中国欧盟经理人协会 EU-China Managers Association

City Evening News, September 10, 2010

Today was China's 26th Teacher's Day, and students across the country attended assemblies at which they expressed their appreciation and gratitude to their teachers.

The Chinese media joined in with cover headlines and photos. A series of images on the front page of Changchun's City Evening News says "Happy Teacher's Day" in Chinese sign language.

The paper's main cover image is a photo of a fire that broke out at several unfinished apartment buildings. Authorities suspect that the fire started when poor welding practices ignited insulation panels.

Links and Sources

• City Evening News (Chinese): Teachers, thanks for your hard work!

Tags: City Evening News, education, teacher's day

This article is from Danwei.org

Curse of the Deserted

Satisfying horror movies are difficult to come by in China. Film censors on the mainland frown on the supernatural, nor do they look kindly on serial murders.

In a recent essay inspired by the complicated narrative slight-of-hand that allowed the recent horror film Curse of the Deserted to dodge these sensitive issues altogether, film critic Yang Jian (杨戬) explains how film regulations have handicapped Chinese horror films, not just in the context of world cinema, but when compared to domestic literature and online gaming as well.

Curse of the Deserted (荒村公寓) is an adaptation of a best-selling novel by thriller writer Cai Jun, who has had previous experience with having his work neutered on the big screen. For the mainland release of Naraka 19, the 2007 adaptation of Cai’s The 19th Level of Hell (地狱第19层), the title was changed to The 19th Space (第十九层空间) and an alternate ending was tacked on to resurrect the dead characters and erase the mystery.

The horror of the unknown is unavailable to Chinese-language horror films, writes Yang. Movies are forced to come up with devices to explain away the supernatural. In some films, everything was just a dream or drug-induced hallucination. In others, scientific technobabble is awkwardly inserted into the conclusion. Still others wrap the entire plot in a framing story. Regardless of the technique used, the explanation saps the unknown of its power to frighten and prevents the film from reaching its full potential.

Curse of the Deserted and the Future of Chinese Horror Cinema by Yang Jian / Sohu

If a horror film desires to succeed at the box office, it naturally requires “artistic truth” rather than undermining its own credibility. Curse of the Deserted, adapted from Cai Jun’s novel of the same name and helmed by Hong Kong director Chi-Leung Law who directs Shawn Yue, Kitty Zhang, and Yue Xiaojun in a predominantly mainland cast, wraps layers within layers like that old chestnut: “Once there was a mountain, and on the mountain was a temple. In the temple was an old monk, who told a young monk a story.”* After several rounds of this, the horror evaporates completely, and it’s obvious that the Film Bureau’s demand for “no ghosts” has cemented the structure of the film. China has countless classic stories and legends, as well as new novels, all of which could be tapped as material for horror films, but the “Regulations on Film Management” and the “Management Provisions on Project Initiation of Film Scripts (Treatments) and on the Examination of Films” have unfortunately restricted the genre’s narrative space.

1. Do not willfully interfere with art, said Deng Xiaoping

At the Fourth National Congress of Literature and Art Workers held in October, 1979, second-generation CPC paramount leader Deng Xiaoping said, “In art, this complex mental labor, there is a great need for writers and artists to develop their creative spirit. What to write and how to write can only be resolved gradually and through exploration by artists practicing art, and in this regard, do not willfully interfere.” From then on, the broader community of arts workers circulated and quoted the line “do not willfully interfere,” holding it up as a shield against certain actions that continued to willfully interfere with them.

On October 8, 1980, two days before his death, famous filmmaker Zhao Dan published a piece in the People’s Daily titled “When Control is Too Specific, There is No Hope for the Arts.”* In that article, he wrote, “There is no need whatsoever for the party to guide how to plant a field, how to construct a stool, how to mend trousers, or how to stir-fry, and no need whatsoever to direct how to author an article or perform a role.” “Should associations of arts and literature and all arts bodies mandate the use of a particular ideology as the sole correct set of guidelines? Should the aim be one work in particular? I say we ought to think things over and discuss them carefully. It is best, I think, not to have any. In the history of art, from ancient times to the present day, when one school is feted and a hundred others rejected, there is no possibility for art to flourish.” Zhao also mentioned the problem of “laymen guiding experts,” and asked, “Why the death-grip on the control of artists by non-artistic officials? Some of those non-artistic officials may have a function in another position, but the pool is so packed that the master swimmers have no room to do anything, and can only jam in upright like a candle.” Using his experiences in pre-production for Lu Xun, Zhao noted that since a screen test in 1960, he had repeatedly grown out his moustache and shaved it off over the course of twenty years, and the film still was never completed. Zhao pointed out, “Artistic creation is highly individual. Art cannot be created by a show of hands! One can critique, criticize, encourage, or praise. From a historical standpoint, art is unlimited, and it cannot be limited.”

Of course, I am not saying that Curse of the Deserted reaches those lofty heights of awareness; the film will quite likely not make a mark on the history of cinema. Yet in Curse we can observe the atrophying effect that film policy has had on genre movies. It has forced filmmakers to use tricks that eliminate the effectiveness of the horror story within their films. “Laymen guiding experts” no longer describes today’s SARFT: these are accomplished professionals, and they ought to understand the filmmakers’ predicament.

2. Creative difficulties for Curse of the Deserted

In Curse of the Deserted, actress Kitty Zhang tells the story of Shawn Yue, an author writing a novel that tells a peculiar story of a deserted town in which a loveless couple falls under the Rouge Curse of someone unjustly executed in the Ming Dynasty. The curse sends Yue and a fan back to the chaste days of their first love. The genre film that Law has come up with wraps a thriller around a weepy teen romance, in which Zhang’s raspy voice is a good fit for the impulsive character in the book. As for the film’s use of fiction to explain the supernatural subject matter, it brings to mind the Malaysian and Singaporean versions of Hong Kong films that would always add a dream sequence, a sort of self-delusional deception now widespread, and today requires that the audience understand a curse as the effect of a magnetic field. The bloodshed and madness of Yue and the others becomes an inexplicable magnetic field effect, something that yanks the unknown out of art and slips in a scientific explanation that is unconvincing to the audience. The outcome, which mixes in unjustifiable external elements, leaves most of the audience at a loss.

