At the press conference yesterday afternoon, the Yunnan provincial public security bureau and the Kunming city procuratorate stated: The detainee Li Qiaoming in the Jinning county detention centre had been beaten to death by cell mates. The game of "elude the cat" was the excuse by which the prison bullies abuse and assault newcomers. It was also disclosed that six members of the public security bureau and the procuratorate were given administrative penalties.
The incident took place at 5pm on February 8. The prison bullies blindfolded Li Qiaoming under the guise of playing "elude the cat" and then assaulted him. The fatal blow came from Pu Huayong, which caused Li Qiaoming to fall back and hit his head against the wall. Li became unconscious and died in the hospital on February 12. The forensic doctor determined that Li died from blunt blows that caused severe head injuries.
The announcement yesterday overturned the conclusion previously issued by the Jinning police, which said on February 20 to the netizen investigative team that Li Qiaoming had a fight with others during the "elude the cat" game and hurt his head against the door frame. In its press repelase, the Jinning police called it an "accident."
However, it was also said that the police did not cover up the facts. Instead, they had published preliminary results of their investigation in order to satisfy the media. The final findings were different because the prison bullies had concocted a joint defense by fabricating the "elude the cat" story and misled the investigators.
Previously Jinning county had declined to provide the surveillance videos to the netizen investigative committee. The deputy prosecutor general Han Hongbing opined that the surveillance tapes are state secrets and the Kunmming police representative supported this opinion. It was disclosed yesterday that the surveillance equipment at that cell had broken down six months ago but was never repaired. This is the reason why the detention center director has been dismissed from his job.
[049] Little Reunion
What have I been busy doing instead of blogging? Here is the Hong Kong
story today. Earlier in the week, I was in Taipei for a similar book
launch.
(South
China Morning Post) After a 33-year wait, it's a reunion for fans
of legendary writer Eileen Chang.
After a wait of 33 years, fans of legendary writer Eileen Chang can finally get their hands on one of her works they feared had been lost forever. Her autobiographical novel Little Reunion went on sale in Hong Kong bookstores yesterday, despite rumours that the writer had wanted the manuscript destroyed.
Roland Soong Yee-long, the administrator of Chang's estate, said his examination of the writer's letters revealed she had always wanted to publish the book. In a letter Chang wrote to her publisher, Crown Publishing, in 1993 she wrote: "Little Reunion must be completed in due course. I will never disappoint my readers again."
At the launch yesterday at the University of Hong Kong, Mr Soong said: "This book is legendary. It would be a great literary loss if the manuscript were destroyed." He said Chang, who died in 1995, completed the novel in 1976 and the title had once appeared in the catalogue of Crown Publishing, which was why many of her fans had been looking forward to it for decades. However, Taiwan's tense political situation in the 1970s meant it was difficult to publish. It tells the story of a young girl who falls in love with a traitor, who in real life was Chang's ex-husband, Hu Lancheng. Mr Soong said his father, Chang's close friend, Stephen Soong Chi, advised her not to publish the book. As the people involved died one by one and the political scene in Taiwan changed, Mr Soong said it was an apt time to publish the novel.
Little Reunion is about a girl who grows up in Shanghai and goes to Hong Kong for her university studies. When the second world war breaks out she moves back to Shanghai and falls in love with a married man who works for the Japanese. "This book is about how a writer was born," Mr Soong said. "Chang once said the best material for a writer is the things she knows best."
Chang is perhaps best known for her story Lust, Caution, which was made into a film in 2007 by Ang Lee. Meanwhile, Mr Soong said he was working on three or four of Chang's unpublished manuscripts, which should be published in the future. He also donated HK$1 million to the University of Hong Kong for the establishment of the "Eileen Chang Memorial Scholarship", which will be awarded to female arts and humanities students from the mainland or Taiwan.
[047] College English Test Results (02/26/2009) (Southern Metropolis Daily)
So you entered the Band 4 and 6 English test in China, and the College English Test (CET) committee tells you that there is a free website where you can check your marks. You go to the website and see that the page is divided into checking results on one side and advertising on the other side. You want to check your marks. The page tells you that you must install an additional piece of software. You install this piece of software and you enter your candidate identification number and the pass code. A page pops up to count down from 30 seconds while there is a prompt for you to enter your QQ number to register. 30 seconds later, you found your marks. The page then shows a list of other candidates who are your fellow students and who have left comments. You want to see what they have to say. But you need to register before you can read them. You finish registering and then you find out that there are no comments, just another online game advertisement ...
Yesterday, the People's Daily published a report entitled <Are the interests of the students worth less than commercial activities?>. The relevant government departments declined to be interview by People's Daily for this report.
Many students resent the fact that when they want to check their results, they get information that ostensibly come from other students or are lured to register and receive advertisements. "I checked the comments on the right hand side which come from my fellow students with subjects like 'Mail from YYY: XXX please help me' and so on. So I click and see what was said. But I was forced to register before I can see it. I registered and when I entered, I almost coughed blood. It was an online game from 99sushe.com.
One netizen believes whenever a student enters his/her candidate identification number, the website will immediately send information in the names of those other students with adjacent candidate identification numbers, because they are most likely from the same class in the same school.
According to 99sushe.com, the software download and the verification process are necessary in order to guarantee network security. They said that they did so in order to protect the privacy of the users. As for the 30 second countdown, this is is relieve the load on the servers since there are 8 million candidates and tens of thousands of people could be checking their results. As to whether CET allowed 99sushe to insert advertisements during the inquiry process, the 99sushe.com spokesperson declined to comment. Meanwhile, nobody was picking up the phone at CET to answer this question.
