Την ίδια ώρα, στην Κίνα...
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A Western Detour for a Chinese Tale - Chen Shi-Zheng’s Road to ‘Monkey: Journey to the West’ (NYT)
Many in the Peking opera establishment condemned his take on “Farewell [ΣΣ: My Concubine],” and China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, ran a long article on the controversy with the headline “Innovation or Violation?”
“I still haven’t had anything produced for the public in China,” Mr. Chen said with a smile. “I hope one day that will change.”
(...)
In Peking opera, “I’m copying what the previous generation has left for us,” she said. “The way I’m judged is by the standard set by previous performers. This time, the previous generation didn’t help me.” The work “took me out of my comfort zone,” she added. “The director created a new language.”
Many in the Peking opera establishment condemned his take on “Farewell [ΣΣ: My Concubine],” and China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, ran a long article on the controversy with the headline “Innovation or Violation?”
“I still haven’t had anything produced for the public in China,” Mr. Chen said with a smile. “I hope one day that will change.”
(...)
In Peking opera, “I’m copying what the previous generation has left for us,” she said. “The way I’m judged is by the standard set by previous performers. This time, the previous generation didn’t help me.” The work “took me out of my comfort zone,” she added. “The director created a new language.”
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Τελευταίο άρθρο του Evan Osnos (του New Yorker) από την Κίνα: A generation ago, foreigners writing about China marvelled most at the sameness of it all. Chairman Mao was the “Emperor of the Blue Ants,” as a memorable book title had it. But in my years in China, I have been seized most of all by the sense that the national narrative, once an ensemble performance, is splintering into a billion stories. (...) never in modern history has China been more prosperous and functional and connected with the world—and yet, it is the only country in the world with a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in prison. Contradictions like that have been the essence of this moment.
“When I write, anything becomes material. In life, I must be practical, but when I write, it is up to me.” Δεν το λέει όμως ο ίδιος· κάποιος άλλος το λέει. (New Yorker)
“When I write, anything becomes material. In life, I must be practical, but when I write, it is up to me.” Δεν το λέει όμως ο ίδιος· κάποιος άλλος το λέει. (New Yorker)
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Ντοκιμαντέρ των Lynn Lee και James Leong για το δημοκρατικό πείραμα στο χωριό Wukan (Ουκάν), σε 4 επεισόδια. (Al Jazeera)
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Τουρνέ κάνει το ντοκιουδράμα “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers” σε μεγάλες κινεζικές πόλεις:
It showed America in all of its complex messiness. It was not a pro-freedom-of-the-press, pro-America, anticensorship play. It showed just how complex that whole issue was, and it showed it very clearly. My hesitation was commercial. The venues need to make money. (Wall Street Journal)
Εδώ ένα πρόσφατο άρθρο για τα Pentagon Papers (τα πραγματικά, όχι το δράμα) (China Hand):
The Devil and Daniel Ellsberg
In my most recent piece for Asia Times Online, I discussed calls for Edward Snowden to “do an Ellsberg” i.e. demonstrate his patriotic lovingkindness by surrendering to US authorities.
In his memoir Secrets, Ellsberg details the dirty tricks projects the Nixon administration initiated against him and speculates their purpose was to blackmail him into shutting up, or drive him into exile or even suicide.
Ellsberg writes, “I feel sure, knowing myself at that time, that nothing could have induced me to do any of those things.” (pg. 443)
Nevertheless, as the ATOl piece points out, Ellsberg feels that Snowden is in a different situation:
But meanwhile, the treatment of him, and the pronouncements by everybody here, like - I'm talking about Snowden now - have convinced Snowden, and I think very realistically, that if he wanted to be able to tell the public what he had done and why he had done it and what his motives were and what the patterns of criminality were in the material that he was releasing, it had to be outside the United States. Otherwise he would be in perhaps the same cell that Bradley Manning was, and that's a military cell.
Ellsberg returned to this issue on July 7 in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. He pointed out that he had, like Snowden, gone into hiding and accepted fugitive status in order to complete his distribution of the Pentagon Papers before surrendering.
Ellsberg also noted that while under indictment he was able to stay out of jail for two years to agitate for the end of the Vietnam War and, in the process, make the case for himself in the court of public opinion, on the strength of a less than backbreaking $50,000 bond—a luxury that Edward Snowden would be unlikely to enjoy:
I hope Snowden’s revelations will spark a movement to rescue our democracy, but he could not be part of that movement had he stayed here. There is zero chance that he would be allowed out on bail if he returned now and close to no chance that, had he not left the country, he would have been granted bail. Instead, he would be in a prison cell like Bradley Manning, incommunicado.
Secrets also describes Ellsberg’s spiritual journey from parfait knight of the US foreign policy round table to anguished and increasingly indignant whistleblower. His privileged access to the government, think tank, and media elites is worlds away from Edward Snowden and his anonymous grubbing in the data mines of the post-9/11 security state.
While working on the Nixon transition in late 1968, Henry Kissinger asked RAND to review the Vietnam situation. RAND nominates Daniel Ellsberg:
Kissinger approved, though with one reservation…Kissinger was happy to have me do the study, but he had one worry about me, my “discretion.”
I was astonished…My whole career was based on a well-founded trust in my discretion. (Secrets, pg. 230).
A few pages later, Ellsberg completes a document framing the crucial Vietnam issues for comment by the various US executive branch stakeholders; it is circulated as “NSSM-1” i.e. National Security Study Memorandum 1, the first document of its series put out by Nixon’s National Security Administration. The various stakeholders provide 500 pages of extremely revealing responses.
