Latest posts by John Kennedy from July, 2008
China: How you feeling about the Olympics?
Joel at Fool's Mountain recently took to the street where he lives in Beijing neighbor city Tianjin to ask locals what they think about next month's Olympics. He took video of it all, and has even added translated subtitles. Check it out.
China: Bloggers take stand against web activist's arrest
"We would hate to see this case become yet another dismal human rights record raising international attention in the midst of this Olympic year. We regret to suspect, however, that the Chengdu police are at present committed to doing as much."
China: Looking back at a campus shooting
“...the first few days with the cast were really strange, everyone kept whispering to each other wondering if I was a big kung fu master back in China.” Why does it always have to be so awkward when Chinese and Americans get together?
China: Interviews with Chinese journalists
The second part in China Digital Times‘ series of interviews with Chinese journalists is now up. First question: “How do you feel about the Olympics being in Beijing? What does that mean for the Chinese people?”
China: Noise games
Always a cynic and hardly a hater, humor blogger Wang Xiaofeng posted this today (and only this) with the title ‘noise games’, a play on the Chinese word for the Olympic games:
China: Locking down IDC server rooms for the Olympics
Have you been to Beijing lately? For those making their first trip for the Olympics, there's lots that's going to impress. What you won't see, however, is just as telling.
China: Pass on the temporary residence permit
As reported on Danwei earlier, Beijing residents have been told to renew their (or start getting) temporary residence permits before the Olympics. ‘I pay my taxes,’ writes Bullog blogger Alading512, ‘and I have the freedom to not support the Olympics, so why should I fork out this 5 yuan fee?’
China: Why did China veto sanctions against Zimbabwe?
Independent blogger Ruan Yifeng on Beijing's relationship with repressive governments: "What's more, while Beijing plays the role of "friend to the dictators" in negotiations with the US, it also stands to gain from the spoils. The North Korean nuclear crisis is a perfect example."
China: ChinaBounder back with a book
ChinaBounder, the country's first major (English-language) male sex blogger, is back after a prolonged blogging absence with a China-bashing book, excerpts of which will be released each day from now through to the end of the Olympics. See Jeremy Goldkorn's post at Danwei for more revealing info.
China: Great Wall of China now wheelchair-accessible
Good news for wheelchair-bound sports fans, as written on Joseph Taggart's Blogspot blog: “In preparation for the Special Olympics in Beijing, an elevator was recently installed to make the top of the wall accessible to people in wheelchairs. I was excited to try it out.” Terrific photos, too.
China: Getting from Beijing airport to city center
David Feng at CNReviews has compiled a lot of information showing everything one needs to know to get them from Beijing's airport to the center of the city.
China: Summer Olympics Disaster Guide
Probably going to see a lot more posts like this in the coming few weeks, so let this be GVO's chance to (hopefully) get it out of the way now: What could go wrong in Beijing? Everything.. Via Shanghaiist.
China: Crackdown on Olympic-related video content
Was it footage of the Olympic torch relay that killed top video sharing website 56.com? Danwei's Eric Mu today reports that 20 such sites were recently censured for carrying “Olympic-related content”.
China: Citizen journalists prepare for the Olympics
Footloose citizen reporter Zuola has said [zh] he's going to be there, religious extremists are going to be there, foreign media seem to be looking for local stringers, and cutting-edge web 2.0 companies are so convinced that something worth vlogging will happen during next month's Beijing Olympic Games that they're...
China: Is Sarkozy the problem with Sino-French relations?
'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, what intoxicating words! So why is there still so much animosity between China and France?'
China: Are you in?
You might be in The Lost Ring already and not even know it, unless you've been keeping up with the biggest alternate reality game seen so far. Lyn Jeffery at Virtual China looks at how Chinese netizens figure into the mystery—or not, thanks to internet censorship.
China: August moon over Beijing
Veteran China pundit Philip J Cunningham looks back at the phases of the moon leading up to the Tiananmen student protest in 1989 and forward to the August moon as it will be when the Olympics begin next month as possible justification for tightened security leading up to the Games...
China: AI's Human Rights Beijing 2008 campaign
Red.CBGB at Bullog.cn has posted several of the images from Amnesty International's Beijing Olympics human rights campaign in a photo post, ‘Olympic project’. ‘It feels like a little too much,’ writes one reader. ‘This is no exaggeration at all,’ writes another, ‘but the truth is always hard for anyone to...
China: Shutting down for the Olympics
Just over a month until the big games, Fons Tuinstra at China Herald takes a look around Beijing as the city prepares itself in ‘Olympic shutdown gets into places’.
China: Olympics reporter barred entry
Roland Soong at EastSouthWestNorth translates articles from two Hong Kong dailies of opposing views on the news that one of those newspapers’ Olympic beat reporters has been refused entry and sent home.
John Kennedy's space
