After a small tempest in tbe media tea pot erupted this past week, President Hu Jintao today announced that foreign reporters covering the Olympics in Beijing would have unrestricted access to the internet. The glorious moment came only after BOCOG and members of the IOC publicly greased up the backside of IOC spokesman Kevan Gosper, changing the policy from ‘unrestricted access’ to ‘access sufficient to cover the games’ (and after the Wall Street Journal attempted to play ‘Gotcha’ with Sun Weide by demonstrating the lack of access at the new Olympic Media Center in the middle of a press conference).
All of which ignores the larger issue”: that the internet remains under tight control here in the PRC. If Hu came out and unblocked the internet for the whole country, then I would be impressed. As for this…meh.
15 responses so far ↓
1 Sinophobia // Aug 2, 2008 at 12:39 pm
You are a monster which desperately attack China and Chinese people in your blog. Why do you call your Dubya Emperor? He has killed millions of Iraqi people. Where is your nuke? You’re a sinophobia. You shall die.
Go back to your America.
2 Jeremiah // Aug 2, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Nothing like the reading comprehension skills, civilized rhetoric, and critical analysis ability of your average fenqing of which I think this is an excellent and representative example.
Good thing he never stumbled across the old Talk Talk China, his little pea-sized brain might have exploded.
3 Cooper // Aug 2, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Maybe it’s just someone with a really, really good sense of humour?
The comic timing and non-sequitur thing is almost too good…
4 wu ming // Aug 2, 2008 at 2:04 pm
my money’s on really good snark.
5 Jeremiah // Aug 2, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Yeah…maybe, but if so, they’ve really nailed it: fractured grammar, rhetoric so desperate you can almost feel the spittle flying, and that wonderful fenqing logic that refuses to admit nuance or critical thought.
If it’s satire, it’s spot-on, but having some experience with these and access to the ip address, I think he was actually serious (not the death part, but the ‘love it, or leave it’ message)`in a sputtering-rage-Yosemite-Sam kind of way.
Either way, it was too funny to delete. As for me being ’sinophobic,’ well…I have learned to studiously avoid crossing YJ’s path before her first cup of coffee in the morning. Does that count?
6 wu ming // Aug 2, 2008 at 2:48 pm
YJ drinks coffee and not tea? sinophobic!
7 Jeremiah // Aug 2, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Even worse, her Sinophobic American husband despises the taste of coffee and ONLY drinks tea.
A reversal of tastes that has left more than one waiter in a state of perplexity.
“But, but, you MUST have ordered the coffee. ALL Americans drink coffee.”
“No, I ordered the tea.”
“BUT, but, ALL Americans drink coffee.”
Priceless.
8 stuart // Aug 2, 2008 at 6:59 pm
“You are a monster which desperately attack China and Chinese people in your blog. Why do you call your Dubya Emperor? He has killed millions of Iraqi people. Where is your nuke? You’re a sinophobia. You shall die.
Go back to your America.”
So good it was worth repeating.
I’m wondering how many fenqing have got Olympic tickets and are planning to burn American flags at the Bird’s Nest. That’s assuming any non-Chinese flags get through the security checks, of course.
9 peony // Aug 3, 2008 at 2:26 am
This thread has taken an ugly turn (well, it started off on an unfortunate note) So in an effort to change the subject (and beg you all for some help!) Could anyone help me with the English translation for this term: 水郷鎮
Is there a good English translation for the towns/villages in Jiangnan? I tentatively am going with “Riverside towns which have retained a traditional way of life” However, the Japanese hints at the traditional forms of handicrafts, trade and rich culture.
How about “Jiagnan canal towns”– is that weird? I am going to ask at my translators association as well but I thought I’d ask here too.
I hope its ok if I hijjak this thread for a minute..
10 peony // Aug 3, 2008 at 4:26 am
Update: Received this from trilingual extroadinaire over at Honyaku… this translation is about the shadow puppets, wasn’t someone on J’s blogroll a specialist in that over in Jiangnan? I am going to go with the below unless I hear otherwise!
