Now that the Chinese New Year holiday is ending, there is another traffic peak for outside workers returning to Guangzhou.  The train stations and airport are bustling with people in the return phase of the Chinese New Year rush.  After a brief period of calm in Guangzhou, we are now back to the noisy daily life again.  Another media outlet in Guangzhou reported that a netizen posted at a forum that Guangzhou was so nice and quiet compared to the normal din that we ought to consider imposing controls on outsiders coming to Guangzhou for better quality of life.

It is one thing to say that individual citizens are making such pleas because this just represents their own preferences and prejudices.  But it was a mainstream medium that choice the moment of the return of the outside workers to make a focus report.  Although they seemed to be quoting from both sides, but it is enough to make someone gag.  The Chinese New Year is an important festival for all Chinese people.  Government organizations, social organizations and elementary/intermediate schools all close while the outside workers at various corporations leave Guangzhou to return to their hometowns.  Many Guangzhou residents go and visit friends and families, or go on vacation outside of Guangzhou.  The whole city went into half-gear and therefore the usual urban problems disappeared temporarily.  It is logically wrong to attribue the calmness during the Spring Festival solely to the departure of outside laborers.  For a mainstream medium to hype up an illogical issue with no public value in order to attrack eyebals can only be said to be an outburst of prejudice about urban-rural and outsider-insider differences.  Even though the expression may seem nostalgic and subtle, it is simply conservative prejudice.

What is most comprehensible is that the media have been able to pump up this issue successfully with reports about "almost 80% of arrested criminal suspects come from outside Guangzhou," "more than 70% of illegal curbside vendors are mobile population from the outside" and "Reseach shows: 70% of local Guangzhou netizens agree to raising the threshold for staying in Guangzhou."  All of these reports are making veiled accusations that only increase misunderstanding against the interest of the overall trends of history in China by providing a haven for the much-detected system of residency.  To propose the control of outsiders at the time of Spring Festival makes one wonder aabout the values, positions and reporting tactics of the media.

[in translation]

On the day before yesterday, there were several news reports about commercial deception.  Apple Daily reported: "Non-drowsy flu medication is deceptive; the manufacturer admits that it has no effect on running noses."  Ming Pao reported: "Overseas broadband access speed only 30% as advertised; we tested four ISP's and price bears no relationship to results."

Many people then piled on to condemn the businesses for deception.  Actually, what is the big deal?  As long as you take in the money, so what if you lie?  When the young girl Ah Dan broke the law and won HK$ 740,000 at the Macau casino, she held up a stack of $1,000 bills to pose for the cameras and thereby became a much admired heroine.  She now has fame and fortune.  In the Year of the Pig, the winner takes all.  Therefore, a successfuilly deceptive ad is a successful ad.

Of course, some people think that if you can successfully deceive foreigners, then that is delightful; but if you get deceived yourself, then it is a different story.  Oddly enough, advertising is already a form of "civilized deception."  In this age, it is incomprehensible that anyone would trust advertising (or the propaganda from the Party in the motherland).

Recently, I was reading Professor Lo Shi-kwong's <The Punishment of History> in which the civilized deception of advertising was discussed.  This deception is "civilized" because it has become part of the social life or system and we have grown accustomed to it without thinking that this might be problematic anymore.  In Chapter 8 (<The Concealment and Deception of Dreams>), he wrote:

"The basic purpose of advertising is a form of deception with a smiling earnestness.  Each and every commercial organization is trying to convince the consumer about the false promise in the ad that its product is the best product.  When it issues such a promise, it does not pay any attention as to whether the product meets the quality described in the ad.  They only pay attention to whether people believe it (in other words, if the consumers are enticed by the ads)."

That essay was written in 1963.  More than 40 years later, this kind of civilized deception is more persavive, with greater credibility and acceptability.  This is not unexpected, because a civilized tumor will probably take decades or even centuries to excise.

Ming Pao reported on the Chinese-language name change of the Tai Mei Tuk district in Taipo from the original 大尾篤 to the identical sounding 大美督.  The change came as a result of the Land Administration Office responding to the local citizen representatives' request.

The original 大尾篤 was named for an ancient village which considered itself to be at the far end of Taipo.  Thus 大 refers to 大埔 (Taipo), 尾 refers to tailend and 篤 refers to the extreme tip.  In recent years, some villagers felt that it was unlucky "to be reaching one's end (of life)."  Thence came the request for a name change.

The new 大美督 sounds the same.  But 大 can be taken to mean "grand" or "great"; 美 is "beautiful" or "American"; 督 is "supervisor" or "governor."  Perhaps it may be taken to mean that this location (which is a popular spot for holding barbeques) is beautiful.

The original name had a specific meaning about the location of the village with respect to Taipo, but the new name really does not say anything.  This can be construed as a destruction of historical values.  If the new name is used for another thousand years, there may even emerge a legend that the name came about in commemoration of the "Great American government" who invested in the construction of Plover Cove Fresh-water Reservoir just off Taipo.

This short of deceptive name-change is similar to the replacement of the word "China" by "Taiwan" earlier in Taiwan companies and organizations.  It was done for the same type of reason, but the effects were different.  Whereas we condemned Taiwan, we were all happy about the new and beautiful Tai Mei Tuk.  History is always revised by the powers-that-be.

