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Bo Xilai trial this week!
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Aug 19, 2013 06:03
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Announced three days in advance. At least they didn't tell everyone late Wednesday night!  But seriously though a real communist show trial, we are privileged to witness an echo of the glorious past. Bombard the headquarters!
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Aug 19, 2013 10:25
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These guys run an environmental news clipping service which I have found useful when not in China. http://eng.greensos.cn/Content.aspx?articleId=1416&c=73
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Aug 19, 2013 14:07
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The head of the Equal Opportunities Commission finally noticed that segregation is probably not a good thing.SCMP posted:A system that designates certain schools for ethnic minority pupils separates the children from the mainstream and should be abolished, the chief of the city's discrimination watchdog says. It's that classic Chinese exceptionalism, that is only worse among the Cantonese, that "our language is special and the hardest in the world and non-yellow people can't learn it" that's keeping brown people from being prosperous. Or maybe the language is just an excuse to keep the darkies down. I'm not sure whether the chicken or the egg came first here. "Chinese is too hard, so put them in the kindergarten that doesn't use Chinese. Just teach them babby's first Chinese. It'll be fine." But then comes the public examination, the DSE, that determines your whole life forever. Chinese is one of the required subjects on the DSE. And what does the DSE test you on? Is it your ability to communicate effectively in the Chinese language to the degree that you might be expected to function in your professional or university life? Nope. It tests you on loving Tang Dynasty poetry. This isn't like an American SAT that checks your formal writing or quizzes you on common misconceptions in language or reading comprehension, this is an examination system rooted in Classical Chinese that could be compared to testing westerners in Latin. Can you then imagine subjecting ESL students to a test of their latinate vocabulary? Oh and of course high scores on the Chinese exam are required for any civil service position. Ever seen a non-Chinese person in Hong Kong's civil service? Only some police and judiciary people left over from the colonial period. It really gets to me that segregation has been the solution for this long. And honestly nobody listens to the Equal Opportunities Commission anyway. I wonder how much longer Hong Kong can have segregated schools before somebody points out that it has failed everywhere else in the world. Oh, by the way, mainland immigrants go to the normal schools. Even those who show up in the city not speaking a word of Cantonese. They figure it out. But they're yellow. gently caress.
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Aug 20, 2013 04:01
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Bloodnose posted:Oh, by the way, mainland immigrants go to the normal schools. Even those who show up in the city not speaking a word of Cantonese. They figure it out. But they're yellow. gently caress. But they too are children of the Han and understand the complex writing system~~~~  The Equal Opportunities is a toothless tiger. When they tried to implement a law against racial discrimination, everyone in the city complained against imaginary scenarios (which showed how racist Hongers actually are). This is why I like going to Singapore 
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Aug 20, 2013 04:20
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For the curious, mind mentioning these imaginary scenarios? It's always a treat to delve into the mind of a xenophobe.
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Aug 20, 2013 04:56
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Zuhzuhzombie!! posted:http://www.systemiccapital.com/chinese-university-students-embracing-maoism-in-backlash-against-social-inequality/ Edit 2: Ok,  I also mangled Zuh's quote for some reason. Blackbird Fly fucked around with this message at 09:47 on Aug 20, 2013 |
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Aug 20, 2013 07:17
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Blackbird Fly posted:Thoughts? Just post it. Nothing will happen.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:28
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Blackbird Fly posted:Thoughts? You had the Tank Man picture. I haven't seen it lately, but one of my teachers in Beijing had a propaganda photospread about 1989 from the early 90s that included the Tank Man picture. The caption described it as embodying the incredible restraint and patience that the PLA had. You know, for not just crushing the man. So don't worry about it.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:39
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I haven't been SCMPosting much lately, but I read something today that made me literally angry with rage: Hong Kong commerce chamber makes urgent plea for foreign workers.SCMP posted:One of Hong Kong's most influential business groups is working on a proposal calling on the government to allow an influx of foreign workers - warning that it is the only way to solve the city's labour shortage. I'm so mad about this. Seriously. gently caress it all. gently caress these people. Hong Kong is number one on the Index of Economic Freedom now and forever. Businesses love that! There are barely any laws here to protect workers or guarantee them benefits at all. It's the most business-friendly place ever. Exploitation is in full swing. Wages have been stagnant for over a decade while profits are through the roof. Hooray for the free market! But now these greedy douchebags want it both ways. They love the free market when it means they get to exploit everybody and pay them poo poo, but now they've got a problem: they've run out of people willing to work for absolute poo poo. They have two options then: increase benefits/pay and cut into their record profits, or beg and plead for government intervention. WHICH ONE ARE THEY GONNA PICK? I like how they mention 1989, when average real incomes were demonstrably higher and the wealth gap much lower.
