 November 2007

Today (Nov 30), the Premier of the State Council Wen Jia-bao visits the AIDS village in Hunan, his last visit was three years ago. AIDS activist Hu Jia pointed out that this years, villagers were more anxious than excited when compared with last time. Nothing substantial has changed and this...

Hong Kong: Inspired by Nude Photos?

  30 November 2007

Recently the Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang visited Beijing “798 Art District” and saw the exhibition of huge nude photos. He said he was inspired and had more expectation for the future west Kowloon cultural district. Hymnkee wonders if people kept complaining about nude arts, how can such inspiration...

China: Labour Protest

  30 November 2007

Hunan BBS has a citizen report on a labour protest in Dongguan. Photos show that there are thousands of workers gathering outside the electronic factory demanding an increase of salary (zh).

Taiwan: Any Blind Spot in Blogsphere?–Blogblind

  30 November 2007

An experimental website was born in Taiwan in Nov 20, 2007: ‘Blogblind‘ (It was closed in two days). The main concept is digging (as in Digg) blogs that people do not like and tagging them with comments like ‘copy machine’ or ‘self promoting stuff.’ When most people leave flattering comments...

Japan: Environmentally-friendly coffin

  29 November 2007

Blogger Kaz introduces and talks about environmentally-friendly paper coffins, which he found in an advertisement put by an ISO14001 certified funeral company. The paper coffins reduce the amount of fuel necessary for cremation by 50% and shrorten the cremation time by 10 munites, according to the blogger.

Japan: Robot Award

  29 November 2007

Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces the list of nominees for the 2007 robot award in Japan.

South Korea: Crackdown on Migrant Workers

  29 November 2007

Jamie from Two Koreas posts the call for international solidarity by local labour union against the government violent crackdown of migrant worker union. More background can be found at local newspapers Hankyoreh (reposted in Two Koreas)

China: New Idiom

  29 November 2007

Doublleaf suggests a new idiom “Zheng Long Pai Hu” (zh). Its literal meaning is Zheng Long taking the tiger photo and its extended meaning is someone doing forgery for interest group to cheat the public. Even the case is exposed the person still insists the forgery is the truth.

China: Taxing Post-graduate Student

  29 November 2007

Pbzhai writes a story he heard from his university [zh]. A post-graduate student wrote to the Nanjing city mayor and asked why the post-graduate students had to be taxed even if they got only RMB200 (US$26) per month subsidy? In a recent party meeting, teachers were asked to teach their...

Hong Kong: Animal Reproduction Right?

  28 November 2007

The Hong Kong government recently introduced a new regulation which requires animal breeders to have proper license. Some breeders protested that animal should have reproduction right and the license is against such right. Cheung yun-ling argued at inmediahk.net that the regulation is targeting at human who has already intervened into...

China: Digg Model Won't Work?

  28 November 2007

Gomain points out that Chinese internet user is more keen on comment rather than voting for a post and the digg model hasn't been very popular so far[zh].

China: “Red Foreigner” Sings Red Songs Naked

  28 November 2007

An American blogger who names himself Honglaowai (red foreigner) has revived the Chinese red songs, a serious political music in China ,and extensively posted his music videos on YouTube, Youku and Tudou such video sharing websites. What's more, in his red song MVs, he is naked to the waist.

Malaysia: Indians in Malaysia Demand Equal Rights

  27 November 2007

Malaysian Indians took to the street on Sunday to demand equal rights. Police used tear gas and water canon to break up the protests and to prevent the protesters from submitting a memo to the British High Commission demanding monetary compensation for bringing Indians to Malaysia. Angshah rounds up Malaysian bloggers comments on the protests.

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.