|
Thursday, October 08, 2009
If you wrote to me during the past few months and got no reply, sorry for that. I´m in the process of deleting tons of spam, and trying to make sure that I´m deleting no real e-mail. If you wrote and still get no answer, please write again.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Environmentalists say that the internet is consuming a lot of energy. But then, what do they want? It does take some hot air to fly ».
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
If you love motorists, send them to China, cos it´s heaven. If you hate motorists, send them to China, cos it´s hell ».
Thursday, May 29, 2008
I was thinking about using a Xinhua article about a Sichuanese volunteer for some analysis of how Chinese media cover the earthquake and the rescue works. Then again, maybe one can let the article speak for itself: A translation with a link to the original in Chinese.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
What is Mandarin? Is it Guoyu or Putonghua? Or Cantonese, maybe? Peking knows, and about four years ago, the Chinese Language Council started a volunteers programme. Young mainlanders carry the concept around the world, and it seems to be greeted much more friendly than the CCP´s concept of the Sacred Olympic Torch Relay.
The processes and strategies of branding China according to the ideas of the CCP is a big topic, and » I´m only scratching on the surface of it with some of my impressions of its language teaching volunteers programme. Maybe I can find time to read and write more about this during summer.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Chinese "external propaganda´s" emphasis is on advertising Chinese achievements and boosting the country´s image overseas, says a Chinese academic of the Fudan University Center for American Studies. Apparently, neither the now defunct US Information Agency (USIA) nor Chinese external media were or are uneasy about propaganda.
Radio stations like the Voice of America (VoA) and China Radio International (CRI) don´t base their productions on identical procedures and standards. But in America and China alike, concepts beyond mere propaganda are in use – public diplomacy –, of which propaganda would only be one element.
Some external links lead to discussions about these concepts, and some shortwave frequency links for listening to CRI and the VoA are included here, too. Happy Easter.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Olympic Games are never unpolitical. I think that most of us have got used to that. But the Olympic flame´s routeing really looks too heavy-handed to me.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Patriotic bloggers. Irving Berlin would have loved them. (I sure do.)
– I´m superior, you´re inferior.
– You´re cheating.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
There are "protocols that govern how computers communicate with each other", says Tim Berners-Lee, according to the Economist. This week, I became aware how much there are non-technical protocols that define exchanges between Westerners and Chinese people, too. From what I had read on the internet so far, it usually seemed to work like this:
Foreign blogger criticises China-related matters.
Chinese readers get mad.
Foreigners make fun of mad Chinese people.
Chinese people consequently look funny (to me as a reader, anyway).
It was probably therefore that the bianxiangbianqiao blog struck me. More specifically, the contributions of the Chinese bianxiangbianqiao blogger to a foreigner´s blog did, and the reactions his entries triggered among foreigners.
It wasn´t the kind of Sino-Western exchange that I had expected.
Monday, January 14, 2008
What do a website´s outbound links tell about the website itself?
A City University of Hong Kong study says that only 6% of all links on Chinese webpages (of those they reviewed) link to overseas pages. The researchers haven´t come up with the possible reasons for these 6% yet – but maybe if we analyse our own hyperlinks, we´ll get some of the answers already?
Friday, January 04, 2008
Whose ally is India? The West´s? China´s? Russia´s? Or Vietnam´s? Tell me with whom you conduct joint military exercises, and I´m still clueless.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Obviously, once in a while, I read my own web pages, having a look if I, myself, personally, would still consider it a real, although very small, contribution to the still strange new world of the internet. How relevant are my texts? And how accurate are they?
I´d think I´m rather conscientious about facts.
Anyway, it is the internet. That implies that on your web pages, you don´t just need to write your own stuff, but have the opportunity to link directly to many of your sources, or to whatever catches your attention. And there again arises the question of accuracy.
Erm... well, yes. It leapt into my face today, anyway, as I was linking to an entry on someone´s blog. A story that is about an apparently slightly damaged interior door in a rented flat, the hurt feelings of not just the landlord, but all the Chinese people because of this damage, blamed on the (foreign) tenant, and the 6,000 Yuan he was told to pay for all these material and intangible disasters.
"I shit ye not", writes the blogger. Can I believe this story?
The answer is that I can´t verify the story. I don´t even know the author. But due to own experience, I can believe it. Hence, I linked it from one of my more topical texts, too.
[Update, 14 September 2008: The blog telling this story has been deleted. Link removed.]
And you be the judge if all this stuff here is accurate.