The budget speech was interrupted by outspoken lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, also known as “Long Hair”, and some supporters for about 10 minutes. This occurred about an hour into the speech, when protester League of Social Democrats chairman Raymond Wong Yuk-Man shouted: “You don’t care about the livelihood of the poor!” He then approached Mr Tsang, trying to take away his speech. Security guards and Legco staffers immediately intervened. League of Social Democrats members Leung Kwok-hung and Albert Chan Wai-yip also shouted out loudly. During the interruptions, loud classical music was played on the Cable TV’s live broadcast. “Long Hair” threw an inflatable banana toy at Mr Tsang, but it did not hit him. A glass of water in front of the financial secretary was knocked over. The three lawmakers were then escorted outside. Legco chairman Tsang Yok-sing said they could not remain in the Legco building during the speech. Mr Tsang later said the three had achieved nothing with their outburst.
If someone went to a restaurant for tea and someone else took similar actions against him, he would be calling the police for sure. But when such actions occur repeatedly inside the Legislative Council, nobody cares. The standards for public order at Legco should not be any less than a restaurant, or else the reputation of Hong Kong will be tarnished.
Fortunately, half of the legislators (that is, thirty persons) immediately signed a joint condemnation of the three members of the League of Social Democrats. It appears that the day when the three will "self-immolate" is near. The most disappointing aspect is that Civic Party, which has also been the target of unreasonable attacks from the League of Social Democrats, did not dare to criticize them yesterday.
The explanation from the pan-democrats was that they do not want to be trapped by the pro-establishment camp into "attacking their own people." Besides, even though they disapprove of the action by the League of Social Democrats, they thought that the officials must bear a certain amount of responsibility themselves because they personally witness a previous incident in which the League of Social Democrats harass government officials inside the chamber but the two sides chatted amiably outside afterwards.
(Taipei Times) DPP caucus whip makes DVD claim. By Rich Chang. February 26, 2009.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told a press conference yesterday that he had spoken with Chang Wei-chin (張瑋津), the estranged wife of former ICRT DJ Charles Mack — better known by his nickname “Chocolate” — and Prosecutor Wu Wen-chung (吳文忠) about an alleged DVD recording of Chang’s husband and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) having intimate relations before last year’s presidential election. Ker said news of the alleged DVD first came to light before last year’s presidential election, but only Ma and Chang could prove its existence. He said the prosecutor, Ma and Chang should explain the matter to the public.
When he talked to Chang and Wu Wen-chung about the allegations, Ker said Wu Wen-chung told him that “actually, there are prosecutors of the same inclination.” Wu told him he had seen the DVD and that it was real, the legislator said. Ker said Chang did not go public with the alleged recording, preventing former DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) from taking advantage of it during the campaign. Ker said, however, that he hoped Ma, Chang and Wu would tell the truth about the matter. Ker’s comments came a day after former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) alleged in court that Wu Wen-chung had prevented a scandal involving the alleged DVD.
Mack, who is a US citizen, was repatriated on Feb. 6, 2004, after law enforcement officers accused him of having intimate relations after being diagnosed with syphilis without telling his partners. Mack was married to Chang, who said she was a friend of the former president and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍). Chen said Chang had a DVD of Mack and Ma having intimate relations and intended to use the DVD to ruin Ma’s presidential prospects last year. Wu Wen-chung used his position as a prosecutor to stop her, Chen said.Asked about the allegation by TV reporters yesterday, Chang said: “Go and ask Ma Ying-jeou, or ask [former Taipei deputy mayor] King Pu-tsung (金溥聰).” She said that Mack was still her husband as she has yet to file divorce papers.
(Apple Daily) Interactive voice system polled 482 persons on February 24, 2009.
Chen Shui-bian revealed in court that there was a DVD that showed an intimate relationship between Chang Wei-chin and her ex-husband Charles "Chocolate" Mack. Do you believe it?
70.95%: I don't believe it -- Ah Bian must have lost his mind because he didn't get enough food during his starvation protest
16.81%: I believe it -- I have always doubted the sexual orientation of President Ma Ying-jeou
12.25%: Don't know/no opinion
[in translation]
The Yunnan provincial publicity department insisted on having fully open information in order to deal with the public opinion storm over the “elude the cat” incident.
Yesterday afternoon, the Yunnan provincial publicity department deputy director Wu Hao was interviewed online by Yunnan Net, and afterwards showed the QQ chat session record to the reporter in a stunning move. This record was the history of the entire process by which netizens were invited to join the investigative committee, including the controversy over the choice of who to include on the list, the reason why permission was denied to the committee to meet with the principals of the case and whether the investigative committee director was a “fifty-cent ganger” (wumaodang).
The QQ group known as “Wu Hao’s Internet opinon box” is the QQ group for the Yunnan provincial publicity department deputy director. The group members are mainly provincial publicity department officials, media reporters, website workers, etc. Wu Hao said that he used this QQ group to understand what the grassroots media workers are thinking. Sometimes, he seeks out their opinions before announcing certain decisions.
Late yesterday night, Yunnan Net even posted the entire chat record. The publication of this official QQ chat record caused another wave of heated discussion. The netizens gave very high marks to the action. Like the original public notice to invite netizens to join the investigative committee, this action also shook up the Internet and many people found this to be unthinkable.
Our reporter reviewed this 40-page chat record and came up with five key questions.
(1) The inside story of the public invitation to join the investigative committee
The chat record showed that at 14:29 on the afternoon of February 19, the Yunnan provincial publicity department deputy director Wu Hao announced in the QQ group that they were looking for netizens to sign up for the investigative committee. Within one minute, the netizens “Tail End of the Wind” and “Bian Min” (who works for the newspaper <New Life News>) signed up via QQ. Wu Hao immediately announced that “since the two of you were the first to sign up, you will be the director and deputy director of this investigative committee!” Then Wen Xing also signed up. They began to discuss how to report and communicate this to the public.
On 15:25, “The Cloud from the South” posted the public notice and requested the Internet media to cross-post. The various Yunnan website published the notice. Four minutes later, Wu Hao’s telephone at the Information Office was overwhelmed by calls. The people who already signed up on the QQ group were the first to call.