Fast forward to pg. 241-2:
[Mort Halperin, the DoD staffer responsible for assembling the Pentagon Papers] took me aside…one morning and said, “I’m going to ask you not to show any of this material to anybody at Rand or take any copies back with you.”…I took it for granted from Mort’s unemphatic, pro forma tone that what he meant was simply to go on record as telling me not to do this, thereby signaling that it should not get back to the White House that Rand had his material…if Mort had really been serious about keeping me from sending this back to Rand, he could have conveyed that very reliably…
So having registered Mort’s warning and agreeing with him, I took care to copy all the documents myself in the copying alcove of the NSCD, rather than hand them to a secretary to copy, as I would otherwise have done. When I took them back to Rand, I convened a rather large meeting…Having made and passed out a number of copies, I repeated the warning that Halperin had given to me…I said that this was presumably so he could disclaim responsibility…
“Discrete” indeed. Not to worry:
…Some months later…I asked [Halperin] if I had been right…Halperin said, “Of course.”
In Daniel Ellsberg’s estimation his leak of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 did little, if anything to end the Vietnam War as conducted by Richard Nixon. The U.S. war only ended because of Nixon’s downfall soon after his re-election in 1972, thanks to the antics of his plumbers, the team of extra-legal leak-plugging zealots that Nixon’s coterie unleashed on his enemies.
The wonderful, ironic element is the role of Henry Kissinger—and Daniel Ellsberg--in Nixon’s fall.
According to Ellsberg, Kissinger had a low opinion of Nixon; on the occasion of RMN’s election, he told an audience at MIT that Nixon was “not fit to be president”. That was not the Kissinger line once Nixon appointed him as his National Security Advisor, but one can speculate that Kissinger’s doubts precluded a comfortable atmosphere of trust and understanding between Nixon and his national security Richelieu.
Nixon was not too disturbed by the leak of the Pentagon Papers at first.
The Papers concluded their narrative with the Johnson administration and painted a pleasing picture of Democratic duplicity and cluelessness under Kennedy and LBJ.
Nixon, eager to undercut the stature of Edward Kennedy, his expected Democratic challenger in the next election, instructed his minions to push out the Pentagon Papers story of the US role in the deposition and liquidation of South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963.
Diem, in addition to being an incapable president, was also an ardent Catholic who lived a virtually cloistered existence. Nixon felt that highlighting Kennedy betrayal of a fellow Catholic would weaken Edward Kennedy’s appeal to his core religious base.
Doubt and anxiety pervaded Nixon’s mind, however, when a key document from his own administration, NSSM-1 , the memorandum referenced above, made its way into the hands of a Senatorial critic, Mark Mathias, and Mathias revealed some of its pessimistic conclusions.
The prospect of a leak in his own national security apparatus appalled Nixon, because he had hid the details of the secret bombing of Cambodia even from his own secretaries of state (William Smith) and defense (Melvin Laird).
The irony is that NSSM-1 leaked, not because the current denizens of the Nixon White House couldn’t keep a secret, but because Daniel Ellsberg had copied the document while he was working for Henry Kissinger.
Kissinger, the dissembling courtier (or, if you prefer, the terrified capo secretly writhing before Nixon’s Don Corleone) dared not short circuit the leak investigation by admitting that he had nourished the Ellsberg viper in the bosom of the new administration:
…there was no awareness throughout that period that what I had given Mathias was (simply) NSSM-1. Moreover, it’s clear from numerous taped discussions that Kissinger never did reveal to Nixon the embarrassing information that I had worked directly for him in February and March of 1969…Since no one knew both those pieces of data, [Attorney General John] Mitchell’s conclusion…that there must be a conspiracy was inescapable…[Secrets, pg. 435]
And so the operation to find the anti-war movement’s non-existent co-conspirators inside Nixon’s NSC—the march of folly of the plumbers who blundered through the Watergate operation and eventually brought down the Ellsberg case and the Nixon presidency—was born.
It showed America in all of its complex messiness. It was not a pro-freedom-of-the-press, pro-America, anticensorship play. It showed just how complex that whole issue was, and it showed it very clearly. My hesitation was commercial. The venues need to make money. (Wall Street Journal)
Εδώ ένα πρόσφατο άρθρο για τα Pentagon Papers (τα πραγματικά, όχι το δράμα) (China Hand):
The Devil and Daniel Ellsberg
In my most recent piece for Asia Times Online, I discussed calls for Edward Snowden to “do an Ellsberg” i.e. demonstrate his patriotic lovingkindness by surrendering to US authorities.
In his memoir Secrets, Ellsberg details the dirty tricks projects the Nixon administration initiated against him and speculates their purpose was to blackmail him into shutting up, or drive him into exile or even suicide.
Ellsberg writes, “I feel sure, knowing myself at that time, that nothing could have induced me to do any of those things.” (pg. 443)
Nevertheless, as the ATOl piece points out, Ellsberg feels that Snowden is in a different situation:
But meanwhile, the treatment of him, and the pronouncements by everybody here, like - I'm talking about Snowden now - have convinced Snowden, and I think very realistically, that if he wanted to be able to tell the public what he had done and why he had done it and what his motives were and what the patterns of criminality were in the material that he was releasing, it had to be outside the United States. Otherwise he would be in perhaps the same cell that Bradley Manning was, and that's a military cell.
Ellsberg returned to this issue on July 7 in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. He pointed out that he had, like Snowden, gone into hiding and accepted fugitive status in order to complete his distribution of the Pentagon Papers before surrendering.
Ellsberg also noted that while under indictment he was able to stay out of jail for two years to agitate for the end of the Vietnam War and, in the process, make the case for himself in the court of public opinion, on the strength of a less than backbreaking $50,000 bond—a luxury that Edward Snowden would be unlikely to enjoy:
I hope Snowden’s revelations will spark a movement to rescue our democracy, but he could not be part of that movement had he stayed here. There is zero chance that he would be allowed out on bail if he returned now and close to no chance that, had he not left the country, he would have been granted bail. Instead, he would be in a prison cell like Bradley Manning, incommunicado.
Secrets also describes Ellsberg’s spiritual journey from parfait knight of the US foreign policy round table to anguished and increasingly indignant whistleblower. His privileged access to the government, think tank, and media elites is worlds away from Edward Snowden and his anonymous grubbing in the data mines of the post-9/11 security state.
