Stories about East Asia from February, 2008
China: Baby Coming
Imagethief's baby is coming next week!
Japan: Tokyo’s Mobile Food Bars
Ryoko from pingmag has a feature story on Tokyo's mobile food bars.
Japan: Poisoned Dumpling Blame Game
James from Japan Probe has a poll about the poisoned dumpling scandal between Japan and China. Most believe that they were contaminated in China.
East Asia: Intangible Cultural Heritage
Ampontan has a very elaborated post on debate and discussion about the registration of intangible cultural heritage at UNESCO among China, Japan and South Korea.
China: Chongqing's Pride
Zhang Xiaozhou's soccer game report has hurt Chongqing citizens’ pride. Students, representatives of people congress, and newspapers editors protested against the report and demanded the authority to punish the reporter. Blogger Wen yunchao commented that Chongqing people were over sensitive (zh). Zhao Mu criticized that the Chongqing local newspapers were...
China: Is ‘inadequate national virtue’ an excuse?
In a new published book entitled Lu Xun & Hu Shi: Two Chinese Intellectuals in the 20th Century the author made a thorough analysis about the mutual relation between the process of democratization and Chinese national virtue. This book and its theme raised a lot discussion online. Blogger bbcjy wrote[zh]...
China: Country with the world's biggest income gap
According to the latest Outlook Weekly, the Gini coefficient of China is growing up to 0.47, which is above the international warning line and much higher than that of most developing countries. It means the income gap between urban and rural residents is getting wider. Chenyuan26 [zh] thinks that the...
Korea: Companies that check how many times you go to the toilet
Companies that check how many times you go to the toilet ... What do you think? A post on a Korean blog about companies that monitor their employees every move, has received interesting responses.
China: Suicide at tech giant Huawei
Following up on one blogger's lead, some comments on yet another staff suicide at tech company Huawei this week which for many reinforces the company's popular image of having one of the toughest workplace environments in the country.
China: Box Office
Latest statistic of the China box office shows that 3,527 screens worth 5.1 billion RMB. Sun bin believes that the bloom can even be bigger if the ticket fee is reduced by 30% in major cities.
Hong Kong: The Invisible Class
Henry porter comments on the newly released government budget report and points out the existence of an “invisible class”. Under the “winner takes the most, loser takes the rest” logic, the invisible class takes nothing (zh).
China: Suicide or Security Problem?
On Feb 17, a woman fell into the Guangzhou Metro track and killed. The police and company said that it was a suicide case but her family didn't believe the story and demanded further investigation. They believed her death was caused by the defect of the safety gate. The incident...
Vietnam: Hanoi in Winter
Experience the winter in Hanoi and neighboring places with Vietnamese God.
Japan: the First English Teacher
Peter Payne from Japundit traces the history of the first English Teacher in Japan.
Thailand: Thaksin's Passport
Bangkok Pundit looks the issues surrounding former Thai prime minister Thaksin's diplomatic passport. Thaksin is set to return to Thailand from his exile after he was overthrown in a coup back in 2006.
China: Thoughts and debates on the name-calling professor
The start was in fact very simple. In 2007, Professor Zhong Hua at Sichuan Normal University issued an article entitled Cultural Studies and the Lost of Literary Theory in the 11th issue of “Literature and Art Studies”, one of the core academic journals in China, criticizing an academic work entitled...
Taiwan: No City for Old Aborigines
The first Presidential debate powered by citizen media platform Peopo was held on Feb 24. Two candidates running for President answers 20 questions raised by citizens who use Youtube-like video clips to express their wishes and problems.
Hong Kong: Wish List For Asia City
Studiobbq invites readers to write down a wish list for Hong Kong – the Asia City.
South Korea: Lee Myung-bak’s English Education Policies
Korea Beat has a post on local reactions concerning the President Lee Myung-bak's English education policies.
Taiwan: Land Right
A Taiwanese aboriginal group, hunter motion, calls for an action on 28 of February to defend their right to preserve their hunting life style in their own land. The group has an advocacy blog for recording their activities.
China: Harmonious Olympic Make-up
Angel apple from Duller feels sick of local Beijing Olympic news report. Some local newspapers keep on publishing guidelines and reminding citizens how to behave harmoniously during Olympic. For example, women are advised to wear light make-up.
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.
