· December, 2009

Stories about East Asia from December, 2009

Japan: 2009 Tokyo Art Scene

  31 December 2009

William Andrews at the Tokyo Art Beat blog reviews the Tokyo art scene for the past year: “It was a nervous year, with the world-wide economic crisis always lurking.”

Japan: Things just got worse

  31 December 2009

“Japanese OO got worse in 2009″. Umeten gives a list [ja] of all the things that got worse in Japan this year, from economy to music magazines to baseball … A link to other blogs or websites for each item.

China: Akmal's death sentence, a resolute No to memory of humiliation?

  30 December 2009

Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen convicted of smuggling heroine into China, was executed on Tuesday although his families along with the British government had pleaded for reprieve, claiming that he is mentally ill. The supreme court of China however dismissed the request of a mental assessment because the documents provided...

China: Three prominent bloggers GFWed in the same week

  30 December 2009

Following the blocking of veteran Internet essayist He Caitou's (@hecaitou) two longstanding blogs hecaitou.net and caobian.info on December 25, renowned columnist Lian Yue (@lianyue) had yet another one of his blogs, lianyue.net, blocked on the 29th; late on the evening of December 30, Peking University new media associate professor Hu...

China: Cui Weiping tweets elite views on Liu Xiaobo

  29 December 2009

Many Chinese public intellectuals take flack for keeping quiet on major social issues. Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping has sought to change that by tweeting her peers' views on the recent sentencing of China's most prominent democrat.

Japan: Spread the message, translate it

  29 December 2009

A video interview [en] of Kyo Kageura, head of the project Minna no Honyaku (みんなの翻訳, Translation for all) [ja], a new translation platform that helps NGOs and NPOs to spread their messages thanks to volunteer translators. Global Voices Japan asked him about the challenge of Minna no Honyaku [en], the...

Did China wreck the Copenhagen deal?

  29 December 2009

Uln tried to sort out what had happened in Copenhagen and questioned why the developed countries did not sign among themselves a deal for reducing emission. Inside-Out China translated a local report telling an insider story on Wen Jiabao's schedule in Copenhagen.

Japan: And the kanji of 2009 is …

  29 December 2009

Blogger fenetre39 comments [ja] on the kanji, or chinese character, chosen by the Kanji Kentei Foundation as representative of 2009. The kanji is 新 (ara or shin), meaning “new”. In the blogger`s opinion, the reason of the choice [ja] is mainly due to the “new” government that took power in August.

China: Tweeting in support of Iran

  28 December 2009

Twenty-four hours later and #CN4Iran remains in heavy constant use by Chinese Twitter users speaking out in support of protests now underway across Iran. The #CN4Iran hashtag has since been joined by a @CN4Iran Twitter account and a central blog. Related is this post with a similar story from 2007.

China and Iran: #CN4Iran

  28 December 2009

Yesterday, thousands of Iranians took to the street to protest against dictatorship. The protest reminded Chinese people of the Tiananmen democracy movement back in 1989 and Chinese twitterers are using hashtag #cn4iran to show solidarity with Iranian fellows.

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.