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Aug 21, 2013 08:46
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Bloodnose posted:I haven't been SCMPosting much lately, but I read something today that made me literally angry with rage: Hong Kong commerce chamber makes urgent plea for foreign workers. Well, if there weren't any restrictions on migration you could instantly get tons of people to come and work for low wages, so I don't really see the inconsistency.
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Aug 21, 2013 23:38
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Where would they live?
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Aug 22, 2013 04:37
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I'm pretty sure you could cram 8 bangladeshi guys into furnished shipping container.
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Aug 22, 2013 06:18
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Arglebargle III posted:Where would they live? That sounds like a problem for the glorious free market to solve!
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Aug 22, 2013 06:23
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dilbertschalter posted:Well, if there weren't any restrictions on migration you could instantly get tons of people to come and work for low wages, so I don't really see the inconsistency. They're not asking for open immigration though. I wonder what Hong Kong would look like if they had that. I guess there'd just be riots until they closed the borders again.
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Aug 22, 2013 06:31
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MeramJert posted:I'm pretty sure you could cram 8 bangladeshi guys into furnished shipping container. Student housing in Amsterdam is in furnished shipping containers. Beat you to it, Hong Kong.
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Aug 22, 2013 07:17
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I'm sorry for bringing up such a  topic when I know it's been addressed before, but I was hoping someone might be able to offer more reliable information than what I can obtain from searches. There's a free Chinese-language paper in the educational building I pass through to get to my office, and I picked up what I suppose was a companion piece sitting next to it: A paper claiming that the Chinese government is killing FG adherents for their organs. Lo and behold, today everyone on my floor has a flyer with this image in their mailbox: (I think that paper had been there quite a while, and the day after I pick it up, this happens. It's almost enough to make me think somebody followed me.) I know that the Chinese government is persecuting FG, but the movement is also an untrustworthy cult. But if it's all a sensationalist FG disinfo claim, it's a damned slick one; they've got significant mainstream media coverage and this "Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting" group on their side. So, uh, please tell me if the creepy moon cultists flyering my office have a point, I guess. All the info I can find seems to be either FG sources, or media reporting those same sources uncritically because yellow journalism. I know FG persecution is very real, but organ harvesting is an urban legend I started hearing about when I was a kid. And these claims of "hundreds of thousands" of victims? Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 18:58
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The truth is that I have no idea if that really happens, and anybody who tells you they know exactly what's going on is a big fat liar. Our best guess is that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I could definitely imagine a situation where lots of Falun Gong people are in prison or even get executed for more serious crimes against the state, and then when they die from whatever cause their organs get harvested. Organ donation from the freshly dead, with or without prior written consent, is common in China, which like much of the world has a lengthy wait list for transplants. The poor are also selling kidneys in increasing numbers. Do I think they are conducting Nazi-like experiments on live human beings? No. Honestly, it sounds like you know about as much as anybody.
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Aug 23, 2013 02:33
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My theory is that it's not so much a concerted effort by the Chinese government but more corrupt prison officials making a buck on the side. Even then, I don't think it's as big of a deal as Falun Gong makes it out to be because they're pretty much gone within China from what I've heard and read. There seem to be more stories about underground church Christians ending up in re-education through hard labor camps than the Falun Gong torture stories of a decade ago. The PRC these days is apparently more worried about syncretic Christian cults in the countrysides from what I've read recently. Christianity is pretty popular, I met more Christians than Buddhists or Daoists when I lived in Henan, and the government is worried about some sort of Branch Davidian Taiping cult springing up. China ultimately is a mystery though. I don't think anyone knows the whole story about what is going on despite the advances in technology that allow effectively controlling a large state. Even Xi Jinping probably has no clue as to what is happening several levels below him on the totem pole.