When interviewed by Yunnan Net yesterday, Wu Hao made a point about the selection criteria and process of the netizen members of the investigative committee. He said that the original plan designated the first applicants as the director and deputy director. They had originally been concerned that nobody would sign up, so the plan included “incentives” for early sign-ups. Out of the same concern, Wu Hao mobilized within his QQ group first before making the official notice public. Among the first three applicants, Bian Min is Dong Yubin, who is the Internet commentary supervisor for <New Life News> , Tail End of the Wind is Zhao Li who is an editor for Yunnan TV Net and Wen Xing is a reporter at <New Life News>.
(2) The controversy over the list of investigative committee members
On the evening of February 19, the Yunnan provincial publicity department announced the name of the investigative committee members. Immediately, someone raised questions. <New Life News> reporter Wen Xing asked immediately: “How come I am listed as a netizen and not as a media representative?” Yunnan Daily Net’s Gan said bluntly: “There is going to be a problem with this.” Yunnan provincial publicity department deputy director Wu Hao then asked why he said that.
Gan then held a private chat session with Wu Hao in another window. Gan said that he was concerned that the outside world would think that the netizens in the list are really “fifty-cent gang members.” “Bian Min and them can be media representatives. Netizens should be pure netizens.” Gan pointed out that Bian Min was listed as a netizen in the list and he is the deputy director of the investigative committee. In real life, Bian Min is the Internet commentary supervisor over at <New Live News>.
Wu Hao then began a discussion with Gan as to how many people in the lists were pure netizens. Gan said that there was only two. Wu Wao said that it was three on the basis of the work units of the people. Later on, this reporter found out that four of the eight netizen representatives are both netizens and media workers, while the other four are “pure netizens.”
Wu Hao also explained that since Bian Min and Tail End of the Wind were the first to sign up, “I appointed them as the director and deputy director.” Gan agreed that they can serve in those positions, but he also suggested that they not be listed as “netizen representatives.”
Wu Hao proposed contacting the information office to discuss the addition of two more pure netizen representatives. Gan recommended that “the netizen representatives should be pure netizens in order to show our determination and not be accused by others that we are using ‘fifty-cent gangers’.”
But this discussion was not pursued any further according to the QQ chat record. The list was not altered.
(3) Future plans
By February 21, there were plenty of doubts about the statuses of Tail End of the Wind, Bian Min, Wen Xing and Ji Bu. Some netizens thought that they were “fifty-cent gang members.”
At 00:05 on February 22, a discussion began inside the QQ group. Wu Hao said: “At the time, someone reminded me not to let Bian Min and them lead the committee. I only considered that I had promised to let the first applicants be the committee director and deputy director. It would seem that I had not fully considered everything.”
Yunnan Net’s Lian Fuying thought that the Yunnan websites had fewer doubts about the identities of these people because most local netizens knew that Bian Mina and Tail End of the Wind have good reputations. But netizens outside of Yunnan had lesser awareness.
Lian Fuying recommended a second investigation that specifically includes netizens from outside Yunnan. Wu Hao did not think that there was any need to have another investigation. “But the concerns of the netizens must be addressed.” Wu Hao said. “When I do my Yunnan Net interview tomorrow, I will officially announce that the committee will not disbanded until the police report is released. The committee will collect the doubts from the netizens and hand them over to the police in a formal document.”
But Wu Hao did not bring up this point in the Yunnan Net interview. Our reporter contacted two members of the investigative committee. Both said that they have not been told about whether the investigative committee has completed its mission or whether it should continue to exist.
(4) The problems at the meeting
At 00:40 on February 22, Wu Hao posted the private chat sessions with Pig Man earlier at 21:00 on February 21. During this private chat, Pig Man posted a hyperlink to the editorial piece in Southern Metropolis Daily that day entitled “The Netizen Investigative Committee cannot relieve our anxiety over learning the truth>. The piece spoke of the regret that the netizen investigative committee over not being able to get to the details in the heart of the case.
Wu Hao had this to say: “The people in the judiciary did not heed the advice of us in the publicity department. They rejected the committee’s request to meet with the suspect because it was ‘against the law.’ I feel very much helpless. It would be better if we make everything open and transparent in the case.”
“I told them repeatedly not to get stuck with arguing whether it was ‘eluding the cat’ as opposed to ‘blind man catching fish.’ They didn’t believe me. At the negotiation meeting, everything went well and the committee could meet the key witnesses. But if they changed their minds at the last minute, it cannot be good.” Wu Hao said that he did not expect that the local authorities would change their minds suddenly.
Wu Hao said that the Jinning county party secretary was “very mad at the deputy secretary general. They had to ruin what was a good thing.”
Wu Hao said that they should have done their best to see if it was at all possible under the law for the committee to meet with the suspect. Other QQ members such as Tail End of the Wind thought that a civilian investigative committee does not have the right to do so.
Wu Hao then asked whether there was no surveillance video or they were just not allowed to view it. Tail End of the Wind replied: “There was no surveillance video but we wouldn’t have the right to see it anyway if it existed.” He said that they did not observe any surveillance equipment at the scene and that was consistent with the relevant regulations.
(5) The “Fifty-cent Gang” issue
In the last section of the private chat between Wu Mao and Tail End of the Wind published by the Yunnan provincial publicity department, Wu Hao asked Tail End of the Wind directly: “Are you a ‘fifty-cent gang member’? I don’t supervise the Internet supervisory department. Do they really pay you?”
Tail End of the Wind replied: “I sometimes get paid when I write some essays on subjects such as the electricity projects a Nujiang. But the amounts are not much. We are expressing our personal views in those essays but this is about using our influence on the Internet. This is not a big issue. The fifty-cent gang members are singing praises most of the time. The two of us severely criticize the government. It is very easy to retrieve what we wrote on the Internet.”