[in translation]

It has been almost eighteen years since 'June 4.'  Over these eighteen yeras, many intellectuals and democracy activists had been forced to leave their own country, bid farewell to their families and take the path of exile.  During these eighteen years, they all look forward to return to their own country and meet with their families and friends again.  Of course, I am no exception.  Especially during a traditional festive day such as the Lunar New Year, I want more so to have New Year's Eve dinner with my family.  While the family reunion is a natural act for other families, I have not been able to do so for more than ten years already.

After studying in the United states for almost eight years, I am planning to enter another phase of my life in June this year.  As a doctoral student, the main professional choice is to teach.  If I have a choice, I want to find a teaching position in Hong Kong.  First of all, I have special feelings for Hong Kong.  During the June 4 period, the people of Hong Kong joined their fates together with ours.  It can be said that we shared the sorrows and pains of the time.  In addition, Hong Kong persists in holding large-scale June 4 commemorative activities each year and stood as a bright light in the long dark nights.  I want to do something in return for the warmheartedness of the people of Hong Kong.

Actually, there is another big reason why I want to work in Hong Kong, which is close to mainland China.  Ever since the solo travels started, family visits are easier to do.  Both my parents will be 70 years old this year.  Although they can come to visit me in the United States, it has almost been the case that the black-haired person should visit the white-haired persons and not the other way around.  Besides, the travel distance between China and the United States is so long and it is harder and harder for elderly people to undertake.  Therefore, the chances of them visiting me is getting more and more remote.  I obviously want to be close to them, especially my mother who is not in good health due to a heart condition.  As her son, I obviously hope to be close to her and take care of her.

So who amongst us does not have parents?  Today, I want to come to Hong Kong largely because of the wish of a child to be with his parents.  I can understand that the Chinese government (including the Hong Kong SAR government) may object on account of my political position.  But China has a cultural tradition based upon basic human feelings.  I do not believe that the authorities will abandon these feelings on account of political positions.  Today, the Kuomintang (KMT) may have had a blood feud with the Communists in the past, but the KMT chariman can visit mainland China.  Those KMT generals who killed innumerable Communists back then can also go back and visit their relatives.  I really don't understand that why those peaceful demonstrators who were demanding democracry back then could not be permitted to return to mainland China after eighteen years has passed?  If the Chinese Communists are afraid of even a student, then a big question mark must be placed on the stability of their rulership.

I noticed in your translation of the article on the Spring Festival Gala that you translated "做女人挺好" as "it's good to be a woman." This is the literal meaning, of course, but it's actually a reference to a joke in the movie 大碗儿, in which "做女人挺好" is the slogan for a brand of breast-enlargement cream -- hence, a pun on "挺." In the subtitles for the movie, it's cleverly translated as "it's not a bust to be a woman." 

The Pengshui county party secretary in the poem case is now assigned to become the director of the statistical bureau of Chongqing. Is that a promotion or demotion? This requires further investigation. If this is a promotion, what kind of Internet opinion is out there, given that he was removed from his job due to that pressure in the first place?

At issue was whether the government official who abused his authority was being promoted/demoted as a result with his recent appointment as Deputy Director of the Statistical Bureau in Chongqing city.  RFA Unplugged wrote Is you is or is you ain’t promoted? and I made Comment 200702#079.  But if you want a very thorough review of Chinese Internet opinion, you must read John Kennedy's Disgraced Party member promoted at Global Voices Online.  This is not just the usual keyboard-banging raving and ranting by angry young people, because some of the comments were based upon detailed research of the government system of official rankings.
 
So maybe you are not interested in what happened as a result of a SMS message from an ordinary citizen in a city somewhere in China.  What is the big deal anyway?  

The big deal is that the GVO post is just showing one case study in which Internet public opinion has taken a vibrant life of its own beyond the purview of either mainstream media or the notorious 30,000 Internet censors.  When such a topic shows up, the comments appears from all over the place.  These are reasonable questions, so neither the Internet censors nor the website administrators have real cause to stop them because they would end up with a much bigger controversy on their hands if they tried to stop it.  So the best bet is to keep a stiff upper lip and hope the storm will blow over.  The lesson for the next time is that no other official is willing to stick their necks out to 'promote' someone in that position (even if they did, they would not dare announce it publicly), because they have seen what happened this time.  This is called "watchdog journalism" or "supervision by public opinion" -- with a unique Chinese characteristic, of course.  This is one particular case, but there are so many other similar cases going on right now.  How to stop them?  They cannot be stopped (short of turning off the Internet) ...

December 5, 1951, Letter to Stephen Soong:

I ask brother Hsi to buy a few western men's pants for me.  In Shanghai, it is expensive.  The price for the cloth material is equal to that for woollen material in Hong Kong; besides, cloth material wear down easily.  Both my son and I work while we sit and so our pants wear down quickly.  Therefore, when he goes shopping, he should pick some more durable material.

