What does China Censor online?

Below is a link to a very cool graphic illustration of the keywords and phrases that the Chinese government censors.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/what-does-china-censor-online/

Google Pulling Out of China

What do you think?

Online news sources reported today that China has (naturally) censored the news that Google is threatening to pull it's company and online services out of China. However some Chinese were seen at Google's Beijing offices creating a make shift memorial in support of Google.

The New York Times reported:

"One of the students said that she wanted to make a public gesture of support for Google, which steadily has lost market share to Baidu, a Chinese-run company that has close ties with the government. The government should give people the right to see what they want online,” said the woman, Bing, who withheld her full name for fear that it might cause her problems at school. “The government can’t always tell lies to the people.”

I agree with Bing, as do many other people, some more willing than others to publicly voice their opinions.

VPN is revolutionary! Why did I wait so long to get it?

Wow, after not having access to blogger.com and therefore my own personal blog for almost a year, I'm finally back on! Why? I just signed up for a VPN account which will allow me to access any site the Chinese government has put their great " Fire Wall" around.

It's been an eventful year, even though I haven't been blogging I've been busy with a multitude of other things. I started my cupcake business (http://www.emilyscupcakes.com) which has been so much fun and kept me quite busy when I'm in Shanghai.

Cupcakes aside it's been an eventful year to be living in Shanghai, the city which is literally changing before my eyes, is preparing it's self to host the 2010 World Expo. Winter isn't the most beautiful time to be in China - it's cold, dark and polluted - but Shanghai keep truckin' on pushing up more and more buildings, supposedly "beautifying" the city and inserting the Expo mascot Haibo onto every street corner and street sign.

The expo begins in May and lasts 6 months, it'll be interesting to see how many visitors actually come to Shanghai for the Expo. My guess is that there will be many domestic visitors and people from other neighboring asian countries but I'll be surprised if we receive a lot of visitors from further away. I was living in Nagoya, Japan when they also held the World Expo back in 2004 and while it was an interesting "event" to go and see, it wasn't something I'd travel great lengths to go and see.

We'll have to wait and see....and in the meantime it's very much winter in Shanghai, so I'm off to fill up on more hot green tea, snuggle into my fabric market cashmere blanket and watch a bit of my pirated satellite BBC TV.

Cheers!

Follow up...

This a follow up story to something I posted a few weeks ago. Parents in the Dongguan region are experiencing the worst pain imaginable - many children are being kidnapped.

Here's the story posted on Shanghaiist.com:

"Hundreds of parents set to the streets on April 15th in a peaceful march, begging for help in finding their missing children. Originally reported by the New Express (translated by Danwei), the parents claim that about 1,000 children have gone missing from the Dongguan area since 2007. At their wits end, they've set out to draw more attention to the apparent, widespread abduction problem.

Neither the New Express nor the Shanghai Daily piece on these families' plights suggest a reason for the kidnappings, but according to the New York Times, many of the children are being sold off to other Chinese families desperate for a male heir. The children, most of whom are young boys are also suspected of being sold to buyers in Vietnam, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

"Male heir" is probably one of the better outcome for these children, otherwise they often end up as indentured servants, for-hire beggars, or prostitutes. The lucky ones get sold to orphanages for adoption to wealthy foreigners.

The police at Wednesday's march appeared sympathetic to the parents' ordeal, escorting them peacefully down the street. According to a number of marchers however, the police and government have been mostly unhelpful in tracking down the missing children. In a case cited in the Shanghai Daily article, a child was located and brought to a local police station, but before his parent could claim him, an impersonator took the child as his own.

The Chinese government claims that total abductions number about 2,500 people per year including both women and children, but some non-profit organizations argue that the number might possibly be upwards of 100,000.

Either way, the number is too high. More attention needs to be paid to this issue both here in China and elsewhere in the world where human trafficking is an issue. Both buyers and sellers of other human beings need to be tracked down and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Hainan Island - Girls Weekend!

In anticipation of my upcoming girls weekend to Hainan Island, I'm doing research on the island itself. Kinda geeky, yes I realize that, but this is typically what I do prior to any trip. I'm a research geek, I love to wiki, google, and search through travel websites to download information on my next destination.

Basic Stats on Hainan (Hai = Ocean, Nan= South) Island:

Location: Hainan Island is located in the South China Sea, separated from Guangdong's Leizhou Peninsula to the north by a shallow and narrow strait. It has an area of 33,920 square kilometers, making China's southernmost province also its smallest. Hainan is comparable in size to Belgium.


View Larger Map

Native Peoples: Hainan first enters written Chinese history in 110 BC, when the Han Dynasty established a military garrison there. Settlement by mainlanders was slow however and from early on the island was considered to be fit only for exiles. It was in this period that the Li people arrived from Guangxi Province and displaced the island's aboriginal Austronesian-speaking peoples.