While working on the Nixon transition in late 1968, Henry Kissinger asked RAND to review the Vietnam situation. RAND nominates Daniel Ellsberg:
Kissinger approved, though with one reservation…Kissinger was happy to have me do the study, but he had one worry about me, my “discretion.”
I was astonished…My whole career was based on a well-founded trust in my discretion. (Secrets, pg. 230).
A few pages later, Ellsberg completes a document framing the crucial Vietnam issues for comment by the various US executive branch stakeholders; it is circulated as “NSSM-1” i.e. National Security Study Memorandum 1, the first document of its series put out by Nixon’s National Security Administration. The various stakeholders provide 500 pages of extremely revealing responses.
Fast forward to pg. 241-2:
[Mort Halperin, the DoD staffer responsible for assembling the Pentagon Papers] took me aside…one morning and said, “I’m going to ask you not to show any of this material to anybody at Rand or take any copies back with you.”…I took it for granted from Mort’s unemphatic, pro forma tone that what he meant was simply to go on record as telling me not to do this, thereby signaling that it should not get back to the White House that Rand had his material…if Mort had really been serious about keeping me from sending this back to Rand, he could have conveyed that very reliably…
So having registered Mort’s warning and agreeing with him, I took care to copy all the documents myself in the copying alcove of the NSCD, rather than hand them to a secretary to copy, as I would otherwise have done. When I took them back to Rand, I convened a rather large meeting…Having made and passed out a number of copies, I repeated the warning that Halperin had given to me…I said that this was presumably so he could disclaim responsibility…
“Discrete” indeed. Not to worry:
…Some months later…I asked [Halperin] if I had been right…Halperin said, “Of course.”
In Daniel Ellsberg’s estimation his leak of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 did little, if anything to end the Vietnam War as conducted by Richard Nixon. The U.S. war only ended because of Nixon’s downfall soon after his re-election in 1972, thanks to the antics of his plumbers, the team of extra-legal leak-plugging zealots that Nixon’s coterie unleashed on his enemies.
The wonderful, ironic element is the role of Henry Kissinger—and Daniel Ellsberg--in Nixon’s fall.
According to Ellsberg, Kissinger had a low opinion of Nixon; on the occasion of RMN’s election, he told an audience at MIT that Nixon was “not fit to be president”. That was not the Kissinger line once Nixon appointed him as his National Security Advisor, but one can speculate that Kissinger’s doubts precluded a comfortable atmosphere of trust and understanding between Nixon and his national security Richelieu.
Nixon was not too disturbed by the leak of the Pentagon Papers at first.
The Papers concluded their narrative with the Johnson administration and painted a pleasing picture of Democratic duplicity and cluelessness under Kennedy and LBJ.
Nixon, eager to undercut the stature of Edward Kennedy, his expected Democratic challenger in the next election, instructed his minions to push out the Pentagon Papers story of the US role in the deposition and liquidation of South Vietnam’s President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963.
Diem, in addition to being an incapable president, was also an ardent Catholic who lived a virtually cloistered existence. Nixon felt that highlighting Kennedy betrayal of a fellow Catholic would weaken Edward Kennedy’s appeal to his core religious base.
Doubt and anxiety pervaded Nixon’s mind, however, when a key document from his own administration, NSSM-1 , the memorandum referenced above, made its way into the hands of a Senatorial critic, Mark Mathias, and Mathias revealed some of its pessimistic conclusions.
The prospect of a leak in his own national security apparatus appalled Nixon, because he had hid the details of the secret bombing of Cambodia even from his own secretaries of state (William Smith) and defense (Melvin Laird).
The irony is that NSSM-1 leaked, not because the current denizens of the Nixon White House couldn’t keep a secret, but because Daniel Ellsberg had copied the document while he was working for Henry Kissinger.
Kissinger, the dissembling courtier (or, if you prefer, the terrified capo secretly writhing before Nixon’s Don Corleone) dared not short circuit the leak investigation by admitting that he had nourished the Ellsberg viper in the bosom of the new administration:
…there was no awareness throughout that period that what I had given Mathias was (simply) NSSM-1. Moreover, it’s clear from numerous taped discussions that Kissinger never did reveal to Nixon the embarrassing information that I had worked directly for him in February and March of 1969…Since no one knew both those pieces of data, [Attorney General John] Mitchell’s conclusion…that there must be a conspiracy was inescapable…[Secrets, pg. 435]
And so the operation to find the anti-war movement’s non-existent co-conspirators inside Nixon’s NSC—the march of folly of the plumbers who blundered through the Watergate operation and eventually brought down the Ellsberg case and the Nixon presidency—was born.
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Ανθολόγηση από το Sinocism:
Russia-China joint naval exercise begins in Sea of Japan - The Asahi Shimbun
Pollution leads to drop in Life Span in Northern China (NYT)
Liberal Peking University professor threatened with expulsion (South China Morning Post)
Chinese E-Books Platform Gets $110 Million in Funding From Goldman Sachs and Temasek (techinasia) -Άντε και στα δικά μας!
mg:
Russia-China joint naval exercise begins in Sea of Japan - The Asahi Shimbun
Pollution leads to drop in Life Span in Northern China (NYT)
Liberal Peking University professor threatened with expulsion (South China Morning Post)
Chinese E-Books Platform Gets $110 Million in Funding From Goldman Sachs and Temasek (techinasia) -Άντε και στα δικά μας!
