Results tagged “timesonline”

Honestly, when China threw a shitfit after German chancellor Merkel met the Dalai Lama, we really didn't give a hoot, in part because we've given up on seeing our dream of Tibetan secession realized in our lifetimes. But one thing you might not have known is that this diplomatic contretemps spilled over to affect our fair city. There was supposed to be a week long symposium sponsored by Der Spiegel at the Duolun Museum...

We just received news that North Korea has expressed its intention to attend the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. How exciting is that, people!

Shanghai is back in Beijing's good books. Or so an article published by the People's Daily two weeks ago indicates, claims the Associated Press. The article, titled "Glad to hear the new good tidings from Shanghai", lavished praise on Shanghai for it's recent successes. "A golden breeze refreshes Shanghai; one important, auspicious event after another" gushed the lead article. It is a sign, claims AP, that the fallout from last year's pension scandal has started to settle. As AP points out:

...such propaganda is a cue that top communist leaders have come to a consensus that the scandal was confined to a few "bad elements" and that China's biggest and richest city has Beijing's support.


  • Chinese tourists have recently discovered Europe as a destination. SPIEGEL traveled with a group who covered 11 countries in 14 days by bus, snapping the sights and buying up brand names.



  • China claims that its economy is growing at 10 to 11 percent a year, and China’s official analysts say that their nation will catch up with the United States long before the 22nd century arrives. Don’t believe it, says Lester Thurow of the NYT.

  • It’s a story that has made headlines around the world: Slave laborers have been found in Chinese brick factories. The authorities have freed many of them, but some fear there could be hundreds more being imprisoned, beaten and starved.

  • Today, in many of the countries where the new Chinese emigrants have settled, like Chad, Chinese-owned pharmacies, massage parlors and restaurants serving a variety of regional Chinese cuisines can be found; the Western presence has steadily dwindled.

  • "I didn't mean to get into a fight with Susan Sontag", says Val Wang of Salon, but she eventually did. A dinner with Sontag in 2000 would prove to be her initiation into New York literary life.

  • By Chinese standards, the city of Yanji is rather small, with a population of nearly 400,000. About a third of them are ethnic Koreans: Yanji is the capital of Yanbian autonomous prefecture in the northeastern province of Jilin.

  • China's rising generation of worship leaders [Christian Post h/t Danwei] John, a composer who was once a rising star at a state-owned symphony, has started a Christian music school where graduates are dispatched throughout the nation. Photo from nozomiiqel.

  • The industry is trying to make 3G services available in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics so that half a billion cell phone subscribers and millions of visitors can stream and download small screen clips of Yao Ming slam dunking his way to gold medal glory.

    From February until August, Chinese TV "golden hours" (5-8pm) programming is going to go on moral diet, shedding excess and unwanted sex, violence, and moral degradation. This we learned from a Chinese report as well as Asia Times Online, where they quoted official Wang Weiping on the matter:

    "The country's satellite TV stations should only screen ethically inspiring TV series during prime time," Shanghai Daily quoted Wang Weiping, an official from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
    It's said that this is just one in a long string of clean-up jobs in the run up to the Olympics. What's wrong with the state of TV? The Asian Times Online says:
    In an attempt to woo audiences many broadcasters have allowed reality TV shows, crime series, featuring heavy dose of violence, as well as shows with explicit sex scenes to feature prominently on Chinese television.

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