China: Lists

Blogger's block, we all get it sometimes. Ruthless readers, our editors, don't have time for excuses. So what's a blogger to do? Lists! Here are few from the last few days of the Chinese blogsphere, ordered with a certain amount of thematic continuity:


遗传学的重大突破

我证明,胡子和痣也都是可以遗传的。不信请看:

I argue that beards and beauty marks are hereditary. If you don't believe me, please see:

Lu Xun

这是鲁迅的孙子,他把鲁迅的胡子原封不动地地遗传了下来。

This is Lu Xun‘s grandson. He's inherited Lu Xun's beard wholly intact.

再请看:

Again, please see:

Old Mao\'s Granddaughter

这是老毛的外孙女,她把老毛下巴上的那颗痣也遗传了下来。因为她是女的,根据男左女右的古训,她下巴上的痣也移到了右边。

This is Old Mao‘s granddaughter; she's inherited Old Mao's mole on his chin. Because she's female, according to the ancient tenet that men are left and women are right, the mole on her chin has moved to the right.

From genetic makeup to corporate framework, a post from IT blogger Keso: [zh]

Corporate framework of the internet

从上面这张图,可以很清楚地看出:

From the above picture, you can clearly see:

互联网正在成为巨头之间的游戏;
单打独斗的历史已经终结,合作是竞争的必需;
搜索和广告成为合作关系得以建立的重要纽带和关键优势;
在主要业务上,Google与Yahoo!和微软之间,只有竞争,没有合作;
Google拥有更多的合作伙伴;
eBay可以同时与Yahoo!、Google合作,说明竞争的威胁远不如合作带来的利益重要;
今后一段时间内,搜索和广告将继续推进互联网公司之间的合作,而这些合作将由Google、Yahoo!和微软分别主导。

-The internet is now becoming a game between giants;
-The days of fighting the good fight are over, cooperation is competition's necessity;
-Search engines and ads have become the key to establishing cooperative relationships;
-In central operations, there is no cooperation between Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, only competition;
-Google has the largest number of cooperation partners;
-That eBay can simultaneously cooperate with both Yahoo! and Google goes to show that the threat of competition doesn't come near the important benefits that cooperation brings;
-In near future following today, search engines and advertisements will continue to advance the cooperation between internet companies, and domination of these cooperations will be divided between Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.

One huge story from the Chinese blogsphere this week has been that of a lawsuit filed against two Shanghai-based reporters by Shenzhen-based Taiwanese company FoxConn following the pair's exposé of working conditions in the company's factories. Amidst the resulting discussion was questioning of the Shenzhen court's motivations, a city known for its lawlessness, in a country where relationships between court officials and government bodies are often quite snug.

The compensation sought in the lawsuit has since been reduced from thirty million RMB to just one RMB, signalling a victory for the largely web-based backlash, and Guangdong-based blogger/Yangcheng Evening News [zh] web editor Wen Yunchao has some particular insight [zh] into why that might have been:

关于富士康的小道消息一则
中国时报说,富士康一改先前强硬姿态,主要是目前大陆政治气氛十分诡谲,广东方面不想让上海误以为广东在 落井下石,故求偿案经大陆媒体渲染开后,省委书记张德@江下令派出大批国安人员深入调查富士康所有的底细,最终让富士康转向。

A bit of insider information about FoxConn
China Times [zh] says the main reason FoxConn changed their former hardline stance is because the political atmosphere on the mainland right now is especially tricky. The Guangdong parties don't want Shanghai to mistakenly think that Guangdong kicks people while they're down. After news of the compensation suit hit mainland media, Provincial Committee Secretary Zhang De@Jiang sent down an order dispatching a large group of national security personnel to thoroughly investigate all the details at FoxConn, which in the end led to FoxConn's change of tune.

An ‘e gao‘ of iPod supplier FoxConn from MindMeters blogger Fang Jun: [zh]

Foxconn Spoof

To keep the Southern China theme flowing smoothly, here's a post from Guangzhou-based blogger/South China Morning Post reporter Ivan Zhai in which he lists his most hardcore media worker friends’ blogs:

毕生死磕 It's A Hard Knock Life
僧面佛面 Monk Face/Buddha Face
媒体评论 Media Criticism
Universal traveller
爱上女主播 In Love With a Female Broadcaster [Mu Zimei]
世界中心 Center of the World
在路上的记录者 Notetaker On The Road
世界眼中的我们 In The World's Eyes’ Us
Neverland
茶余饭后 After Dinner, and Following Tea
Drift
恬静 Tranquil
二房 #2 Woman

Ivan recently moved his blog from MSN Spaces to Netease [zh], the design of whose not-yet-released blogs look not-so-subtly familiar.