Friday, December 14, 2007
There is a lot of talk about inflation in China lately. It seems to have reached an 11-year record, but maybe it wouldn´t be that much of an issue, if food prices weren´t rising even faster than those of other products.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Never thought that I would take a trip to Syria. Yes, it is a neighbouring country (from a European perspective); the West and the Middle East have more in common than the West and the Far East (that´s how it looks to me, anyway) – but curiosity alone wouldn´t have got me there.
I travelled with friends who know much more about the town of Aleppo and its soaps – Alepposeife in German – than I do, and met people there who know still a lot more, about the city´s history and its cultural heritage. I have learned a lot, even though I could only stay for a bit more than a week.
When travelling outside Europe, I´m usually Chinabound. But too much familiarity with a country (real or only assumed) may blind you for new experiences. China is still my favourite destination, but this first-ever stay in Northern Syria opened my eyes for life´s great unknowns, once again.
Some of my impressions are here, in Chinese and in English.
Btw, I´m not blogging, but I leave my traces in the internet, too (which can be harmful), and I came across something nice this week. I guess I agree with what it says.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
The world isn´t yet harmonious. Westerners and Chinese seem to be fascinated about each others background, but like a good fight once in a while. But about what? Only about business?
Or about "some English teachers who have motives"?
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
China is about to unseat Germany as the world´s third-largest economy, and as the "global export champion". Given the dimensions of the two countries, and the needs and potentials of 1.4 bn (China) population compared to about 80 m (Germany), this is nothing unnatural. But it is hard to believe that the news about Chinese spying activities alone would lead to a sudden public debate, as it is now erupting. Is some kind of collective economic sportmanship evolving in Germany, or is it irrational fear?
If China is playing grossly foul, those on the receiving end should act collectively, with a sense of proportion. As long as this can be done, there is no need to become sinophobic. And if nothing can be done, there is no use in becoming sinophobic, either.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Few doubts I had that the internet is unpredictable. You write a long, long, well-re-re-reflected article and get some feedback.
You post something short and silly, a five-minutes-opus, and get a lot more feedback. That makes me happy. Maybe I should start writing a blog. But then again, maybe not. Both judicial reasons (German courts might hold me accountable for what visitors would write here), plus my own reservations (the web-2.0-will-change-the-world-with-flow-heated-bullshit hype is getting on my nerves) speak against blogging. Anyway, 各人有不同的口味, and the internet is really unpredictable.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
The internet is full of interesting videos about China. There is a funny video of former Chinese chairman Jiang Zemin yelling at a reporter from Hong Kong, there is a video of Deng Xiaoping condemning "American and Soviet imperialism" at the UN General Assembly in 1974, long and interesting interviews with Christopher Patten (former Hong Kong governor), Chen Shuibian (Taiwan´s president) or Ma Yingjiu (the KMT´s presidential nominee).
Video clips of Chinese Rock and Pop songs are often interesting material, too.
The only problem: these postings don´t always look like fair use, and might in fact be infringements on copyright of broadcasting stations who haven´t made the material available online themselves.
I´m therefore keeping my video link list short.
Friday, June 01, 2007
(Update: June 7, 2007)
Conventional wisdom says that traditional religion has made a comeback during the thirty years of China´s reform and opening as "small tradition". But why just as small ones, Professor Kang Xiaoguang seemed to wonder, in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, a Singapore newspaper, in 2004. There seems to have been some disagreement about if only confucianists can rule China, as Kang would have it. Some Western mainstream media came across Kang´s theories recently. Are you confused? So am I. Anyway, this is what I can make of it, so far.
Thursday, March 07, 2007
China´s National People´s Congress discusses agriculture, again.
Some background
Sunday, December 24, 2006
During the Cold War, several Western radio stations used the Berlin 90.2 MHz FM frequency for broadcasting to East Germany. These days, CRI (China Radio International) broadcasts on 97.2 MHz FM for listeners in Berlin, one hour a day. And in November, CRI opened a fully CRI-dedicated FM station in Vientiane.
A declamatory article originally published by Shijie Xinwen Bao (World News) doesn´t sound like if Chinese overseas radio would have to battle with budget constraints. One doesn´t get the impression either that propaganda would be as controversial in Chinese budget debates, as it used to be in Western countries during the cold war. An abridged translation of the World News article - "Hu Jintao opens CRI station in Laos" - is here.
The internet isn´t everything, everywhere.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Some new content -
Taiwan: "I know who you are", on Taiwan´s international status, with external links to related topics on the same page.
|
|