Stories about East Asia from April, 2007
Macau: Gambling Disneyland
Onemanbandwith has a post about Macau's recent development, 17% growth in GDP. As the writer said, “for someone to win at the tables, someone else must lose“.
China: Dog Abuse Triggered Internet Debate
Josie Liu from China in Transition reported on a recent internet debate (17000 comments) about animal right VS human right. The discussion was triggered off by an incident of burning dogs in Nanjing city.
Taiwan: Taiwan Refuses Olympic Torch
Michael Turton blogs about the refusal of Olympic Torch by Taiwan government, as local politicians regarded the route as “domestic”.
South Korea and Japan: Illegal Selling of Game Code
James from Japan Probe quoted from South Korean local news about a suspected case of stealing of Game Code, “Lineage III”, from Korea’s largest game maker NCsoft to a major Japanese Game Company.
Japan: Three Days Priest
Harvey from Japan Newbie explained the expression of mikka bouzu, three days priest, which is used to describe someone who is unable to stick with something they have started to do.
Singapore: Netcasting your Lesson
Rinaz in Singapore is calling out all teachers to emulate her friend Kevin who regularly videos his lectures and posts it online.
Myanmar: Respect for Sex Workers
Moe Moe urges men to respect sex workers and practice safe sex. “Least men who want to sleep with them can do, is to treat these sex workers with respect and try to have safe sex. Why should they be treated badly just because they are providing you with a...
Japan: Thoughts on the Abe “apology”
Japan, Beyond the Tamagawa reminds readers, with respect to recent comments by Prime Minsiter Abe Shinzo about the Comfort Women issue, that Abe “didn't intend [his comments] to raise such a stink. He did say what he personally has said he believed for years. Japan's Imperial Army did not force...
Japan: Reflections on postwar “Child's Play”
Debito reproduces a passage from John Dower's famous book “Embracing Defeat” dealing with the games children played in post-WW2 Japan, including “holding a mock black market, playing prostitute and customer, and recreating left-wing political demonstrations.” Debito comments that Dower's account “is something rarely considered in historical accounts: The barometer of...
Korean bloggers on Virgina Tech shooter Cho Seung-hui
Since the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007, it’s not hard to guess that the South Korea-born shooter, Cho Seung-hui, and what he did are among the hottest issues for Korean bloggers. As the visual shock of the mass murder is fading from the headlines, the angle from which bloggers are viewing the case has been changing.
Japan: Cellphone-operated Remote Control Home System
Edo introduced the latest cellphone-operated remote control home system developed by NTT-Neomeit: To control devices, users access a web page via cellphone and select the desired operations. The commands are then sent via the web to a wireless router in the home, which relays signals to an infrared transmitter and...
Japan: Pre-election protest party
Amamiya Karin writes in Magazine 9 [Ja] about protest parties held in Koenji last weekend organized by Suginami Ward Assembly candidate Matsumoto Hajime. Although Matsumoto finally lost the election, the party was a great success, featuring live music, dancing, and plenty of stage-diving. Matsumoto, one of the youngest contenders, pushed...
Japan: Chinese-Japanese Rapper Nycca
James from Japan Probe introduced a trilingual Rapper Nycca. The post is linked to a youtube video of the singer's self intro and rap in three languages: Japanese, Cantonese and Putonghua.
Taiwan: Youtube Censors anti WTO Protest Video
Blasts found out (zh) that Youtube has categorized an anti-WTO protest documentary as not suitable for viewers under 18: “This video may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community. To view this video, please verify you are 18 or older by logging in...
Hong Kong: Queen's Pier Last Night
Plastichk has written a citizen report on the last night of Queen's Pier and criticised the government's refusal to preserve the pier in situ (zh). The Pier is a colonial symbol during the British rule in Hong Kong. There is a on-going citizen campaign to preserve the pier.
China: Seventeen Hates
Joel Martinsen from DANWEI has translated Liu Qi's article in Southern Weekly about seventeen practices that he hates most in China.
China: Olympic Politics and Protests at the Roof of the World
The Granite Studio brought into focus Beijing's plan to include the summit of Mt. Everest as a stop for the Olympic torch. Some Tibetan activists staged a protest at the roof of the world in response to such move.
China: IPR is not a Real issue
Andrew has written a good analysis of the Intellectual Property Rights negotiation between U.S and China. The conflict is not so real as IP theft hurts Beijing's state-run media machine and control over internet media: Washington is pushing Beijing into reluctantly doing something it probably wanted to do anyway.
China: Not to Buy Apartment Campaign Ended
Zou Tao, a Shenzhen citizen who has launched the “Not to Buy Apartment Campaign”, has sold his property in Shenzhen, returned to his homeland in Hunan and become a peasant. Although many were looking forward for a relaunch of the campaign, Zhang hua however commented that such campaign wouldn't help...
China: Spiderman in Beijing Street?
Whether pirated copies of Spiderman III DVD are sold in Beijing Street or just empty boxes? Reuters and Sony have different versions of the story. So Chinese pirates have actually beaten anyone else in selling empty boxes claiming to be Spidey III, thus doing a masterful job of pranking foreign...
Japan: Abe apologizes to US media, not Asian people
On the apologies made by Abe in an interview last weekend with Newsweek, Amaki Naoto, a former Japanese diplomat who resigned protesting Japan's involvement in the U.S. attack on Iraq, comments that in apologizing about the Comfort Women issue Abe was “putting aside his political belief” in order simply to...