September 14, 1954 evening, Letter to Henry Soong:

Brother Hsi:

... I asked to purchase Hindmith: Elementary Training for Musicians (two copies) but I have not heard from any news?  Can you please inquire again.  Also, if Paris' Daniélou wrote to you directly to tell you about the price, please remit the money as soon as you see the letter.  If I ask him to look for a book and then notify me afterwards, there will not be enough time.  Books in Paris are usually sold out quickly.  I suggested previously to use traveler's cheques but you have not told me if it will work.  Please write and tell me.

Also Fu Min has run out of violin strings again.  Please purchase 2 G strings, and D, A and E strings one apiece.  They should all be steelless stain ones.  Please mail them separately in two packages and write on the outside: "X number of violin strings" with the receipt enclosed inside.  I heard that custom taxes are required right now.  Therefore, I ask you to send it separately to two places so that the taxes do not get too high for one person.

[in translation]

I went home for the Chinese New Year and met with friends and relatives.  Some people would ask: How do you gather news in China?  Do the officials allow you to interview them?  Where does the information come from?  Are you worried about being arrested?

These questions usually make me feel awkward, because I don't know where to begin to talk about this.  But there is a question that is worth thinking about -- why did the family elders ask this way?  They do so because they have this impression that it is hard to obtain information in China and journalists can easily get into trouble.

At the end of last year, the Chinese authorities announced new regulations that relaxed the restrictions on foreign correspondents, who can now freely travel across provinces and interview anyone who gives his/her consent.  No permission is needed from the foreign affairs department and it is not necessary to have a local reception unit.  At the same time, the names and telephone numbers of several dozen national and local government spokespersons were published.  So the information channel has actually broadened significantly.  At the time, the Chinese- and English-language newspapers in Singapore published many reports on this development, but it seems that most people have the same impression about press control in China as before.  This shows that the cumulative impression and misunderstanding of the people will be hard to change in a short time.

So is it hard go gather news in China?  What is so hard about it?  Like foreigners doing business in China or actually doing anything, one needs assistance to find the channels and methods, to understand the hidden rules and, even most trying of all, to have the physical strength, stamina and willpower to invest for the long term.

Compared to before, the environment for news workers has really improved by a lot.  There are too many press conferences and forums for reporters to attend.  The experts and scholars are willing to deal with the media, and they speak openly without avoiding opinions that are outside of the mainstream.

Although the number of activities does not bear an absolute relationship to the value of the information and officials who hold press conferences do not always respond to every question from the reporters, one cannot say that there is no opportunity for asking questions.  There are many opportunities, but can you seize every opportunity?  Are you prepared and ready all the time?

Apart from press conferences, other information can be dug out.  Of course, there is much information that you cannot dig out no matter how hard you try, and then there is information that you better not even think about digging out.  It often takes a large amount of time and effort to dig out the information -- you must gain the trust of the people and the officials and you must gather the information a bit at a time.  In a transitional society, there are so many strange phenomena that can and should be spotted and followed up.  The information is in a semi-transparent state, with a great deal of confusion.  Therefore, your capability, experience, intelligence and investment are absolute prerequisites to do anything.

Since 2004, "China rising" has become a commonly used term internationally.  As this nation achieves economic growth and expands its diplomatic role, the transparency of information is slowly raised.  Within the space between transparency and opacity, the domestic and overseas media try their best to find the information.

In this environment, a person's actions and efforts seemed to be monitored tightly but invisibly while the payoff can be calculated in exact detail.  The difficulty for outsiders is that we can only use our limited viewpoints and experiences to imagine the vastness and complexity of China.  Yet, this difficulty is perhaps one reason why China has fascinated generation after generation of outsiders.

In response to the questions from my friends and relatives, I often say: There are more and more press conferences nowadays.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has two each week and the State Council Information Office has one or two each week, or even three or four.  Since last year, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Education and other departments have regularly scheduled press conferences every month or quarter.  I think that there are still some difficulties, but I can say that it is a lot easier now than before.

During the CCTV SPring Festival Gala, the skit <策划 Planning> had contained the phrases "博客白云飘飘 Blog WhiteCloudsFloating."

Previously, in the leaked script, Song Dandan's dialogue contained the phrase "WhiteCloudsFloatingBlog.com.  This led the blogger 双叶 (DoubleLeafBlade) to register the domain 白云飘飘博客.com (WhiteCloudsFloatingBlog.com).  But in the live broadcast, Song Dandan ended up saying "BlogWhiteCloudsFloating.com."  DoubleLeafBlade immediately attempted to register 博客白云飘飘.com (BlogWhiteCloudsFloating.com), but someone had already done so just seconds ago.

Who was ahead?  A Zhejiang netizen Zhang Wei said that he was watching the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.  As soon as he heard the dialogue, he registered the domain 博客白云飘飘.com (BlogWhiteCloudsFloating.com).  According to the official record, the time of registration was 23:30:25, February 17, 2007.  The skit had not even finish at the time.  The cost of registration was 60 RMB.  Zhang Wei is considering selling the domain and the price that he has in mind is 10,000 RMB.  Zhang Wei claims to have bought and sold several thousand domain names already, and his income from those transactions is higher than his regular wages.

