An army burning with indignation哀兵必胜“Conquer English to Make China Stronger!” Li Yang Crazy English is either self-help, huckster nationalism, or according to novelist Wang Shuo, “the same shit as racism.” South African dockworkers refuse to unload a case of weapons sent from China to Zimbabwe. Conservative Bernard Henry-Levi tells pro-Tibet readers not to forget “the planes, trucks, and light and heavy weaponry” China supplies the Janjaweed in Sudan. China’s worst train crash in a decade takes 70 lives in Shandong province. Urban wages are up 18.7% nationwide. The trend’s mirror image is a labor shortage and rising prices around the world. An American English teacher was beaten at a Carrefour supermarket in Zhuzhou when a mob believed him to be French. Shanghaiist reports the encounter, with a no less worrisome update: the mob didn’t beat him, it just watched. Amid Chinese attacks on Western servers such as CNN’s, the Carrefour website goes down for “maintenance.” Chinese students across the U.S. are using death threats and violence to demonstrate China’s virtues: “Another factor fueling the zeal of many Chinese demonstrators could be that they, too, intend to return home; the Chinese government is widely believed to be monitoring large e-mail lists.” Filed In Week In Review // On Apr 30, 2008 //For the love of dragons叶公好龙Front-page China: National Geographic goes “Inside the Dragon,” an all-China issue guided by The New Yorker’s Beijing correspondent Peter Hessler. Words Without Borders dedicates their April issue to translating “Olympic Voices from China.” Included, an essay by Hu Ying: “Because the river water was too shallow, no matter how many times he jumped in he couldn’t kill himself.” Last week, Jackie Chan and Jet Li’s “The Forbidden Kingdom” debuted as #1 in American theaters, with $20.9 million in sales. A big book on China and the world’s dwindling resources: Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, by Michael T. Klare. A conversation with Klare on KUOW radio, an excerpt from the first chapter, and an interview at Energy Bulletin: “I do not believe that the Great Powers would ever deliberately choose to go to war over oil, natural gas, or uranium… But they are engaging in behaviors that make the danger of inadvertent or accidental war ever greater.” Filed In Week In Review // On Apr 28, 2008 //Tit for tat针锋相对China gets medieval on your country: Joan of Arc was a prostitute and Napoleon a perv. From the New York Times, pro-China protests always get the plug pulled within a few weeks: “the Chinese government recognizes that vitriolic campaigns against outsiders could easily pivot toward the Communist Party.” For now, CNN and the Dalai Lama are both getting the “sincerity” treatment from China’s Foreign Ministry. Differing accounts of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Ann Arbor, Michigan: according to the Michigan Daily, widespread support and only 15 pro-China protestors. Xinhua calls Michigan a “northeastern” state, reports hearing hundreds of Chinese-Americans and Chinese nationals from across the U.S. chant “Politics off Olympics, we want sport,” and interviews the organizer. The visit is part of the university’s “China Now” theme year (more). From Detroit’s Metro Times, UM Faces East (PDF file): a broad look at China’s connection with the “Champions of the West.” Numbers aside, what makes a Chinese student protest in America? From Stratfor Intelligence: Beijing’s Obvious Hand at the Olympic Torch Run. Filed In Week In Review // On Apr 21, 2008 //Youth and young manhood初The no-tell motels that China’s young people are going to: “If the linens are too dirty, you will lose your deposit.” General Electric imagines a 30 second love story in rural China. It’s not the dating that’s hard, it’s paying for the meal: rumors of AIDS kebabs in Xinjiang barbecues reach every China Mobile phone. A debunking of the de facto anti-Muslim rumor, which had Xinjiang Agricultural University students resolving “to eat street food as little as possible.” An internet campaign celebrating Taiwan’s new president: strip if you support Chen Shui Bian, with photos of course. Sex scandals happen, but not with your daughter: a Hong Kong Toy King offers HK$100 million to clear his girl’s name: “My whole family are Christians,” she says. “I would never do such a thing.” So why aren’t China’s young people the new Cold War Kids? While 40-somethings are most willing to challenge the government, China’s loyal youth are “the most patriotic, establishment-supporting people you’ll meet.” Filed In Week In Review // On Apr 17, 2008 //Protest as an Olympic idealLesbian scholar Helen Zia held the Olympic lightning rod, even though China “doesn’t even recognize that we exist.” Her personal essay in the San Francisco Chronicle on why she ran, and a CBS TV interview where she says to “protest against each other, be alongside each other is something that is an Olympic ideal.” Filed In Week In Review // On Apr 16, 2008 //- |
