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China's iPhone Girl: Brilliant Apple PR or lucky accident?

will — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:37:00 GMT

If you follow either Apple, the Chinese tech scene or Chinese Internet buzz, you've probably heard of "iPhone girl". A British man reportedly discovered several photos of this young lady, apparently a quality-assurance inspector at contract manufacturer Foxconn, on his newly purchased iPhone 3G. Reportedly the girl's photos were taken by her friend, who's job was to test the iPhone's built-in camera, but the photos were not deleted before the phone shipped.

iPhone girl caused a sensation both internationally and in China, conveniently right as negotiations between Apple and China Mobile to officially bring the iPhone to China apparently gathered momentum. (Unofficially, China is already awash in grey-market iPhones, unofficial accessory of the year among Starbucks-prowling urban Chinese professionals.)

China loves a good Internet sensation. The resulting wash of publicity for Apple has apparently made some people wonder if the whole incident was an orchestrated PR campaign. Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth has translated an interesting story from yWeekend (中), a weekly supplement published by Beijing Youth Daily, that investigates whether iPhone girl is genuine or the creation of a PR team. The whole thing is worth a read. Of particular interest to me is the conclusion, in which two "Internet promoters" speculate on the possibility that the whole thing is a campaign:

So what do the Internet promoters feel about this affair?

Interestingly, the two relatively famous Internet promoters held different views when interviewed by yWeekend.

Internet promoter Chen Mo had promoted famous Internet celebrities such as Little Celestial Girl and February Girl. Upon receiving the telephone call from the yWeekend reporter, he did not even require an explanation of the purpose. He snickered and said: "You are going to ask about the iPhoneGirl, right?"

"When it first started, it may have been real." Chen Mo speculated. There have been occasional reports that users found photos in their new mobile phones. But this is the first time that there were photos of the pretty worker who made the machine. It is not impossible for this to occur in the natural course of events. The post made by the Englishman did not contain any obvious flaws. So in the absence of evidence, let us assume that it is real.

"But once the affair gets propagated back to China, the manufacturer definitely took the opportunity to carry out a successful hype." Chen Mo told the reporter: "You can go to check the major websites and forums to see what type of people are stirring things up."

"Based upon my observations, it is mainly the Internet promoters who are writing about this. I don't have to name names. We are all in the same circle. This affair became so hot in just a few days. It is hard to believe that there wasn't anyone pushing it in the background."

The other Internet promoter is Li Er, who created incidents such as "exchanging a safety pin for a villa." He told the reporter directly that he already knows that the whole caper was planned from start to finish.

"This is clearly a case of Internet promotion. You can tell just from the process. I know who handled this 'case.' It is a team of people. But I cannot tell you who they are, because I am acquainted with them."

Li Er analyized: "This 'most beautiful Chinese worker' is like that 'most beautiful cleaning girl' that we did before. The concept is completely identical. You bring up a clean and pure image of a pleasant-looking beautifu lfemale worker. The only difference is that this affair was triggered by having a foreigner post photos to an overseas website. But this is precisely where it is brilliant."

"The planners of this affair thoroughly understand the Chinese mind -- a lot of Chinese people think that anything that happens overseas must be real. On this point, they were very successful." Li Er said that almost all of the popular "most beautiful girls" on the Internet were promoted by Internet promoters from behind the scene.

These so-called "most beautiful girls" are part of the "girl series." From Tianxian MM to the girl who swapped a safety pin for a villa," they were all variations of the same "girl series." The rapidity by which iPhoneGirl became red-hot popular on the Internet showed that the planning and execution of this campaign was perfect and effective.

"Why do I say that this was a perfect promotion? Because it successful used the girl to showcase the product and the manufacturer. The whole process looked very natural and unaffected.:

But Li Er said that the affair was not traceless.

For example, there was the news that Foxconn fired the girl. Li Er thought that this was another stage in the promotional campaign. The purpose was to create another twist in the story to continue to draw attention. But it was a bit too obvious. Actually, the girl had nothing to do with the actual taking of the photos. It was her co-worker who did it and that should have been the person to be fired. Bringing the fate of the girl into the process was done to secure the continual attention of the netizens.

Then Foxconn came out to dispel that rumor and assured everybody that the girl will not be fired. Foxconn said that this was just a "beautiful mistake." That kind of statement gives clue to the promotional effort.