mg:
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Από το Sinocism:
UK retailers bemoan visas for damping Chinese spending - FT.com At Heathrow airport, although Chinese shoppers account for less than 1 per cent of total traffic, they are responsible for nearly a quarter of all sales of luxury goods...In total, Chinese tourists spend nearly £300m per year in the UK, according to the Office of National Statistics
China naval fleet seen sailing through Soya Strait off northern Japan (South China Morning Post) A Chinese naval fleet was on Sunday spotted sailing for the first time through an international strait between northern Japan and Russia’s far east, the Japanese defence ministry said. The two missile destroyers, two frigates and a supply ship passed through the Soya Strait from the Sea of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk early on Sunday, the ministry said. The channel, also known as La Perouse, separates the Russian island of Sakhalin and the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido. (Ρώσοι και Κινέζοι έχουν κοινά ναυτικά γυμνάσια φέτος)
UK retailers bemoan visas for damping Chinese spending - FT.com At Heathrow airport, although Chinese shoppers account for less than 1 per cent of total traffic, they are responsible for nearly a quarter of all sales of luxury goods...In total, Chinese tourists spend nearly £300m per year in the UK, according to the Office of National Statistics
China naval fleet seen sailing through Soya Strait off northern Japan (South China Morning Post) A Chinese naval fleet was on Sunday spotted sailing for the first time through an international strait between northern Japan and Russia’s far east, the Japanese defence ministry said. The two missile destroyers, two frigates and a supply ship passed through the Soya Strait from the Sea of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk early on Sunday, the ministry said. The channel, also known as La Perouse, separates the Russian island of Sakhalin and the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido. (Ρώσοι και Κινέζοι έχουν κοινά ναυτικά γυμνάσια φέτος)
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Επιλογή από το Sinocism:
China’s Slowing Economy, An Illustrated Guide (WSJ)
Drugs and sex and GlaxoKline (Telegraph). Και θαυμάστε contrition στην ανακοίνωση της πολυεθνικής. Τύφλα να 'χει ο τελώνης του Ευαγγελίου!
Πώς να μην το διασκεδάζεις, όταν το Ισραήλ πουλάει τις ΗΠΑ για τα μάτια της Κίνας!
Congress, White House angry at Israel for decision to back out of trial against Bank of China for involvement in laundering of money for Hamas, Islamic Jihad. The reason: China conditioned Netanyahu's state visit on Israeli promise not to testify in trial. Now, US threatening to subpoena Ambassador Oren. (ynetnews)
Και ένα φαιδρό: Chinese bride brawls in French lavender field (Global Times)
"It started because the young couple and their friends accidentally stepped into the newlyweds' photo. The women began to argue first, and then the boyfriend and the groom joined in," [the guide who posted pictures of the incident] said. "Most people there tried to drag them apart since it was quite embarrassing. The two young men fought shirtless, and the bride's dress was ripped off. Parts of the field were trampled," the guide said, adding that other onlookers in the field were very shocked by the incident.
Rules for Drinking at a Chinese Business Dinner. (WSJ) Οδηγίες για σύγχρονους Μαφφέο Πόλο.
China’s Slowing Economy, An Illustrated Guide (WSJ)
Drugs and sex and GlaxoKline (Telegraph). Και θαυμάστε contrition στην ανακοίνωση της πολυεθνικής. Τύφλα να 'χει ο τελώνης του Ευαγγελίου!
Πώς να μην το διασκεδάζεις, όταν το Ισραήλ πουλάει τις ΗΠΑ για τα μάτια της Κίνας!
Congress, White House angry at Israel for decision to back out of trial against Bank of China for involvement in laundering of money for Hamas, Islamic Jihad. The reason: China conditioned Netanyahu's state visit on Israeli promise not to testify in trial. Now, US threatening to subpoena Ambassador Oren. (ynetnews)
Και ένα φαιδρό: Chinese bride brawls in French lavender field (Global Times)
"It started because the young couple and their friends accidentally stepped into the newlyweds' photo. The women began to argue first, and then the boyfriend and the groom joined in," [the guide who posted pictures of the incident] said. "Most people there tried to drag them apart since it was quite embarrassing. The two young men fought shirtless, and the bride's dress was ripped off. Parts of the field were trampled," the guide said, adding that other onlookers in the field were very shocked by the incident.
Rules for Drinking at a Chinese Business Dinner. (WSJ) Οδηγίες για σύγχρονους Μαφφέο Πόλο.
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Ευκαιρία απασχόλησης για τις άνεργες Ελληνίδες στην Κίνα: βυζάστρες για ενήλικες. (South China Morning Post)
According to the newspaper report, a wet nurse who provides breast milk to adults can earn an average monthly wage of 16,000 yuan (HK$20,238). A healthy and attractive wet nurse can earn even more, the paper was told.
Είτε απευθείας είτε με αντλία θηλασμού.
According to the newspaper report, a wet nurse who provides breast milk to adults can earn an average monthly wage of 16,000 yuan (HK$20,238). A healthy and attractive wet nurse can earn even more, the paper was told.
Είτε απευθείας είτε με αντλία θηλασμού.
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Ωραίο σχόλιο στην παραπάνω είδηση:
Just a word from a mom: I highly doubt that most adults even would be able to suck out anything much by themselves- the tongue must cover the lower teeth, and it's really a combination of rhythmic jaw pressure and sucking. Try it with your own finger and see how fast the muscles tire
Just a word from a mom: I highly doubt that most adults even would be able to suck out anything much by themselves- the tongue must cover the lower teeth, and it's really a combination of rhythmic jaw pressure and sucking. Try it with your own finger and see how fast the muscles tire
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Ο Xu Zhiyong [Ξ(Σ)ϋ Τζ-Γιόνγκ] (#790) και άλλοι του "Νέου Κινήματος Πολιτών" συνελήφθησαν με διάφορες γελοίες κατηγορίες:
CHRD has confirmed that Xu Zhiyong （许志永）, a leading activist pushing for constitutional democracy and rule-of-law reform, was criminally detained on suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order” by Beijing police on July 16. With Xu’s detention and the detentions of two other activists on July 12 in Beijing, China’s newest crackdown on freedom of assembly, association, and expression has seen a total of 24 activists and lawyers taken into custody since late March. As has become clear especially with Xu’s detention, the crackdown is targeting a loose grouping of activists involved in what has become known as the “New Citizens’ Movement,” who have peacefully advocated for democratic and rule-of-law reforms, constitutionalism, human rights, and social justice. The crackdown has initially responded to an anti-corruption campaign by Chinese citizens who have called for an end to official corruption, while some of the detained activists also demanded the government ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). (Chinese Human Rights Defenders -CHRD)
Some have attended meetings referred to as “Dine and Get Drunk” parties (饭醉, which has the same pronunciation in Chinese as “commit a crime,” [ΣΣ. 犯罪] since such meetings may well constitute “unlawful assembly” in the eyes of authorities).