The need for a clever plan prevents Curse from being a pure, ordinary horror film. Once the secret is revealed at the end, the audience learns that the movie had no ghosts or supernatural elements whatsoever – everything was wrapped in layer upon layer of fiction. Written By (再生号, 2009), directed by Wai Ka-Fai, is the same way, and horror films by Hong Kong and Taiwan directors such as Ann Hui, Peter Chan, Chen Kuo-fu, Wilson Yip, Herman Yau, Chao-Bin Su, Pou-Soi Cheang (Double Vision with its heavy religious overtones, the mysterious, supernatural Silk and Troublesome Night, and the superstitious revenge and unexplained questions of Horror Hotline: Big Head Monster) were unable to be brought into the mainland, related no doubt to inspection by SARFT’s Film Bureau. The present article discusses the space available for the growth of one particular film genre, and since films and TV shows all fall under SARFT’s jurisdiction, no original work can tell stories of ghosts, spirits, gods, or devils unless it is adapted from a classic such as Journey to the West, Strange Tales from Liaozhai, or Invention of the Gods. And a gulf exists when compared to novels and online games, a policy imbalance among the creative industries of a single nation.

3. Policy restrictions on horror films

SARFT has reiterated the rules contained in the “Regulations on Film Management” and the “Management Provisions on Project Initiation of Film Scripts (Treatments) and on the Examination of Films” and has stated that that they must be strictly followed by individual departments and work units throughout the registration, production, inspection, and screening stages. The first article in the rules on film examination reads: “The state advocates the creation of superior films that possess a unified ideology, artistry, and viewability, that are close to reality, life, and the masses, and that are conducive to the healthy development of minors, and advocates vigorous development of advanced culture, support for healthy and beneficial culture, efforts to transform backward culture, and resolute resistance of decadent culture.” The rule concerning horror films is in the fifth point of the subsequent article: “[Film content may not include the following:] Violations of state religious policy, dissemination of cults and superstition.” And the fourth point of the subsequent article stipulates that certain content must be cut or revised: “Content that mixes murder, violence, terror, monsters, and spirits; whose value orientation reverses true and false, good and evil, and beauty and ugliness, or which confuses the basic nature of justice and injustice; played-up, detailed depictions of crimes and the details of their commission, or exposure of special investigative techniques; particularly offensive killing, gore, violence, drug abuse, and gambling; abuse of prisoners, tortured confessions; excessively shocking visuals, dialogue, background music, or sound effects.”

Constrained by the above regulations, psychological horror is the only route is available to Chinese-language horror pictures, and audiences are surely aware that no matter how shocking, exciting, or spooky a movie may be at the start, it will have made an about-face by the end and will come up with a scientific explanation that is completely at odds with the whole idea of a horror movie. One of the most important genres of world cinema is horror, and in Hong Kong this is no exception. In addition to films that involved abuse, killing, and violence, many films before the turn of the century started off from the assumption that ghosts are real (we won’t discuss materialism vs. idealism or science vs. superstition here). However, after CEPA, most Hong Kong filmmakers began working under the guidance of mainland film policy. Current policy has led to a noticeable displacement between the freedom allowed to imported films and that granted to Chinese films when they are inspected. We can bathe in the sensory thrills of foreign-language movies, but Chinese-language films have to dance in shackles.

4. The future of the Chinese-language horror genre

In the past, when Hong Kong horror films have shown in Singapore and Malaysia, they used to come with explanatory text, or they use the dodge of having the main character be dreaming. Today, if a film is to screen on the mainland, the Film Bureau requires that it does not cut a separate version for other regions. This essentially puts an end to horror films featuring karmic retribution and intense violence. Horror films and thrillers from overseas, like The Shining, Saw, Child’s Play, Ringu, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Exorcist, and Silence of the Lambs, have little hope of appearing in Chinese adaptations. Chinese horror is limited to lightweight, fake horror remakes like The Phantom Lover (夜半歌声), Rouge (胭脂扣), and Painted Skin (画皮) that possess at most a suspenseful atmosphere, but which do not chill you to the bone. And as for films like Jaws and Alien, with their high demand for special effects, Chinese cinema has no hope of carrying them out successfully for the time being.

The unknown is always at the root of horror, but the right to the unknown is what Chinese horror filmmakers lack most seriously. The trend in Chinese horror in recent years has been in the only direction available: characters, for various reasons, find things psychologically unbearable, so they experience hallucinations and enter a state of altered reality. But the fact that the ghosts are not real is the goblin that sits atop all the other problems. To pull in viewers, a movie must mislead its audience, because otherwise there is nothing attractive about the B-movie content, simple plot, and poor CG of a mid- to low-budget horror film. If Gordon Chan’s Painted Skin, for example, had followed the original and made Xiao Wei (played by Zhou Xun) a ghost instead of changing her to a monster, the film would not have been approved. And then there’s Herman Yao’s 2004 effort The Ghost Inside – just from the title (疑神疑鬼, literally “doubting gods and demons,” has connotations of excessive suspicion or paranoia), you can glimpse the difficult situation of Chinese-language horror. Not only the characters in that story, from the protagonist Lin Xiaoyue and her husband, to the guard, to the former occupant of their house who supposedly committed suicide, but everything they do, especially her romantic and stubborn guardian, Fang Cheng, are but fantasies and self-persecution inside Lin’s own mind. In Curse of the Deserted and Written By, a work of fiction is used as a shortcut.