More from the South, a few days ago, Director General of the Guangdong Province Public Security Department Liang Guoju was quoted in the media claiming the provincial capitol Guangzhou to be one of the safest cities in the country. Guangzhou residents scoffed at the thought and A-list Chinese blogger Wang Xiaofeng, visiting the Southern China metropolis this week, asked in a post [zh], “if Guangzhou is safe, are there still dangerous places left on this planet?” In the same post he lists some comments netizens left in response to news portal Sina.com coverage:

——在广州、巴格达、贝鲁特三城市之中,广州是最安全的。
——标题应为:《歹徒一致认为:广州是最安全的城市之一》。特此更正,谢谢!
——最危险的地方就是最安全的地方。这个局长一定是古龙小说读多了。
——强烈支持梁国聚厅长!他说的是在广东省的省会城市中,广州市的治安是最好的.难道他说错了吗???
——厅长大人被评为2006年娱乐中国个人突出贡献奖。
——如果广州是最安全的城市,那全国的治安可见有多差了!
——厅长本人所处的地方肯定是最安全的。但老百姓呢?
——哈哈哈,这个笑话真好笑,这么有幽默感的官员第一次见。
——厅长说的没有错 我在省委附近住好几年了 没有一起案件。
——我宁可相信中国男子足球队夺得了世界杯冠军!
——全国其他省市的公安厅局长们,你们要想广州好好学习呀。广州都搞成最安全的了。

-Of the three cities Guangzhou, Baghdad and Beirut, Guangzhou is the safest.
-The title [of the news report] should be: ‘Gangsters Unanimously Agree: Guangzhou Is One Of The Safest Cities’. Please make this correction, thank you!!
-The most dangerous places is definitely the safest place. This department head has definitely read one too many Gu Long novels.
-Strongly support Director General Liang Guoju! He meant of all the provincial capitols in Guangdong province, Guangzhou city is the safest. It's not like he made a mistake, right???
-The department head has been judged as winner of the 2006 Outstanding Individual Contribution to Chinese Entertainment Award.
-If Guangzhou is the safest city, then you can see just how bad public security is in the rest of the country!
-Anywhere the department head goes is bound to be the safest. But the common folk?
-Ha ha ha, this joke is really funny. My first time to see an official with so much sense of humor.
-The Director General made no mistake. I've lived near the provincial government building for years and there haven't been any problems whatsoever.
-I'd rather believe that China's Men's Football Team will win the World Cup championships!
-Public Security Departments of other provinces and cities, you need to learn from Guangzhou. Even Guangzhou of all places has become the safest.

Whether Guangzhou deserves its reputation as wildest (or safest) place in China is a discussion which divides most residents, but the city definitely does provide its bloggers with lots of juicy blogworthy stories. Here's one, in listed detail [zh], from Guangzhou-based blogger/advertising professional Bu Chong [“Supplement”]:

1、我居住的小区门口贴有一张有公安印鉴的通缉令,悬赏6万元,追捕一个杀人抢劫嫌疑人,该嫌疑身上背有6条命案。
2、我老婆中学时代的好友小A,她的男朋友是广州天河区的警察。最近小A晚间出来与同学聚会,警察男友异常紧张,未到23点,就频频电话催促女友回家。询问原因,是夜间极度不安全,警方正在全市追捕另一个有更多命案的凶徒。他不肯透露更多的消息……警察为家属紧张成这样,教我如何不信他?
3、以体验派报道著称的《新快报》记者,在公共汽车上被迷药麻翻,手机被当众拿走……此报道很多人认为是假新闻……但闹得满城风雨,风声鹤唳。
4、广州治安良好,为什么要增加16万个摄像头?