CHRD has confirmed that Xu Zhiyong （许志永）, a leading activist pushing for constitutional democracy and rule-of-law reform, was criminally detained on suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order” by Beijing police on July 16. With Xu’s detention and the detentions of two other activists on July 12 in Beijing, China’s newest crackdown on freedom of assembly, association, and expression has seen a total of 24 activists and lawyers taken into custody since late March. As has become clear especially with Xu’s detention, the crackdown is targeting a loose grouping of activists involved in what has become known as the “New Citizens’ Movement,” who have peacefully advocated for democratic and rule-of-law reforms, constitutionalism, human rights, and social justice. The crackdown has initially responded to an anti-corruption campaign by Chinese citizens who have called for an end to official corruption, while some of the detained activists also demanded the government ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). (Chinese Human Rights Defenders -CHRD)
Some have attended meetings referred to as “Dine and Get Drunk” parties (饭醉, which has the same pronunciation in Chinese as “commit a crime,” [ΣΣ. 犯罪] since such meetings may well constitute “unlawful assembly” in the eyes of authorities).
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The Demanding Off-Hour Escapes of China's High-Tech Workers (NYT)
Και μια και είμαστε στο ξέσκασμα, νά μια ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία από το Chinese Law Prof Blog:
Half a year after getting out, he was allegedly involved in a gang rape at a Beijing hotel; formal charges were brought earlier this month.
Apparently things have not been going well with the defense; two attorneys have resigned. His new attorneys have taken their case to the media, arguing that the complainant was a bar hostess. Apparently they plan to plead not guilty, presumably on the grounds that she consented, or perhaps that in the case of bar hostesses the law should presume consent. Obviously I have no inside information on what actually happened on the night in question, but the general tenor of netizen opinion is that this is a typical case of a spoiled rich kid who thinks he can get away with anything. He's become the Joffrey Baratheon of Chinese pop culture.
Into this mess stepped Yi Yanyou (易延友), a professor at Tsinghua Law School and the head of its Evidence Law Center. Yi declared on his microblog that "raping a bar hostess is less harmful than raping a woman of good family" (强奸陪酒女也比强奸良家妇女危害性要小). This led to an outpouring of harsh criticism among netizens. Ignoring the first rule of holes - when you're in one, stop digging - Prof. Yi then clarified his remarks by revising the above sentence to read, "It does more harm to rape a woman of good family than to rape a bargirl, a dancing girl, an escort or a prostitute" (强奸良家妇女比强奸陪酒女、陪舞女、三陪女、妓女危害性要大). Somehow the critics were not mollified. By last Wednesday Prof. Yi had had enough - he deleted his post and apologized.
Prof. Yi's remarks don't come out of nowhere - he is in fact channelling a distinction well known in traditional Chinese law (it is codified in the Qing Code) between woman of good family (良家妇女) and licentious women (犯奸妇女). If, for example, a man saw a women engaging in illicit sexual intercourse with another and then raped her afterward, then because she was a licentious woman it could not be called rape but should instead be classified as illicit intercourse by trickery ("又如见妇人与人通奸，见者因而用强奸之，已系犯奸之妇，难以强论，依刁奸律"). (I'm relying for my translation on the Grand Ricci dictionary, which translates 刁奸 as "seduire une femme par la ruse"; that may not be correct as a translation of the legal term.) For more on this, see Vivien Ng, "Ideology and Sexuality: Rape Laws in Qing China," Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 46, no. 1 (Feb. 1987), pp. 57-70. Although the distinction finds no formal expression in modern Chinese law (not to my knowledge, anyway), here we see it alive and well in legal culture, so to speak, and expressed in exactly the same words as it was centuries ago.
Και μια και είμαστε στο ξέσκασμα, νά μια ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία από το Chinese Law Prof Blog:
Half a year after getting out, he was allegedly involved in a gang rape at a Beijing hotel; formal charges were brought earlier this month.
Apparently things have not been going well with the defense; two attorneys have resigned. His new attorneys have taken their case to the media, arguing that the complainant was a bar hostess. Apparently they plan to plead not guilty, presumably on the grounds that she consented, or perhaps that in the case of bar hostesses the law should presume consent. Obviously I have no inside information on what actually happened on the night in question, but the general tenor of netizen opinion is that this is a typical case of a spoiled rich kid who thinks he can get away with anything. He's become the Joffrey Baratheon of Chinese pop culture.
Into this mess stepped Yi Yanyou (易延友), a professor at Tsinghua Law School and the head of its Evidence Law Center. Yi declared on his microblog that "raping a bar hostess is less harmful than raping a woman of good family" (强奸陪酒女也比强奸良家妇女危害性要小). This led to an outpouring of harsh criticism among netizens. Ignoring the first rule of holes - when you're in one, stop digging - Prof. Yi then clarified his remarks by revising the above sentence to read, "It does more harm to rape a woman of good family than to rape a bargirl, a dancing girl, an escort or a prostitute" (强奸良家妇女比强奸陪酒女、陪舞女、三陪女、妓女危害性要大). Somehow the critics were not mollified. By last Wednesday Prof. Yi had had enough - he deleted his post and apologized.
Prof. Yi's remarks don't come out of nowhere - he is in fact channelling a distinction well known in traditional Chinese law (it is codified in the Qing Code) between woman of good family (良家妇女) and licentious women (犯奸妇女). If, for example, a man saw a women engaging in illicit sexual intercourse with another and then raped her afterward, then because she was a licentious woman it could not be called rape but should instead be classified as illicit intercourse by trickery ("又如见妇人与人通奸，见者因而用强奸之，已系犯奸之妇，难以强论，依刁奸律"). (I'm relying for my translation on the Grand Ricci dictionary, which translates 刁奸 as "seduire une femme par la ruse"; that may not be correct as a translation of the legal term.) For more on this, see Vivien Ng, "Ideology and Sexuality: Rape Laws in Qing China," Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 46, no. 1 (Feb. 1987), pp. 57-70. Although the distinction finds no formal expression in modern Chinese law (not to my knowledge, anyway), here we see it alive and well in legal culture, so to speak, and expressed in exactly the same words as it was centuries ago.