“Actually, Bian Min and I have very advantageous identities. Both of us are actually freelancers. Although we have worked in the media industry before, we were only temporary contract workers. Up to now, I still don’t any social security pension and medical insurance. I encourage netizens to look up my social security information. This is no secret and very easy to find. This proves that we are independent people.”
Our reporter asked Wu Hao specifically about the Internet suspicions about the “fifty-cent gang.” Wu Hao said: “Are there fifty-ceng gangs in Yunnan? That is the question that you are concerned, and it is also a question that I am concerned with as well. People can check my QQ record. I specifically asked the Internet supervisory department director: Is Tail End of the Wind one of you ‘fifty-cent gang member’? Do you pay them? The director said that the concept does not even exist in Yunnan. The government does not pay netziens either. In practice, when their Internet supervisory department has to cope with certain public opinion crisis and need to collect some essays, they will offer some compensation in accordance with copyright laws. But these people are not ‘fifty-cent gang members’ who are paid on a regular basis.”
After the online interview was over, Wu Hao told the reporter that the netizen investigative committee was an experiment by the Yunnan government to create a “sunshine” government. He also said that the Yunnan government had absorbed rich experiences from the handling of the Menglian incident, which was a breakthrough in terms of being open and transparent about a mass incident.
On July 19 last year, there was a violent incident in the Menglian minority autonomous areas in Yunnan province. The public security personnel on duty were assaulted by several hundred people. During the incident, the militia police were forced to employ anti-riot tactics that led to casualties. An investigation afterwards came to this conclusion: the local government mishandled the situation and served the local bosses’ interests.
At the time of the incident, Wu Hao was still a reporter for the Xinhua agency. He told the reporter that Xinhua had contacted the relevant departments in order to publish the exclusive breaking news stories. Wu Hao was also part of the investigative team as a member of the media. “As a team worker, I personally spoke to the representatives of the rubber farmers.” He recalled.
Through a Baidu search, this reporter was able to retrieve many articles written by the Xinhua reporter Wu Hao. These articles had innovative angles, progressive ideas and rich contents. They represented a sharp break from the past “official reports.”
For example, the article dated July 28 cited Yunnan provincial party deputy secretary Li Jiheng: “When nobody listens to what they say, nobody follows what they do and the masses take out machetes instead, then these cadres might as well as jump into the river!” On September 9, the title of the article was: “Yunnan reflects deeply on the Menglian incident, police cadres are warned to ‘serve the people’ and not ‘service the bosses’.” The title of the September 18 article was: “Yunnan: Strictly prohibited to label the complaining masses as ‘troublemakers’ or other such titles.” These essays drew enthusiastic responses from netizens and had the objective effect of improving the image of the government.
Wu Hao said that the handling of the Menglian incident was a landmark in openness and transparency on the part of the Yunnan provincial government. The conflicts were quickly resolved, without evolving into the more violent Weng’an incident that occurred a month ago in Guizhou.
The proposal to form a netizen investigative team for the “eluding the cat” incident was a continuation of the thinking used to handle the Menglian incident. Wu Hao said that the local masses were calm during the “eluding the cat” incident, which showed once again that openness and transparency are the correct ways to deal with problems.
Baidu Search also brought back the last article that Wu Hao wrote as a reporter. On October 31 last year, he wrote “Yunnan provincial party committee bring up ‘bad things’ on the table for the people to see.”
Six days later, the Yunnan provincial party organizational committee in charge of cadres announced that Wu Hao has been transferred from being the deputy editor-in-chief of Xinhua’s Yunnan station to become the provincial publicity department deputy director.
In discussing this job transfer, Wu Hao said: “I am known in the media industry mostly for watchdog journalism and writing internal reference reports” and “I have caused a lot of troubles for Yunnan.” He said, “If the Yunnan government and party secretary were not open-minded, I would not have gotten this job.”
But his appointment was controversial. Wu Hao said franly, “Before I took over the job, I saw that some on the Internet said that it was a good thing for a veteran news worker to assume this job because of the familiarity. There are others who say that this may not be a good thing, because an insider knows exactly where to strike when he is a supervisor.”
But he said that it was precisely because he was a reporter that he realized that he must treat reporters well and open up the space and policies for the information office.
He also told the reporter that he had not received any pressure from his superiors after initiating the netizen investigative committee. On the contrary, the pressure came from the self-doubts of the netizens themselves. He said: “Our goal was to expand the rights of the netizens, but the netizens doubt themselves. So I need to reconsider on the basis of studying public opinion further whether the next step is to proceed in even bigger steps, or to restore the original conditions, or to take smaller, slower steps.”
張愛玲與四個男人﹕唐文標、朱西甯、夏志清、水晶
《上海神話》符立中...