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Aug 23, 2013 04:14
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:China ultimately is a mystery though. I don't think anyone knows the whole story about what is going on despite the advances in technology that allow effectively controlling a large state. Even Xi Jinping probably has no clue as to what is happening several levels below him on the totem pole. Yeah, China's problem is that after a certain level bureaucracy gets less efficient with scale and China is the largest scale in the world currently. I mean, just look at the clusterfuck of stuff in the US regarding any sort of federal program, and that's without (as many) people just lying about information to keep their jobs.
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Aug 23, 2013 04:20
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Yeah, no matter how bugfuck crazy the allegation, there's always a non-zero chance that some insanely corrupt minor official in the rear end-end of nowhere may actually be doing it in collusion with various local cronies and/or organized crime because who knows. Though you can always wonder how much of the bad stuff is simply due to a lack of (or the near-impossibility of) oversight versus how much is "meet your targets by whatever means necessary" *wink wink*. From what I remember, for instance, Chinese prisons are in practice basically expected to be self-sufficient, and whatever token state funds are allocated to them are snapped up by corruption way before they even reach near the organizational level of the prison itself.
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Aug 23, 2013 05:22
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I remember back in my college days when I was taking a class on modern Chinese politics, and my prof pointed out that in the lead-up to the Great Leap Forward, the CCP deployed over a million party cadres to run all the various villages, townships, etc. My mind was so blown by the idea of that many little bosses being managed (poorly) by a central government, all having to be trained and then filing reports and requesting backup and blah blah blah  . That feeling of "man, this place is ungovernable" has essentially stayed with me ever since, and the last decade of news and events out of China haven't really changed that one bit. Nobody has any idea what the hell is happening in that country.
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Aug 23, 2013 18:14
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computer parts posted:I mean, just look at the clusterfuck of stuff in the US regarding any sort of federal program, and that's without (as many) people just lying about information to keep their jobs. I think the situation in the US has more to do with deliberate sabotage than any sort of fundamental limit on the effectiveness of federal programs.
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Aug 23, 2013 20:09
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Captain Frigate posted:I think the situation in the US has more to do with deliberate sabotage than any sort of fundamental limit on the effectiveness of federal programs. Things like the military pay system are not due to deliberate sabotage and is in line with what I'm talking about.
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Aug 23, 2013 21:27
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computer parts posted:Yeah, China's problem is that after a certain level bureaucracy gets less efficient with scale and China is the largest scale in the world currently. It's so big and impenetrable that they're now counterfeiting bureaucrats and people don't notice: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-grapples-with-rash-of-fake-officials/2013/08/16/9509f9d6-f9cb-11e2-8752-b41d7ed1f685_story.html
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Aug 24, 2013 01:52
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Powerlurker posted:It's so big and impenetrable that they're now counterfeiting bureaucrats and people don't notice: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-grapples-with-rash-of-fake-officials/2013/08/16/9509f9d6-f9cb-11e2-8752-b41d7ed1f685_story.html Now listen to this. http://www.eeo.com.cn/ens/2012/1218/237628.shtml
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Aug 24, 2013 03:38
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computer parts posted:Things like the military pay system are not due to deliberate sabotage and is in line with what I'm talking about. If we had any brains at all as a country there would be a Department Of Computin' or something that sucked up all the non-intelligence funding and handled the government's IT needs competently. You can get all kinds of competent people to work in government and I'm sure the tech sector is no different, in spite of their belief that they are (I am one of them). You'd have to get up pretty early every morning to exhibit more large-scale incompetence on technology projects than the major consulting firms in any case. On that note, does China have something like this? I know it's sometimes ahead of the curve on poo poo because the government is only really a few decades old. Surely some country, somewhere has put together a Department Of Computin' and not just left everything spread between scientists, spacemen, spies and soldiers. EDIT: We have one in Thailand, sort of. The MICT. It mainly blocks porn and anti-monarchy web sites and passes laws requiring people to buy logging equipment that the head of the Ministry's family makes. It is not successful even in these meager efforts as porn and anti-monarchy content are widely available still while people just roll their own logging systems. Still, I don't think we should use Thailand for the barometer of what's possible in any organized endeavor other than napping, eating and partying. China or the US could be expected to take things sort of seriously. ReindeerF fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 05:36
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And now for something completely different: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-08/24/content_16918268.htm quote:TCM seeds from space head to the lab
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Aug 24, 2013 08:12
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Space ginseng? We are truly living in the future.
