Oiwan Lam · April, 2007

Latest posts by Oiwan Lam from April, 2007

China: the Dead Judge

  25 April 2007

The Beijing News reported a mysterious dead of a Judge in police station, Pingle county of Guilin city. The news story was appeared in the internet, at the Rule of Law forum at Chinacourt.org, and picked up by traditional media – via ESWN.

China: Regulate Online Magazine?

  25 April 2007

Josie from China in Transition highlighted the report from China Business News that China’s administration of press and publication will require online magazines to obtain license from the government before publishing.

China: The Most “Second” Internet Company

  24 April 2007

Fang Jun from Mindmeter started the chain blogging on “the most ‘er’ (literally means ‘second’, extended meaning: ‘inferior’ and ‘er’) internet company” in China. His choice are: Sina (stops photo sharing), Focusmedia (too much ads), Google (failure in pinyin typing entry), Myspace China and Baidu Japan (zh). Wang Xiaofeng's choice...

China: Localization of Google Adsense

  24 April 2007

William Long comments on the localization of google adsense: Will the localization lead to the intervention of local governmental monitoring bodies? Especially from the revenue department? If the monitoring bodies intervene, can Google protect their customers’ privacy? (zh)

Asia: Asian VS. Western Media

  24 April 2007

Imagethief comments on an article at the Boao Forum for Asia, published in Xinhua. In the article, Liu Jiang, deputy editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, commented that “Developed contrives, which have one seventh of the world population, have dominated two thirds of the total information flow”. Imagethief's insightful response is:...

China: How Sand Storm Makes a Difference

  24 April 2007

Michael, from the Opposite End of China blogs two pictures, one is before the sand storm, the second is taken after 11 minutes. The reader can see how sand storm makes a difference to the environment.

China: Photo Comic Blog

  24 April 2007

Jason Li from Virtual China introduced a Photo Comic Blog, Very Real People, Very Entertaining. Humor is very difficult to translate, and Jason tried to capture the sense of Chinese Humor in his post.

China: Wall to Beautify or Cover up?

  23 April 2007

Zhao Shilong commented on the touristic Walls being built in Gan-su (zh). Local official claimed that the walls were to beautify the villages, however, local villagers said the wall was to cover up poverty and shame.

China: Protest against Bill Gates

  23 April 2007

A rare protest at Peking University for free software when Bill Gates was handing out certificates to a line of students – from People's Republic of…

Hong Kong: Internet Article 23

  23 April 2007

A group of netizens have organized a new BBS forum: article23.net. The organizers compared the proposal in the government digital copyright consultation as the notorious article 23 in Basic Law which led to half a milion people demonstration in 2003. The BBS forum is to share information concerning digital copyright...

Japan: Fun With Japanese Characters

  20 April 2007

Pingmag has a feature story about the Dainippon Type Organization, an experimental typography unit founded by the two artists Tetsuya Tsukada and Hidechika in 1993. The group finds fun in breaking Japanese Katakana, Hiragana, and the alphabet into pieces to recompose the parts and produce new characters.

Japan

  20 April 2007

Debito picks up the story from Gyaku concerning the future of electronic surveillance of foreigners entering Japan: This means that Japan becomes the second country to institute one of these systems in the world, in a bid to get a toehold in Asia and profit from the fear of terrorism.

China: Chinese Blog Hostings are not Web 2.0

  20 April 2007

The whole concept of Web 2.0 is to facilitate information flow, dialogue and conversation across the Internet. However, Sina.com, in Mainland China, is not only notorious in their editorial policy which violates the freedom of speech (see open letter to sina.com); yesterday Fang Jung in Mindmeter found out that Sina.com...

China: Chinese Blog Companies are not Web 2.0

  20 April 2007

The whole concept of Web 2.0 is to facilitate information flow, dialogue and conversation across the Internet. However, Sina.com, in Mainland China, is not only notorious in their editorial policy which violates the freedom of speech (see open letter to sina.com); yesterday Fang Jung in Mindmeter found out that Sina.com...

China: Cultural Worker License

  19 April 2007

China Media Project brings into focus a recent announcement by China's top cultural officials announced that the country would institute a new licensing system this year for employment in the cultural sector.

China: Daughter's Day

  19 April 2007

Peijin Chen from Shanghaiist reports on the restoration of traditional festivial day in China. April 19 is the third day of the third month in Chinese Lunar Calendar, which is known as the “Daughter's Day” (女儿节). The background of the restoration trend is related to UNESCO's intangible heritage policy.