因為擔心胡蘭成籍機牽涉拖個沒完﹐她寫就十八萬字、帶有自傳色彩的長篇小說《小團圓》終於沒法面世。如果此書面世﹐現今張愛玲全集的風貌自然有大不相同﹔筆者雖非張迷﹐總也忍不住請問《今生今世》的擁護者﹕是寧願要書中<民國女子>那一章﹐還是整部十八萬字的《小團圓》? 幸而最近得到消息﹕遺囑執行人並未遵照張的遺願、毀掉《小團圓》。站在書迷的立場﹐當然還是希望這部遺作能有出土的一日。
胡蘭成的下作/亦舒 [摘自《舒服集》，出版於1985年。]
央人拿來《今生今世》看畢。我十分孤陋寡聞，根本沒聽過胡蘭成這名字，香港長大的人哪知道這許多事，恐怕都覺得陌生，所以看過之後覺得這胡某人不上路，張愛玲出了名，馬上就是他的老婆，書中滿滿的愛玲，肉麻下作不堪，這種感覺是讀者的感覺，張愛玲或是瀟灑的女性，與眾不同，不介意有人拿她當宣傳。
所謂丈夫，是照顧、愛護、扶養妻子的人，願意犧牲為妻子、家庭共過一輩子的人，自問做不到這些，最好少自稱是人家的丈夫。胡某人與張愛玲在一起的時間前後只有兩三年，張愛玲今年已經56歲，胡某於30年後心血來潮，忽然出一本這樣的書，以張愛玲作標榜，不知道居心何在，讀者只覺得上路子的男人絕不會自稱為 “張愛玲的丈夫”。女人頻頻說“我是某某的太太”，已經夠煩的，何況是這種男人，既然這件事是他一生中最光彩的事，埋在心底作個紀念又有何不可。
由此想到作女人是難的，默默無聞做個妻子，遲早會變成男人口中“我太太不了解我”，掙扎的有名有姓，又被人橫加污辱。張愛玲名氣大，即使現在出本書叫“我與張愛玲”銷路也還是好的。胡某一方面把他與張氏的來龍去脈說了，一方面炫耀他同時的，過去的，之後的女人，不管三七二十一，都算是他的老婆，表示他娶過的不止張愛玲一女，算算日子，胡某現在70多歲，那種感覺於是更加齷齪，完全是老而不死是為賊，使人欲嘔。
近年來我的脾氣真是好得不得了，是以雜文更加淡而無味，一派呼之即來，揮之即去的樣子。可是這一次真動了氣，連帶非常厭惡半桶水，所謂寫作的人，連自己也討厭到極點，小說擱在那裏是決寫不下去了。不管張愛玲本人的心思怎樣，勿理她是不是當時年少無知，反正如果她選的是一個原子物理學家，決不會有今天這種事。
然後在吃飯的時候，對母親說：“怎麼天下有你福氣這麼好的女人。”說的真是實話，此刻只覺得張愛玲文章寫得再好，心地再光明磊落，她的幸福也決不是中國或全世界女人傳統的幸福。
The critical voices about the members of the investigative team are concentrated at the Tianya Forum. A netizen provided a link to the Cailong Forum that showed the investigative team leader "Tail End of the Wind" wrote the <2007 Kunming Daily News Labor Union Working Plan>. Furthermore, his real name Zhao Li was listed as a "publicity committee member" in the Labor Union Committee.
Cailong Forum is part of Cailong Net, which is a portal for the local party newspaper Kunming Daily. The netizens therefore believed that "Tail End of the Wind" is part of the system and that would cast doubts on the neutrality of the investigative activity.
Two days ago, "Tail End of the Wind" was selected as a netizen member of the investigative team by the Yunnan party publicity department. But before that, "Tail End of the Wind" was already a local celebrity. On March 30, 2008, <New Life Daily> published a report titled "The Most Controversial Internet Commentator" about him. That essay ended this way: "The top local netizens rated him this way: he is a unique and successful Yunnan case of an official Internet commentator, an Internet writer and a netizen all mixed in one while still being somewhat politically correct."
The writer of that article is Wen Xing, who is also a member of the "Eluding the Cat" investigative team.
Netizens found this article on Wen Xing's blog. This proved that these two people have made contact before and therefore their simultaneous selection implied manipulation.
The investigative team's deputy director Bian Min is another target for the netizens. His real name is Dong Yubin and he is the Internet commentary supervisor at <New Life Daily> website. In another linked newspaper story, Bian Min and Tail End of the Wind appeared together at the same <"Yunnan TV news reform> form on January 22, 2009 under the identities of "enthusiastic audience members."
Netizens said Bian Min and Tail End of the Wind are veteran actors who have performed together before.
The human flesh search has come up with the real identities of all the netizen representatives on the investigation team. They all have media working experiences and backgrounds, and therefore they are regarded as people inside the system. Some netizens have labeled them "fifty-cent gang members." In the virtual world of the Internet, "fifty-cent gang member" is a derogatory term for full-time or part-time commentators who speak out and lead Internet opinion while being employed and directed by the government.
These accusations have caused doubts about the selection processes by the Yunnan province party publicity department of the investigative team members. At the time, the Yunnan province party publicity department explained that the selection was done in two stages. In the first stage, netizens without high name recognition on the Internet were eliminated. In the second stage, the team members were randomly selected from the remaining names.
Tail End of the Wind rejected these accusations. He told the reporter that he had left his old job many years ago. He is presently an Internet editor for Yunnan TV Net. Since he has not signed a labor contract yet, he does not even have a social security account number. So he could not possibly be a member of the "system." He made a wager that if anyone can find out his social security account number, then that person can take all the money away. He said that in frustration.
As for the selection process, Tail End of the Wind has his own speculation: "If the active netizens in Yunnan are not selected and only a few netizens whom nobody has ever heard of are chosen instead, this netizen investigative team would be subjected to even more doubts. The netizens would say that these are sock-puppets from the publicity department."
Tail End of the Wind said that the misgivings of the netizens are attributed to the unsatisfactory findings in the investigative report. He said that he wrote the part about the limitations of the investigation. "When the investigative committee began to work, everybody felt a certain embarrassment. Indeed, this investigative committee was able to obtain a lot of information that was previously unknown to the netizens and the media. But when we naively asked to meet the suspects and see the surveillance tapes, we were turned down due to various legal and administrative reasons. Then we suddenly recognized that while netizens may be all-powerful on the Internet, they are very much helpless in real life."
"This helplessness is the greatest feeling for me during this investigation." Tail End of the Wind made this analogy -- a person may be a leader, king or emperor in an online game, but in real life he may be worried about how to find the money to get online.
The investigative team deputy director Bian Min shot back at the critics. The soft version: "You doubt my character, but I doubt your intelligence." The strong version: "As for those who criticize me (especially those who make character assassinations because they know that I could not get online while the investigation was going on), I express my disgust and contempt."
The netizen team member Capable Mason received fewer criticisms. He believed that this was because he is a Tianya Forum administrator. He told the reporter: "There is only a small circle of Internet writers in Yunnan, and people know each other. So it is not unreasonable that many of them are chosen for the investigative team at the same time."