Most movie viewers over the age of eighteen, I trust, will have seen a great number of horror movies through other channels before they ever watch a horror film in a theater. They will already be able to appreciate, read, discriminate, compare, and accept or reject the various elements that make up a work of art, and they ought to have a firewall against ideology, religious expression, and sensory stimulation. Thus they will be unlikely to change their criteria for looking at things simply because of a movie. Not all horror films, those special genre pictures with their shocks and frights, all vulgar and lowbrow. Movies can give release to the audience’s tensions and can cultivate in them the ability to compare and discriminate. Horror movies may give adult viewers goose-bumps, but those viewers will not go out and cause trouble because of what they saw. For viewers under the age of 18, I believe it might be harder for them for the time being. They are more easily misled and taken off-track, but one could adopt as a model the entry system used in web cafés. Even if the Chinese film industry as a whole will not implement a ratings system, then perhaps as a trial, a portion of genre films could admit only viewers older than 18 to see what effect it has. Actively seeking audience feedback and then adjusting practical details might be beneficial to the development of Chinese-language cinema. Finally, let me reiterate that the present essay is just a suggestion, merely a hope for more tolerant polices rather than a request to totally suspend the “Regulations on Film Management” and the “Management Provisions on Project Initiation of Film Scripts (Treatments) and on the Examination of Films.” Exploring ways of improving the quality of Chinese-language cinema will require the involved cooperation of the government, filmmakers, and audiences to set a roadmap and a timetable and, through communication in good faith, work a stable way toward the desired goal.

Notes

• This continues with the old monk telling the young monk the same story.
• 管得太具体 文艺没希望, translated on Danwei here.

Links and Sources

• Sohu Entertainment (Chinese): Curse of the Deserted and the Future of Chinese Horror Cinema
• SARFT (Chinese): Management Provisions on Project Initiation of Film Scripts (Treatments) and on the Examination of Films
• China News via Sina (Chinese): SARFT reiterates film censorship standards
• Earlier on Danwei: The horrors of SMS messaging, Artists and their guides in the government

Tags: censorship, film, horror, Yang Jian

This article is from Danwei.org

Zhao Dan's famous roles

In an article discussing the current predicament of Chinese-language horror movies, film critic Yang Jian quotes an opinion piece written in 1980 by Zhao Dan, one of the most famous Chinese screen actors of the mid-20th Century. Zhao’s piece, which was published in the People’s Daily under the title “When Control is Too Specific, There is No Hope for the Arts,” argues against a strict censorship regime in the arts.

Zhao Dan (赵丹) first found fame as an actor in the 1930s, appearing in classics like Street Angel and Crossroads. After the revolution, he played the lead in biopics of herbalist Li Shizhen, high-commissioner Lin Zexu, and composer Nie Er. In 1960, he was cast as Lu Xun in a biographical drama that was never completed, sidetracked first by an official push to make films about the post-revolutionary period, and then by the Cultural Revolution.

Frustrated by interference from officials who were ignorant of the arts yet held positions of power over artists, Zhao wrote an essay highly critical of arts censorship, emboldened by the knowledge that he did not have long to live: “There is nothing left to be afraid of,” he writes in the closing paragraph. He died on October 10, two days after the essay was published.

Although the situation that Zhao describes in his essay has changed slightly, many artists still feel that state guidance of the arts is too specific and that government attempts to create art by a show of hands have not ceased.

When Control is Too Specific, There is No Hope for the Arts by Zhao Dan / PD

People’s Daily has launched a discussion on “Improving the Party’s Guidance of the Arts and Invigorating the Arts Professions.” When I saw “improving” and “invigorating” in the headline, I was overjoyed. When I read in the editor’s note, “The Party’s guidance over work in the arts must be improved, and through improvement strengthened. We are unshakable on this point,” I was worried. I do not know the scope of that “we” in the note. I only know that there are some artists – people devoted to the Party’s ambitions – some dauntless artists who feel a reflexive sense of unease whenever they hear the words “strengthen the party’s guidance,” for through the accumulated experience of successive campaigns, each instance of strengthening is another round of suffering, willful interference, to the point of “total dictatorship.” The memories are fresh and give a particular impression. Try to avoid that sort of “strengthening” from now on.

My feeling is that strengthening or improving the Party’s guidance of the arts implies strengthening the Party’s control and implementation of arts policies, or to be more precise, how the Party will unshakably carry out the “two hundreds” policies. *

And will the Party engage in guidance over specific artistic creation? How will it do so?

The Party can exercise leadership over the rules for the national economic plan, and the party can direct how agricultural and industrial policy is carried out, but there is no need whatsoever for the party to guide how to plant a field, how to construct a stool, how to mend trousers, or how to stir-fry, and no need whatsoever to direct how to author an article or perform a role. Art is the concern of artists themselves, and if the Party governs art too closely, art has no hope and is lost. The Gang of Four kept such a tight control over art that it governed an actor’s belt or patch of cloth, to the point that there were just eight plays left for a population of 800 million. Shouldn’t we take warning from this negative example?!

Which author became so on the instruction of the Party? Did Lu Xun and Mao Dun write solely because they were obeying the party’s command? Did they write only what the party told them to?! Then who told Marx what to write? Life and struggle – the progress of history – produced a culture and formed an age of artists and thinkers, “whose brilliance lasts a hundred years.”* The essential character of the arts – its philosophy – is not something that any party, faction, organization, or branch can control. Insisting on such specific control simply causes trouble for itself. It’s a thankless task that is a disaster for the arts.

At all levels, leaders in charge of the arts say that they are “upholding the Party’s cultural policies and upholding revolutionary thinking in literature and the arts,” as if the artists themselves are blind, deaf, and befuddled. Otherwise, thirty years after the founding of the country and sixty years after the May 4th New Culture Movement, with a proletarian cultural army supposedly several-million strong, why would guidance need to be sought from a layman before the central government, and practically every province, district, county, commune, and factory, feels at ease? Such logic is incomprehensible! Especially when there are more laymen the higher up you go, yet power is more concentrated. As a result, as laymen are transformed into experts, the million-strong arts army has to change in step. And then there are those leaders unwilling to make the change, because once they transform into experts, can they still remain leaders? Besides, the hectic pace of life means that you can’t keep up with the experts: it takes effort to do so, and then there are additional obstructions, to the point that the relatively popular works of contemporary art and literature largely remain at the level of blunt truths related as neighborhood gossip.

Should associations of arts and literature and all arts bodies mandate the use of a particular ideology as the sole correct set of guidelines? Should the aim be one work in particular? I say we ought to think things over and discuss them carefully. It is best, I think, not to have any. In the history of art, from ancient times to the present day, when one school is feted and a hundred others rejected, there is no possibility for art to flourish.