Tourism: We will be staying in Sanya, a town on the southern tip of the island, Sanya is supposedly the most common tourist-y location with nice beaches, hotels, outdoor activities, etc. We're looking forward to spending a lot of time on the beach, reading and relaxing away from the craziness of Shanghai.

Kidnapping in China on the rise...

I had no idea that this was a problem here in China, nor did I think that people still favored boys over girls to this extent. Perhaps it's because we live in Shanghai that people seem to have more modern ideas but this article moved me and I feel awful for any parent who has to go through the loss of a child, no matter where in the world they are.

From today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/world/asia/05kidnap.html

China clampdown on Tibet

Front page article of the New York Times, you can come to your own conclusions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/world/asia/05tibet.html

China's new fleet of mobile execution chambers. No, Seriously.

I know, I was totally thrown off guard when I read this article earlier in USA Today.

Check it out here:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-14-death-van_x.htm

Will it ever end?

Looks like eggs aren't safe to eat now either.....

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10823478?source=rss

Good lord....my grocery bills are going to go through the roof only buying imported...

China is faking it's reports from Space??

This has got to be an all time low for the Chinese Media....I mean seriously, how totally ridiculous is this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/3082804/China-fakes-reports-from-space.html

Good lord!

Milk & Dairy Crisis in China

With the financial crisis affecting many people across the globe, many of you may not know about the food crisis that is affecting China.

First it was the Chinese produced "Sanlu" baby milk power which was tainted and has killed at least 4 babies to date and has 6,000 babies still sick. Now it's milk and dairy products - the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has now announced that liquid milk sold by three top Chinese producers has also been found to be tainted with melamine.

From AP:

"A report posted on the agency's Web site said test results show nearly 10 per cent of samples taken from Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group - China's two largest dairy companies - contained up to 8.4 milligrammes of melamine per kilogramme.

Milk from Shanghai-based Bright Dairy also shows melamine contamination.

'AQSIQ will strictly find out the reason for adding the melamine and severely punish those who are responsible,' the notice said.

It said all the batches that tested positive were being recalled."

I don't know about the locals, but I can tell you that many of the expats in Shanghai are running around buying up as much imported milk as they can get their hands on. This probably isn't the best strategy but I can understand where people are coming from, especially those with children who drink a lot of milk. People are concerned about school as well, and what they've been giving children during the day.

Contrary to popular belief living in China isn't cheap. We spend A LOT of money on food every week going to 2-3 different stores just to get the basics that we know are clean, organic and healthy. Imported food isn't cheap but with all the issues surrounding locally made products it is unfortunately what I and many many other people (not just expats) have to buy.

But what about the people who can't afford to go to the few organic stores in Shanghai for good meat and vegetables, who can't afford to pay 2 or 3 times the price for imported milk? They have to be subjected to food that could kill them? It's sickening to think that high level business men and government officials out there are ok with letting people ingest poison so they can make more money.

More articles on this topic:

1. http://shanghaiist.com/2008/09/19/crisis_hits_the_liquid_milk_industr.php

2. http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/articles/blogs-shanghai/family-matters-shanghai/milk-crisis-hits-home/

3. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/world/asia/21china.html?ex=1379649600&en=8a2d59decc4a4f75&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The Great Wall

While my sister was here visiting, we took a day trip from Beijing out to one of the sections of the Great Wall at Simatai that has been restored by the government. Check these photos out - the Wall is just an amazing, amazing sight. It's my second time to the Wall (different section) and I'm still just totally blown away by awesomeness of it all.

Chinese Gymnasts Under Age...

I've been hearing a lot about this topic - especially at the Olympic Games. Rumor has been that the Chinese forged paperwork so that their gymnasts appeared older than they really are. Minimum age for competition is 16, and I have to agree with the critics - some of those girls look much younger than 16. Even though many Chinese girls look younger than their age....these girls look really really young.

Turns out some hacker has been able to dig into the Chinese administrations files and prove that a few of the Chinese gymnasts really are younger than 16.

Click here to read more:

New information on Olympic censorship

I'm not surprised by this article in the New York Times today - the Chinese government loves to censor. The Chinese government originally promised all foreign journalists that they would be able to "report freely" while they're in China reporting on the Olympic games.

Here's a quote from the article:
"Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse."

Now, to someone living in Shanghai - this is not shocking. The government does not want anyone to see anything that might be harmful to the countries "social stability". I hope the government changes their position on censorship for journalists, but I will be very surprised if that actually happens.

This screw up with internet censorship, the pollution in Beijing and all of the visa problems people are having are unfortunately putting a negative light on the Olympic games. Let's see if the government can pull something out of their you know what and turn things around.

You won't find this in the Chinese news...."hush money for greiving parents"

I'm getting ready to leave to head back to Shanghai, I've been in the USA for the last 2 weeks. I'm trying to get caught up on the news before I head out, luckily SFO has free wifi so I can stay connected literally until I step on the plane.

I just ran across this article on nytimes.com about the earthquake victims in China. I haven't seen too much in the Chinese news about the families of the children who died in schools, but I'm not surprised to see this article running in a western newspaper.