1. At the gate of the complex in which I live there's a police Wanted poster offering a reward of sixty thousand RMB, part of the search for the suspect in a robbery killing, wanted for suspected connection to six homicide cases.
2. My wife's good friend from her high school days A's boyfriend is a policeman in Guangzhou's Tian He district. One recent evening, A went out to party with some of her classmates, and her policeman boyfriend was unusually nervous, before 11pm had already phoned her numerous times, urging his girlfriend to go home. Asked why, he said tonight is exceptionally unsafe, that the police were currently on a city-wide manhunt for a violent criminal wanted in relation to many homicide cases. He wasn't willing to reveal any more information……but if the police are that concerned about their own family, how could I be expected not to believe him?
3. From having seen a series of stories from the reporters at the renowned New Express [zh], of people being drugged on public busses, of cell phones being snatched in public……many people take these reports to be fake news……but they've created a storm, leaving the whole city ready to jump at the slightest sound.
4. If Guangzhou's public security is so great, why the need for 16,000 more cameras?

Expanding on the state surveillance mentioned in that last point brings us to Zeng Jinyan, whose blog long ago became a guide to coping with life under state oppression. She has just posted a list of survival tips for China's politically-involved, prefaced by:

欧阳小戎失踪了,据说一起失踪的人还有小乔。失踪已经有好些天了。
我从未见过欧阳小戎,在网上读过他纯真又充满激情的诗。文如其人,是不会错的。春天时,他曾经也失踪。他回来后我们通过网络联系。
最近总能听见有人失踪的消息,或许需要一个人长久地列一个名单:谁什么时候失踪了,什么时候回来了,什么时候又失踪了。因为一个人一旦开始了第一次失踪,很容易有再一次失踪。
远离首都的公民、住在北京不知名胡同的市民、尚未结婚的年轻人、并非维权人士/知名人士只是凭良心说了几句话的人,要失踪多少天,才被别人发现?

Ouyang Xiaorong (欧阳小戎) has disappeared, allegedly along with the people having disappeared with him is [Shanghai-based writer] Xiao Qiao. They've been missing for several days already. I've never met Ouyang Xiaorong; I've read his sincere and brimming with enthusiasm poems online. Style like his can't be wrong. He had also disappeared this spring. After he came back we came in contact online. Recently I keep hearing about people disappearing, maybe someone needs to keep a list: who disappeared and when, when they came back, when they disappeared again. Because once one disappears, it's very easy for there to be a second time. Citizens far from the capitol, citizens living in Beijing's unknown alleys, young unmarried people, non-civil rights activists, well-known people and those with just the best intentions in saying a few words, for how many days will they be missing before someone notices?

Zeng's suggestions for safer social activism:

在健康和清醒的时候,写下遗嘱,并给身边亲密的几个人保存。
写下家人、友人的紧急联系方式,交给一起生活、经常见面的人。
对联系最密切的朋友说:如果X天联系不上我,请马上联系M人,并公布我失踪的信息。
养成独自冥想的习惯,以免被单独关押时精神失常。
培养温和、宽容的心态,就是对方打骂折磨,精神上也不受刺激。
不到不得已,不要以身体作为反抗的武器,千方百计保持身体的安康。
与其和“兵”讲道理,不如安静地蓄精养锐。
沉默是被关押时最好的选择,否则你不以为意地说的话,都会成为陷害你以及你的亲友的工具。如:问——你2006年8月1日干什么了?答——我没干什么违法的事,只是和我的好朋友S吃晚饭、讨论Y的诗歌。那么,至少你的朋友S和Y的诗歌,会受牵连,被骚扰甚至陷害。
尽人事听天命。

-In a healthy and level-headed time, write out your will and give it to several intimate friends for safekeeping.
-Write down emergency contact information for your family and friends and give it to people you live with and often see.
-Tell your most intimate friends: if there comes one day you can't get ahold of me, please get in touch with M, and make public information about my disappearance.
-Develop a habit of meditating alone, to prevent mental breakdown during time in prison.
-Foster a moderate and tolerant state of mind; when they beat interrogate and torture you, your mental state won't be agitated.
-Before all is lost, don't use your body as a weapon of resistance; do your best to keep your body in good health.
-Trying to speak rationally with them doesn't compare with calmly conserving your energy to keep yourself sharp.
-Silence is the best choice for those imprisoned; anything you carelessly say can become a tool for framing you as well as your family and friends. For example: Question: What were you doing on August 1? Answer: I didn't do anything illegal, I only ate dinner with my friend S, discussed Y's poems. Then, your friend S and Y's poems will be implicated, harassed, even charged.

In some Zeng-related news, Xu Zhiyong—the lawyer of Chen Guangcheng, a friend of Zeng who is frequently mentioned on her blog and was sentenced to four years in prison last week—has just had his blog shut down.

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