Results tagged “newyorktimes”

Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were detained by North Korean while filming along the China-DPRK border in March, are now set to face trial for their “crimes.” Pyongyang has said that after an investigation into the matter, the women have been charged with illegally crossing the border and could face up to five years in prison if convicted of espionage. Both women were working for Current TV, a Al Gore-funded “youth” cable news channel in the United States. Source: BBC

Hundreds of parents set to the streets on April 15th in a peaceful march, begging for help in finding their missing children. Originally reported by the New Express (translated by Danwei), the parents claim that about 1,000 children have gone missing from the Dongguan area since 2007. At their wits end, they've set out to draw more attention to the apparent, widespread abduction problem.

Everyone in China probably knows about the phenomenon called the "Asian blush" - when a compatriot who's had barely half a beer turns as red as a beet.

North Korea has confirmed that it's detaining two journalists it may have nabbed before they had even crossed the border from Chinese territory. The two women, Chinese-American Laura Ling and Korean-American Euna Lee, were accused of ignoring warnings to stop filming across the Tumen river.

The New York Times has published a new travel piece to our little town titled “36 Hours in Shanghai.” While we'd normally roll our eyes and scoff at these kind of articles and their incredibly milquetoast recommendations (Oh really? We should try the Jean Georges? Thanks! Taste of China indeed!), we think this guide would actually represent a fun day-and-a-half out for Shanghai newbies. We'd probably skip Crystal Jade and 100 Century Avenue (unless you like expensive, mediocre food in uncomfortable chairs), but we applaud the inclusion of Lost Heaven and Yang's. Next time our friends come into town, it's nice to know we have something to forward to them if we're too lazy to come up with a travel plan ourselves.

Randy Cohen, New York Times "The Ethicist" columnist, might be inclined to think so. Granted, Cohen's anti-auto podcast from last week is about Manhattan, but several of his arguments already seem applicable to Shanghai (and, in 2020, when our city's subway system looks like this, there will be few ethical excuses for owning personal cars in most of Shanghai). Cohen lays out five reasons why cars and Manhattanites shouldn't mix. Here's No. 1: "Cars kill. If you introduced a transportation system by announcing, 'It'll only kill 40,000 people a year,' it's hard to believe it would gain widespread popularity." (The number of "traffic deaths" in China was down to 73,484 in 2008, but up 100 percent over the last 20 years.) Listen to all New York Times podcasts here or subscribe via iTunes. They're all free.

• Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap says China's block of the New York Times does not matter as much as it once did.
• Chris Gill of Shanghai Eye says he has it from a reliable source that the HSK, the Chinese proficiency examination for foreigners will be scrapped in two years.
• Jenny Leung of China Digital Times interviews Qi Hanting, the student who founded the Anti-CNN website.

Image by Roger Wo

Looks like Jennifer 8. Lee of the New York Times is up to her old tricks again, highlighting the ostensibly huge gulf between what goes for Chinese food in the States and the kind that Chinese people actually eat. This time around, it's the fortune cookie that gets the attention. Check out this clip of folks here in China getting introduced to fortune cookies for the first time; read Lee's article here.

That's the headline of a New York Times story about the controversy surrounding a now much-talked-about photo of the men's Olympic basketball team from Spain (See: "Spain's Olympic Basketball Team: Racist? Or just stupid?" for details). Oddly, the story has nothing to do with any possible punishments the Spaniards would face (honestly, we can't think of any — the bad PR and embarrassment should be punishment enough), but the story does offer a little bit of insight as to why the Chinese don't appear to be too bothered by any of this. We are also treated to some rather awkward quotes from the Spanish players trying to explain away their actions. José Calderon even broke out the “Some of my best friends are of Chinese origin" line!

... comes from The New York Times. Check it out and let us know if you have found anything better.

Is the air quality at the Beijing airport really that bad? The New York Times has the story (and some photos):

Oops of the Day 2: Jack Cafferty, CNN commentator

As the Chinese government goes about in its last minute preparations for the long-awaited Olympics, elsewhere in Sichuan Province, local officials are pressurizing parents whose children have died in the May 12 earthquake to accept hush money. Sign a contract to get a cash payment plus pension or risk further trouble from the authorities? Very, very disturbing. [Source]

From the New York Times:

From Al-Jazeera English:

The Beijing Olympics are still 5 months away but they're attracting attention for all the wrong reasons.