The little bit of information that has been shown in the Chinese news has talked a little bit about the children who died. Many children were in school when the earthquake hit, and many of the schools in the rural areas were not built according to code (for various reasons), or standards for earthquakes, so many of these school totally collapsed killing all of the children inside. I have seen a little bit about the angry parents who learned that the schools were built badly protesting in front of local and regional government offices, but from what I understand the government put a stop to the protests right away. Now it looks like they're trying to pay off the families to get them to stop speaking up about what happened to their children.

Click here to read the New York Times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/world/asia/24quake.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

French President Not Welcome in China

Looks like French President Sarkozy isn't welcome in China anytime soon. According to this article on Shanghaiist.com today, Chinese are saying "不是“爱来不来”，而是根本“不欢迎你来”！
~ It's not 'Come if you want,' it's basically 'You're not welcome."

The article goes on to say:

"That's the response of Chinese netizens to French President Sarkozy who said he will decide next week whether to attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics, with his choice depending on how talks go between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys this week.

Sarkozy reiterated Monday that the events in Tibet were "not acceptable," but he also warned against angering a power of China's size.

"We absolutely must not push a population of 1.3 billion people into wounded nationalism," he said.

If Sarkozy does come, he may face a hostile crowd who'll be yelling "Va foutre le camp!" (Get outta here!!) According to an online survey by Chinese website Sina, more than 89 percent of the 173,527 respondents do not want Sarkozy to attend the Olympic opening ceremony. Over 88 percent of the surveyed said they found Sarkozy's remarks about China "extremely unfriendly" and "not fit for a leader of a major developed country", while about 10 percent consider his remarks only political rhetoric.

Either way, his presence or absence will be duly noted domestically and internationally with significant consequences. Whether they will be positive or negative, well, that will be very much up to le Président."

Dragon Boat Festival

Tomorrow, Sunday June 8th is Dragon Boat Festival Day in China!

We're going to try to see some of the races tomorrow and will let you know what they're like. In the meantime you can read this article:

Sink your teeth in dragon boat fun by -- SUNDAY marks the annual Dragon Boat Festival and it promises to be a feast for the senses - a cacophony of sound, a blaze of color and tastes and smells to excite, writes Tabitha Ang.

For most, the month of June...

My afternoon lesson in Cultural Differences

This story is too good - I had to post it:


Today has been a very typical Shanghai taitai kind of day. I met with the designer and contractors who are going to work on the apartment we bought this morning, I went for a foot massage and then met a friend for lunch. Fabulous! I get home and walk in the door - my cat who usually runs to greet me at the front door is acting a bit strangely and kind of cowering around the kitchen door, but I don't think too much of it. She's a cat, cats are odd animals.

I notice that the ayi has been here, laundry has been done, things are cleaner than when I left this morning - great! Then I notice that the kitchen door is closed and the cat won't leave the doorway. Hmmm...usually the ayi leaves the kitchen door open when she leaves to let the floors dry. I open the door and don't notice anything different. Then, I walk over to the fridge to grab a diet coke and hear a scratching sound. ? That's weird - then I realized there's a box on the floor with tape around it, and there's something in the box scratching around...what the hell!? Is it a rat?! I'm not a brave person - I don't like mice, rats, any sort of insect that could come into the house freaks me out. So, my immediate reaction is to get the hell out of the kitchen and keep the door closed. What's the in box? And why would the ayi leave it there? Very mysterious and very strange...

Well, I have to call A, only he can speak to her in Chinese and find out what's going on. Poor guy, I hate bothering him with non-important items during the day but this is just too odd. So I call him, tell him what's going on and ask him to call the ayi. He calls me back a few minutes later....A sparrow (or some other small bird) flew into the house earlier when she had the balcony doors open. She managed to catch it (I have no idea how) and put it in the box. But, she thought we might like to cook it for dinner which is why she left it in the kitchen. Small birds are quite tasty she says. WHAT?! This is my immediate reaction. Wow....talk about cultural differences.

At least it's in a box, so I just took the poor bird downstairs, let it out of the box and it flew away. Poor bird, to think it could have been my dinner.....

Blocked Websites in China

There are many websites that remain blocked in China. The government doesn't allow people to access many "free speech" sites like blogs, etc. But normally news sites like the New York Times or the BBC can be accessed.

I've been meaning to compile a list of all the sites I can't see and,below is a list of sites I haven't been able to access since I moved here in December.

• blogspot.com/blogger.com (all blogs - I can't even view my own blog!)
  
• Amnesty International
• Human Rights Watch and basically any other website related to Human Rights
  
• Wikipedia
• Wordpress (all sites)
• *Update: There is an article in today's news about some monks that were killed for protesting China's rule over Tibet. I'm unable to access the whole article. boo!! 8/14/08
  

I'm sure there are hundreds of other sites, I'll update this list as I come across others...

David Beckham in Shanghai!

And I missed him!! How did that happen?

Check it out.