At the third session of the Fifth NPC and CPPCC, there was a heated debate among delegates about the system issue. The term “system” (体制, or structure or institution) was one that we artists were originally unfamiliar with, but later on we came to realize that although we might not want to deal with the “system,” it desperately wants to manage us. It pushes us, compels us to deal with it for real.

I could ask, which other nation in the world is like ours, where layman officials make up such a large proportion of the arts sector? In this society of ours, it’s hard to say who is supporting whom, because apart from farmers and young people (and some seniors and women), pretty much everyone has an “iron rice-bowl.” So why the death-grip on the control of artists by non-artistic officials? Some of those non-artistic officials may have a function in another position, but the pool is so packed that the master swimmers have no room to do anything, and can only jam in upright like a candle. All officials who “guide the arts,” if they are dedicated to their jobs, need to hold opinions of their own and make statements about artistic creation. But uniformity is difficult. Take the filming of Lu Xun, for example. Since I did a screen test in 1960, I’ve grown out my beard, shaved it off, and grown it out again over the course of twenty years. In a big country like ours, a picture like Lu Xun, whose third and fifth parts differ in style, subject matter, and perspective, ought to be filmable, but it is hardly even talked about today. This is not an issue of a failure on the part of one actor’s artistic life; the protracted delay of Lu Xun has implications for the birth of new Lu Xun-style artists.

Artistic creation is highly individual. Art cannot be created by a show of hands! One can critique, criticize, encourage, or praise. From a historical standpoint, art is unlimited, and it cannot be limited.

Habit is not truth. Nor should bad habits be followed as if they were an immutable system. Despite level upon level of review, the censors cannot censor up anything worthwhile. Throughout history, no viable work has been created through censorship! On the film issue, I relapse into speaking out whenever there is controversy. Sometimes I wish I could control myself and not speak out. For me, there is nothing left to be afraid of. But now that I’ve prattled on like this, what good will it do in the end?

September 1980, on his sickbed

Zhao’s essay falls into the debate over “writing about reality” (写真实), in which critics of the time discussed how art ought to portray the world. It is worthwhile to note that on the same page of that issue of the People’s Daily, just below Zhao’s essay, was a piece by Lu Guishan titled “Do not only emphasize ‘how to write’ and ignore ‘what to write’.” Lu also name-checked Lu Xun, albeit in support of the opposite position:

Writing about negative, ugly things especially requires selection and filtering. Lu Xun said, “Naturalist description only makes people as uncomfortable as ‘swallowing a live fly’.”

Therefore, I’m afraid that one cannot simply say, “Whether a work of art achieves ‘essential reality’ depends not on the sort of social phenomena it depicts, but in how it is written.” Granted, “how it is written” is important, but “what to write” cannot be overlooked.

Lu’s central argument is that although ugliness and negative phenomena do exist in society, they are not mainstream and thus lack the “essential reality” that a work of art ought to have.

Thirty years later, the authorities still come down hard on art does not reflect mainstream experiences -- witness Zhang Hongsen’s criticisms of several major art films in 2007, or the latest anti-vulgarity campaign. Although Zhao’s words may have been applauded by officials as dissimilar as Wen Jiabao and Hu Qiaomu, the “system” has yet to take the spirit of his criticism to heart.

Notes

1. “双百”方针: The traditional expression, “Let a hundred flowers bloom, and a hundred schools of thought contend” (百花齐放，百家争鸣), serves as a policy that encourages a diversity of opinions and ways of expression in the arts and academia. Most famous because of its use in the Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956-57), the policy was revived in the 1980s after the Cultural Revolution. Premier Wen Jiabao devoted a large portion of a 2006 address on the arts to the Two Hundreds policy (Chinese text).
2. 各领风骚数百年, a line from “On Poetry” (论诗) by Zhao Yi (赵翼, 1727－1814), a short poem on poetic creativity: “Li Bai and Du Fu are on the lips of all, but these days it seems like nothing new. Every age sees new talent emerge, whose brilliance lasts but a hundred years.” The poem’s observation on the process of renewal and change in literature has often been quoted for its political subtext.

Links and Sources

• People’s Daily via Ruan Yifeng (Chinese): When control is too specific, there is no hope for the arts (管得太具体 文艺没希望)
• People’s Daily via Huadu Guangzhou (Chinese): Do not only emphasize ‘how to write’ and ignore ‘what to write’
• News Midday (Chinese): Twenty-eight years later, Huang Zongying recalls Zhao Dan’s last words
• Image via 910036184
• On Danwei: Yang Jian on horror films

Tags: censorship, People's Daily, Zhao Dan

This article is from Danwei.org

A 20 minute documentary from Al Jazeera about Chinese in Senegal. See African Boots for more about China and Africa.

Tags: Africa, Al Jazeera, Senegal

This article is from Danwei.org

Shenyang Evening News, September 9, 2010

The bonfire shown on the cover of today's Shenyang Evening News was lit to incinerate 7,500 kilos of bad pork.

A hundred pigs that died of illness were discovered in a corn field in Tubaozi, a village in the city's Tiexi District. Animal health officials and the police are investigating the case, which is the biggest die-off of pigs Shenyang has ever seen.

Page A3, which carries the story, is absent from the paper's electronic edition, but the website does provide a gorier, uncropped version of the front-page photo.

The top headline concerns new regulations on transparency in housing sales: developers must publicize the price, location, and layout of houses they are promoting at the sales office.

Links and Sources

• Shengyang Evening News (Chinese): A hundred pigs die of illness; hidden in a cornfield

Tags: illness, pigs, Shenyang Evening News

This article is from Danwei.org

City Sun, September 8, 2010

Today's City Sun (城市信报), a commercial morning paper published in Qingdao by the Dazhong News Group.

The paper's top story concerns the apprehension of a criminal gang that smashed up a hotel nightclub on March 27 and engaged in drug trafficking. Nie Lei, the ringleader, was arrested along with more than 130 other gang members.

Perhaps of more interest to readers is the front-page feature story, which asks "How many bottles of genuine Maotai are there in Qingdao?"