"Before I even knew who the Internet promoters were, I had sensed that the whole matter was not so simple." Li Er said that ordinary people have no way of knowing the truth with such Internet promotional campaigns unless something goes wrong. The operators may disclose the truth some day, but certainly not while iPhoneGirl is hot.

So what do I think? Two observations:

First, viral campaigns are fiendishly tricky. P*rn aside, it's difficult to predict what will fire up the Internet. Despite the best efforts of PR people and digital marketers, most Internet sensations are accidental. Where they work in companies' favor, they are often lucky accidents, for instance where a particularly creative television commercial or promotional video picks up an Internet audience. There are certainly successful and creative online marketing campaigns, but few of them are truly viral in the sense of relying primarily on the enthusiasm of netizens for their propagation. Most incorporate a substantial traditional marketing component.

For that reason, most Internet stars in China have not been created by corporations, but instead come to public attention first and then been appropriated as spokespeople and endorsers. The classic example of this is the Backdorm Boys, who were funny dweebs first and celebrity pitchmen second. There are others as well, such as Tian Xian Mei Mei, Little Fatty and so on. Sam Flemming, of CIC, is the man to follow if you want to know more about this.

Second, simplicity is essential, and any campaign that could be exposed as fake risks a severe backlash. Commercial viral successes are usually --though not always-- transparently linked to their parent brands simply because people don't like to feel duped. No one wants the viral communication about their company to be a hate campaign.

On the simplicity test the case for iPhone girl as an engineered campaign looks weak. The scenario: Apple has a freelance English accomplice, Mark Mitchell, claim on MacRumors in August to have discovered the photos in his phone in the hope that this will cause a wave of publicity and discussion in China in order to...what? Increase Apple's negotiating leverage with China Mobile? Get people salivating for an iPhone that's already a grey-market hit?

Maybe. But it's a touch Rube Goldberg for me. It also requires complicity and secrecy from many parties, including the guy who posted on MacRumors (who has since given interviews), Foxconn, the QA girl/model and whoever was involved in planning and executing the campaign. In PR, as anywhere else, two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. If anyone blew the whistle, Apple would have anti-PR in China. Apple may be evil marketing geniuses, but crazy-suicidal they aren't. If the QA girl thinks she has human-flesh search engine problems now, wait until the Chinese Internet community think she's a pawn in an attempt to dupe them. Plus, it's hard to imagine Foxconn agreeing to a plan that makes them look sloppy.

Occam's razor suggests that these were in fact test photos that accidentally leaked and were discovered by an iPhone fan in the UK. Apple creatively exploiting the situation for PR is totally believable, although perhaps redundant.

Sure, it's possible this was an engineered campaign. If so, hats off to Apple. But Imagethief would also suggest they start covering their asses in asbestos.

Sept 7th Update: Why couldn't it be a Foxconn campaign?

Reader WGJ posted an interesting thought in the comments below. One or two friends had raised it with me offline as well, so I thought it was worth addressing in the body (the wording is similar, but not identical, to the wording in my comment response, also below.

I don't understand why you assume if it's a campaign, it has to from Apple. To me, Foxconn is the much more likely puppet master.

Certainly it's nice for Foxconn to have one of their workers shown happy and enjoying her job, which goes against the stereotype of the Chinese manufacturing drone. But the public isn't Foxconn's audience, except in the rare occasions when Foxconn has to defend itself against charges of poor worker treatment, as happened with iPod manufacturing a couple of years ago. I am not aware of any such situation brewing now.

Foxconn's customers --and thus its main PR audience other than investors-- are Big IT companies, such as Apple, HP and so on, who sell to the public and who generally like their contract manufacturers to stay as invisible as possible. In serving those customers, Foxconn lives and dies by its ability to maintain quality, consistency and product secrecy. Anything that makes the company look sloppy, as this does, seems unlikely to be part of a campaign they would orchestrate.

In fact, I rather expect they had some explaining to do, both to Apple and their other customers. This doesn't look like a Foxconn PR campaign. I just don't see what they gain. It looks more like something that might might make Foxconn's PR people sweat.

Are you for real?

Will we all burn in a fire made of mooncake packaging?

will — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:35:00 GMT

Imagethief likes the Mid-Autumn Festival. I like it because even though it actually comes in late summer, it reminds me of autumn, and autumn is famously the nicest time of year in Beijing. In any year devoid of Olympic rigging, late summer in Beijing is intolerably hot, muggy and polluted. This year it was merely hot.