The body of 42-year-old hiker Lo Si-fai was found at the bottom of a cliff on Lantau Island on February 4 after a week-long search that involved more than 100 people. Lo's body was discovered only after telephone operators helped narrow down his mobile signal to around Ngong Ping, police said.

The government regulator hopes its cooperation with private operators to install base stations in Hong Kong's extensive country-park network will help prevent more accidents from occurring.  There are 12 base stations scattered throughout the territory and the government said new stations located in southern Lantau Island, Tai Lam Chung and eastern Sai Kung have been installed.

Although Hong Kong is relatively small, the area includes an expansive system of 35 parks and marine reserves. Hikers have long complained that mobile-phone signals are cut when they are walking in country parks, putting them at risk if an emergency occurs.  

But Hong Kong's hilly terrain presents a substantial obstacle for radio signals.  OFTA maintains detailed maps on its Web site outlining the quality of mobile reception at all points along Hong Kong's network of hiking trails, but also suggests hikers use walkie-talkies operating at 409 MHz for short-range communication.  It is "unavoidable that some locations [have] no or poor mobile-network coverage," OFTA said.  "Hikers should not rely solely on mobile phones to seek emergency help."

In Eastweek (issue 182, July 21, 2007), a completely opposite story was reported.  Why did it take a week to find Lo Si-fai's body?  According one of the volunteer searchers, "there are at least three groups of signal stations in Ngong Ping and the telecommunication company did not explain which group received the signal from Lo.  Later on, an industry insider told us that it came from the Ngong Ping market station.  That insider also pointed out that each signal station did not have 360 degree coverage; instead, the transmission angle was only between 60 to 90 degrees."

Ultimately, on the sixth day, the volunteer searchers brought their own measurement instruments to detemine the direction of the Ngong Ping signal stations and hence figured out that Lo must be on the west side of Lantau Peak (Phoenix Mountain).  Thus, the search area was reduced to just several hundred square meters.  Lo's body was found the next day.

The volunteer searcher said, "If we had sufficient information to begin with, we would have concentrated on the west slope.  There is only one perilous cliff there, and that was where Lo was.  Instead, the searchers had to start from the center of Ngong Ping market in a circle of two kilometer radius, including a number of streams which could not even receive the signals.  This was a waste of manpower and resources."
 
What about the detailed maps on the OFTA website?  Here is the relevant map.  Would this map help in a search?  No.

I first posed the question:

The Pengshui county party secretary in the SMS poem case is now assigned to become director of the statistical bureau of Chongqing. Is that a promotion or demotion? This requires further investigation. If this is a promotion, what kind of Internet opinion is out there, given that he was removed from his job due to that pressure in the first place?

From Dreamburo at RFA Unplugged comes: Newsdesk: Is you is or is you ain’t promoted?.  Here is the key paragraph:

“Promotion? No, no, no,” [a Pengshiu government official who would not give his name] told RFA’s Cantonese service. “It’s the same. Even if he was promoted he would still be the county chief. “Yes, that’s right, [Lan Qinghua] has stopped working here. I don’t know much about it. Perhaps you should ask the municipal work organisation department because I don’t know the details. Municipal-level governement would be behind any movement of local leaders, not the county level.”

Meanwhile, I found a sentence in a ChinaNews article at Sina.com.  行职级别反而由原来的正处升为副厅 (translated as: His administrative position was elevated from the original country-level department head to city-level department deputy head.  Now I am not familiarity with the classification of government officials in China.  I imagine a typical ascendant career to be something like: village cadre -> village committee head -> village mayor -> town department head -> town deputy mayor -> town mayor -> county department deputy head -> county department head -> county vice-mayor -> county mayor -> city department deputy head -> city department head -> city deputy mayor -> city mayor -> provincial department deputy head -> ...  If this were true, then "county mayor -> city department deputy head" is a promotion.

[in translation]

I've watched the movie <Casino Royale> twice.  I nearly fell asleep both times.  I saw it the first time when I was overseas and I did not feel anything other than noting that the western audience reacted to certain dialogue stronger than we do.  But when I saw the movie again inside China, there was an unexpected result: before the movie began, there was a condom advertisement which is of international quality.  A condom wearing dark glasses walked back and forth just like 007 and then he suddenly turned around and fired a shot at the camera.  This was an imitation of the standard James Bond movie opening.  The condom also spoke the classical self-introduction of 007 "I'm Bond, James Bond" as "I'm Bon, Jissbon."

This condom has a foreign name that sounded like 007: Jissbon.  The advertisement has an international flavor.  So I thought that this was an international brand, but I later learned that it was manufactured by a Wuhan company ... According to a Sydney Morning Herald, the president of the Australian company that obtained majority share in this company: "Jissbon (杰士邦) is the Chinese translation of James Bond."  His assessement seems inappropriate, so it is not clear who told him that.

Then I read on the Internet about how many Chinese moviegoers also saw this amusing ad and they also saw various models of yellow condoms in front of the cinemas.  A foreign girl wrote in her blog that she went to watch 007 in China and received three free Jissbon condoms along with the ticket.  She is astonished because she wondered if the Chinese need them when they go to watch movies.

