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Use blog4china.foolsmountain.com from inside China. RSS feeds can be accessed normally.
The increase in inequality in China has leveled off in recent years and could be less severe than previously thought, suggesting that Beijing is starting to make progress in tackling one of its biggest social problems.
Author explains why the West should embrace—rather than fear—the next superpower.
Looking for parallels to Haiti's catastrophe, many point to China. The author went back to Sichuan six months after the catastrophe and was amazed at the speed of physical and economic recovery.
On why the norm of the Internet may not be laissez-faire, but fragmentation of community along linguistic and national lines.
On how China has prospered through peace, established a framework for future peace - and on how the present form of government may present the best guarantee of preserving peace.
Blaming China now for destroying the world won't help future negotiations nor get the world on track to developing new low-carbon economies nor dissuade China from its mission to lead the world in clean development.
Interesting op-ed on British, American, Russian, and Japanese imperialism in East Asia in the early-mid 20th century.
There has been a lot of accusations by some that the world economic crisis has been caused by China. Here are some good readings for those initiated enough to learn more about reality.
From the toilet to music to science, our world may be more interconnected than you think!
Advice to empire builders: learn from Byzantine not Rome.
The best friend a blogger can have is a good enemy. Your friends will, perhaps, read through your posts and make a few comments. But only an enemy will read through your entire argument, for free, finding every error and questionable statement.
China's strange mixture of state intervention, markets, dictatorship, and efficiency is puzzling. But it's time to stop hoping for China's failure and start understanding and adapting to its success.
According to the article, it'd be so much better for India and China to slowly forge a constructive pan-Asian consensus and do away with the "post-colonial baggage" that animates the current Sino-Indian border dispute.
Ever wondered what China's Hu would really like to tell Obama on the sidelines of the upcoming G-20 meeting? Here is an entertaining take...
An Xinjiang Native studying in the U.S. for his Ph.D. shares his thoughts on this summer's violence and its fallout.
In a trend that will change the country, leadership of China's Communist Party is slowly passing from functionaries trained in engineering to those educated in softer sciences like law.
Progress in use of the yuan will depend not just on Chinese government initiatives, but on how much more competitive China’s exporters can become.
It is time to look anew at a reopened Eurasia under the growing influence of China's re-emergence. For those whose objective is long-term geopolitical equilibrium, this is a dynamic to acknowledge, monitor and support.
Some clarifications are needed about the many misinformation that has come about since the Urumqi riots.
China may be enjoying its new found role as a leader engine of International growth. Playing this role will however not be easy...
Asia’s emerging economies are leading the way out of recession; the tough part now is to make their recovery last.
I've always felt that genocide is a term that is overused by the West as a geopolitical propaganda pawn. Here is a case where the West cries foul when Russia plays the game.
China faces enormous challenges. It is not yet the leader of the global economy, but it's getting there.
Japanese strategist Kenichi Ohmae discusses why closer (economic) integration with the mainland is a matter of survival for Taiwan.
One view of what we can learn about the media - both Chinese and Western - from their coverage of the recent Xinjiang riots.
Rwanda's Paul Kagame Charts A Way Forward.
Taiwan and Mainland leaders exchange 1st direct messages between CCP and KMT since CCP tookover the mainland in 1949.
When Xue Longlong's academic records vanished in Wubu, he lost out on a high-paying job, and the woman he hoped to marry abandoned him.
Heyrat Niyaz - a Uyghur journalist, blogger, and AIDS activist - tells of how he tried to warn officials that “blood would flow” in Urumchi on July 5 and gives his thoughts about the background to the ethnic rioting.
China's perspectives on Xinjiang, by Fu Ying, China's ambassador to the UK.
On why Asia's (and China's) Rise is by no means guaranteed...
Rising tensions and resistance to Beijing’s control challenge China’s ‘harmonious’ society
A two year-old debate that is nevertheless reminiscent of many of the ideological clashes we've had here on Fool's Mountain.
Is the fall of communist ideology responsible for China's ethnic strife today?
Should Asians' alleged over-saving and under-consuming habits be blamed for causing the global financial crisis?
Through a combination of carrots and sticks, Beijing is starting to change how this country generates energy.
According to this NY Times Op-Ed, unless the U.S. gets its fiscal house in order, relations with China will be fundamentally unstable.
Everyone - including Hillary Clinton - seems to have a take on 6-4. Here may be a slightly more realistic version.
Auto sales are rising in China - but electric bike sales growth are even larger.
What does liberty mean for the Chinese people? Here is a small sample.
20 Years After Tiananmen, Beijing Tolerates a Safer Wave of Protest.
World's largest political party has maintained power by transforming itself and its relationship with the Chinese public.
#In Chinese北京的知識圈最近流行一個順口溜
中共自身寻求改革的必要性与紧迫性
最大危险是权力和资本走在一起
从制度上改善应该不是一条唯一的道路。
大陸意識形態的主潮流是「打左燈、向右轉」
回顾西藏问题的起伏，不少人难免有一种费解。
理性的文化和心态有赖于理性行为的累积。
不仅拥有美丽和善良，而且拥有无畏和果敢。
这一“中”一“西”两个字，不知道贻误多少仁人志士！
(more...)
August 17th, 2009 at 2:40 am
huaren, any video clip featuring Deng Lijun singing Tian Mi Mi will get TonyP4 and Hongkonger to watch!!
August 17th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Steve – I am impressed with your breadth of knowledge.
HongKonger and TonyP4 – let me know what else you guys like. I’ll keep an eye out.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hi folks, great video. I have to copy it to my blog so my friends will enjoy it. Here are some comments/info.
* For English-speaking folks’ benefit, Tian Mi Mi is a kind of wonderful feeling when you fall in love. Not a exact word/phrase in English I can find.