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Ένας ιστότοπος με οπτική μύηση στους χαρακτήρες της κινεζικής γραφής: chineasy.org (και με αντίστοιχη σελίδα στο FB).
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Σταχυολόγηση από το Sinocism:
China's income inequality slowly improving, survey finds | South China Morning Post China's Gini coefficient of income inequality was 0.49 last year, slightly down from 0.51 in 2010, according to the China Development Report on People's Livelihood 2013 based on the China Family Panel Studies. This is a research project of the Institute of Social Science Survey at Peking University. The study's researchers interviewed 14,960 households representing 57,155 people...Despite a softening Gini index, the China Family Panel Studies figure also confirmed a staggering income gap, with the top 5 per cent of households' income last year being 234 times that of the lowest 5 per cent, whose annual per capita income was about 1,000 yuan (HK$1,250).
Secret Codes of Political Propaganda: The Unknown System of Writing Teams (The China Quarterly) Within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), some Party units have established a largely unknown network of writing teams which propagate the policies or perspectives of a particular unit by publishing feature articles in Party journals. These writing teams often make use of a pseudonym in the form of a person’s name, leading outsiders to believe that the work is written by a journalist. In fact, the pseudonyms of the Party unit writing teams function as a form of secret code. Through this code, inner Party members can recognize which unit’s views an article reflects. In order to reveal exactly which units the codes represent, we have collated the names of over 20 writing teams. In addition, we provide an introduction to the functioning of the writing teams and the manner in which articles are produced. Finally, we propose that the CCP’s mechanism of “propaganda codes” is gradually undergoing the process of institutionalization.
Η υπόθεση βιασμού εργαζόμενης σε μπαρ από σεσημασμένο γιο ισχυρού ανδρός, εδώ. Και δείτε τον κατηγορούμενο ως βιαστή, αξίζει! (WSJ) Στη συνέχεια ο καθηγητής της Νομικής έδωσε διευκρινίσεις για τη "συνηγορία" του, προσπαθώντας να στρογγυλέψει τα πράματα με το να μεταφέρει τη συζήτηση σε ακαδημαϊκή σφαίρα: “I’m not saying that Li Tianyi didn’t commit rape, nor that prostitutes could be raped,” he said. Mr. Yi said each crime has a certain level of social harm, and the psychological harm is different on different victims. “The same curse words have different impacts on different people,” Mr. Yi said. “Chaste women and prostitutes have different views on chasteness,” he said, “so [rape has] a different impact on them.” Τελικά, μπροστά στο κράξιμο διέγραψε το σχόλιό του, λέγοντας ότι αποσύρεται από τη συζήτηση, χωρίς βέβαια αυτό να σημαίνει ότι άλλαξε γνώμη. Και το σχόλιο:
Tsinghua Law prof Yi Yanyou in hot water over rape comments Prof. Yi’s remarks don’t come out of nowhere – he is in fact channelling a distinction well known in traditional Chinese law (it is codified in the Qing Code) between woman of good family (良家妇女) and licentious women (犯奸妇女). If, for example, a man saw a woman engaging in illicit sexual intercourse with another and then raped her afterward, then because she was a licentious woman it could not be called rape but should instead be classified as illicit intercourse by trickery (“又如见妇人与人通奸，见者因而用强奸之，已系犯奸之妇，难以强论，依刁奸律”). (I’m relying for my translation on the Grand Ricci dictionary, which translates 刁奸 as “se'duire une femme par la ruse”; that may not be correct as a translation of the legal term.) For more on this, see Vivien Ng, “Ideology and Sexuality: Rape Laws in Qing China,” Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 46, no. 1 (Feb. 1987), pp. 57-70. Although the distinction finds no formal expression in modern Chinese law (not to my knowledge, anyway), here we see it alive and well in legal culture, so to speak, and expressed in exactly the same words as it was centuries ago.
Ο νέος Δρόμος του Μεταξιού πάνω σε ράγες, της Hewlett-Packard. (NYT)
A conversation with a gay activist lawyer in China
One discouraging part of our conversation: he noted that in general it was the house churches that were the most visible and outspoken homophobes in China. Generally Christian parents in the house churches, for example, have a much harder time accepting gay children than non-Christian Chinese parents (and you can imagine how hard it must be for them, in a culture that places such importance on transmission of the family name). This is truly unfortunate, because there doesn't seem to be anything about Christianity that requires homophobia of its adherents; many Christians manage to be so without obsessing over people's private sex lives. Unlike homosexuality, homophobia is a choice. I observed that many weiquan [defending human rights] lawyers had converted to Christianity and wondered whether they had adopted the antigay views of the house churches as well. Unfortunately, it appears that some of them have.
KFC Ice Cubes Found Dirtier than Toilet Water (Caijing) Και το κερασάκι: Ιt is not the first time for restaurant ice cubes at popular restaurants chains to be under scrutiny. A June study by the Daily Mail in Britain found higher bacterial levels in McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Starbucks, and other fast food chains, than their toilet water.
Έκθεση αυτοκινήτου ή γυναικεία καλλιστεία;
Παλιοί Ινδουιστικοί ναοί στην Κίνα (The Hindu)
China's income inequality slowly improving, survey finds | South China Morning Post China's Gini coefficient of income inequality was 0.49 last year, slightly down from 0.51 in 2010, according to the China Development Report on People's Livelihood 2013 based on the China Family Panel Studies. This is a research project of the Institute of Social Science Survey at Peking University. The study's researchers interviewed 14,960 households representing 57,155 people...Despite a softening Gini index, the China Family Panel Studies figure also confirmed a staggering income gap, with the top 5 per cent of households' income last year being 234 times that of the lowest 5 per cent, whose annual per capita income was about 1,000 yuan (HK$1,250).