Related Links: Jissbon condoms, James Bond and Durex  Jeremy Goldkorn, Danwei; Jissbon condoms' dodgy logo  Jeremy Goldkorn, Danwei

Chinese people are definitely familiar with leftists and rightists.  I personally understood the campaign against rightist restoration in the Cultural Revolution as an attempt to take the capitalist path.  Then I went to high school and my classmates called me an old Marxist lady.  In retrospect, this was because I was a good cadre who heeded my teacher and lacked the spirit of liberalism.  Today, there are still many instances in which people are labeled leftist or rightist.  When a person is called 'leftist,' it usually means that the person is ossified in his thinking and somewhat dictatorial.  More recently, there is a debate between the camps of the new left and new right in China.  But I must frankly state that I have not figured out the standards of definition.  In socialist China, aren't we all in the leftist camp?

The notion of left and right began in Europe and the division was even more accident.  Some people advocated one theory and others opposed it.  Thus, the left and right camps were formed.  Academically, there is nothing derogatory or commendatory in those labels.  In the 1990's, the rightwing camp won an electoral victory in Italy.  The Italian scholar Noberto Bobbio wrote an influential book: "Left and Right: The Significance for a Political Distinction."  He acknowledged that at different stages of development in a society, the distinction between left and right may differ.  He believes that both left and right have their extreme forms of belief: Communism versus Fascism.  These two ideologies are completely different, but they share a common point -- both reject democracy.  Both the left and right also have their moderate wings which accept democracy.  Liberalism exists in both the left and right camps.  The difference between left and right is based upon the interpretation of fairness.  The left does not accept an unfair society whereas the right believes that unfairness is natural and inevitable.

.... While the left believes that people are different biologically, it also believes that if the system is unfair, then it must be changed.  The right believes that people are born unequal.  Therefore they oppose any effort to obtain fairness via re-distribution under the system.  I still feel that it is the responsibility of the government to go through the system (such as using taxation) to re-distribute wealth and lessen inequality.  The government also has the responsibility to use tax revenues to provide basic healthcare and educational services.  If that is how it is judged, then I ought to be considered a leftist.

Television programme "Super Adult & Child" (超級大細路) broadcast on the Entertainment Channel of Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (HKCTV) on 4 November 2006 from 8:00pm to 9:00pm.

Three members of the public complained that the programme hostess' remarks that a child had "義氣" (loyalty/comradeship) with regard to the child's refusal to disclose the name of a wrongdoer in a game segment were irresponsible and would mislead children into thinking that dishonestly keeping secret for wrongdoers was a proper behaviour.

In the episode under complaint, there was a game segment involving three children. The three children were placed in the studio set individually with either the host, the hostess or the guest in the absence of their parents. The host/hostess/guest then deliberately broke one of the props (道具) displayed on the table in front of the child and then requested the child not to tell others what had happened. Later on, the children were separately asked by other adults to reveal the person who had broken the prop. Among the three children, two identified the culprits and one said she had no knowledge and claimed that the prop was already broken when she saw it. The hostess commended that the child who refused to tell had "義氣" (loyalty/comradeship).

...

HKCTV was advised to observe paragraph 1 (programmes be scheduled with an awareness of the likely audience in mind) and paragraph 8 (programmes are suitable for their likely audience) of Chapter 2; paragraph 1 of Chapter 3 (programmes be handled in a responsible manner); and paragraph 1 of Chapter 7 (likely effects of broadcast material on children) of the Generic Code of Practice on Television Programme Standards.

(SCMP)  TV show rapped for 'lesson in deception'.  By Sherry Lee.  February 17, 2007

Broadcaster and commentator Leung Man-to said the authority had gone crazy. "It is so trivial. If they found the remark problematic, a lot of other programmes have problems too. In TV shows and movies, robbers, because of `comradeship', often refuse to tell police the whereabouts of their accomplices. Would this be banned too?"

[in translation]

On February 14, the Guangzhou police publicly announced the results of its investigation into the sensationalistic "daze drugs."  Based upon the information that the police has, the street talk had covered three different kinds of drugs: "The first kind involves placing narcotic drugs into drinks or food and cause people to lose consciousness; the second kind involves using drugs that have components such as pepper gas, ammonia water and tear gas and spraying it into the face so as to cause strong stimulation in the eyes, nose and throat that results in temporary loss of the ability to resist; the third kind is the legendary 'mind-control drugs' which allows someone else to take control of one's mind through a pat on the shoulder, a handshake, a spray in the face or a sniff.  According to police information, criminal elements have used the first two kinds of drugs, but the police has not yet verified a single instance of the third kind of so-called 'mind control drug.'"  In simple terms, they have not yet found any 'mind control' drugs.

Previously, <New Express> published a series of stunning reports (e.g. you can buy 'mind control' drugs anytime; a white mouse was immediately paralyzed when sprayed; many victims recounted their stories; reporters tried the experience personally, etc).  With this police report, the newspaper needed to save face.  So on the same day that it reported the police statement, <New Express> immediately said: "We noticed that the police was reserved in their use of language.  They are saying that it is still possible to use 'mind control' drugs to commit crime.  It is just that 'the police has not yet verified a single instance.'"

