Stories about East Asia from June, 2009
Philippines, Hong Kong: Swine flu and racial profiling
After being tagged as superbug carriers, Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong are now accused of spreading A(H1N1) virus in the city. Kape’t Yosi believes this is racial profiling.
China: Chinese netizen reactions to CCTV attacking Google
Fauna from ChinaSMACK translated a blogger's letter to Gao Ye, the CCTV intern who attacked Google.cn under the identity of university student for poisoning youth's spirit by their overseas links to pornsites.
South Korea: Old city is gone
Matt from Gust of popular feeling showed how a large part of the old Seoul city, Pimatgol/Cheongjin-dong area north of Jongno between Gwanghwamun and Jonggak Station, has been shrouded by steel and blanket fences in preparation for demolition.
Cambodia: Report outlines Khmer Rouge Tribunal's latest troubles
A report details the latest issues to plague the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. The report, released in late May 2009, states the Tribunal's legitimacy is threatened by charges of corruption and political interference. The Cambodian government has denied interfering with the Tribunal, including preventing judges of the court from interviewing witnesses who are current government employees.
Vietnam: Growth of Saigon
Michael Sieburg writes about the economic expansion of Saigon and enumerates some of the notable construction projects in the city.
Philippines: Culture and tourism
John Ryan Recabar shares his thoughts on reviving Philippine tourism and the importance of reliving old traditions.
China: Mass incident sparked by a dead body
A Chinese Google doc has been set up to collect the most up-to-date information about the Shishou riot in China's Hubei province, which has seen tens of thousands of locals rallying on the street to protect the body of a young man who died under suspicious circumstances.
Japan: Iran from a Japanese viewpoint
Gompagompagompa tells about his last trip in Iran, before the elections. The blogger describes Iranians as an extremely kind and hospitable people and explains how he decided to write this post to let Japanese people know that “Iran” is not equal to “terrorism”.
Vietnam arrests prominent lawyer and writer
Vietnam ’s Ministry of Public Security police arrested Le Cong Dinh in Ho Chi Minh City for participating in subversive activities. Dinh is a prominent pro-democracy lawyer, human rights advocate and writer. Several media groups and local scholars have condemned Dinh’s arrest.
China: Speaking for the Party Or the people?
ESWN translated various articles about a recent catchphrase in the Internet: “Will you speak for the Party? Or will you speak for the people?” The sentence was uttered by a Zhengzhou city government official of the urban planning department Lu Jun to a reporter who was doing an investigative report...
CCTV's propaganda campaign against Google.cn
On June 18th, China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC) published a report in its frontage condemning Google.cn for spreading obscene contents. The report, titled as “Strongly condem google for spreading indecent and obscene information”, said
Iran: Comparisons and Scenarios
Balkans via Bohemia looks at how the events in Iran “would play out vis a vis other successful and unsuccessful revolutions in the past two decades,” including those in Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and China.
Philippines: Word of the year
Morofilm is nominating the word “scripted” as the word of the year in the Philippines.
China: Interviewing Deng Yujiao
ESWN translated Southern Metropolis Daily's interview with Deng Yujiao, the nail beautician who was set free by China court for killing a local government official when defending herself against sexual assault.
China, UK: Chinadialogue.net founder awarded OBE
Isabel Hilton, the founder of Chinadialogue.net, a bilingual English-Chinese website about the environment, was admitted to the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her work promoting environmental awareness in China.
China: Missiles threaten Taiwan and more
The Taiwan Link looks at China's Anti-ship Ballistic Missiles and the threat they pose to Taiwan. The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato looks at the missiles and China's second-generation nuclear-powered submarines. Both consider that the weapons systems pose threats to targets beyond Taiwan.
Macau: An unpopular Chief Executive coming to town
Yesterday Fernando Chui Sai On, Macau's former secretary for social and cultural affairs, announced that he had obtained 286 nominations from the territory's 300-member election committee which implies that he will automatically become the next chief executive of Macau. Different from Hong Kong, Macau has been a very apolitical city...
China: Conversation with AMARC
Doubleaf explains how Chinese rural residents acquire and disseminate information during the past 20 years in his conversation with the Chair of AMARC, Steve Buckley.
Japan: ‘1Q84′, the new bestseller by Haruki Murakami
“In your sky how many moons are floating?”. This the catch phrase of 1Q84 [ja], Ichi Kew Hachi Yon, (Q in Japanese reads the same as 9), the new 2 volume work by the bestselling writer Haruki Murakami, that in less than two weeks has already sold more than 960.000...
China: Chinese netizen reactions to Iranian election
Allie Shi from Shanghaiist translated Chinese netizens’ comments on Iranian election.
Japan: Mobile social network
Serkan Toto from Asiajin blogs about a fastest growing (2 millions in three months) mobile social network in Japan.
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