Secret Codes of Political Propaganda: The Unknown System of Writing Teams (The China Quarterly) Within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), some Party units have established a largely unknown network of writing teams which propagate the policies or perspectives of a particular unit by publishing feature articles in Party journals. These writing teams often make use of a pseudonym in the form of a person’s name, leading outsiders to believe that the work is written by a journalist. In fact, the pseudonyms of the Party unit writing teams function as a form of secret code. Through this code, inner Party members can recognize which unit’s views an article reflects. In order to reveal exactly which units the codes represent, we have collated the names of over 20 writing teams. In addition, we provide an introduction to the functioning of the writing teams and the manner in which articles are produced. Finally, we propose that the CCP’s mechanism of “propaganda codes” is gradually undergoing the process of institutionalization.
Η υπόθεση βιασμού εργαζόμενης σε μπαρ από σεσημασμένο γιο ισχυρού ανδρός, εδώ. Και δείτε τον κατηγορούμενο ως βιαστή, αξίζει! (WSJ) Στη συνέχεια ο καθηγητής της Νομικής έδωσε διευκρινίσεις για τη "συνηγορία" του, προσπαθώντας να στρογγυλέψει τα πράματα με το να μεταφέρει τη συζήτηση σε ακαδημαϊκή σφαίρα: “I’m not saying that Li Tianyi didn’t commit rape, nor that prostitutes could be raped,” he said. Mr. Yi said each crime has a certain level of social harm, and the psychological harm is different on different victims. “The same curse words have different impacts on different people,” Mr. Yi said. “Chaste women and prostitutes have different views on chasteness,” he said, “so [rape has] a different impact on them.” Τελικά, μπροστά στο κράξιμο διέγραψε το σχόλιό του, λέγοντας ότι αποσύρεται από τη συζήτηση, χωρίς βέβαια αυτό να σημαίνει ότι άλλαξε γνώμη. Και το σχόλιο:
Tsinghua Law prof Yi Yanyou in hot water over rape comments Prof. Yi’s remarks don’t come out of nowhere – he is in fact channelling a distinction well known in traditional Chinese law (it is codified in the Qing Code) between woman of good family (良家妇女) and licentious women (犯奸妇女). If, for example, a man saw a woman engaging in illicit sexual intercourse with another and then raped her afterward, then because she was a licentious woman it could not be called rape but should instead be classified as illicit intercourse by trickery (“又如见妇人与人通奸，见者因而用强奸之，已系犯奸之妇，难以强论，依刁奸律”). (I’m relying for my translation on the Grand Ricci dictionary, which translates 刁奸 as “se'duire une femme par la ruse”; that may not be correct as a translation of the legal term.) For more on this, see Vivien Ng, “Ideology and Sexuality: Rape Laws in Qing China,” Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 46, no. 1 (Feb. 1987), pp. 57-70. Although the distinction finds no formal expression in modern Chinese law (not to my knowledge, anyway), here we see it alive and well in legal culture, so to speak, and expressed in exactly the same words as it was centuries ago.
Ο νέος Δρόμος του Μεταξιού πάνω σε ράγες, της Hewlett-Packard. (NYT)
A conversation with a gay activist lawyer in China
One discouraging part of our conversation: he noted that in general it was the house churches that were the most visible and outspoken homophobes in China. Generally Christian parents in the house churches, for example, have a much harder time accepting gay children than non-Christian Chinese parents (and you can imagine how hard it must be for them, in a culture that places such importance on transmission of the family name). This is truly unfortunate, because there doesn't seem to be anything about Christianity that requires homophobia of its adherents; many Christians manage to be so without obsessing over people's private sex lives. Unlike homosexuality, homophobia is a choice. I observed that many weiquan [defending human rights] lawyers had converted to Christianity and wondered whether they had adopted the antigay views of the house churches as well. Unfortunately, it appears that some of them have.
KFC Ice Cubes Found Dirtier than Toilet Water (Caijing) Και το κερασάκι: Ιt is not the first time for restaurant ice cubes at popular restaurants chains to be under scrutiny. A June study by the Daily Mail in Britain found higher bacterial levels in McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Starbucks, and other fast food chains, than their toilet water.
Έκθεση αυτοκινήτου ή γυναικεία καλλιστεία;
Παλιοί Ινδουιστικοί ναοί στην Κίνα (The Hindu)
Costas
¥
Bo Xilai to plead guilty, but maybe not to all charges: sources (reuters)
Multi-million dollar propaganda spectacle opens in a Lhasa under lockdown (savetibet) Με ψεύτικη Ποτάλα όλα τα λεφτά
Man goes on rampage over one child policy (theage)
A man in China has killed two government employees who told him they couldn't register his fourth child because he didn't pay a penalty for breaking China's family planning laws.
China’s New Leaders Advance Internet Control (καλοί μαθητές των Αμερικάνων) (Freedom House)
Προσοχή στα έξοδα γάμου, εδώ φάγαν ολόκληρο Τσοχατζόπουλο: Official sacked over daughter's expensive wedding (xinhua)
Επαρχιώτικα ηλεψώνια (huxiu.me)
In 2012, the per-capita average spending on online shopping in county-level regions reached near 6000 yuan, compared with only 4700 yuan in first- and second-tier cities. People living in county-level regions, on average, bought 388 items of 54 times in a year, much more than 349 items of 39 times of the first- and second-tier city residents. They appeared to be a lot more crazy about major international brands, with women paying 765 yuan per person a year for products of Estee Lauder. Residents in first- and second-tier cities would spend only 652 yuan on them.
60-70% of honey in Jinan is fake (Danwei)
Tags: fructose syrup sugar syrup beetroot syrup rice syrup
In 2006, a national food quality and safe market access system was implemented for honey and related products, meaning that only companies that obtain a QS authentication mark are allowed to sell honey for human consumption. Only two companies in Jinan (including Jiquan Huangshi) have obtained the QS mark, but many more companies still sell honey because honey is not exclusively classified as a foodstuff – it can also be sold as an agricultural by-product or medicine. If this is the case then relevant departments lack the legal basis to investigate honey companies without a QS mark.
