Morning Tea: Chinese pollution in California, Hollywood’s first Asian-American sex symbol, China Bowl 2007 Update

Der Spiegel online has a good overview of China’s environmental problems including a study done by researchers from UC Davis on pollution from China along the California coastline. (Via Arts & Letter Daily) Long before the controversies surrounding Zhang Ziyi and Bai Ling, there was Anna May Wong. In the new edition of Danwei.tv’s Sexy Beijing series, host Su Fei interviews Graham Russel Gao Hodges, the author of the recent book Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend. It’s a fascinating story that touches on many aspects of the Chinese-American experience in the early 20th century including discrimination against Asian-Americans, anti-miscegnation laws, as well as the criticism for “bringing shame on Chinese” that Wong received when she later visited China. Wong actually lost the female lead in the 1937 film adaptation of The Good Earth to a white actress because European actor Paul Muni was cast as the male lead and Hollywood codes prevented movies from showing an intimate relationship between Caucasians and Asians. (Even if they were both playing Asian characters.) Danwei has Youtube and Tudou links for your viewing convenience, be sure to check it out. Finally, yesterday’s broadcast of the Super Bowl on CCTV

February 5th, 2007

US-China: A Turn for the Worse?

Following up on a piece that I posted over at The Peking Duck, US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), commissioned by Congress in 2000, concluded its first 2007 meeting this past week. According to a report in today’s Asia Times, the meetings covered a range of topics but focused primarily on three key issues: China’s January 11 ASAT (anti-satellite test), how to convince China to comply with WTO guidelines, and whether or not US policy should continue to rely on the assumption that economic incentives will lead to increasing democratization in China.

The tone of the Asia Times report was not optimistic. It described the ASAT test as an unannounced and frankly provocative gesture, calling the move “strategic escalation.” Meanwhile, at the same time testimony over China’s non-compliance with WTO was being given at the meeting, trade representatives from the United States, Europe, and Canada were busy bringing China before the WTO over unfair duties on auto parts. Finally, in a statement given before the panel, long time China watcher Jim Mann sounded pessimistic over the prospects of China changing course significantly even over the long term. (See “Jim Mann: ‘What if China Doesn’t Change?“)

February 5th, 2007

IHT: Steamrolling Antiquities

The International Herald Tribune reported yesterday on the twin threats to Chinese antiquities posed by the country’s construction boom and the continued looting of archaeological sites. A great deal has been written about the measures being taken at sites for Olympic venues around the city of Beijing to try and preserve the enormous cache of artifacts uncovered by construction work. Sadly, this model has not been followed nearly as well in other parts of China.

“There are two enemies of antiquity protection,” said Xu Pingfang, president of the China Archaeological Society. “Construction is one. Thieves are the others. They know what they want, and they destroy the rest.”

The Olympics site seems to be an example of how China’s antiquities protection system should work. Construction supervisors and archaeologists have collaborated for four years, conducting excavations and restoring three Taoist temples, including one near the National Stadium, the main Olympic venue, which will undoubtedly become a familiar sight to television viewers during the Games.

But elsewhere in China, archaeologists are often in a losing race against bulldozers. In late January, a work crew in the ancient capital city of Nanjing unearthed and destroyed the burial sites of 10 noblemen

February 5th, 2007

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