Latest posts by Tian Yi
Law-ful in China
Two laws are going into effect on March 1st in China. One, as reported by HK Dave on Simon World, requires all discos and karaoke lounges to install surveillance cameras. Another will limit admittance to karaoke clubs and internet cafes in China to those ages 18 and up, as noted...
Hong Kong Refuses to Be Sales-taxed
Hemlock regards the attempt to implement a goods and services tax in Hong Kong as utopian as IMF asking Nepal to restore peace. For “our visionary leaders can’t do anything that’s in the interests of the community, because we’re not a community. We are ‘various sectors’”.
In Defense of Piracy
Beijing Loafer defends the role of piracy in media-controlled China. Without piracy, Chinese audiences “would only get the likes of Titanic, Backstreet Boys and Batman with no shoulder exposed, products as mind numbing as the communist propaganda”. The drawbacks? Misleading subtitles.
Despite The Missiles
Michael Turton on The View From Taiwan blogs on the political backpeddling of Ma Ying-jeou, the mayor of Taipei and the Chairman of Taiwan's main opposition party, Kuomintang. Ma had stated earlier on his visit to the UK that China must remove the 700 missiles pointing at Taiwan before the...
South Korea Embraces Super-Bowl MVP
The Lost Nomad highlights a Los Angeles Times article on Hines Ward becoming an instant national hero in South Korea. Hines, born to a Korean mother and an African American GI father, grew up in the US and suffered discrimination from the Korean community. He was recently elected the most...
Stealing Candies on Valentine's
The blogger at The Asia Pages gets a chuckle out of a report that in the South Korean army, new conscripts have to share chocolates from their girlfriends with their seniors on Valentine's day.
Korean Going for The Top
The South Korean government just announced that its foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, would run for the UN Secretary General post. Fying Yangban discusses the importance of Ban securing backings from other Asian Countries, while Oranckay reminisces on the announcement's effect in boosting national pride.
The “Official” View on China's Reform
ESWN translates from the quasi-official Caijing magazine an article that is reputed to represent the views of senior Chinese officials. The article states that many injustices “occurred because the administrative powers intervened in the distribution of production during the marketization“. The author cites the central government's plan to reform “the...
A Near Sighted Attack on The Chinese Way?
On Wedn Feb 15th, the US Congress will review the roles that US hi-tech firms are playing in China's Internet censorship. In “Truth, Justice or A Near Sighted Attack on The Chinese Way”, Angry Chinese Blogger gives a comprehensive overview of the issues at stake and the motives at play.
It's Not Just The Propaganda Department
The liberal Chinese newspaper supplement magazine, Freezing Point, was recently closed by the government. The ostensible reason was a long study the magazine published on revaluating the modern Chinese history taught in middle schools. Letters from China points to a Chinese reader's essay to highlight that the aversion to revisit...
Google and Microsoft in China, Revisited
Mathew Stinson gives a comprehensive review of the recent discussions in the blogosphere on Google and Microsoft's censorship in China. He argues that Microsoft is commiting a bigger sin than Google. Meanwhile, he suggests that “a strong case can be made that even with the censorship, having MSN Spaces is...
The Cost of Unification
Jerome Keating guest-posts on The Peking Duck on the potential social and economic costs of Taiwan's unification with Mainland China. Without touching on political costs, Jerome points out that the current health care system, the environment and the efficient use of tax revenue in Taiwan will suffer if unification happens.
Carl Icahn is Coming to Korea!
Mingi Hyun on The Asia/Korea Tide reports the fight for control over KT&G, the largest Korean cigarette maker. Concerns mounted in Korea as Carl Icahn, the famed corporate raider who is trying to break up Time Warner at the moment, raised his ownership in KT&G to 6.6% of the company.
The Koreans vs. Those From Overseas
The Asia Pages discusses how to tell a Gyopo (overseas Korean) from a Korean national at the dinner table and elsewhere in Korea. The writer opines that to deny the difference between the two is to deny one's true identity.
Lesser of Two Evils
ESWN discusses which is the lesser of two evils in terms of blog censorship: MSN Spaces which follows the orders of the Chinese government, or China's own BSPs?
Collectively At Hyundai In China
Jamie on Two Koreas considers it significant that the All China Federation of Trade Unions is pressuring for a collective bargaining agreement at Hyundai's China operation , even though China restricts collective union actions.
Taiwan Strikes Back, With Pixels
Tim Maddog on Indiac rebukes China's claims of being “peaceful” in a recent white paper, by citing Taiwan's white paper on China's rise and adding his own commentary.
Which Is Better – A Boy or A Girl?
The news of Japan's Princess Kiko being pregnant makes the writer of The Asia Pages a little nervous. If she will have a son, “what will happen to all the progress Japan has made in regards to warming up to the idea of having a female empress“?
Who Is “Better”?
John at Sinosplice is not sure how to best explain to his Chinese students in English “the difference between ‘value to society’ and ‘inherent human worth’“. Readers debate whether this is a linguistic or cultural problem.
China Is 80 Years Behind
Simon World points to an amusing new study published in People's Daily (the official propagand mouthpiece of the Chinese government) today. The study, conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, concluded that “China is still a less developed country that is 80 years behind the US, France, Sweden and Germany“,...
All Yahoo!'s Fault?
The Western media are condemning Yahoo! again for handing over the personal account information of Li Zhi to the Chinese government. Li Zhi was sentenced to 8 years in jail for ‘inciting subversion’. In September 2005, Yahoo was accused of helping Chinese authorities identify Shi Tao, a dissident who was...
