Stories about East Asia from March, 2007
China: Monopolized Spoofing by SARFT
The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television once claimed that domestic films cannot be spoofed. However, recently Zhang Hongsen, deputy director of the Administration's Film Bureau made some harsh comments on local films; Chang Ping, deputy editor-in-chief of Southern Metropolis Weekly, criticized the SARFT monoplized spoofing: they apparently really...
Philippines: Installing Ubuntu
Connie in Philippines describes her experience of installing Ubuntu, a popular distribution of Linux operating system on her daughter's new laptop computer.
Thailand: Celebrity Life
Gnarlykitty in Thailand witnesses her celebrity cousin with her fans and muses on celebrity lives. “I don't admire celebrities for being famous but I admire them for their abilities to be able to put up with all these uncanny things attached to fame. Criticism, lack of privacy, being under media...
Malaysia: Politician Takes on Bloggers
Susan Loone blogs about a Malaysian politician who asked the government to “act against ‘insiders’ who reveal information to Internet blogs and news portals.”. The same politician had earlier caused a stir by uttering an obscene word in the parliament.
Madagascar: Growing with China
Madagascar Croissance reflects [Fr] on Madagascar's trade with China and East Asia, the main exporters of rice, textiles and technology to the country: “Trade between China and Madagascar … leaves the big island in deficit. But … Malagasy products were just exempted of taxes and rights in China which presents...
Indonesia: Laptop for MPs
Indonesia is considering equipping its MPs with laptops. Indonesia Matters asks “Now, what is the real purpose of them having laptop at the first place? I haven’t seen any argument, a real urgent need of laptop voiced from the House of Representatives that justifies that laptop is crucial for their...
China: University Financial Crisis
Jilin University recently issued an open letter to discuss about the university debt problem: since 2005, the annual interest rate for the debt has been up to 150-170 million yuans! What exactly happened to this university? Zhao Mu predicted that the central bank would probably cancel all debt (up to...
China: 500 days
In less than 500 days, Beijing Olympic will begin. Wang Xiaofeng has some wild thoughts (zh) about the Beijing city: 1. half of the population will leave the city to give space to foreigners; 2. the city will become very clean with a mixture of real and plastic flowers; 3....
Japan: Apology Problem
Did or didn't Abe apologize for Japan’s wartime use of sex slaves? Oftenover from Japundit comments on the news about Prime Minister Abe's recent apology on sex slaves issue.
Japan: Mask Idol
Lee from Tokyo Times blogs about Japan fashion and fetishism by refering to the recent “Mask Idol”.
Korea and Japan: Sex Trade
Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole reports that: There are currently an estimated 40,000-60,000 Koreans illegally residing in Japan. Of these, 30,000 are believed to be working in the sex trade. And the number of Korean men in Japanese host-bar is increasing rapidly.
South Korea: FTA
Jamie from Two Koreas has an update about the FTA negotiation and anti FTA protest in South Korea: The march was also able to march into Gwanghwamun unobstructed, which was even more of a surprise.
South Korea: blocking foreign porn sites
Matt from Gusts of popular feeling blogs about the recent government policy in filtering out foreign porn sites in South Korea: We're also told that the government “will block around 180 such foreign sites by the end of May”. Wow. All 180 of them. They really aren't kidding around this...
South Korea: The Value Deflation of Schools
Michael Hurt from Scribblings of the Metropolitician has a lot to complain and criticise about the South Korea education system.
East Timor: Want a Native First Lady
Republika Banana wants Francisco Guterres “Lu Olo” to win the upcoming presidential elections in East Timor as the blogger wants a native first lady. The other candidates either have foreign wives or are unmarried. One of the other candidate has a East Timorese wife but she has not lived long...
Hong Kong: Post-election analysis
ESWN put together various polls about Hong Kong people's evaluation of the two candidates and priority in concerned issues, and provided a detailed post-election analysis of Hong Kong politics.
Hong Kong: Queen's Pier
Simon world has an update on the preservation plan of the Queen's Pier: a roadside Pier. Over the Rainbow explains the reason why Hong Kong architects insist to keep the Pier in Situ is because of the symbolism in its spatial relation with the city hall (zh).
China: Google Vs. Baidu
Peoples’ Republic of blogs three pictures that tell the differences between Google and Baidu.
China: Animal-dropping paper
Will blogs about the recent suggestion to turn Panda poop into wrapping paper, following Thailand's example in using elephant dropping. He drew some associations from the news.
East Asia: History Round up
Jonathan Dresner from Frog in a Well has written a history round up on issues such as comfort woman, Nanjing massarce, textbook, etc.
Thailand: Farang Beggars in Bangkok
Metroblogging Bangkok points to a video interview with a professional foreign beggar in Bangkok. “You know those farang who sit on the overpasses with signs begging for Baht to help them buy a plane ticket or something? They usually look like backpackers, and honestly they usually make me pretty sick....
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