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Aug 24, 2013 08:17
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Proof positive that bullshit knows no final frontier. Also, I am not sure how convincing the appelation "traditional" is when when things start getting shot into space.
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Aug 24, 2013 08:34
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:Space ginseng? We are truly living in the future. Does anyone honestly think they're not going to just take regular ginseng and claim it was grown in space?
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Aug 24, 2013 08:43
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pentyne posted:Does anyone honestly think they're not going to just take regular ginseng and claim it was grown in space? Well, it's not like your average Mr Shen is going to be able to prove they ain't.
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Aug 24, 2013 10:45
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quote:Gu Kailai reveals son Bo Guagua’s jet-setting lifestyle in testimony That should be a death penalty offense right there. STEAMING meat? WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?
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Aug 24, 2013 12:52
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VideoTapir posted:That should be a death penalty offense right there. STEAMING meat? WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU? I will never truly accept steaming as a means of cooking meat. Asia is wrong on this point. Also, I would be very surprised if the thing about academics accepting holidays from a student is true. If you ever did that in a UK university you'd be fired the moment you got back. Although I will say that Pinotage is nice: even bog standard KWV is pretty decent and comes in at under a tenner a bottle in the UK. Not bad.
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Aug 24, 2013 13:30
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I don't think dried, cured meat should be considered "raw" and you definitely shouldn't steam it.
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Aug 24, 2013 15:30
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Mm-mm, steamed hams. Also mmm, life of Bo Guagua. Dude went to school down the street from me. If you know any spoiled 官二代(CCP officials' children) -- I.E., you go to university in the States or the UK and have any Chinese classmates at all -- then you already probably have a pretty good idea of about what their lifestyles are like. Or just GIS Bo Guagua, seems like he was pretty bad about having his picture taken at inopportune moments.  GuestBob posted:Also, I would be very surprised if the thing about academics accepting holidays from a student is true. If you ever did that in a UK university you'd be fired the moment you got back. From my understanding, he wasn't paying for teachers' trips, just classmates. I think he just really wanted to party with white people/buy friends which is kinda depressing actually. I know they post these articles so that we can gawk at the lives of the rich and privileged, but for the kids I think it just messes them up. 
hitension fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Aug 24, 2013 |
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Aug 24, 2013 21:21
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The BBC recently posted an article concerning someone named Meimei Guo, the Red Cross and allegations of corruption which apparently may have been fabricated. Do any of you folks know what this is about? From the BBC article alone I'm rather confused about the affair, and don't understand whose plot this was targeting who and why.
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Aug 25, 2013 15:37
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Ofaloaf posted:The BBC recently posted an article concerning someone named Meimei Guo, the Red Cross and allegations of corruption which apparently may have been fabricated. Do any of you folks know what this is about? From the BBC article alone I'm rather confused about the affair, and don't understand whose plot this was targeting who and why. A group of bullshitters opened a bunch of weibo accounts and discovered that it was really easy to make up bullshit that idiots like the so-called "public intellectuals" would gladly tout. Then they discovered that they could use this system to make money via fun poo poo like extortion and generally gently caress around with stuff. Now they are caught and they were tied into quite a few rumors (that they just flat out made up), which were fairly devastating to some organizations. It's a case of libel basically.
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Aug 25, 2013 16:08
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:A group of bullshitters opened a bunch of weibo accounts and discovered that it was really easy to make up bullshit that idiots like the so-called "public intellectuals" would gladly tout. Then they discovered that they could use this system to make money via fun poo poo like extortion and generally gently caress around with stuff. Now they are caught and they were tied into quite a few rumors (that they just flat out made up), which were fairly devastating to some organizations. It's a case of libel basically.
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Aug 25, 2013 17:37
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Pro-PRC Laowai posted:A group of bullshitters opened a bunch of weibo accounts and discovered that it was really easy to make up bullshit that idiots like the so-called "public intellectuals" would gladly tout. Then they discovered that they could use this system to make money via fun poo poo like extortion and generally gently caress around with stuff. Now they are caught and they were tied into quite a few rumors (that they just flat out made up), which were fairly devastating to some organizations. It's a case of libel basically. Are these garden variety bullshitters, or just the usual 50-centers?
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Aug 25, 2013 22:19
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