John Kennedy · June, 2006

Latest posts by John Kennedy from June, 2006

China: Revolution’s victims’ stories blogged, not forgotten (2/4)

  22 June 2006

Chinese blogger-journalist Ran Yunfei (冉云飞) has spent a large part of his life researching the stories of those painted, purged and persecuted as right wing elements during China's Cultural Revolution; unable to have the stories published in any official media, he's turned to his own well-known blog. Early last month...

China: Internet access in Tibet

  21 June 2006

Virtual China has a guest blogger today, Kathrine Hoersted, who brings us a post looking at the young Tibetan woman with whom she lived during her graduate research in a small village in Tibet, and how despite severely limited internet access there the two have managed to keep in touch.

China: University students riot

  21 June 2006

In response to backpedalling administrations and denial of access to watching World Cup games, students at two universities in China rioted this week, leaving widespread and costly damage. Translations [#061] from EastSouthWestNorth‘s Roland Soong and some perspective from OneManBandwith‘s Lonnie Hodge, looking at the conditions under which many students—and professors—end...

North Korea: Holocaust-style camps

  21 June 2006

As North Korea prepares to test-fire an inter-continental ballistic missile—”The US and Japan have warned the North Koreans not to test-fire their ICBM; but the lunatics in charge of the failed Stalinist state, led by the Hitlerian tyrant Kim Jong-il, have insisted on their right to fire away.”—China Confidential‘s Confidential...

Japan: Motorbikes, scooters banned

  21 June 2006

When Rising Sun blogger GaijinBiker walked out onto the streets of Tokyo this morning, the first thing he noticed was the missing motorcycles and scooters, as described in his post ‘A law meant to be broken.’

Japan: Smoking minors penalized

  21 June 2006

“No Smooking,” says a misspelt sign posted by JP at Japundit, preceded by a post telling of a mother in Japan charged for neglecting the law which makes her two sons’ smoking illegal.

China: Blogs for the ladies and the superstars

  17 June 2006

If a Chinese-language version of something called Blogerati existed, portal website Sina.com would most likely be it. Is it a surprise that two of Sina's three top bloggers are women? At third spot is media mogul Hong Huang (洪晃), ex-wife of Farewell My Concubine director Chen Kaige and daughter of...

China: Revolution's victims’ stories blogged, not forgotten (1/4)

  14 June 2006

For a good number of years, Sichuan-based blogger-journalist Ran Yunfei (冉云飞) has been collecting the stories of those persecuted as right wing elements during the Cultural Revolution, another part of Chinese contemporary history largely left unexplored even to this day. Early this year Ran began posting his research findings on...

North Korea: Missile test coming

  13 June 2006

“Congratulations, North Korea!” blogs Robert J. Koehler at The Marmot's Hole in response to news that North Korea will soon test-fire a missile capable of striking America. “Soon, you might have the capability to ensure the Americans turn South Korea into an island in the event of an emergency. And...

Japan: Simplified characters or traditional?

  13 June 2006

Danny Bloom at Japundit hosts a quick but thorough discussion on the division over simplified Chinese characters (mainland China) and traditional characters (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Chinatowns worldwide): “What’s your take on all this? Will China's system take over, and if it does, will it have an impact on Japan's writing...

Japan: Internet beauty queens

  13 June 2006

An internet beauty queen has been chosen, writes Tokyo Times‘ Lee, from 5,500 entries: “[I]n a bid to make sure that the victor didn’t turn out to be a balding and bearded middle-aged man living with his parents and known online as Judith, the organizers asked the 20 best contestants—chosen...

China: University entrance exams

  13 June 2006

A seldom-heard stance on China's tough university entrance exams (Gao Kao) from Raymond Zhou at Not only movies just days after the testing period ended: “It may sound paradoxical, but I'm not for abolishing the gaokao system. For all its quirks and partiality, it is one of the few mechanisms...

China: News anchors replaced

  13 June 2006

Outside In blogger and old China hand Jo turned on the nightly communist news early last week and was surprised to see two new faces reading the news: “I thought maybe a wrinkle had occurred in the universe. In the universe of the party propaganda machinery, I guess it had....

China: Activist news roundup

  13 June 2006

Arms trading, Tibet, environmental concerns, Chinese president Hu Jintao's recent meeting with American counterpart Bush and Google executive Sergey Brin admitting to censoring search results in China all in Celia's weekly roundup at China Activist Weekly.

Taiwan: Ma's assassination called for?

  13 June 2006

Did a Taiwanese underground radio station just call for the assassination of the island's Kuomintang leader and possible future presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou? Blogging from EastSouthWestNorth‘s Roland Soong suggests this is unlikely [#036], but a post from The View from Taiwan‘s Michael Turton shows that thoughts of political assassinations are...

Japan: The shape of state buildings

  12 June 2006

Kotaji blogger kotajihwa blogs on some interesting sights found using Google Earth to look down on Japanese and South Korean government buildings in ‘Archigraphy.’ via Kerim and Pinyin News.

China: Miss media mogul

  12 June 2006

Today on Danwei TV comes the second part of an interview with the returnee daughter of a Mao-era higher-up turned Capitalist media mogul, one of China's most successful, from Danwei‘s Anna Sophie Loewenberg, Jeremy Goldkorn and Fernando Fidanza

China: Netgame proxy players

  12 June 2006

Possibly the strongest unifying force for Chinese men under 30, fierce competition in internet-based roleplaying games has led to the development of an unusual new meta-occupation: proxy player. Translates Virtual China‘s Lyn Jeffery: “As the article explains, proxy player shops “网游代练”公司 arose to serve those who love online games but...

China: Terror alert issued

  12 June 2006

The American consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou issued a warning last year of potential terrorist attacks against its citizens there. As seen on Guangzhou-based Lonnie Hodge's blog OneManBandwith, another terror alert has been released: “I think we are relatively safe,” the professor-blogger writes. “I am loathe to...

China: Oil, diplomatic relations

  12 June 2006

Bingfeng Teahouse blogger is back with a post which takes a humorous look at China's approach to diplomatic relations, particularly those of which Chinese authorities take advantage.

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