Over the years many people have told Imagethief that the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival falls in summer because of inconsistency between the Chinese lunar and western Gregorian calendars. This is total BS and I see no reason why I should accept obviously finagled explanations from people just because they are "Chinese". The real reason is that without some reminder of imminent autumn and its much improved climate, half the population of Beijing would commit suicide in late August and early September, in the dregs of the Venusian summer atmosphere. In Scandinavia it's the lightless winters that do it. In Beijing it's the airless summers.

If you assume that Beijing has fourteen million people (and don't bother controlling for migrant labor, tourists, etc.) a one year half-life would leave Beijing with a population of just thirteen people in a mere twenty years. This would obviously be totally unacceptable to government mandarins, who would no longer be able to feel the satisfaction of clearing out an entire lane on Chang'an Ave. and making millions of gridlocked commuters watch them roar past in a motorcade. Roaring past one peasant and his donkey cart on an otherwise completely deserted twelve lane boulevard just doesn't have the same effect, and anyway the same effect can be had in the new Burmese capital-cum-supervillain hideout of Naypyidaw.

So Mid-Autumn Festival is a good thing. We all agree on that. However, just as the miracle of a Tex-Mex dinner comes with the heartbreak of punishing day-after flatulence, the miracle of Mid-Autumn Festival comes with its own curse: Mooncakes.

Mooncakes are the Chinese fruitcake: Cloying pastries that appears once a year for traditional reasons that everyone has forgotten, generally as gifts, and which, cockroach-like, resist all attempts at eradication. If you must know the history, it's on Wikipedia. Scroll right to the bottom, since most of the entry is devoted to the culinary characteristics.

Many people complain to Imagethief about mooncakes. Inedible. Gross. Heavy. Burn longer than a tin of Sterno. And so on. To direct all this anger at the innocent and humble mooncake itself is to miss the point. First, Imagethief likes mooncake, albeit in small doses (it's best cut with Chinese tea on the side). Of course, Imagethief also likes fruitcake. In fact, Imagethief pretty much likes anything sweet. I'd eat gravel if you mixed it with brown sugar.

But the other thing is that is that the main problem with the mooncake is not the cake itself. It's the packaging, which could be the least green consumer item since the Hummer.

I was reminded of this when the translation company delivered a palletload of mooncake boxes to me and my team as part of the obligatory upward mooncake flow from vendor to client. Each of us received a heavy, embossed and foil stamped bag with rope handles. In the bag was a heavy cardboard box with a tri-fold faux-embroidery lid with faux-embroidery dragon applique. Within the box was a cardboard frame wrapped in a faux-silk shroud and lovingly cradling eight mooncakes. Each mooncake was in an individual cardboard box, a sealed plastic wrap and a plastic cup. Two pairs of wooden chopsticks in a fabric envelope were included for good measure. The theme throughout was tasteful and subdued imperial yellow garnished with dragons.

Gross weight: About two and a half kilos. Net weight: About 640 grams. Multiply by a nation of 1.3 billion people. Sure, not everybody gets mooncakes. But some of us get lots of mooncakes. You can see where the environmental toll will start to add up.

Fortunately, the picture is not as grim as it seems. Like fruitcakes, mooncakes are, if not an infinitely renewable resource, at least an infinitely recyclable one. Every year at this time the hand-lettered "recycle mooncakes" signs go up outside neighborhood shops and on curbside stands. Like overpackaged Chinese brandy sets, mooncakes are infinitely re-giftable. Shanghai, ever the city of commerce, has brought the mooncake recycling market to unprecedented levels of trading sophistication. Rather than give physical mooncakes, it's common to give a coupon that can be redeemed for mooncakes. These coupons are then traded on an informal exchange of office ladies and household ahyis that offers NYMEX-like liquidity. Like the oil futures market, it seems that the actual mooncakes rarely enter into the final equation. However there is some risk as, like a bank run, its unclear if the system could actually withstand a mass-redemption event.

The upshot is that while approximately four billion tons of mooncakes are gifted every mid-autumn, only about ten pounds are actually consumed. This means that the packaging situation is perhaps not as bleak as it first appeared.