Maotai, one of China's most famous brands of alcohol, is produced in the town of Maotai, Guizhou Province. Back in 2004, a bottle of the 106-proof variety would retail for 368 RMB, but now it commonly sells for over a thousand. However, other liquor stores in Qingdao are offering deep, deep discounts on bottles labeled with the official "Kweichow Moutai" trademark. What gives?

In the three-page feature, which feels increasingly like a soft ad for the conglomerate that produces the stuff, City Sun reporters take a trip to Guizhou, where they find that the entire town, it seems, is involved in the business of producing alcohol under the Maotai brand name. Coming back to Qingdao, they learn that just one company in the city is authorized to distribute genuine, top-of-the-line Maotai.

So how many bottles of genuine Maotai are there in Qingdao? The newspaper does not arrive at a satisfactory answer.

Links and Sources

• City Sun (Chinese): How many bottles of genuine Maotai are there in Qingdao?, part 2, part 3, Nie Lei apprehended

Tags: City Sun, fakes, Maotai, Moutai

This article is from Danwei.org

Rosh Hashanah - Jewish new year - starts tonight. Shana tova to our Jewish readers.

Celebrate by watching this video shot at the North Sea Jazz Festival in summer 2009: Secret Chiefs 3 joined by Wu Fei (吴非) on guzheng playing music from John Zorn's Masada series which is based on traditional Jewish music.

Video also on Tudou.

Tags: guzheng, Jews, music, Wu Fei

This article is from Danwei.org

Southern Metropolis Daily, September 7, 2010

Yesterday, Hu Jintao celebrated thirty years since Shenzhen turned from a sleepy fishing village to a booming Special Economic Zone. China Daily reports:

"The Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) created a miracle in the world's history of industrialization, urbanization and modernization, and has contributed significantly to China's opening up and reform," Hu said during a visit to the southern city, which borders Hong Kong.

The headline on the front page of the Southern Metropolis Daily is Hu Jintao: Central government supports SEZ's brave exploration. On other front pages of the day, a new slogan has appeared, “Have the courage to transform, to innovate. Never fossilize, never stagnate (勇于变革、勇于创新、永不僵化、永不停滞)."

The rest of the Southern Metropolis Daily deals with regional issues such as controls on cars on the streets of Guangzhou.

Links and Sources

• Southern Metropolis Daily (Chinese): Hu Jintao: Central government supports SEZ's brave exploration
• China News (Chinese) via Sohu: Hong Kong media analyzes Hu's speech
• China Daily: President hails Shenzhen SEZ a world 'miracle'

Tags: China Daily, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Southern Metropolis Daily

This article is from Danwei.org

Paul French tells Jeremy Goldkorn about Fat China, a book he co-authored with Matthew Crabbe subtitled 'How expanding waistlines are changing a nation'. Also on Youtube and Tudou.

Tags: Danwei TV, diabetes, fat, obesity, Paul French, video

This article is from Danwei.org

Xinhua Daily Telegraph, September 6, 2010

"As I was handing my registration to the doctor, and before I'd even dropped my trousers to let him see the afflicted area, I was told to have an enema." "It was only when the anesthetic was being injected into my buttocks that I noticed that the presiding surgeon was not the 'famous doctor' from the advertisement." "The moment the cutting started was when I realized that the doctor's so-called 'painless' procedure was actually a 'scream'."

So begins Xinhua's report on one of Beijing's most famous medical institutions, the Dongda Hospital for Proctology and Intestine Disease (北京东大肛肠医院).

The hospital is so well known because of its extensive advertising campaign. Posters and ads blanket public transportation and public restrooms, and Dongda flyers are ubiquitous. And among English speakers, the hospital used to be the butt of jokes under its former name: Dongda Hospital for Anus and Intestine Diseases.

Today's Xinhua Daily Telegraph reports that Dongda is alleged to have made a number of different false claims in its advertising:

· Fake Identity: The hospital's website claims, "This institution is the only hospital under the administration of the Chaoyang District Health Department specializing in intestinal diseases....a survey has shown that 93% of intestinal disease patients believe that Dongda is Beijing's best intestinal hospital." However, Yang Hongyan, director medical administration for Chaoyang, told Xinhua, "That institution has never been one of our specialty hospitals. It is a private, for-profit hospital."

· Fake Specialists: Reporters checked the CV of the head of proctology, who claims to have worked in several major Beijing hospitals. None of them have any record of him working there.

· Fake Honors: Dongda claims that a consumer feedback service represents its membership in a "National Medical Consumer Assurance Alliance." The service is actually offered free to all hospitals by the China Foundation of Consumer Protection.

· Fake Treatments: The hospital advertises its "American technology" and "painless, small incisions," but its treatments are no different than those at other hospitals.

Then there's this peek behind the curtain:

One senior specialist who was formerly employed at a private proctology hospital told reporters that complaints from patients about Dongda had been on the rise for several years. Investors had been starting additional such hospitals across the country.

"Every doctor who is hired in the hospital is assigned an assistant who acts as a 'little spy' for the boss. What drug should the doctor prescribe? How much should the surgery cost? Can a minor illness be described as a major one, and can a major illness be described as cancer to pressure patients into opting for surgery? The boss knows all." The specialist described his own experience: "Because I didn't know how to play those tricks, some younger doctors who knew how to talk did my appointments for me. All I had to do was put my name on them, and then I'd wait in the VIP room all day drinking tea, reading the paper, and watching TV."

"Whenever the hospital ran into trouble, I immediately became the chief of the rescue team," the specialist recalled. "On many occasions, a patient who had already been given anesthetic would discover that the lead surgeon was not the 'famous doctor' from the ad, and they'd make a fuss and want to file a report. Then I'd immediately come in to save the day and solve things by doing the surgery."

The specialist said that the consultation rooms were all ranked according to revenue, and the higher their revenue, the more their doctors received in bonuses. "Every move a doctor made had a monetary value attached to it. I regretted going there three days after I arrived, and I eventually walked out."

When this reporter described these "inside stories" to hospital director Zhao Lingyu, he sighed. "Please understand our predicament. Private hospitals are always in a precarious situation."