Capable Mason said that Tail End of the Wind and Bian Min are both responsible people who will not be easily exploited. "Every person has his own background and experience, and will do things his own way."
As for how the team was formed, Capable Mason said that he can understand the official attitude: "When they took the lead to proceed, they must have considered whether it will go out of control."
Capable Mason considered the "Eluding the Cat" netizen investigation to represent a positive official response to netizen opinon. He thought that it was a good thing that such a step was made. "What we need to do is to push them up the tree so that they can't even come down if they wanted to. We will encourage them to keep doing this." This is the advice from Capable Mason.
A newly hired reporter for the Shenzhen bureau of Southern Metropolis Daily wrote a report about a city leader making dumplings with a group of migrant laborers. The writing was very traditional and mainstream in the manner of a party newspaper. In the final paragraph, the reporter wrote: "Since they have never dined with such a senior-level leader before, all the migrant workers were all very excited to see such a great leader." The article was typeset. During the proof-reading stage, the proof-reader was disgusted by the phrase "Since they have never dined with such a senior-level leader before, all the migrant workers were all very excited to see such a great leader" and so he circled it and made the annotation: "Such arse-licking!" in order to express his anger. Unfortunately, the type-setter did not realize what it meant and directly put down "Such arse licking really makes me excited." The article was then published (see MSN link). Here is the photo of the print edition.
Netizen comment:
I cannot believe that the term "arse-licking" could possibly appear in a report about the city leader. I thought that my eyes must be tricking me because I have been visiting too many pornographic websites! I cleared my eyes and looked again. Those words were there in black and white!
How can this be? I was very worked up! How can this be? How can such vulgar language appear in a report on the city leader? Isn't this a public insult to our city leader! I was not only worked up. I was angered! This is an insult to a Shenzhen leader, as well as the people of Shenzhen! I cannot believe such vulgar words can be used!
It is one thing to say that this was a typographic mistake. That would be a technical error. But no Chinese character input system could lead to a combination such as "arse licking" by accident. Even if the reporter had mistyped, then the proof-reader and the editor are guilty of negligence. So there remains only one possibility -- someone did this deliberately to insult our Shenzhen leaders.
I went to the Southern Metropolis Daily website and this sentence has been deleted. But it can still be found in the Google cache. At the oeeee.com website, all comments related to this article are banned or deleted, so clearly they are aware of their mistake but they do not have the courage to talk about it!
Southern Metropolis Daily reporter (anonymous):
Yuan must have had too much to drink. When he saw the article had the phrase "She felt very excited to meet such a high-level leader," he circled it and commented: "Such arse-licking!"
The editor Sun brought it to the typesetter and instructed her to delete the sentence about the high-level leader. The typesetter saw the comment from the proof-reader and asked the editor whether that should be kept. She did not get a clear answer. So she put it in and gave the page back to the editor for the second round of proof-reading. Neither the editor nor the proof-reader detected it. So this was how this magnificent phrase was signed off and published.
"I am very excited" immediately became the most popular phrase at the newspaper. Yuan read it carefully before he received the penalty notice. He did not seem to mind and he just went and got water to make tea. He was unaware that I was looking at him from behind with admiration.
To be fair, there is only one truthful phrase in this entire article.
A certain Shenzhen netizen felt that this was an insult of the people of Shenzhen. I am not sure if this was sarcasm. I personally think that it is an insult to the city of Shenzhen and its people to have no real news-reporting newspaper in this city other than Southern Metropolis Daily.
(SCMP) Pair fined over editing error. By Fiona Tam. February 23, 2009.
Two staff members at an outspoken mainland newspaper have been punished after one described a migrant worker's flattering speech to a high-ranking Shenzhen official as "a***-kissing" on a proof copy that was mistakenly published. A report published in the Southern Metropolis Daily on January 22 inadvertently included critical comments about an activity celebrating the Lunar New Year involving migrant workers and Li Yizhen, a member of Shenzhen Communist Party standing committee. Few readers noticed the mistake until netizens wrote about it early this month and the newspaper announced its punishment of two staff members responsible for the error.
Proofreader Yuan Fang, who used the offending words to describe the speech, was fined 1,000 yuan (HK$1,135), while subeditor Shen Huawei, who failed to notice the error, was fined 500 yuan. It was an error committed in the editing process rather than anything political, the newspaper said.
A reporter with the newspaper close to the two said the proofreader had written a critical comment in anger over the reporter's decision to reproduce the migrant worker's flattering speech in full as it went against the newspaper's policy. His comment had been incorporated by mistake into the body of the article by a typist. "He highlighted the speech and wrote, `How can they kiss a*** like that?' on the proof copy to vent his anger. Later, a typist mistakenly typed his comment into the story, while the subeditor failed to take the error out," the reporter said.
The story was only published in the Guangzhou-based newspaper's Shenzhen version. About 420,000 copies with the mistake were sold in Shenzhen, while the newspaper's website immediately deleted the phrase from its digital copy.
Privately, reporters praised the comment as brave and truthful. "For Shenzhen and its people, it would be a true insult if there wasn't a newspaper daring to tell the truth ... Actually, I admire the proofreader," a reporter said.
On February 19, a netizen showed these photos of a young girl climbing on the shoulders of a Chairman Mao statue to pose for photos. The scene was the Windows of the World park in Changsha city, Hunan province. Hunan Online reported: "This is shameful!" Other netizens expressed anger too, and some even wanted to locate this "braindead person" through the "human flesh search."
Yesterday a public notice was issued by the Yunnan Provincial Publicity Department's Press and Publication Administration.
The injury and subsequent death of the Yuxi city Hongta district Beicheng town young man Li Qiaoming in a detention center has received broad media attention, especially on the Internet. The term 'eluding the cat' has become a hot Internet term in a very short time. In order to satisfy the public's right to know, the Yunnan provincial publicity departhment will form an investigative committee with other relevant departments and proceed to Kunming city Puning town on the morning of February 20 to find out the truth about the incident. We are presently looking for four netizens and other representatives from society to serve as members of the committee. You can register between now and 8:00pm on the evening of February 19, 2009." The notice also included a QQ account number and a telephone phone number.
