Stories about East Asia from September, 2007
East Asia: Military Threat
James from Japan Probe posts a survey conducted by GlobalTalk 21 on Chinese, Japanese and South Korean people's imagination of the source of military threat.
Japan: District For Grannies
Pingmag has an article about the design of a district (Sugamo) in Tokyo for grannies.
China and Taiwan: Lust, Caution
Lee Ang's latest movie is about to release. K. M. Lawson from Frog in a well writes the debates and historical background of the movie. ESWN also posts a translation of a Taiwan cultural critics Lung Ying tai's reading of the movie story.
China: Naked Performance
A Chinese blogger Hairong Tiantian who gained her fame by soliciting pictures of limp dicks has recently performed another nude art performance called 99 Tents, 99 Dreams. The performance is widely reported in the Chinese Internet and Kenneth Tan from Shanghaiist also blogs about it.
Japan: Fukuda Slated to Be Next PM
In the Liberal Democratic Party election held on Sunday the 24th, Fukuda Yasuo defeated opponent Aso Taro, and is slated to become the next Prime Minister. He will follow Abe Shinzo, who resigned two weeks ago. This marks an important change. Fukuda is generally known as a moderate within the...
China: Traffic cops get machine guns
Traffic police in a major Chinese city have begun carrying pistols and machine guns while on the job, and netizens can't seem to think of any good reason why.
South Korea: History of Nationalism
K. M. Lawson from froginawell discusses an article written by Korean scholar on the history and development of Korean nationalism.
Taiwan: Flickr.tw
CK received a letter from a lawyer representing Flickr. The letter demands him to close the website and hand over the domain flickr.tw (zh) back to Yahoo! because it has violated the company's trademark. Many Taiwan bloggers criticized Yahoo! for its legal action. In Hemidemi's bookmark (zh), some comments point...
China: Guide To Etiquette
The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) has issued a guide to talent shows, which includes a pre-screening process for program content, length, judges, hosts, and special guests. Joel Martinsen from DANWEI has translated the guide into English.
China: Forced Land Expropriation
1 bao has a detailed report on forced land expropriation case in Zhejian, Lunchuan. In order to protect their land, local villagers sued the local government for illegal expropriation of farmland. Even though the State Department has expressed concern over the case and demanded the local government to handle the...
Myanmar: Tens of Thousands Join Protest led by Monks
Myanmar bloggers are posting videos and pictures of the large protest that took place earlier today in Yangon, the former capital and the largest city in Myanmar. The protest was led by Buddhist monks. It is the latest in a series of month long demonstrations against the military government and...
World Reaction to the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights
In every society in which they find themselves, the world's 370 million indigenous peoples are among the most vulnerable and marginalized. After over 22 years of negotiations and consultations, the United Nations approved the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples earlier this month, a broad, non-binding agreement articulating basic...
Singapore: Asian Horror Movies
Yznw, A horror movie fan in Singapore has a lowdown on couple of required plot elements in Asian horror movies.
Vietnam: Ignoring Myanmar
Diacritic highlights the protests happening in Myanmar and wants Vietnam to distance itself from Myanmar. In recent years Vietnam has increased its contacts with Myanmar.
Vietnam: Installing Linux
Saigon Nezumi, who is promoting open source in Vietnam, is pleased that his student was able to install Ubuntu Linux on his computer by himself.
Japan: Impatient patients
In recent years, harsh criticisms have been focused at hospitals and healthcare workers about the quality of medical care. An example of the target of criticisms was a doctor conducting transplants using diseased kidneys in Ehime. And most recently, a pregnant woman, who lived just a few minutes away from...
Japan: Nuclear Power and Discrimination
An English translation of an interview with Koide Hiroaki, a researcher and long-time anti-nuclear power activist, has been posted at gyaku. Mr. Koide talks about how he joined the movement against nuclear power in Japan 40 years ago, the contrast between the dream of nuclear power and the reality, and...
Korea: Blood Type and Personality
Researchers at Yonsei University’s graduate school announced that they just finished a research program on how personalities differ by blood type. Based on 50 research projects on the patterns of blood types by domestic and foreign scholars, they added scores if some reports show the same contents with generally known...
Cambodia: Blogging from Siem Reap
Cambodian blogger and Global Voices Author Tharum Bun talks to fellow blogger Vireak from Seam Reap. Tharum asks Vireak about his motivations for starting and maintaining his blog. Vireak shares his unique ideas on the blogging scene in Cambodia.
Japan: Tokyo's Urban Ruins
Roy Berman at Mutant Frog Travelogue has posted a series of fascinating pictures of soon-to-be-demolished buildings in the backstreets of Shinbashi, Tokyo. Objects photographed include pots and pans, children's toy guns, and a note left behind with the lyrics (in English) to the song “I could have danced all night”.
Japan: Axe Murder, School Days and a Nice Boat
In a bizarre twist of events, the shocking story of a girl who killed her father with an axe, believed to be motivated by her interest in manga, triggered TV networks to cancel airing of the final episode of School Days, a popular anime show. In its place, broadcasters aired a series of slow, meandering shots of castles, mountains, and... a nice boat. A meme was thus born that has spread like wildfire across bulletin boards and blogs, sparked various creative offshoots, and even inspired conspiracy theories.