"Advertising is a huge sum. The hospital building is rented at a cost of 600,000 RMB a month. More than ten apartments to use as living quarters for staff is another 600,000. And then private hospitals have to pay a corporate tax of 25%. We have to buy our own medical equipment, hire our own doctors, and finance our own payroll..." Zhao said.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of Shenzhen's status as a special economic zone. Two blue-headlines pieces on the left-hand side of the page comment on the achievements of the past three decades. The front page image contrasts today's Lo Wu Bridge, which connects Shenzhen to Hong Kong, with a photo from the 1960s.

Links and Sources

• Xinhua Daily Telegraph (Chinese): Dongda, "the best proctology hospital," painful to the body and to the eye
• The Beijing News (Chinese): "Excessive treatment" exposed at Dongda
• Xinhua: China's first special economic zone celebrates 30th anniversary
• Earlier on Danwei: Beijing's toilet travails and a foreskin poem, New York Times reveals identity of anus sign censor

Tags: Dongda, fraud, hospitals, proctology

This article is from Danwei.org

Bruno didn't behave either (Wikipedia)

In late July, "science cop" Fang Zhouzi, known for exposing academic and scientific fraud, was attacked by thugs wielding an iron hammer and anesthetic spray. The case has been widely reported in Chinese and western media, and most commentary has called for the capture of his attackers. In a blog post that labels China a modern medieval state, journalist and author Wang Xiaofeng writes that it's most important to identify not the attackers, but their accomplice.

Who is the accomplice? by Wang Xiaofeng/ translated by Julian Smisek

Professor Fang was attacked. People are all very upset and wish the police to capture his assailant. I feel this will be hard. Even if the police capture someone, my guess is it won't be the mastermind behind the attack. In the end, a scapegoat will be locked away for a couple of years. He'll certainly receive considerable compensation given that he probably has a lot of nasty things to say about the true culprit.

Looking at how the attack proceeded, I would guess that the assailant was incited to attack Fang Zhouzi severely enough to render him brain-dead, but not actually kill him. A brain-dead Fang Zhouzi could not continue to expose fraud. Most fundamentally, by at least wounding Professor Fang, the attack served as a warning, with the goal of deterrence.

Still, I think Professor Fang is quite fortunate. While he may have suffered a physical attack, know this: in this most harmonious of societies, human life isn't valued, human dignity isn't respected, and human rights aren't guaranteed. Killing Fang Zhouzi would be as easy as killing an ant. Sometimes China really seems like a modern medieval state. Although there's no one who's able to burn people at the stake like Giordano Bruno, there are many people who's way of thinking is quite similar to those who orchestrated Bruno's death. If the medieval period was one of science resisting the ignorance of religion, then today's most harmonious China is one of science resisting the ignorance of extreme profiteering. The market for ignorance is much too large. And so Fang Zhouzi and those others who for good or for bad want to give it an overhaul are being warned, "you better behave yourselves."

I'm not a bit curious about the identities of the mastermind or perpetrators. What I'm interested in is, who is the accomplice?

August 30, 2010

Selected netizen responses
Low key:
Hecaitou
Country girl:
Hecaitou is all talk.
wside:
The accomplice is the silent majority, the corrupt majority, the indifferent majority who have become ridiculously accustomed to their selfishness and conceit.
shinydays:
harmony
wangsibiao
Cousin, it seems that Fang Zhouzi once called you brain-dead...
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4740687901009bm7.html

Links and Sources

• Original Chinese post， 不许联想： 帮凶是谁？
• New Yorker post on the attack on Fang Zhouzi, “Science Cop” Mugged
• Also on Danwei, Microblogs react to Fang Zhouzi's violent ordeal
• To read up on the Catholic Church's burning of Giordano Bruno, see Wikipedia

Tags: Fang Zhouzi, religion, science, Wang Xiaofeng

This article is from Danwei.org

Modern Express, September 3, 2010

Nanjing was visited by 370 lightning strikes yesterday, nearly 50 of them in the main urban area.

One such strike hit the Jiaozishan landfill at roughly 4pm and left two scavengers dead. The two, a Mr. Dong and the wife of a Mr. Sun, had been among the few who dared to continue picking through the rubbish as the rain picked up. They had been holding wood-handled metal prongs.

Over on the Yangtze River Bridge, a tourist named Li also died during the storm, but the newspaper was unable to determine whether he was hit by lightning or electrocuted.

The front page of the Modern Express practically screams the news: "One thundercrack takes down two Nanjingers." That eye-catching image? A composite...

Links and Sources

• Modern Express (Chinese): Two people struck by lightning in Nanjing

Tags: lightning, Modern Express, Nanjing

This article is from Danwei.org

A video commercial for 7-Up by spoof video king Hu Ge. For more information, see Ads of China, He Ge's Sina page (Chinese) or this Danwei post about Hu Ge's first hit. Video also in Youku.

Tags: 7-Up, Hu Ge, video

This article is from Danwei.org

Shanxi Evening News, September 2, 2010

Yesterday marked the start of the school year. Today, many front pages show students － Shanxi Evening News featured the son of Li Ao (李敖), the Taiwanese political commenter, novelist and essayist, who had enrolled in Peking University.

Li Ao is a political activist who was instrumental in campaigning for the democratization of Taiwan. Now, he criticizes both parties and had many books banned. His program on Phoenix TV, Li Ao Wants to Talk (李敖有话说) is a popular political program.

Li Kan (李戡), his son, made headlines recently for choosing to study at Peking University rather than in Taiwan. Li Kan was born in 1992 and was accepted to both Taiwan National University and PKU, but chose the latter after being disappointed with his home province's education system (detailed in his first book).

Other items on the front page:

• Japan begins to destroy chemical weapons left in China
• An interview with Taiwan pop queen Jolin
• Are many mountain names in Nanjing Shanxi clones?
• Fishing boat sunk by Korean cargo ship. All members missing

Links and Sources

• Shanxi Evening News (Chinese): Li Ao's son enroles at PKU
• Earlier on Danwei: Taiwan writer Li Ao's speech at Peking University, What makes a master?