This piece of news was circulated quickly on the Internet. Many netizens cursed that this piece of "fake news" for being so obviously fake. Other netizens actually began to call.
"There is no truth that needs to be hidden. We will show by actual action tomorrow that this is now a show." Yunnan provincie publicity department press and publication administration deputy director Gong Fei said that the main reason why netizens were suspicious about the 'eluding the cat' incident was that the information had not been open and transparent in a timely manner. This time, the relevant departments (which includes the Yunnan provincial party public department, the Yunnan provincial public security bureau, the Yunnan Political Legal Committee and the Yunnan provincial procuratorate). Their public invitation for netizens is the first time in the history of the Internet in China.
Gong Fei said: "Before the public notice went out, we spent the entire morning convincing the other departments to cooperate with the media interviews. In the past, we did not respect the rules of journalism sufficiently and we did not understand the new media well enough. That was why we had a problem with public opinion. The purpose of this investigation is to show that there are no hidden secrets in this case." This decision had not been easy to make. "We basically discussed this for one whole morning. But in the end, we thought that a news story cannot just be 'blocked.' Besides this closed and opaque approach violated the people's right to know and caused the public to misinterpret the facts."
As of the cutoff time of 8:30pm, 510 netizens were able to register successfully. 10 of them (an increase over the originally planned 4 due to the enthusiastic response) will be selected to join the investigative committee to go to the scene of the incident on the morning of February 20.
The list of the investigative committee members includes: four government officials (1 from the provincial political legal committee, one from the provincial procuratorate and two from the provincial public security bureau); three media representatives (Xinhua; Yunnan Information Times; Yunnan Net); ten netizens and representatives from society (among the 8 already named, 5 are netizens, one is an insurance salesman, one is a technology worker and another one is a art student).
Gong Fei said that the activity on February 20 does not pre-suppose any desired outcome. The investigators will be able to meet with the principals, visit the detention center and interview the key participants and police investigators. "They can deduce the truth of the matter through their own observations."
[translated in summary format]
Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine had been facing a storm.
It is commonly believed that this statement was directed at Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine. In the September 2008 issue of the magazine, there had been a positive essay about former Secretary-General Zhao Ziyang. This led to the so-called "recommendation to retire" from the Central Publicity Department through the Ministry of Culture for the magazine Du Daozheng. Du and the magazine declined to accept that recommendation.
On December 24, 2008, the Chinese Communist Party Central forwarded a document from the Central Publicity Department that stated: "Persons who are current or retired Party or Government workers must not become the leaders of newspapers and publications." But this was considered to be impossible to implement. After all, the publishers and chief editors of People's Daily and various provincial party newspapers are also party workers and they would all have to quit too. Besides what is a leader anyway? A publisher is a leader, but so is the director of a small team of editors.
Recently, there have been more personnel changes at Yanhuang Chunqiu. First of all, the legal representative has been shifted from Du Daozheng to cnief editor Wu Si. But this is a regular change that merely guarantees continuity of leadership. Du Daozheng said during an interview: "I have not resigned as the publisher of Yanhuang Chunqiu and I do not intend to do so voluntarily. We have been publishing this magazine for 18 years. I had two roles: publisher and legal representative. I am over 80 years old and this is too much of a burden. The legal representative has a lot of deal with, including any legal hassles."
Yanhuang Chunqiu hardly carries any advertisements. In January 2009, it went beyond 100,000 copies in distribution for the first time at 105,000. In February 2009, the circulation increased by 6,900 copies. In March 2009, the circulation increased by 8,900 copies. Du Daozheng said that this showed that the readers like this magazine: "The 'recommendation to retire' in 2008 created a storm that was reported in Asia Weekly and other media. The mainstream in Zhongnanhai are supportive, loving and tolerant."
Even more interesting is this other piece of news buried within the article: 10 more persons have been added to the original 33 persons on the editorial committee. So what? Except you have to note some of the names: Zhang Yihe, Li Datong, ...
A 2'32" video clip on YouTube showed students engaged in a brawl at the platform outside the mall in Oi Man Estate, Ho Min Tin district, Kowloon, Hong Kong. About twenty to thirty people were involved. The video clip was take by a camphone from some distance away, so that it is not easy to identity the individuals. By the time that the police arrived, everybody had left already. The police as well as the newspapers are contacting every school in the district to see if their students were involved. One set of students wore dark blue blazers while the other set of students wore grey sweaters.
(Reuters) HK woman's airport hysterics an online hit. February 16, 2009.
A Chinese woman who freaked out at Hong Kong's international airport after missing her flight has hit the big time on YouTube after her hysterics were filmed and uploaded to the video sharing website. The middle-aged woman was seen charging at a security guard at the departure gate, before screaming "aieyyahhhhh," at the top of her lungs in a rant that lasts about three minutes.
The woman, sprawled on the ground, was seen wailing. An elderly man travelling with her tried to pull her to her feet but she shouted in Cantonese: "I want to go, I want to go."
Cathay Pacific said it had already closed the aircraft's doors and had offloaded the woman's baggage, and so was unable to allow her to board the flight to San Francisco. "Don't be so upset, don't be so emotional," a male Cathay Pacific staff member is heard saying on the video. Cathay Pacific said the incident occurred earlier this month, and the video appeared to have been loaded onto YouTube late last week. By Monday, the "woman going insane after missing her flight video" had over 400,000 hits.
In 2006, another sensational outburst by a stressed-out Hong Kong man captured the imagination of many people in this fast-paced, money-obsessed, Asian financial capital. The middle-aged man, who chastised and swore at a youngster in a six-minute-long diatribe aboard a double decker bus, was dubbed "Bus-Uncle" and a video of the incident received close to two million hits. His quote "I have pressure, you have pressure" became a catch-phrase and sparked navel-gazing at the pressure that many over-worked Hong Kong citizens suffer.