The <New Express> reporter was very rigorous in the analysis.  If the police said 'not a single instance has been verified,' then the possibility still exists.  Furthermore, even if the Guangzhou police had said that "mind control drugs do not exist," the Beijing police, the Shanghai police, the American police ... have not said so; even if all the police around the world said so, the entire scientific community has not said so ...  Anyway, the possibility will always exist -- for example, on another planet or 1 billion years later on earth.  Therefore, <New Express>'s interpretation is absolutely correct.

... <New Express> wants to provide a better news product for the masses of readers.  Unfortunately, the quality of their product exceeds the ability of earthlings to understand.  How about learning some earthbound knowledge first?  A very simple piece of knowledge is what a drug dealer said: "If there is such a thing as a mind control drug, would we be doing this?"  If there are drugs that can control the minds of others, those drug dealers would not have to work so hard to earn the relatively piddling sums of money from drug-dealing.  They can just go and find a 'fat cat' like Bill Gates, tapped him on his shoulder, seize control of his mind and get him to transfer all his savings and stocks over to them.  Osama bin Laden would not need to recruit people to fly into buildings.  He can just shake hands with Bush and then take over the United States.

An Zhenya said: "When I first went to work in Hangzhou, I went to use a public restroom at West Lake.  I dropped my mobile telephone into the cesspool.  So I found a piece of magnet, tied it to a string and then drew the mobile telephone out again.  To my surprise, I found a few more coins.  I did not think much about that at the time.  In time, I came across several people who were using pipes embedded with magnet to suck metal coins from the restroom cesspools in West Lake."
 
So An Zhenya decided to do that as a full-time job that led him to travel all over China in search of high-yielding cesspools.  When away from home, he has to pay for room, board and transportation at about 70 or 80 RMB per day.  "Usually I can make 100 or 200 RMB per day, with a maximum of 900 RMB once.  After accounting for the expenses, I net more than 3,000 RMB per day.  This is better than working for someone."  During this spring festival, An Zhenya is patrolling the various restrooms in Ningbo train stations and he gets more than 500 RMB per day.
 
"In traveling all over the country, I have gained a lot of experience.  Although the southern coastal cities are more affluent, their restrooms are more sophisticated.  Two years ago, I went to Guangzhou where I stayed for two days, but I lost money.  Their restrooms are too modern and there are no cesspools."
 
"My wife and two kids live in Hangzhou right now.  The elder son is attending university and he is doing well.  I have wonderful kids.  They know that I work very hard.  When I return home, they help me clean out the rust on the coins.  The money retrieved from the restrooms enabled me to settle and feed my family.  After having worked this for so long, I don't feel the stench from the restrooms anymore.  I just want to make money so that my wife and kids will have better days!" 

[in translation]

Q. It there a contest with "leftist" ideas in the current debate?
A: In this debate, the socialism-versus-capitalism issue was raised again.  We were said to have transplanted capitalism and western liberalism over here, and the leadership has fallen into the hands of people who are groomed on western neoliberal economics.  So "leftist" ideas have become popular again.  In terms of overall policy, it is revolutionary to be "left" and therefore "leftist" mistakes are treated relatively lightly.  Rightist mistakes are usually severely punished.  Therefore, the administrative policies favor the existence of "leftist" ideas.  If you recognize the source, then "leftism" is dogmatism and the market economy and democratic governance in the reforms are naturally opposed to leftist dogmatism and therefore these things are grouped under capitalism.

Q: What is the difference between the so-called left in China versus the left in the United States and Europe?
A: The left in US/Europe are different from the Chinese left.  In the US/Europe conception of political governance, they presuppose market economy and democratic government and then they decide to balance between economic efficiency and social fairness.  The US/Europe leftists tend to pay more attention to social fairness, and they can advocate socialist democracy.  But the Chinese leftists are opposed to market economy and democratic government, and therefore they are very different.

Q: Don't the so-called Chinese leftists claim that they are "defending the interests of the socially weak groups"?
A: When the so-called Chinese leftists claim to represent the interests of the people and the socially weak groups, they are only shouting empty slogans because they never take any practical actions.  When they say that they represent the weak groups, they want to dump the market economy and return to the planned economy and they want to go back to the class struggles instead of democratic governance.  Therefore, this claim to represent the weak groups is not the same as the US/Europe leftists seeking social fairness.  What they want to do is to go back.  The twenty-eight years of reform proved that there is no future going back that path.  They are not talking about fairness or efficiency; their 'fairness' is based upon equal sharing of poverty.