Tags: Jolin, Li Ao, Li Kan, PKU, Shanxi Evening News, Taiwan

This article is from Danwei.org

Tang Wei as Tao Yi, the Chairman's first girlfriend

Actress Tang Wei (汤唯), who was blacklisted from appearing in Chinese films or on TV for a time, has been rehabilitated: she is to play Mao Zedong's first love in a new film called The Founding of the Party, a prequel to the state-produced smash hit The Founding of a Republic that was produced in 2009 to celebrate 60 years of the People's Republic of China and Communist Party rule.

Popular husky-voiced actress Zhou Xun who did not appear in The Founding of the Nation will also be in the new film. Liu Ye plays a young Mao Zedong.

From the blog Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver (link below, post includes plenty of photos of cast):

A press conference was held at Beijing Film Studio with many of the cast members in costume but Tang Wei and Zhou Xun were clearly the highlight of the event. Lu Chuan and Sheng Ding will direct parts of the film besides chief director Huang Jianxin. And unlike last time, the cast will not be working for free but receive basic compensation and expenses.

Judging from the photo above, Wa Haha mineral water is the chosen drink of the The Founding of the Party actors.

Links and Sources

• Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver: Tang Wei, Zhou Xun join The Founding of a Party
• Sina (Chinese): Tang Wei to play Mao's first love Tao Yi in The Founding of a Party (image source)
• Earlier on Danwei: Tang Wei too hot for TV
  The travails of Tudou and Tang Wei
  Wang Xiaofeng: Why is SARFT so uptight?
  A petition to stop the ban on Tang Wei
  Actress Tang Wei to appear in White Deer Plain?

Tags: film, Mao Zedong, Tang Wei

This article is from Danwei.org

Beijing Times, September 1, 2010

The eye-catching front-page photo on today's Beijing Times comes from the scene of a massive accident on Beijing's north Fifth Ring Road. Early yesterday morning, an overturned truck spilled its cargo across all eastbound lanes near Guangze Bridge, blocking traffic and leading to two five-car pile-ups. There were no deaths, and the roadway was cleared by 5 am.

The Beijing News also featured the accident on its front page, but the story was oddly nowhere to be found on the cover of the Beijing Youth Daily.

Although the Beijing Times does cover today's big news stories — mobile phone service now requires an ID, a China Express airplane that scraped a wingtip on the ground while landing at Beijing Airport — the paper's top story is a local follow-up report about Premier Wen Jiabao and a geography textbook.

In 2009, at the beginning of the fall term, the premier paid a visit to a Beijing middle school where he studied math, literature, geography, research methods, and music with local students. During the geography lesson, Wen pointed out that the school's textbooks included Shaanxi and Gansu as part of Northern China (华北), when they clearly belonged to Western China (华西).

The textbook in question has been revised, and students this term will learn that Shaanxi and Gansu now belong to "The North" (北方), which unifies Northern China and Northeastern China into a single geographic unit.

"Northern China" (dotted) vs. "The North" (image from Beijing Times)

This edition also eliminates standalone chapters for Taiwan Province and Hong Kong & Macau, which are now treated as part of "The South."

Links and Sources

• Beijing Times (Chinese): Textbook faulted by Premier Wen gets revised

Tags: accidents, Beijing Times, education

This article is from Danwei.org

Daily Sunshine, August 31st, 2010

Huang Guangyu, former president of Chinese home appliances chain GOME has been appearing on newspaper covers frequently since his arrest in November 2008.

Yesterday, Huang's second trial concluded in Beijing's high court. The court upheld the ruling of his first trial including a 14-year jail sentence and a fine of six hundred million yuan.

In his original trial held between April 22 to May 18, Huang was convicted of insider trading, bribery and illegal operation. The same court also found Huang's wife Du Juan guilty on insider trading and dealt out to her a sentence of three and half years plus two hundred million fine.

Yesterday's trial reduced Du's sentence to three years and she was freed on parole. The alleviation of sentence was decided on the grounds of Du's timely payment of the fine and her show of penitence. Yesterday's ruling is the final.

The top headline announces the meeting of last Friday between President Hu Jintao and north Korea leader Kim Jung-il in Changchun, Jilin Province. Kim visited Jilin, Chuangchun and Harbin during his three-day sojourn. He was quoted as saying that he was "impressed by the change and development".

Links and Sources

• Daily Sunshine (Chinese): Huang Guangyu was sentenced to 14 years, Hu Jintao meets North Korea leader Kim Jung-il last Friday

Tags: GOME, Hu Jintao, Huang Guangyu, Kim Jung-il

This article is from Danwei.org

Dongguan Times, August 30, 2010

Fang Zhouzi (方舟子), a crusader against fraud in academia, escaped being beaten up by thugs yesterday. Today's Dongguan Times reflects concern in the media world at yet another anonymous attack. The headline reads "Who beat up Fang Zhouzi?"

In the article inside, the microblog comments of various media personalities were collected:

Ai Weiwei (famous artist): Support Fang Zhouzi all the way! Punish the gangsters severely!

Luqiu Luwei (Phoenix TV journalist): Law implementation organs have a responsibility to investigate any citizen attack and to apprehend the attacker. Judiciary departments have a responsibility to impose sanctions on the law-breaker, whether the motivation was revenge or a fight. And the reason that Fang Zhouzi was beaten is due to the work he has been doing all along, which obviously belongs to the public sphere, and therefore the truth needs to come out to the public.

Ning Caishen (writer, script-writer): If the metal hammer had hit his head… I can’t imagine it. Call on the police to quickly solve the case!

Wang Kai (CCTV presenter): Even though I don’t agree with some of Fang Zhouzi’s ideas, we must condemn these dirty actions!

Wang Shijun (TVS presenter): Fang Zhouzi is an impoverished person, but he didn’t go get wealth using his fame. He is different than the rest for his nobility. He will even offend the media. Some friends want to help him in his frequent lawsuits, so they established a small fund to help him. He regularly appears in the media to stand by his scientific knowledge, but is often angered by the edited montage. Some people say he is Don Quixote, indeed, he is fighting with a windmill.

