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Section 1 of 3: Recommended Photos/Videos/Readings
Section 2 of 3: Brief comments
Book Launch: Eileen Chang's The Book of Change
張愛玲「易經」英文原著新書發布會
The Hong Kong University Press and University’s Project for Public Culture of Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC) will co-host a book launch for a noted contemporary Chinese writer, Eileen Chang's semi-autobiographical novel The Book of Change「易經」on 3 September 2010. The book launch also marks the 90th birthday and 15th anniversary of Chang’s death.
The Book of Change was written in English, and, likes its prequel, The Fall of the Pagoda, depicting Chang’s childhood in Tianjin and Shanghai. It provides a first-hand account of life in wartime Hong Kong following the Japanese invasion, with scathing details of widespread cowardice, as well as inspiring examples of human resilience.
Eileen Chang (1920-1995) arrived in Hong Kong from Shanghai in 1939 and enrolled in The University of Hong Kong. Her childhood in Shanghai was a gothic horror tale in which she finally ran away from her father and stepmother. Her student life in Hong Kong was a happy interlude, but Chang soon found herself stranded by the war. The Japanese occupation of late 1941 provided many brutal lessons on the fragile nature
of personal attachments.
At the launch, Dr Roland Soong, the executor of Eileen Chang’s estate will donate a photocopy of the manuscripts of Eileen Chang’s English novel The Book of Change to HKU and shares his views on Chang’s writing career. Professor Leo Ou-fan Lee, renowned scholar and cultural critic, will analyze the book.
All are welcome, the details are:
Date: 3 September 2010(Friday)
Time: 12pm noon
Venue: 1/F, Main Library, HKU
Language: English
Guests:
Prof. SP Chow, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, HKU
Dr Roland Soong, Executor, Eileen Chang's Estate
Prof. Leo Ou-fan Lee, Renowned Scholar and Cultural Critic
Mr. Michael Duckworth, Publisher, Hong Kong University Press
Prof. Kam Louie, Dean, Faculty of Arts, HKU
Prof. Ying Chan, Director, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU
The Book of Change can be ordered at: http://www.hkupress.org/book/9789888028207.htm
For enquiries, please contact: Ms.Velentina Ma, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU at velentinam@hku.hk or tel: 22194012
At around 0:00 on August 31, <Southern Metropolis Daily> reporter Zhang Peng received a tip that there was a dispute between a van driver and law enforcement officers in the Fumen area. At around 0:30, he arrived at the scene together with a <Southern Daily> reporter. He observed that there was a van by the roadside with its right front wheel being locked up. The driver was in a state of emotional agitation. Meanwhile several security patrolmen crouched by the roadside while a plainclothes bald-headed man sat on a motorcycle belonging to the local safety patrol team.
Zhang Peng went up and inquired about what happened. The bald-headed patrolman asked, "What is your business?" Zhang Peng replied: "We are reporters from <Southern Daily> and <Southern Metropolis Daily>." He asked the man to identify his name and organization. The man declined to cooperate.
At this point, the <Southern Daily> reporter took out his camera and attempted to take photos. The bald-headed man dashed over to seize the camera. He demanded that the reporter must erase all photos. Zhang Peng took out his mobile phone to record this action. But the bald-headed man grabbed that mobile phone with his hand. Zhang Peng said, "Under the circumstances, I had to take out my other mobile phone to record the evidence. But at this time, the bald-headed man and other public safety patrolmen began to assault me."
"You can hit me back at too! Come on!" Zhang Peng said that someone kept provoking him during that assault. One public safety patrolman even said: "I don't care if I lose this job. But I am going to beat you up today." This person rushed up to Zhang Peng and ministered several blows to his head, causing massive bleeding.
According to Zhang Peng, the assault lasted about 10 minutes. Four or five men assaulted Zhang Peng in order to wrestle his mobile phone away from him. It was total chaos there.
Afterwards, the Fumen town Communist Party secretary, the town party publicity director and the town public security bureau director rushed to the hospital to visit Zhang Peng.
According to the town Communist Party secretary, the attackers were members of the local public safety patrol team. Due to the vicious nature of the incident, the public security bureau has been ordered to conduct a thorough investigation. Those public safety patrol team members involved in the incident will be severely punished. An apology has been offered to Zhang Peng. At the same time, public safety patrolmen in Fumen town will be educated accordingly to avoid future recurrence of such incidents.