Q: What is your assessment of the current censorship of websites, books and newspapers?
A: This is the manifestation of "leftism" in publicity, news and publishing.  At the Fourth Plenum of the 16th Congress of the CCP in 2004, the governance capacity and quality of the party were stressed.  In particulare, three principles about party control of ideology and publicity were described: scientific management, democratic management and management in accordance with the law.  It has been several years now, and I still have not see the related departments make any efforts or reforms following these three principles.  They are still doing the same old censorship thing, such as the <21st Century World Herald> incident, the <Southern Metropolis Daily> incident, the <China Youth Daily> Freezing Point incident, and the recent banning of the forums, books and websites.  Where are they showing any scientific management, democratic management or management in accordance with the law?
In recent years, administrative management techniques have been introduced in the area of ideological control.  But the publicity department does not study trends and developments in ideology in order to formulate policies that are favorable for the general situation.  Instead, they just adopt the administrative management techniques and assert detailed control of a newspaper page, an essay and even a headline.  The publicity department leaders take over the duties of the newspaper chief editors.  Then they found a bunch of old, retired journalism/publishing workers to form the so-called "Critical Reading Group" and use their opinions as the basis for determining correctness.  What is the scientific basis?  How is this democratic management?  So many media now treat the "Critical Reading Group" members to meals and this is a bad atmosphere.  There is also no legal basis for using their opinions as the standard. 

Bloggers can drop in when they have time, share ideas with other, steal ideas from each other, prevent pieces from getting translated twice, ask questions, answer questions, and even team up for larger projects if they were to ever feel the need. At ESWN's suggestion I've gone and set up Chinese Content at wikispaces.

On September 9, an essay titled: <Evaluating Deng Xiaoping by Translation: He Was Irreplaceable At The Critical Moment in History> was featured prominently at Sina.com. Sohu.com, Netease and other portals.  The writer was Doctor Gao Zhikai, who had been Deng Xiaoping's English-language translator in the 1980's.

Although he had translated English for Deng Xiaoping and thus accompanied Deng Xiaoping in meeting many international luminaries, the 45-year-old Gao Zhikai is unfamiliar to many people.  At the time, he was barely into his 20's, so by what right did he become the link between the world and the "Great Man of the Century"?
 
At the time when Gao became Deng's English translator, he was only 23 years old.  He graduated from what is now the Beijing Foreign Language University's English Department and had been working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for just two years.  
 
"It was both accidental and inevitable that I should become the translator of Deng Xiaoping.  It was accident because the Ministry of Foreign Affair's English Translation Office was much bigger than the offices for other languages.  The likelihood of being selecting from that office to translate for the top leader of the country was very low.  I was lucky.

"But it was also inevitable that I should translate for Deng.  First of all, I was a beneficiary of Deng's open reform policies.  In 1977, Deng decided to restore the university entrance exams.  At the time, I was 15 years old and studying in first year high school.  I entered the foreign language department at Suzhou University.  In my third year, I became a graduate student at the Beijing Foreign Language Institute; one year later, I was accepted in the training class for United Nations translators.  After I obtained my masters degree, I was assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' foreign language translation department to work as a translator.

"At the time, our nation lacked skilled people.  When I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the forebears such as Zhou Wenchong and Si Yan had been working in the front lines for ten, twenty years.  They needed people to take their places urgently.

"Many people say that I have a talent for language.  But I understand that my accomplishments at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was due to hard work.  When I worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I lived at the typing room in the translation office.  There was a small bed inside.  During the day, I folded the bed away and I bring it out at night to sleep.  I did that for five years.  During this era, when my colleagues get off work, I continued to learn and work at the office.  Usually, I used my evening hours to work and study.  So I finished my written translation work for the next day beforehand.  So when my comrades come in the next morning, I was usually done with my work and I asked for new assignments.  This happened day after day.  The more I steeled myself, the more invaluable the results were.  During my time at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was like a sponge that absorbed as much specialized knowledge and foreign policies as I could.

(in translation)

A certain women's magazine wanted me to say something lively about lover's talk before Valentine's Day.  I thought that this would be easy, but it took me half a day before I could think of an answer.
 
When I was young, I loved to read romance novels.  But I only tasted romance when I entered university.  I asked my first lover: "We will get married some day.  Will you turn your income over to me?"  He replied without any hesitation: "Impossible! Your money is yours and my money is mine.  We will bear out family expenses separately."
 
When I heard that response, a voice inside me said to me: "Do not marry this person."  I thought that money was extraneous, but this person was even so calculating about such extraneous matters and wanted to keep his distance.  It goes without say that he will have plenty else to keep away from me.
 
Later on, I met my second boyfriend.  We dated for several months and then I posed the same question: "If we get married some day, will you give me your income?"  This boyfriend said: "Fine!  Take it!"  At the time, he was earning twice as much money as I was.  In the end, we dated for six months and we decided to get married.  This is the tenth anniversary of our marriage.
 
I related this story to the female magazine reporter.  She was silent for a while and then she said in an excited way: "Your story ... what he told you ... it is really special ... it is really moving."  When I observed that overwhelming response, I asked: "Are you dating anyone?"  She said, "Not yet."  Then she asked me: "Did your husband actually gave you everything that he earned?"  I said: "Yes!"  She began to sob.
 
Love talk can be sweet, but it is not always realized.  If someone is willing to give you everything without holding back, then what are you waiting for?

Relevant Links (in Chinese):
最動人的情話  葉一知, 刁民公園
打倒貪婪情人!  Life is but an empty dream.....