Continue reading "Al-Jazeera: Tibetan activists condemn Beijing Olympics"

It wasn't until we read this interview in Salon with Jennifer 8. Lee (and that's not a typo, folks), New York Times journalist and author of the book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, that we suddenly realized that it has been forever since we've had beef with broccoli or General Tso's chicken. We think it's because we haven't made room in our ordering agenda given the unbelievable amount of variety and selection in Shanghai in terms of Chinese food. The interview definitely wants to make us read the book as a way to cross-check and validate our experiences as a Chinese-American raised on American-Chinese food (go Panda Express!).

Photo from Shanghai Sky

Amsterdam-based World Press Photo earlier this month announced the winners of its annual photo contest, the world's largest and most prestigious for press photography. Shanghai-based photographer Ariana Lindquist, an American who shoots for the New York Times, TIME and other publications, won first prize in Arts and Entertainment for her portrait of a girl in an anime costume at Shanghai Stadium. We think the least all Shanghaiist readers could do is buy Ariana a drink (that's one drink each, not total). Way to go, Ariana!

The observations by two veteran photographers of a rapidly changing Shanghai over ten-plus years should be reason enough to traipse over to Moganshan Road. Van der Hilst’s color Kodachrome works will allow us a glimpse into Shanghai on the brink of transformation in the early 1990s (good opportunity for some of us who had been in primary schools back then, too busy figuring out multiplication tables to notice) while French, the New York Times' Shanghai correspondent delves into the more recent past with his black-and-white documentation of life in Shanghai’s back alleys during the last five years.

Monsters & Critics: Taiwan accesses damage after US unveils Chinese espionage

We've all been hearing reports about the nightmare caused by the snow, or what Xinhua calls "China's war on snow havoc", which isn't quite as felicitous a phrase as the "US War on Terror", but hey, at least it's more real! The New York Times, among other media outlets, talks about the sense of anger and resentment that people are feeling about what some consider as a lack of preparation on the government's part.

China Daily: Shanghai to base growth on service industry

Recently, Tudou's Marc van der Chijs commented on how he knew the bubble in the Chinese stockmarket had to burst soon when he found out that his driver, too, had jumped headlong onto the stock bandwagon although he had zero understanding of how stockmarkets work. You will find an echo of that sentiment in Al-Jazeera's latest report on China's current stockmarket frenzy. Meanwhile, David Barboza of the New York Times says China wonders if its stock market boom is over. And as China Digital Times reports, the recent stock market crash caused a Beijing investor to attempt suicide in the Wangfujing shopping district. Video after the jump:

Next time, Steve, stay for some Grandma's Mashed Potatoes. Trust us.

A China Daily report dated 14 December 2007 suggesting that Beijing may make a temporary exception for banned foreign publications such as Playboy and The Sun has travelled around the world and created a mini-furore and lots of confusion back home here. Here are the offending paragraphs:

All pornographic material is prohibited on the mainland but a temporary exception could be made for the Games, according to the biggest importer of foreign publications in the country. "Our law forbids Playboy and we should obey this, but we can't rule out the possibility that it might make its debut. There might be a demand for it (from athletes or visitors) during the Games," said Liang Jianrui, vice-president of China National Publications Import and Export Corporation, which will manage the nine magazine-selling kiosks sanctioned by Olympic organizers BOCOG during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Continue reading "Will Playboy come to China?"

China Digital Times: Deal With Global Warming: Try Not to Divorce - China Youth Daily

Déjà vu all over again? Here it is once more, Shanghaiist's nearly quarterly review the Douban book Top Ten List: Annie Baby - "Sunian Jinshi" (Beijing-based author, photographer and blogger who writes about love and self-exploration in the big city.) JK Rowling - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (Official Chinese version, published by the People's Literature Publishing House.) Markus Zusak - "The Book Thief" (Australian author of Austrian-German heritage writes a WWII book...

If you've been browsing the DVD shops lately, you might have already come across Nanking, a documentary—of sorts—about the Nanjing massacre of 1937. The film consists of three elements: first-person accounts from survivors and eye witnesses, including Chinese civilians and soldiers as well as Japanese soldiers. These are all real people, telling their stories on film. Then there actors portraying some of the people, mostly Europeans and Americans, that played a role in setting up...

Back in the office and just can't concentrate on work? Here's a bunch of useless links we gathered that you can entertain yourself with (while pretending to look oh-so-busy)!