So far, our reporter has learned that all four Fumen public safety patrolmen involved in the incident have been dismissed. Meanwhile <Southern Metropolis Daily> reporter Zhang Peng is under observation at the hospital.
(Capital War 2009 blog) July 13, 2010
6月30日美国国会发言人、美联储副主席科恩威胁说：如果中方处理周小川，将公布中国5000名高官在瑞士银行的存款额，对此中方没有应答。
[translation] On June 30, US Congress spokesperson and Federal Reserve Bank vice-chairman Kohn said: If China punishes Zhou Xiaochuan, the Swiss Bank deposits of 5,000 senior Chinese officials will be published. China has not replied.
(Ming Pao)
Yesterday, a number of mainland Chinese websites cited a report by Hong Kong-based Ming Pao that People's Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan has "fled"! This story began two days ago on Twitter and some discussion forums. At around 10am yesterday, a blog sourced the information to Ming Pao. According to this story, China was about to punish PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan for losing USD 430 billion from China's foreign reserve in investments on Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds. The story also claimed that US Congress spokesman and Federal Reserve Bank vice-chairman Donald Kohn threatened China that if they punished Zhou Xiaochuan, the list of Swiss bank deposits of 5,000 senior Chinese government officials will be published. According to the investigation by our reporter, Donald Kohn is a vice-chairman at the Federal Reserve Bank, but he is not the spokesperson for the US Congress. Kohn also did not say anything such.
Yesterday morning, our reporter checked the mainland Chinese search engine Baidu and found many instances of "the fleeing of Zhou Xiaochuan" rumor still listed, although some of those pages have already been deleted.
(Ming Pao)
The Ming Pao editorial department clarifies that Ming Pao has never published the circulated report. Ming Pao strongly deplores this piece of false news that was falsely attributed to Ming Pao. Ming Pao will also hold the person(s) responsible through the relevant authorities.
On the afternoon of August 30, the Ming Pao editorial department has informed the Hong Kong Police and the State Council's Hong Kong-Macau Office, indicated our concerns and sought for help to follow up on this matter.
(Stratfor via China Tracker)
Rumors have circulated in China that People’s Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan has left the country. The rumors appear to have started following reports on Aug. 28 which cited Ming Pao, a Hong Kong-based news agency, saying that because of an approximately $430 billion loss on U.S. Treasury bonds, the Chinese government may punish some individuals within the PBOC, including Zhou. Although Ming Pao on Aug. 30 published a report on its website indicating that the prior report was fabricated by a mainland news site that had attributed the false information to Ming Pao, rumors of Zhou’s defection have spread around China intensively, and Zhou’s name has been blocked from Internet search engines in China
[ESWN comment:
Look at the original Twitter post. As Ming Pao pointed out, Donald Kohn is the Federal Reserve Bank vice-chairman but not the US Congress spokesperson. There is a Speaker of the House in the US Congress being the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives, but there is no 'spokesperson' as such. Due to the nature of the job positions, a FRB vice-chairman can never be a member of the Legislative Branch (US Congress/Senate) at the same time. So this is one tell-tale sign that the rumor monger is not versed in the US political and economic structure.
The second problem is about the Swiss bank list. Switzerland banking laws are very strict, and that is their competitive advantage. That means that if the United States government claims to have the Swiss bank records of 5,000 senior Chinese government officials, someone has violated Swiss bank laws. Switzerland won't take that lightly. If the Swiss banks provided the information to the United States government, they have broken their own confidentiality laws and the entire Swiss banking system. If the United States government obtained the information through their own methods (such as data theft), this is an act of war against Switzerland. Instead there has been no response from Switzerland or USA on this story at all. You should know already that there is no such list.
The case of Chen Shui-bian tells us that if you are a corrupt government official, you do not go to Switzerland and open a bank account yourself. You use a trusted surrogate (such as your son or a friend). So how do the US government/Swiss banks come up with a list of 5,000 senior Chinese government officials without a massive investigation into these nebulous connections? They could barely sort out the single case of Chen Shui-bian.