[in translation]

On February 7, Xu Jinglei's commercial made for <Red Leaf Umbrella (红叶伞)> appeared on the video website YouTube.  The Chinese media screamed: "American website crowned Xu Jinglei as the Queen of Bloggers."  Immediately the "Xu Jinglei YouTube affiar" became an instant hot new topic.  Since a YouTube celebrity can become an Internet star, will the 70 million pageviews at Xu Jinglei's blog turn her into the number one Internet star?
 
The media that reported this news were "Daily Economic News" and "Information Times."  It cited industry insiders who said that <Red Leaf Umbrella> achieved more than US$1 million worh of advertising value.
 
... The reporter searched for "xujinglei" on YOuTube and found the advertisement.  The video runs for 45 seconds.  The first 15 seconds showed the English-language sub-title: "Who will be the first blogger to be read 100 millino times?  The Queen of Bloggers is a Chinese woman.  Here is Xu Jinglei's latest video!"  The advertisement has been seen 4,969 times at this time.  It was posted by netizen 'zbj110.'
 
The reporter contacts 'zbj110,' who is a Mr. Liao from Sichuan.  A friend sent him his video clip which was captured from television and he posted it on YouTube.  Mister Liao works at a television station and he is a loyal Xu Jinglei fan.  He added the English-language title.  Thus, YouTube did not assert that Xu Jinglei was "the Queen of Bloggers."  Instead, one of her admirers did so on his own initiative.
 
The reporter contacted manager Wu of <Red Leaf Umbrella> in Zhejiang province.  He said that he received a telephone call from an Internet planning company in Xiamen and the claim was that they could help him distribute Internet video commercials.  "I was busy in a meeting, so I asked him to send me an email.  I haven't read it yet."  That commercial was filmed in November 2006, and costs 1 million RMB to dake.  But the response only came within the last couple of days -- Manager Wu received inquiry calls from many reporters to the point where he was even perplexed.  Although he was astonished at the communication power of the Internet, his company does not plan to have an Internet video campaign at this time.

Relevant Link:  The Queen of Blog  YouTube

RM: hi roland! hope you're well. did you see this? http://www.ncn.org/asp/zwginfo/da.asp?ID=70739&ad=2/9/2007
RS: yes, i don't know if this is going to do any good.  it is that faceless sina.com admin and they never show their faces.  the only effective option is for a MASS campaign to boycott sina.com blogs.  i doubt the celebrity bloggers want anything to do with that.
 
RM:  yes, that's true. but it may still be significant that they are publicly protesting such censorship, and raising awareness about it among chinese internet users.  out of curiosity, were you planning to translate that letter?
RS: i did not plan to do so at first, but i could.
 
RM: well, i am sure you are plenty busy with other things, but if you did decide to translate it that would save me some time :)  i think the fact that people are speaking out about this behavior by blog hosts is significant whether or not it has any immediate impact, and is good for the english-speaking world to know about.
RS: it is short.  i'll do it some time tonight.  i'm doing that state bureau religious affairs director's deleted essay about iraq right now.  i'm almost done.  
 
RM: wow, cool. that's a really good one to translate too.  thanks.  how are you doing? how is your mother?
RS: okay.  nothing going on around here.
 
RM: :)

What was going on?  I was helping out a friend.  It was easy for me to do a translation for a friend who had something to say but was pressed for time.  Is that so hard to understand?  Besides, my general philosophy is that the English-reading public should be told the full story.  In the case of this open letter from the lawyer-bloggers, are you satisfied with the summary/quotation/paraphrasing by mainstream western media (such as SCMP)?  Or would you rather read the entire letter?  Rebecca MacKinnon and Boing Boing apparently felt that having the whole letter was more powerful and compelling, and I enabled that to happen quickly.
 
You also noted my initial note of despondency.  I recognized that my translation of the open letter would probably achieve nothing.  However, I recognized that if Rebecca MacKinnon leveraged that letter, she may achieve a much more powerful impact than I can.  That was why I volunteered my services.  The fact that Boing Boing picked the item up proved that this was correct.
 
But no, instead a certain blogger prefers to make this an issue about media agenda-setting and undue influence by the ESWN blogger.  Would you rather that I reply to Rebecca MacKinnon: "Sorry, Rebecca, I'd love to do that translation but I can't deal with another diatribe from DTL"? 
 
My goal is to work towards a multicultural, diversified and tolerant blogosphere community. Therefore, I do not spend my time making personal attacks on other bloggers for opinions that differ from mine.  I do not make personal attacks against them by calling them names such as Chinese Communist shills, or CIA agents.  But there are some bloggers who seem to spend their whole time attacking other bloggers about everything conceivable without an inkling of the facts.  While this is not the kind of society that I care to live in, I let it go because I believe in the wisdom of the readers to decide for themselves about what they want.

It is one thing if this was just directed at me and I would not have cared to respond.  But this also involves the good names of Rebecca MacKinnon and Lfc,  That is why I have chosen to make this statement.  RM and Lfc do not necessarily agree with this response, which is purely my own.
 
If you believe that I have done wrong on the basis of this published record, you do not ever have to come back here.  It will not bother me because I cannot help but be true to my own self.  That is my essence.
 
Relevant link:  Hong Kong bloggers, the SCMP, and influence on the Web  Rebecca MacKinnon, RConversation