According to a recent news item, as reported in the Asia Times, in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2008, the Chinese government has relaxed its grip on foreign reporters in China. Time can only tell whether or not this will lead to freer reportage in practice. It is one thing for the central government to issue such a proclamation, and another for officials on the local level to honor it.
Read MoreDemocracy in China?
Will China eventually become a democratic country? How long would this take? These are two questions often in the minds of Western journalists in China. In a recent podcast interview with China Digital Times, New York Times journalist Howard French was asked what question he would most like to ask Hu Jintao if he was granted an interview. He responded that he would ask him about China's democratic future.
Read MoreGreat Wall Exhibit in Sydney/Melbourne
I've written a review of the Great Wall exhibit sponsored by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, which has shifted over to Melbourne. Here is a link to the review, published by the online journal reCollections.
More Thoughts on Sex and Shanghai
There's something macabre about this online character, China Bounder. While I appreciate his blog as a kind of "Kinsey report" of the sexualized environment of today's Shanghai, something is eerily disturbing about his particular line of thinking. Certainly I'm not a trained psychoanalyst, but in mulling over his case last night while tossing and turning in the wee hours, I came up with the following observations.
Read MoreSex and Shanghai
He's back. The man who inspired a witchhunt last August for his controversial blogsite about shagging in Shanghai. We know him as China Bounder. If you believe his story, he is a British Caucasian in his 30s and a former (if not current) English teacher in Shanghai. If you're somewhat more susceptible to rumors and innuendo, he is in fact a team of clever, mischievous blogsters making it up as they go along (or maybe even a team of monkeys relentlessly pounding on the keyboard?). I for one don't believe that tripe for a minute. In my humble, unenlightened opinion, this guy is real, and so are his stories.
Read MoreOn Chinglish
Recently a member of H-ASIA, an academic online forum for which I'm currently an editor, posted an inquiry asking for examples of Chinglish. This provoked a flurry of brief responses, some quoting horribly misspelled or otherwise ungrammatical English translations of Chinese signs, which in turn led a few members to write in stating that they found these postings offensive or unscholarly.
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