Imagethief sees this as yet another sign of Chinese technological advancement. Like an MRE a mooncake has a nearly infinite shelf life, allowing for century after century of suck-up regifting on a highly leveraged environmental footprint. Surely this is a system worthy of the inventors of moveable type, the compass, paper money, rhinestone dog collars, the Slinky, aerosol breath freshener, etc. etc.

The mooncake tradition traces its history back to the fourteenth century. How charming and ecologically sensible that the mooncake you are now slicing into may also date back to that same century.

Eat this!

Your caption here

will — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:05:00 GMT

Mommy's corpse is so much easier to travel with since we
got this Japanese electronic sarcophagus!

A tale of two Sidneys

will — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:04:00 GMT

Today a colleague sent Imagethief a link to an interesting article from the UAE-based newspaper The National about one of the very small group of foreigners who came to China before or during the Communist Revolution and have stayed ever since. The article, a couple of weeks old but still worth a read, chronicles the life of Mr. Sidney Shapiro, an American communist who came to China in 1947 and has been here ever since. Much of the story is dedicated to contrasting Shapiro with another, better known American communist, Sidney Rittenberg, author of the memoir The Man Who Stayed Behind:

As a writer, Shapiro’s customary style is plain and affable, in the manner of a grandfather at Thanksgiving dinner. He is a devoted user of the exclamation point. He can be biting on occasion, but only in mild, folksy language: he calls Nikita Khrushchev a “pipsqueak” and Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, a “screwball.”

Only one subject makes Shapiro lose his temper, and it isn’t imperialism or the lamas of Tibet (though he has compared them to Nazis). He reserves his fullest ire for a man to whom he bears a few resemblances – an elderly Jewish American who learnt Mandarin in the army, settled in Beijing with a Chinese wife, worked as a translator, and wrote a book about his experiences. His name is also Sidney.
Sidney Rittenberg is the 86-year-old author of The Man Who Stayed Behind (1993), a memoir of his experiences in China from the 1940s until he moved back to America in 1980. The book has been far more widely read than Shapiro’s autobiography, largely because it was co-written by a professional journalist, Amanda Bennett, and so possesses a scene-driven, concentrated quality that Shapiro’s story lacks – but also because it contains up-close portraits of all the Communist leaders. Rittenberg played cards with Mao and Zhou Enlai, danced with Jiang Qing, and was even set up on a blind date with Wang Guangmei, eventual wife to Sixties-era head of state Liu Shaoqi. As a party member – unlike Shapiro – Rittenberg had access to secret information, like Central Committee memos to his work unit. While Shapiro’s story is that of an American slowly becoming a Chinese common man, Rittenberg’s purports to be an inside account of the Maoist elite.
Both men were prominent figures in Beijing’s foreign community, but they were never friends. In fact, they detest each other. Shapiro has gone out of his way to blast Rittenberg, calling him a “poseur,” a “hypocrite,” “an obvious hustler,” “a typical high-pressure salesman,” a “slippery liar” and “a shockingly inept and transparent spinner of tall tales.”

Rittenberg, for his part, doesn’t deign to mention Shapiro’s name in print, but in a recent phone interview from his home near Seattle, he offered a series of unverifiable claims casting aspersions on Shapiro’s political beliefs, his role in China’s foreign-expert community, and even his personal life. “Sidney Shapiro is one of my least favourite people in the world,” he said. “My question is, how sincerely was he dedicated to the Chinese revolution, and how much was it a way of getting ahead in the world – and getting ahead in China?”
The two Sidneys, perhaps, stand for opposing approaches to the Mao era. Shapiro’s regard for Communism seems based almost entirely on the system’s practical value: he had seen poverty and corruption under the previous regime, and he thought that Mao had effectively changed things. Shapiro never met any senior figures (though his wife did), he never had a high-ranking position, and he never claimed to know more about Maoism than anyone else.
Rittenberg, on the other hand, was an ideas man. He’d joined the Communist Party in America before the war, and after an army posting in southwestern China he’d deliberately got a job with a UN relief organisation in order to make his way to the Communist headquarters in Yanan. The Chinese Communist Party granted him membership – an extremely rare thing for a foreigner – and even after serving six years in prison, having been mistakenly branded a spy (from 1949 to 1955), he emerged as a true believer in the cause. In Shapiro’s words, he was “holier than Mao”.

