Stories about East Asia from October, 2009
China: Shanghai schoolgirl beating & human flesh search
Fauna from ChinaSMACK translated a local report from Netease on a school bully incident and netizens’ action in disclosing the girl's identity via human flesh search.
Germany and China: Berlin Twitter Wall
berlintwitterwall is a project organized by the city of Berlin to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of Berlin wall. The wall is now filled up with messages from Chinese twitterers against the Chinese Great Fire Wall which blocks Chinese Internet user from connecting with the outside world.
At the Indonesian Blogger Festival
We visited the Indonesian blogger festival or PestaBlogger 2009. This is the third time the annual event is being held. The event saw bloggers from all over the vast island nation coming together in Jakarta to celebrate, discuss and party.
Hong Kong: Property market bubbles burst into public outrage
Earlier in October, an apartment in Hong Kong was sold for USD$57 million, a recording breaking price, locally and globally. The 6,158 square foot duplex apartment is in a building called “Conduit Road 39″ located at the western mid-levels of Hong Kong Island. The unidentified buyer is from Mainland China....
Timor Sea Oil Spill Disaster
More than two months since the environmental catastrophe happened in the Timor Sea still no successful solution was found in order to plug the hole and stop the huge oil spill. Skytruth has been intensively blogging and proving the extent of the spill with satellite photos and netizens have started...
Thailand: Local elections
Andy links to two blog posts which provide commentaries on local elections in Thailand. The first post highlights the prevalence of vote buying in communities while the other post sees hope in the conduct of local elections.
Thailand: How not to be scammed
Dale offers tips on how to avoid being scammed by unscrupulous taxi drivers in Bangkok.
Myanmar: Gay slang
Writing for New Mandala, Violet Cho and Dave Gilbert observe that “Gay people in Burma are resisting homophobia and marginalisation through the creative use of new communication codes.”
Thailand, Cambodia rift evident in ASEAN conference
absolutelybangkok.com provides a backgrounder and update to the continuing rift between the top leaders of Thailand and Cambodia who are both attending the annual conference of Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Japan: Latest survey on poverty destroys the prosperity myth
One Japanese in six is living in poverty says the latest Welfare Ministry report [en]. According to OECD figures [en], Japan has one of the highest poverty rates in the developed world and is 4th after only Mexico, Turkey and the U.S. In September, Makoto Yuasa, Secretary-general of Anti Poverty...
Philippines: Relief Goods Rotting in Government Warehouses
Ella's Blog from the Philippines posts photos of donated goods intended for typhoon victims rotting in government warehouses. The expose has sparked fears that the goods might be misused to support administration candidates in next year's elections. The original site shows a “404 Not Found error” when it is accessed...
Malaysia: Should food bloggers reveal sponsors?
masak-masak from Malaysia asks readers if they want a food blogger to reveal if he/she was paid to review a restaurant.
Singapore plans to require bloggers to reveal sponsors
Singapore is thinking of drafting a new guideline that would require bloggers to reveal if they receive gifts or money for their articles. Bloggers react to this proposal
China: Relics of the Old Summer Palace
Back in the news again is Beijing’s Old Summer Palace, whose destruction still remains a sensitive topic in China. Built during the Qing Dynasty, it was later sacked by British and French troops in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Countless works of art were also looted from the palace...
Pregnancy and Prisons: Women's Health and Rights Behind Bars
It is still a struggle to ensure human rights for pregnant women worldwide, and it seems that in the process, pregnant women in prison are many times overlooked. What have been some of the steps made to ensure that they are also treated humanely, with respect to the life they carry?
Adoption: Securing the Rights of Mothers and Children
Women speak out from all sides of the issue: adoptees, natural mothers and adoptive mothers try to make sense of the legal, reproductive and human rights issues behind adoptions.
Activism and Motherhood in Asia
What does a woman sacrifice for the cause she fights for? How are her children affected by persecution taken against her? This post explores briefly the lives of women activists in Asia who are also mothers.
China: A foreigner’s life in a Beijing jail
A foreign man who spent the last seven months in the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center sent DANWEI a detailed account of his daily life in Jail.
Taiwan: Future of the Taiwanese language
Stocks and Politics discusses the fate of the Hoklo Taiwanese language and expresses concern about its decline. There are also some comparisons with the use of Cantonese.
China: Nobel Dream
This month, the Chinese press and online forums are saturated with coverage of Charles Kao’s winning of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Yet another overseas Chinese scientist has snatched the prestigious prize, this temporary moment of shared glory is quickly turned into a more profound question: when would China produce its first indigenous Nobel Prize winner?
China: Fanfou is coming back?
Fanfou is a micro-blogging tool similar to twitter which has been closed down for more than 100 days in China. However, many still have hope that it will be back. Chinageeks translated a blog post by He Caitou discussing fanfou users’ loyalty towards the platform.
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