a media activist, researcher and educator currently based in Hong Kong. my chinese writings are in inmediahk.net and my twitter account is @oiwan.
Latest posts by Oiwan Lam
17 June 2017
Hong Kong Activists Urge Restaurants to Remove Shark Fin Soup From Menus
"Just as Hong Kong consumers have a responsibility to stop eating shark fin, restaurant groups like Maxim's also have an equal responsibility to stop selling it."
16 June 2017
The Disturbing Wedding Trend in China of Groomsmen Sexually Assaulting Bridesmaids
"Bridesmaid is such a high risk role -- sexual harassment, rape and now death."
13 June 2017
China Shutters Entertainment News Sites, Citing ‘Socialist Values’ and Cybersecurity
Crackdowns on entertainment news outlets indicate that controls are not only directed at the foreign enemy, but at thoughts and activities seen to go against “socialist core values”.
8 June 2017
China Bans ‘Soft Burial’, an Award-Winning Novel About the Deadly Consequences of Land Reform
'[...] as for the living, when they seal off their past, cut off their roots, reject their memories, either consciously or subconsciously, their lives are soft buried in time.'
30 May 2017
Chinese Foreign Ministry Rebukes Student for Exalting Free Speech in Graduation Remarks
Foreign ministry officials are using Yang's speech to prove a recycled conspiracy about overseas Chinese students being contaminated by Western ideology.
25 May 2017
Is the Belt and Road Project the Answer to China's Economic Woes? Some Aren't So Sure.
"...the risk for bad debt is huge. While other countries can easily back down from the initiative, as the leader of the initiative, China will be the last to quit."
22 May 2017
Panic Over Russian Online Suicide Game Sparks ‘Whale Hunt’ in China
Pro-government groups are waging a campaign against the game, and internet censors have predictably gone into overdrive.
21 May 2017
Viral Video Triggers Debate Over Patriotic Education in China, Again
"My kids do not need to follow so-called 'heroes' who killed their fellow countrymen. They should learn how to love the environment, recycle used items, act in a civilized manner."
16 May 2017
Why Is China Home to Half of the Computers Infected With WannaCry Ransomware?
Chinese computer users may be more vulnerable to the attack as many commonly use unlicensed (i.e. pirated) or outdated versions of Windows OS and thus do not receive security updates.
11 May 2017
Law Enforcement's Selective Crackdown Curbs Indie Music Space in Hong Kong
"...the latest raid seems more like part of a well planned campaign aimed at crashing every business that does not belong to the big business."
7 May 2017
Mixed Martial Arts Fighter Uses His Ten-Second Defeat of Tai Chi Master to Challenge Chinese Kung Fu Bureaucrats
Have traditional Chinese martial arts devolved into too much performance and too little skill? One Mixed Martial Arts fighter thinks so, and has put his money where his mouth is.
5 May 2017
Wanna Share News on Social Media? With China's New Rules, You'll Need a Permit For That.
"It is like asking us to uninstall all the communication tools or else whenever you speak, you could violate the law."
28 April 2017
High-Profile Chinese Blogger Arrested for Online Comments, After Years of Police Harassment
Under China's "stability control" measures, it is increasingly common for netizens who are critical of the government to be summoned or detained by police.
26 April 2017
Some Hong Kongers Insist on Blaming the Woman, Not the Man, in Viral Fist Fight Over Going Dutch
Hours after the story broke, the restaurant owner clarified that the fight began because the woman wanted to split the bill, but the man did not.
12 April 2017
China's Latest Step to Root Out Foreign Spies? Cash Rewards for Informants.
But some Chinese are concerned, given that certain "patriotic" circles equate critical speech about China as an act of espionage.
10 April 2017
How a Teenager's Mysterious Death in China Is Eroding Public Trust in Authorities
"To prove netizens' version of the story wrong is not difficult. Authorities just need to release more information and the rumors would fall apart"
Satirical News Show ‘China Uncensored’ Censored by Apple in Hong Kong and Taiwan
"There is no point in disputing your app store decision with respect to mainland China…but Hong Kong and Taiwan [...] operate under independent legal systems."
9 April 2017
Beijing Unveils New Economic Area To Give Millennials a Shot at the ‘China Dream’
"Using public housing to counteract the property market is a strategy [for] the young generation who [cannot] afford property [...] if the plan works out, it can be a model."
2 April 2017
Missing Taiwan NGO Worker's Wife Travels to Beijing to Rescue Him
"The [Chinese] government can assign the label "harmful to state interests" to anyone that it does not like."
28 March 2017
China's Great Firewall Gives Rise to a Robust Industry of Information Smugglers
More often than not, information smugglers prioritize things like click rates over hard-hitting public interest journalism.