As for the woman at the airport, Cathay Pacific said it put her and her two travel companions on a later flight to Los Angeles, at no extra cost.
(Rose Luqiu at My1510.cn)
... Reuters also noticed this Internet hit and issued a special report. They described the person as "a Chinese woman" because she spoke fluent Cantonese. Thus, she could be a mainlander from Guangdong province, or a Hong Kong resident, or a Macau resident, or an overseas Chinese holding a passport from southeast Asia or some other country. But the mainland websites have all used "female mainlander" as their story title. This is strange because the term "Chinese woman" is used to describe Chinese women from all those places.
Once the title says "female mainlander," the story becomes a sensitive hot topic as to whether this type of behavior is a loss of face for the Chinese people. Some people think that it was a loss of face to the Chinese people by posting such a video clip on the Internet. More people talked about the quality of the Chinese people as a whole. But after watching this three minute plus video, I found all these discussions very weird: This is an individual case which can happen anywhere any day. But because of technological progress, this woman's behavior was recorded and posted on the Internet which amplified its reach.
The Reuters report also mentioned the case of Bus Uncle in Hong Kong. There are some similarities between the two, because both persons were emotionally out of control. Perhaps it is as Bus Uncle said, "You have pressure, I have pressure."
Similarly, people have pressure everywhere. There is no national boundary for people who lose emotional control or deliberately seek trouble. There is no need to elevate this into a discussion of the quality of the Chinese people.
Many people like to use the actions of an individual to reflect on a larger group. I keep hearing people say whether they like or dislike the people in a certain place. Actually, that place has plenty of people living there. It does not matter how many of them you have met, because that number cannot represent everybody who lives there.
If someday people will no longer say "I don't like place XX" or "I don't like the people in place XX" and we can just laugh off a video like this one, it will mean that we have broadened our knowledge and seen more things.
With the flagging economy, no one's job is secure, not even for a mistress. A Qingdao newspaper reported that a Qingdao businessman facing money problems decided to “fire” four out of his five mistresses last December.
According to the paper the man, surnamed Fan, was “inspired by those talent challenge programs he saw on TV”, and arranged similar competitions for his five mistresses. Only the top winner would remain Fan's mistress and enjoy a monthly income of US$800 and an apartment. The five women then presented themselves in front of a professional model trainer, gave speeches, sang songs and even gulped down liquor to show their drinking capacity.
All went as Fan planned until one of the women turned out to be a very bad loser. Fan's first mistress, Yu, came from rural Shanxi, and being the least educated among the five had trouble finding another job to support herself. Determined to take revenge, she invited Fan and the other four women on a road trip and drove off a cliff on the way. Yu died but the others survived.
(New York Daily News) Spurned mistress drives Chinese businessman, other women off cliff; lost contest for his love. Olivia Smith. February 17, 2009.
He drove her to revenge, so she drove him off a cliff.
The mistress of a married Chinese businessman whose lover spurned her due to the economic downturn plotted to get back at her lover and his four other paid paramours. The 29-year-old woman, identified as Yu, drove the man and four other kept women off a mountian precipice after the double sting of losing her income and getting dumped.
Identified as Yu, the woman was the first to be cast out from the married businessman's harem of five mistresses after he held a secret competition to decide which one of them to keep. After realizing he needed to pare down to just one lover, the entrepreneur, identified as Fan, hired an instructor from a modeling agency to judge which mistress would stay on.
The women were assessed on looks, singing ability, and how much alcohol they could hold, according to CNN.com. The women all had their rent paid and received a monthly allowance of around $730 from Fan.
After Yu was eliminated in the first round of the competition because of her looks, she decided to get back at Fan and the four other women vying for his money and affections. She arranged a group sightseeing tour, telling the others it was a farewell outing before she returned to her home province. She then piloted the car over a cliff on a winding road, killing herself and injuring the others. Police in China initially thought the Dec. 6 crash was an accident, but learned of the contest in a letter Yu had written before the fateful trip.
Fan, whose age and line of work remain a mystery, paid Yu's family $84,744 as compensation for her death. Yu had been a waitress when the two met at the restaurant where she worked in the coastal city of Qingdao in 2000, according to CNN. The other mistresses have all left him, and so has his wife.
(Daqi)
I am a citizen of Lushan city (Qingdao). Over here, we have a newspaper known as the Peninsula Metropolis Daily. On February 15, the newspaper published the completely fabricated story entitled <Troubled boss asked his five mistresses to PK>. I have lived in Lushan for twenty years, and I have never heard that there is a place named Longwang Temple. Why does the reporter from Peninsula Metropolis Daily want to fabricate a story to smear Lushan and its people as well as Qingdao? Peninsula Metropolis Daily is a bitch!
The second paragraph of the story calls this an accident. But the story is clearly about the intentional murder of five persons. Why would the police characterize this as an accident in the incident report? Are the Lushan police stupid, or is Peninsula Metropolis a bitch for not even seeing this contradiction?
[in translation]
On February 15, our newspaper published an articled titled <Troubled boss forced his five mistresses to PK> on page A3. Afterwards, an investigation showed that our reporter Yi Lei had plagiarized the story <One dead, five wounded! 'Playboy boss' emergency staff reduction among his mistresses led to tragedy> in the February 2009 issue of Ziyin magazine. Our reporter had violated the relevant regulations for our editorial team, damaged the credibility of our newspaper and misled the mass of readers. Our newspaper's editorial disciplinary committee has met and arrived at the decision to dismiss the reporter Yi Lei. Effective immediately today, Yi Lei shall not conduct any news gathering as a Peninsula Metropolis Daily reporter ...
Related Link: 青岛一老总手头紧"裁情妇" 被裁者开车坠崖
