2009 has the potential to be a volatile year for China. The economy is slowing, Charter 08 is reportedly gaining some momentum (Also see ChinaGeeks’ guide to Charter 08), and the year brings two inauspicious anniversaries: the fiftieth anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising in 1959 and the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Incident in...
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Please proceed directly to this excellent piece by Rebecca MacKinnon called “In Talking to China, Remember its People.” For those of you in China, it’s GFW’ed, but here’s an excerpt (courtesy of Shanghaiist): The point is that while these people are not citizens of a democracy, they are by no means an undifferentiated mass...
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With its economy seemingly heading the same direction as America’s, China is taking steps to ensure that its jobless university graduates can, you know, get jobs. Reportedly, they will be offering training and giving loans to companies that hire them, as well as offering smaller loans to graduates who want to start their own...
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Yes, happy year of the ox from everyone here at ChinaGeeks, i.e., pretty much just me. There isn’t much going on because of the holiday, and I seem to have acquired some kind of terrible sickness, so today I’ll just leave you with some links. World Leaders Send New Years Greetings to China (Shanghaiist)...
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Today the New York Times published a piece called Now Hip-Hop, Too, Is Made In China about the emerging Chinese hip-hop scene. It asserts that hip-hop’s popularity is growing fast in China among young and working class people despite the fact that rappers cannot broadcast their music through mainstream channels. As the Times points...
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That’s the story from Obama’s Treasury Secretary nominee, Timothy F. Geithner, who apparently said during his confirmation hearing that Obama believes China is “manipulating” its currency. As the New York Times points out, the comment is sure to annoy Chinese leadership, if the news doesn’t somehow get lost in the bustle and traffic on...
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Given that it’s right around the corner and not much else seems to be happening in the Middle Kingdom right now, this seems as good a time as any for a historical detour into the holiday’s origins. First, the origin myth of Spring Festival (translated and with illustrations from this Chinese site): Tradition has...
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Yesterday, Obama was sworn in and became the 44th President of the United States of America, but the speech he gave was a little bit shorter for those that happened to be watching along on CCTV or following up later on the internet. Specifically, when Obama mentioned America facing down communism, the CCTV anchor...
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"A small group with ulterior motives", "the people unaware of the truth", "evil instigators behind the scenes"...Recently, shortly after large "mass incidents" one can always see the local government hastily determining in this way. Guizhou's "Weng'an Incident", Yunnan's "Menglian Incident", as well as Gansu's recent "Longnan Incident": early on...
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The “50 Cents Party” (五毛党) an informal nickname given to the “army” of web users who defend the Chinese government in blog posts and BBS forums online (The name comes from what these people are supposedly paid by the government, 50 cents per post). Western discussions of this phenomenon tend to venture into hyperbolic...
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