* Tian Mi Mi is an Indonesian folk song. There are many songs we just copy from other Asian countries and then put Chinese lyric. At one time it was quite popular to copy Japanese songs in HK. More cost effective and we Chinese are the best copy cats.
So are the American songs like California Dream (?) by Wong Fei. Some in tasteful Chinese and some are not like some of the Beatles’ songs that HKer must have a ton to share.
* Deng Lijun represents our generation, agree?
* What’s wrong with today’s generation besides too pretty.
- McDonald’s generation. We never had fat kids in China before.
- Spoiled due to one-child policy. The famous little emperor.
HK kids have a better generation than mine. Hope to have more minority kids in the video.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Huaren, would you include older girls (say 18+).
Here is my contribution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Uy5Ai_wyDE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1cl7QdZZ8g&feature=related
Everlasting beauties, a little too old for me though.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
@ TonyP4: Ewwww… to me that first video sounded like someone squeezing a cat.
Must be a racial and generational thing, ha ha.
August 17th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Hi TonyP4,
Interesting – I didn’t know Tian Mi Mi was an Indonesian folk song. Cool.
You can embedde the presentation directly too if you like. Here is the code for it:
< div> < iframe style=”border: medium none ; background-color:000000;” src=”http://china.lightroomgalleria.com/made_in_china/iframe.html” title=”Made in China” frameborder=”0″ height=”590″ width=”610″ scrolling=”no”>< /iframe>< /div>
August 18th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Tian Mi Mi is also a title of a movie (the English title is “Comrade, almost a love story”). It is one of the Hong Kong classic. It is quite different from the Hollywood’s formulated love stories that always have a happy ending. It is a big production (with some scenes in NYC), but still at a small fraction of cost of an average Hollywood movie. Except for too many coincidences, it is quite a believable movie. Maggie and Lai Ming did a great job esp. Lai who normally is an eye candy for ladies.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
@Steve,
LOL…It just goes to show how different cultures/generations have drastically different aesthetics. When I first moved into my college dorm and started breaking out the Chinese oldies, people started banging on my door and screaming at me. I was totally surprised because I couldn’t understand how you *couldn’t* enjoy the music.
I dunno, people these days don’t like Dong Wen Hua, they don’t like Soviet songs except as Tetris music, I’ve even met a couple of Taiwanese kids who have never heard of Deng LiJun! What is this world coming to!?
;-P
j/k. Maybe I’m just too old for my age.
August 18th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
@ Sonia: Now you can annoy your old dorm mates with videos!
Speaking of Tetris, here’s a Japanese band that utilizes the sound of old video games into their style. They’re called YMCK and I found them by… listening to Louis Yu’s podcast!!! (blatant plug for Louis)
When I was in Taiwan and we’d all leave work for a dinner out and then karaoke, the 20 something young ladies would always sing Deng Lijun songs, though I did hear a couple of teen girls call her songs “old people’s music”.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Hey Guys,
Tian Mi Mi aside, I am curious what your take is on the whole – if we all got to see China through the eyes of each of these 50 children, is that a good representation of China today?
Which one of the pictures in the presentation jumped out at you?
For example, the last one with the kid peeing on the wall – that’s kind of how China is today in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. It is also a reminder for me that spitting is still going on.
The two kids on the hammock reminds me of the growing middle class. I happen to know that image is from Kunming.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Hans are the majority. However, the 55 minorities should be included, as they’re part of China. China may be classified as Tier 1, 2, 3 cities and villages. Each has its distinct differences.
I hope less folks spit in Tier 1 cities esp. after the Olympics and the up-coming World Fair in SH. Yunnan area has the highest concentration of minorities. They are colorful. With high altitude (closer to the sun) they should be darker but not so for the ladies.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:57 am
@ huaren #10: Two photos jumped out at me, both for personal reasons. The first was the third photo of a young girl with a bird perched on her back. I have a photo of a Shanghai colleague who when standing on a fishing boat in Guilin, had a cormorant land on her arm and she has a similar expression.
The other photo was of a young girl at school with her head on her desk, taking a nap. In our Taiwan office, after everyone finished lunch most of them would put their head on their desk, just like that girl, and take a quick 20 minute nap, something I was incapable of doing.
August 19th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Btw, TonyP4 – 不了情 is a classic. I love that song. Yunnan is indeed colorful. I went to Da Li few years ago. But unfortunately I didn’t get to visit Lijiang. Would be nice if there is a quick intro to the minorities that is both fun and informative – and concise.
Hi Steve – I highly recommend Guilin and Yangshuo and the boat cruise. The cormorant bird is pretty big – fully grown they can weigh 20lbs.
“Cormorant Fisherman on the Li River, China”
http://china.lightroomgalleria.com/?p=150
That nap in the afternoon is common across Asia. I’ve always wondered how that originated.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Of course, every popular movie has a popular theme song in HK. 不了情 is no exception and was played by the famous Lin Doi (my best translation) in early 60 in HK. It became a HK classic too. However, it seems the song lasts longer than the movie. I hear this song once every 3 months, but I had not seen the movie for decades.
Guilin’s boat cruise is far better than the Yangtze. I was in Guilin when they had only two Western hotels and we ate the strangely tasted rice that had been stored for 3 years (Mao’s idea to have enough grain for another war). The hotel we stayed was very memorable with a fantastic Chinese rock garden.
I believe the cormorant fishing is a show for tourists now.
At that time, a lot of beggars without limbs. I guessed they’re the victims from the war with Vietnam, a stone throw away. Against the advice of the tour guide, I gave one some change and the whole gang ganged up on me. I was saddened that the government did not take good care of them.