In the wake of China’s recent bullet train disaster, I came across this poll on 开心网 (kaixin001.com):
Transcription:
拿什么来拯救我们的国家？ (最多可选5项)
- 自由
- 关爱
- 文化
- 勤勉
- 责任
- 法制
- 经济
- 信仰
- 信任
- 教育
- 改革
- 武器
- 科技
- 公平
- 秩序
- 第七感
- 正义
- 资源环境
- 生命
- 没希望 不想救了
Translation:
What can save our country? (choose no more than 5)…
- freedom
- love
- culture
- diligence
- responsibility
- law
- economics
- faith
- education
- reform
- weapons
- technology
- fairness
- order
- the 7th sense
- justice
- natural resources
- life
- there’s no hope; don’t want
Attack! by FlyinPhotography
How do we foreigners live in China when YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are all blocked here? We use VPNs to get around the blocks. Five years ago, it seemed like only a few foreigners I knew in Shanghai found it really necessary to pay money to circumvent the blocks. Now, almost all foreigners I know find it necessary. Tools like Facebook have become too important of a means of communication to just give up.
For a …
Photo by IceNineJon on Flickr
Recently Best Buy (百思买) announced that it’s closing its China stores. I normally don’t pay too much attention to this kind of news, but Best Buy is a little different. Somehow it felt a bit more relevant to me this time.
Best Buy is an American chain, and there’s still a huge Best Buy store down the street from where I live. I welcomed the arrival of Best Buy because I hate its …
I rarely blog about current events, but this one is too interesting and concise to pass up: The Top Ten China Myths of 2010, by Evan Osnos of the New Yorker.
Quick and dirty list of the 10 myths:
I’ve been especially busy with AllSet Learning lately. Lots of exciting developments there; pretty soon I’ll be starting up a news blog for that site. If you’re in Shanghai and interested, it’s a good time to get in touch.
Next Saturday I’ll be attending Shanghai Barcamp. I meant to do it these past two years, but never quite got around to it. Third time’s a charm, I guess? ChinesePod CEO Hank will be there, as well as Xindanwei…
The Shanghai 2010 World Expo officially kicks off tomorrow. It would be an understatement to say that “Shanghai has been hyping the Expo a lot.” I’ve been taking pictures of various Haibao sightings and a few other Expo-related scenes over the past few months, but it’s finally all coming to a head.
For all the hype that’s been building up, though, there’s been at least as much cause for concern. I’m getting reports from multiple sources that the Expo is …
You’ll have to be following Chinese internet memes to get all of these, but there are some clever ones:
The character creations are fusings of various characters. They are:
Row 1, left: 亚克西
Row 1, right: 贵国
Row 2, left: 代表
Row 2, right: 屁民
Row 3, left: 党中央
Row 3, right: 五毛
I won’t comment on the meanings of these internet memes because I’m not very familiar with all of them, and anyway, this is an apolitical blog. …
A friend of mine works at Google headquarters in Shanghai. He said Google Shanghai has been working on a new type of firewall software for a long time, uncertain of the correct time to release it. He shared with me this screenshot from Google, however:
Apparently the software has two forms: a Gmail plugin to keep your account secure from Chinese hackers (AKA the “human rights activist version”), and a desktop application which filters out requests to or from …
If you’re not in China, it may be hard to imagine the extent of the worry caused by Google’s recent announcement that it may just pack up and leave China. Sure, you can analyze the political and financial angles, but for most of us, this recent news forces our minds to leap straight to the worst-case scenario that will affect us personally: what if all Google services get blocked in China?
Many (including this Chinese language summary of the situation…
I’ve been feeling guilty for a month for not saying something about John DeFrancis’s passing. I have have no words more eloquent or meaningful than these three, however:
Not surprisingly, I especially liked (and identified with) Brendan’s. If you don’t know DeFrancis and you’re at all interested in Chinese, by all means, check out the man’s work.
I’m …
John has lived in China for
11.5
years. He is a linguist focused on SLA and tech.
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