Stories about East Asia from March, 2006
Philippines: Blogging Humanity
San Juan Gossip Mills Outlet gives thanks for all the people he's met through blogging. He writes: “All in all, friend or foe come home to nest in their respective blogdoms and visit other people’s sites either to spite, anger, inspire or simply thank each other. In short, humanity abounds...
Thailand: People's Constitution
Tom Vanvanij reflects on the current Thai constitution — now that it looks like the kingdom will be getting a new one.
Myanmar: Growing Army
Burma Digest looks at how Myanmar's military has doubled in the past 15 years even as its neighbors have reduced the numbers of their soldiers.
Malaysia: Chinese Taxes
Anak Merdeka reacts to an amazing statement by Malaysia's former PM Mahathir Mohamad that Malaysia's development had been funded largely by taxes paid by ethnic Chinese — and not Malay — Malaysians.
Indonesia: Polygamy, Polygyny, Polyandry
Cafe Salemba points readers to a clutch of interesting links analyzing polygamy from the perspective of economics.
North Korea: Official defects
Joshua from The Korea Liberator compares the recent defection of a North Korean man rumored to be a diplomat with the 2003 defection of senior North Korean weapons official Bok Ku Lee.
Dangdut music and dance in Singapore and all about Home
Singapore is a good place to explore cultures from all over South East Asia. The blogger at licencetospill took some of her friends to a Dangdut club. Dangdut is a form of music from Indonesia. The blogger explains the main difference between a DD song and any other indonesian song...
Taiwan: Teaching English
Scott Sommers provides some context in response to recent comments on websites frequented by English teachers regarding government restrictions on private language schools in “The Continued Crackdown on Commercial Education.”
Korea: Navy's problems in public relations
Matt from Occidentalism posts on a new South Korean destroyer ship whose insignia, some argue, portrays missiles being fired toward Japan.
Japan: Increases tower size
“The race for the world's biggest phallic symbol continues,” says one reader in response to Japundit's post on plans to build a new Tokyo Tower by 2011 which will stand over 600 meters tall.
China: Convenient humanitarianism
In his post “Arab Leaders Ignore Chinese,” lordgenius at China Intel mentions an upcoming meeting between the Arab League and the Chinese Communist Party in Sudan which will focus on Iraq, the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and the ongoing civil strife in western Sudan's Darfur region. “Isn't there something missing here?...
China: Contemporary art rising
In “Has China's Time Come?,” the black China hand blogs on this Friday's Sotheby's art sale in New York which will feature works from some of hottest names in contemporary Chinese art: “Has the dragon landed or is this just some China Hand wannabes’ flavor-of-the-month club campaign?”
China: Farmers need to consume
Marty over at The Big Yuan offers his interpretation of Morgan Stanley's just-released analysis of China's eleventh five year plan and its global implications: “The only realistic way to ease the trade balance is to increase the flow of exports into the burgeoning Chinese consumer market. Both Dell and Wal-mart...
China: Revolutionary irony
In “So-called…,” Massage Milk blogger Wang Xiaofeng assigns labels with a contemporary context and a heavy dose of irony to Cultural Revolution-era propaganda posters. [ZH]
North Korea: Prison-camp musical
The Marmot Hole‘s Robert Koehler fingers North Korean apologists in the South Korean government with a look at the smash new musical Yodok Story, which portray's life in North Korea's Yodok camp for political prisoners.
South Korea: general strike
Joshua from The Korea Liberator examines the relevant labor issues leading up to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions’ general strike planned for next week.
China: Detained Activist Released
Zeng Jinyan, wife of AIDS activist Hu Jia—detained last month during a nation-wide hunger strike in protest at the government's alleged hiring of thugs in February to beat up a civil rights campaigner in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong—posts on her blog Searching for Hu Jia that after forty...
Hong Kong: Police, Paparazzi and Privacy
BigWhiteGuy Randall van der Woning lambasts Hong Kong media following a plea for respect from the wife of the suspect in last week's fatal police-on-police shootout. “Decency? Such as local station ATV airing a rerun of the couple when they appeared on Hong Kong's version of Who Wants to be...
Hong Kong: Private Information Uploaded
Simon World‘s namesake criticizes the Hong Kong government for continuing to remain silent two weeks after the discovery earlier this month of the accidental posting online of the names, ages, addresses and ID numbers of the approximately 20,000 people who filed complaints with Hong Kong police from 1996 to 2004.
China: Checking communist vernacular
China Confidential‘s Confidential Reporter notices an increasing intolerance of left-wing language on the internet in China. “From Marx to Mao, communist keywords constitute potential red flags in the eyes of the hyper-sensitive e-police—thousands of trained analysts armed with the latest (American made) censor- and spy-ware,” the post says.
China: Growing Nationalism
A year after violent anti-Japanese demonstrations swept across China, The Angry Chinese Blogger argues that anti-Japan sentiment is stronger now than ever. “Over the last few years…things appear to have steadily deteriorated, and the rot appears to have filtered down. Spreading beyond the political sphere and into the public domain,”...