We are sharing our team's discoveries from China's exploding on-line culture. Check out what is being created, talked about, played + filmed from the mainland.

August 23, 2010

PARTICIPATION

Foxconn Rallies: Employees Pledge To Cherish Their Lives – chinaSMACK

On the question of what and how we drive participation, here is yet another example of how movements occur in China. Is this so remarkable? Maybe not, but reading this article reminds me that movements can come from some unexpected places, and can manifest in seemingly unremarkable ways, and still have a deep emotional affect on people.

A Chinese Girl Dilemma » Buzz and the City

A Chinese Girl Dilemma » Buzz and the City

August 10, 2010

Young & Restless: China's Graduate Dilemma on Vimeo

Young & Restless: China's Graduate Dilemma on Vimeo

China, on cusp of superpower, faces environmental strain - USATODAY.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOW4o4EXHgA&feature=player_embedded

Good luck to the thousands of people, victims & rescuers alike. Natural disasters play a morbid role in China. It is an incalculable source of despair for most people, but is also frequently leveraged to unify a nation. Such disasters in China are being reported more so than ever before, particularly to the foreign press. How does this effect a nation's identity? Will such disasters continue to highlight the humanity of this emerging superpower? Will people at some point turn on the Chinese government for their lack of infrastructure & planning?

July 28, 2010

Protesters gather in Guangzhou to protect Cantonese language | World news | The Guardian

Watch this space. Southern Chinese have been wary of this issue for quite some time. The fight to maintain Cantonese as a relevant language in Southern China has been taken to the streets. Infringements on culture and language are everywhere (i.e. the simplification of Chinese characters & people's names to mention only 2), but the preservation of Cantonese will also be of particular interest for OS HK Chinese around the world and the SAR of Hong Kong.

Chinese computer magazine curses at Tencent

Intriguing debate within the on-line community about Tencent's lack of innovation

Yiyi Lu: The Lesser-Known Internet Story in China - China Real Time Report - WSJ

Yiyi Lu: The Lesser-Known Internet Story in China - China Real Time Report - WSJ: "1"

Nice article on how the Chinese government are using the net to help their local communities

June 24, 2010

China's New Underclass: White-Collar Workers - Newsweek

Ants - the term used for white collar men & women who can't find gainful employment. In a world where there are more university graduates than appropriate jobs, these ants are being surpassed to some degree by blue collar workers whose salary growth is out-pacing that of their white collar counterparts. This raises so many questions... how will the value of higher education change? What will be the make up of China's middle class? What happens to a country that has so many disaffected & overly educated?

June 22, 2010

The Enforcer: Interview with a family planning officer

Che is a family planning officer in Shanxi - a small insight into the other side of the 1 child policy

How China's one-child policy came to be


Critique on one-child policy as it nears its 30 year anniversary

June 16, 2010

Talk is cheap - China PM praises migrants but makes no promises on pay

Will China step up and really care for migrant workers? I wonder what the bloggers are saying about the PMs latest address...

June 14, 2010

Kissing competition with a twist

This is just weird... but "creative kissing" competition took place in Xian. This isn't really insight worthy in most instances, but it does stretch my understanding on how & why Chinese people can express themselves.

June 2, 2010

美过iPhone女 Android女再掀热潮 - 视频 - 优酷视频 - 在线观看

美过iPhone女 Android女再掀热潮 - 视频 - 优酷视频 - 在线观看

One of the more recent & popular follow ups to IPhone girl - wonderfully talented people covering pop songs with a just mobile & a web cam. Is this (and many other examples) an innocent expression of youth today, or a discrete, low risk effort to become famous? What does this say about the spontaneity and disposability of creative endeavours? Or maybe the kids are just having fun...

Thanks Chinasmack

May 31, 2010

German volunteer's best intentions are curtailed by censorship

A young volunteer captured the hearts of China in an interview with CCTV about his work teaching children in western provinces. However this love has quickly turned to sympathy from netizens, as his volunteering has been inadvertently highlighted in the plight of children abandoned by their parents in search of work in other cities, prompting the government to gag this volunteer and his blog.

The following article highlights the incredible debate being stirred on-line.

Uproar over website supporting mistresses

www.xiaosan.org has been caught in a storm of controversy for encouraging a culture of cheating. Not only is this hugely prevalent within most communities, but there is even talk of laws being introduced to punish "home wreckers".

CCTV - China laughs at itself

An old BBS posting that pokes fun at the predictable nature & crude tactics behind CCTV's news programming.

English: http://chinageeks.org/2010/05/anatomy-of-the-cctv-news/