Xu Xiaoping (one of the founders of New Oriental): Attacking Fang Zhouzi is the same as declaring war on civilized society: "Indeed I was exposed by you, the ugly deeds that are despicable to the public, but I will carry out these ugly deeds to the end, I want to see the death of you." Attacking Fang Zhouzi is attacking all the people who agree with him, and it’s attacking truth and reality, it’s attacking social conscience and society’s norms. I know my blame is worthless, but I call on the Beijing police to try all they can to capture the criminals, and tell the public how they are progressing.

Pan Shiyi (SOHO China Ltd. CEO): My regards to Fang Zhouzi! Hope that the police will catch the culprit. Fang Zhouzi and your family, please take care! Get well soon. Anyone with a sense of justice will support you.　　

Yang Jinlin (Phoenix TV presenter): Regards. Against violence. We should punish the criminals! I hope the Beijing police will quickly solve the case and find the truth, which will be good for the victim and for society.　　

Links and Sources

• Dongguan Times (Chinese): Fang Zhouzi attacked near his home
• ESWN: Attack On Fang Zhouzi
• Global Times: Two thugs mug muckraker‎

Tags: Dongguan Times, Fang Zhouzi, gangsters, media, violence

This article is from Danwei.org

Just say no (Wikipedia)

Many consider Wang Li (1900-1986) to be the founder of modern Chinese linguistics. Along with other linguists, Wang Li developed a new Chinese framework of linguistic analysis, and after 1949, he worked extensively on reforming the Chinese writing system. In addition to his linguistic contributions, Wang Li also wrote several essays. Below is "Mealtime hospitality," originally published in 1943.

Mealtime hospitality by Wang Li / translated by Julian Smisek

Mealtime in China is the best demonstration of our cooperative spirit. Ten or twelve people can share a dish and a soup. At banquets, we emphasize a synchronous use of chopsticks. Each person simultaneously places food in his mouth, with only a few chewing out of rhythm.

An old joke goes like this: once upon a time, a foreigner asked a Chinese person, “I hear you Chinese have banquets where 24 people share food around a table. Is this true?” The Chinese person replied: “It’s true.” Astounded, the foreigner exclaimed, “But many of the dishes would be too far away. How can the chopsticks ever reach?” To this, the Chinese person replied, “We just use three-foot-long chopsticks.” “But doesn’t that cause problems?” the foreigner asked. “How can you bend the chopsticks around to put food in your mouth?” The Chinese person said, “We help each other out. You feed me, I feed you!”

Besides demonstrating our cooperative spirit, meals in China also conform to economic principles. In the West, each person has his own plate of food, and so uneaten food becomes trash. What a waste! We Chinese often have ten people sharing one dish. A dish that one person dislikes is often what another person especially enjoys. Everyone is provided for. As a result, food is rarely left over at Chinese banquets. And if there are leftovers, the total amount is not nearly as much as is left over at Western style dinners.

Chinese people are quite satisfied with these two advantages. The sages, however, are not satisfied. In their opinion, eating without first offering food to others reduces us to birds and beasts. We must constantly offer food to our guests. At first, we can offer food passively – making guests be the first to try a dish, and telling them to eat more of the best food. After that we must step up to an active offering of food. That is, we put food on the guest’s plate, in the guest’s bowl, and even directly in his mouth. In fact, active offering is born out of passive offering. When confronted by a delicious dish, I should not eat it or should eat less so that you can eat more. But, as a gentleman, I realize that you too are a gentleman and are not eating more so that I can.

Although one finds the custom of “mealtime hospitality” everywhere, the most famous incarnation is practiced in the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. There, the men quite casually place food directly on your plate, while the attentive women place food in your bowl. Usually, it’s the hosts who first offer food to guests, but once the host has started, his friends and family can pitch in.

Mealtime hospitality is without a doubt a virtuous custom, but within it, there does exist a problem. France has a saying that I like: “there’s no accounting for taste.” The meaning is simple: Taste in food and clothing varies from person to person. There’s no fixed standard for what’s good and what’s bad. From this we see that what’s tasty to a host may not necessarily be what’s tasty to his guest. Because people have different opinions about various ingredients and cooking methods (especially amongst people from different parts of the country), it’s rather easy to misjudge what someone considers to be the best dish. Forcing a guest to eat food he doesn’t like isn’t polite – it’s awkward.

May 1943

Links and Sources

• Original Chinese text included in 《中央周刊》， (1943年五月).
• Chinese text reproduced in Chou Chih-p'in. Literature and Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1999. Print. pp. 30-37

Tags: etiquette, Literature, meals, Wang Li

This article is from Danwei.org

Dragon TV

The website of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee publishes a selection of feedback it receives from the public.

Earlier this month, a Beijinger wrote in Secretary Yu Zhengsheng to complain about news reports broadcast by the local satellite TV station, Dragon TV (东方卫视):

Greetings, Secretary Yu –

I am a Beijinger, but because I am currently in Shanghai and I am quite concerned with Shanghai’s development, I frequently watch programs, particularly the news, on Shanghai’s Dragon TV. Regrettably, the daily news broadcasts on Dragon TV are chock full of “negative” news: all kinds of disasters and fatal accidents from all over the country and the world make up the majority of the content of Dragon TV news programs, and you rarely see anything that reflects Shanghai’s development and progress, much less any news that is relevant to the lives of everyday people (except for negative news about everyday people).

Those of us from out of town want to see how Shanghai is developing and making progress. We want to see the new changes that are taking place every day, as well as the new climate and new social customs found in the lives of ordinary Shanghainese, so that we can learn from the good ideas, excellent methods, and positive experiences Shanghai has had over the course of that development. And frankly, the “negative” news reported in Dragon TV’s news programs is something we can now learn from CCTV and Internet media, so there is no need for it to be rehashed on Dragon TV.

In my opinion, Dragon TV must adjust its way of thinking, and its starting point must be Shanghai’s service and promotion. To become an impressive station, I hope that Dragon TV can learn from Beijing TV’s example!

Zhuang Yaozhong
Beijinger

Links and Sources

• Shanghai Municipal Committee Office (Chinese): A Letter Recommending that Dragon TV Broadcast More Positive News

Tags: Dragon TV, journalism, letter, Shanghai

This article is from Danwei.org