First of all, the parsing “水郷の町” offered in the Japanese text is
incorrect. The author was probably thinking of the expression “江南水郷”
(”Water Country” south of the (Yangtze) River) when s/he incorrectly split
the standard expression “郷鎮” (villages and townships) right down the
middle. In the expression “水郷鎮”, the parsing is “水 — 郷鎮”, i.e.
“riverside villages and townships”, as you suggested.
11 Chris // Aug 3, 2008 at 7:18 am
I was about to get all conspiracy-theory on this, but the comment thread has gone off on strange paths and I a bit behind, alas.
Anywho, I wonder if this was actually a clever move on Hu’s part: Reporters encounter an unfettered internet and forget that the rest of the web-going public has, er, fettered access. This prevents anyone just in Beijing covering the Olympics from easily checking which sites remain blocked for the rest of the country, and hence, making reporting on it a chore.
Or, perhaps, someone in Zhongnanhai is actually taking a longer view of public relations, sort of.
12 DavidofSanGabriel // Aug 6, 2008 at 4:46 am
“You are a monster which desperately attack China and Chinese people in your blog. Why do you call your Dubya Emperor? He has killed millions of Iraqi people. Where is your nuke? You’re a sinophobia. You shall die.
Go back to your America.”
Unfortunately, this kind of sh*t is typical of the Chinese youth of today.
Many of us in the west did not really understand the sentiments of the majority of participants in the Tianmen Demonstratrions in 1989. We saw only the superficial–people chanting “Give me liberty of give me death!” or the Statue of Libery copy. In fact, the demonstrators were merely part of a movement to try and find a way to strengthen China, and were only superficially interested in democracy, if at all. Look how many of the former 1989 demonstrators have now turned against the west and joined the virulent nationalism movement so popular today.
And now we have the next generation, the fenqing, or “sh*theads”, who have decided to treat the west and U.S. in particular as their enemies. We Americans are often sharply critical of our government and history–such as slavery–and in this, the fenqing will readily acquiesce. However, if we dare to criticize the government of China in any way…
When I was trying to decide to study Chinese or African history in college, I chose China because I quickly grew sick and tired of the “we are the victim” and “blame the evil white man” syndrome typical of African historians. Now I see the same thing occurring in China.
Make no mistake, the first poster is typical of the “thinking” of most Chinese youth these days. This blog tends to attract the more genteel and intelligent people and is hardly typical of the un-thinking of the vast majority of today’s Chinese (the mindless”patriots”).
13 DavidofSanGabriel // Aug 6, 2008 at 5:02 am
Just look at the garbage on Chinese TV these days. Mindless patriotism, sentimental pop mush that makes Britney Spears look like Beethoven, vast nationalistic orgies so reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany, complete with music so treacly as to be physically revolting to anyone with more than half a brain, little kids saluting the sacred PLA, cops in uniform pirouetting on stage, Xinjiang and Tibet variety shows reminescent of the old American “blackface” acts…the Chinese government has learned from the west how stupid, bovine and easily manipulated most people are, and have applied these lessons with a vengance.
Talk about ideaology or “class struggle” and you put people to sleep. Put on sentimental family based slop favorable to the CCP, present a few believable stories about the cops and the army, and you have the mindless proles eating out of your hand. Add the complete lack of a free press, a tradition of a civil society, and a population which is largely incapable of independent, critical thought, and you have the perfect mix for the formation of a facist, totalitarian state.
14 DavidofSanGabriel // Aug 6, 2008 at 6:23 am
I promise to do a better job of editing my posts in the future. Really!
15 chriswaugh_bj // Aug 6, 2008 at 9:54 am
DavidofSanGabriel, as somebody who teaches young Chinese people, I can assure you that the sentiments expressed in the first comment are absolutely not representative of Chinese youth as a whole. The fenqing exist, but they are far less numerous than they- and you- pretend.
And the rest of your ranting bears about as much resemblance to reality as a fenqing wet dream.
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