Interestingly, the Twitter post appeared in July and gained no traction because of the obvious flaws. But the second that the story is sourced to Ming Pao, it takes off like wild fire.]
Section 3 of 3: Blog posts
(August 29, 2010) The First-Person Account Of A Manila Hostage Survivor Accounts in Ming Pao Weekly and Ming Pao by Manila hostage survivor Lee Ying Chuen.
(August 20, 2010) Prize Winning Photograph Accused Of Being Misleading The photograph of a fisherman demanding money before handing over the body of a drowned student has won a major photography award. But critics say that this photograph was intentionally misleading.
(August 5, 2010) The Zibo Kindergarten Attack Media reports about a knife-wielding man who caused an unknown number of casualties at a kindergarten.
(August 2, 2010) Do-It-Yourself Product Endorsement Chinese netizens enjoy themselves with creating print ads featuring celebrities endorsing product brands.
(August 1, 2010) A Death In Dalian The death of a fireman who drowned while trying to clean a pump was captured by a news photographer.
(July 28, 2010) Huge Gas Explosion In Nanjing Early on July 28, a chemical gas explosion occurred in Nanjing city causing more than 300 casualties. Photos plus a soon-to-be video are included here.
(July 13, 2010) This Is How We Interviewed Wen Qiang China Youth Daily reporter writes about his attempt to interview Chongqing ex-official Wen Qiang in the final hours before execution.
(July 12, 2010) Hong Kong Public Opinion On Political Reform Bills Collection of public opinion polls on the political reforms bills passed by the Hong Kong Legislative Council in June 2010.
(July 10, 2010) A County Communist Party Secretary Limits His Own Powers Translation of an article about how the Daming county party secretary introduced reforms that limits his own powers to appoint cadres in order to eliminate job buying practices.
(July 8, 2010) Taiwan Parliament Debates ECFA A rugby scrum broke out in the middle of a parliamentary debate.
(July 7, 2010) Policewoman Shoots Hostage Taker TV news crew takes video of a Guangzhou plainclothes policewoman shooting a hostage taker.
(June 7, 2010) Wuhan Farmer Repels Forced Eviction Team With Homemade Weapons A Wuhan farmer builds a cannon tower to repel evictors who were trying to demolish his home. This is a Chinese shanzai version of the Avatar movie.
(May 24, 2010) The Cross-dressing Super Idol The man Liu Zhu enters the Super Idol men's competition and reaches the final 35 in the Chengdu regional competition. He may or may have been banned by the State Administration of Radio, Television and Film because his look was incompatible with mainstream values.
(May 19, 2010) The Case of Zhai Tiantian Summary of news reports on the case of the Chinese student Zhai Tiantian charged with making "terroristic threats" in New Jersey, USA.
(May 16, 2010) Hong Kong Legislative Council By-Election 2010 The raw data first, followed by the media spin afterwards.
(May 5, 2010) Shanghai World Expo Ticket Spoofs Internet users use screen captures from electronic games and movies to spoof the congestion at the Shanghai World Expo.
(April 28, 2010) A Field Report From A Yushu Teacher A Chinese netizen dissects an essay purportedly written by a school teacher in earthquake-stricken Yushu.
(April 24, 2010) The Photo Of The Three City Administrators And The Prostitute In 2004, a Kunming photojournalist took a photo of security patrol guards saving a suicidal woman. Four years later, this photo has become the iconic 'three administrators arresting a prostitute' together with a famous work of sculpture.
(April 22, 2010) Blood, Sweat and Tears At Microsoft Subcontractor Factory Southern Weekend interviews workers after their factory made changes as a result of a National Labor Committee report.
(March 27, 2010) The Kunming Mass Incident A comparison of newspaper reports and the official government statement on a clash that resulted when urban administrators tried to fine a street vendor of deep-fried potatoes.
(March 17, 2010) Defloration Gate A high school girl established her credentials as an alternative lifestyler by hiring a man to deflower her and posting the relevant video on the Internet.
(March 15, 2010) How The Hong Kong Police Created The Conditions For The People To Criticize The Government Blogger Yang Hengjun observed a demonstration outside the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong.
Many, many more previous blog posts in the Blog Post Archive ...