Άραγε τι ισχύει στα καθ' ημάς;
Ομολογιούχοι του δημοσίου, μέτοχοι του ΤΤ και της ProBank, παρηγορηθείτε:
China Stocks World’s Worst Losing $748 Billion on Slump (bloomberg)
The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP), which doubled in 10 months through August 2009 as the government poured $652 billion of stimulus into building roads, railways and housing, has tumbled 43 percent from its high, destroying $748 billion in market value. Only Greece’s ASE Index (ASE) has fallen more in percentage terms.
Κάν' το όπως οι ναζί (Japan Times)
Outspoken Finance Minister Taro Aso has caused another international stir by urging Japanese politicians bent on revising the Constitution to learn from the way Germany under the Nazis amended the Weimar charter. (...) But Aso’s remark, reportedly made Monday in a speech in Tokyo, sounded ambiguous and may simply have been just more sarcasm over Japanese rushing to amend the Constitution.
“I don’t want (people) to make a decision in an uproar. . . . The Constitution should be revised based on public opinions that carefully examined the situation,” Aso reportedly said. “I don’t want (people) to discuss revising the Constitution in a frenzy.” (...) “[The Nazis] did it in a ‘let’s-keep-it-quiet’ manner, and the Weimar Constitution was changed almost before people realized it. Why don’t we learn from that method?”
[It] may have been a sarcastic comment against politicians bent on revision, since Aso often uses sarcastic, intricate rhetoric when he criticizes somebody.
Multi-million dollar propaganda spectacle opens in a Lhasa under lockdown (savetibet) Με ψεύτικη Ποτάλα όλα τα λεφτά
Man goes on rampage over one child policy (theage)
A man in China has killed two government employees who told him they couldn't register his fourth child because he didn't pay a penalty for breaking China's family planning laws.
China’s New Leaders Advance Internet Control (καλοί μαθητές των Αμερικάνων) (Freedom House)
Προσοχή στα έξοδα γάμου, εδώ φάγαν ολόκληρο Τσοχατζόπουλο: Official sacked over daughter's expensive wedding (xinhua)
Επαρχιώτικα ηλεψώνια (huxiu.me)
In 2012, the per-capita average spending on online shopping in county-level regions reached near 6000 yuan, compared with only 4700 yuan in first- and second-tier cities. People living in county-level regions, on average, bought 388 items of 54 times in a year, much more than 349 items of 39 times of the first- and second-tier city residents. They appeared to be a lot more crazy about major international brands, with women paying 765 yuan per person a year for products of Estee Lauder. Residents in first- and second-tier cities would spend only 652 yuan on them.
60-70% of honey in Jinan is fake (Danwei)
Tags: fructose syrup sugar syrup beetroot syrup rice syrup
In 2006, a national food quality and safe market access system was implemented for honey and related products, meaning that only companies that obtain a QS authentication mark are allowed to sell honey for human consumption. Only two companies in Jinan (including Jiquan Huangshi) have obtained the QS mark, but many more companies still sell honey because honey is not exclusively classified as a foodstuff – it can also be sold as an agricultural by-product or medicine. If this is the case then relevant departments lack the legal basis to investigate honey companies without a QS mark.
Άραγε τι ισχύει στα καθ' ημάς;
Ομολογιούχοι του δημοσίου, μέτοχοι του ΤΤ και της ProBank, παρηγορηθείτε:
China Stocks World’s Worst Losing $748 Billion on Slump (bloomberg)
The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP), which doubled in 10 months through August 2009 as the government poured $652 billion of stimulus into building roads, railways and housing, has tumbled 43 percent from its high, destroying $748 billion in market value. Only Greece’s ASE Index (ASE) has fallen more in percentage terms.
Κάν' το όπως οι ναζί (Japan Times)
Outspoken Finance Minister Taro Aso has caused another international stir by urging Japanese politicians bent on revising the Constitution to learn from the way Germany under the Nazis amended the Weimar charter. (...) But Aso’s remark, reportedly made Monday in a speech in Tokyo, sounded ambiguous and may simply have been just more sarcasm over Japanese rushing to amend the Constitution.
“I don’t want (people) to make a decision in an uproar. . . . The Constitution should be revised based on public opinions that carefully examined the situation,” Aso reportedly said. “I don’t want (people) to discuss revising the Constitution in a frenzy.” (...) “[The Nazis] did it in a ‘let’s-keep-it-quiet’ manner, and the Weimar Constitution was changed almost before people realized it. Why don’t we learn from that method?”
[It] may have been a sarcastic comment against politicians bent on revision, since Aso often uses sarcastic, intricate rhetoric when he criticizes somebody.
Costas
¥
Cash-strapped governments are slashing requirements for visas and citizenship to attract wealthy Chinese immigrants in the hope of drawing capital to their shores.
(WSJ)
While investor immigration programs are technically open to all, immigration lawyers say that governments are targeting anxious Chinese who are looking for potential escape plans for their families and protection for their assets in case of turmoil at home.
"There is an all-out immigration war emerging for the Chinese," said Jean-Francois Harvey, an immigration lawyer at Harvey Law Group in Hong Kong.
The best deals of the moment come from countries in the Caribbean and Southern Europe ... Η συνέχεια επί πληρωμή, ή επικοινωνήστε με το γραφείο του κ. Χατζηδάκη
(WSJ)
While investor immigration programs are technically open to all, immigration lawyers say that governments are targeting anxious Chinese who are looking for potential escape plans for their families and protection for their assets in case of turmoil at home.
"There is an all-out immigration war emerging for the Chinese," said Jean-Francois Harvey, an immigration lawyer at Harvey Law Group in Hong Kong.
The best deals of the moment come from countries in the Caribbean and Southern Europe ... Η συνέχεια επί πληρωμή, ή επικοινωνήστε με το γραφείο του κ. Χατζηδάκη