The article was interesting but also a bit disappointing. Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Rittenberg are genuinely interesting figures. The bitterness of their comments about each other suggests something more than philosophical differences or the gulf between a run of the mill "foreign expert" (if there can be considered to be such a thing) and a party insider. But there is little illumination. Although the journalist interviewed both men, he seems to stay symphathetic to Shapiro, who is presented as an ideological stalwart while Rittenberg is portrayed as a capitalist backslider, fleeing back to the US to consult for multinational corporations and hustling off to buy iPhones. Given two spells in prison, including one for ten years, it's perhaps not such a hard decision to understand. The story also glosses over the cost Shapiro paid for his allegience to the Chinese cause, both in terms of family and friends back home and the imprisonment of his Chinese life. There seems to me to be much more there that could be told.

Still, it's interesting. Shapiro was a True Believer who went native in a country where doing so was never easy, let alone during the xenophobic days of Maoism. Have a read and see what you think.

Notes:

The National is a relatively new newspaper that was started in Abu Dhabi with the objective of being something akin to print version of Al Jazeera International (to which it is not related), competing with the likes of the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal Asia. It will be interesting to see if they succeed.
Disclosure: Imagethief was briefly a colleague of Sidney Rittenberg's son, Sidney Rittenberg Jr. I have no relationship with him now.
Hat tip: Matt O. and also Charles Dickens.

True believer.
Image from The National.

The trouble with vox pop

will — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:25:00 GMT

Imagethief, being an arrogant son of a bitch and a bona-fide member of the Ivory Tower Elite, is seldom interested in what the common man has to say. Nothing gets me to change the channel faster than an "iReport" segment on CNN, or the BBC equivalent. Of course, most professional pundits are equally useless, so in a sense, my contempt is equal-opportunity. There is a limited amount of good, thoughtful analysis out there. And then there is a sea of crap (arguably including this blog).

Unfortunately, crap is useful. Especially when people are cherry-picking comments to drive home a preconceived idea or message. You see one strain of this in the use of comments from Chinese Internet posts to liven up stories on controversial Chinese issues. It makes for lively copy, but it represents a particularly extreme sample composed largely of adolescent men operating under a reassuring cloak of anonymity. Imagine if you tried to illustrate American popular sentiment by quoting only the most extreme points of view from American political blogs. The rest of the world would have America quarantined and sterilized as a precaution.

The Chinese authorities do perhaps share some blame for this, since they've historically made it tricky to interview Chinese people on delicate topics. But they're equally complicit. Cherry picking the comments isn't just some trick of our fiendish western media, as you can see from this China Daily story in which various tourists speak in glowing terms of how their visit to Beijing has made the scales fall from their eyes:

Pippa Haughton, 20, was amazed by the efficiency of the city's public transportation system. "I found the subways really good," says Haughton. "We also took the buses to work everyday, and it was great."

Twenty-year-old student Abbey Wright admitted she thought she would see a poorer city.

"I was expecting more poverty," she says. "But, I haven't really seen much poverty here."
First-time visitor Dan Collis, who was astounded by Olympic venues like the Bird's Nest and Water Cube, said the Chinese capital was a far cry from how the country is often depicted back home through American media.
***
"It's different here from what was portrayed," says the 47-year-old Boston-native, adding he had "no problems" obtaining a visa despite media reports claiming difficulties for tourists. "Everything was above and beyond what I expected."

His American buddy Gary Coupal also praised China for its strong organization of the Games.

"I was really proud of China because they really came through despite the Western media's continuance bashing of the Olympics," says the 52-year-old. "I think they (Western media) kept more people away than any fear of the Chinese government."

"China pulled it off and did a great job," he adds with a grin.

And so on. I particularly like how the editors felt the need to make sure you knew Mr. Coupal was refering to "western media" in the second half of his quote but somehow missed the word "continuance".You gotta have your priorities straight.

Imagethief agrees that the Games went splendidly, and Beijing was pretty much at its best. Visitors were right to be impressed with Beijing which, I'd be the first to admit, is in many ways a very cool city. And I am sure all these commenters are totally sincere. After all, just because Imagethief's father had to go to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco four times last March and ask me to send him a formal letter of invitation and copies of all my visa, work permit and residency documentation so he could come meet his grandson doesn't mean that everyone had such an annoying experience. And tourists can't well expected to be roaming around the poor villages in the rural areas of Beijing municipality, especially with all the Olympic checkpoints in place.

But I also think it should be against international law to publish any story like this without making all the comments collected by the reporters available to the public, perhaps via the technological miracle of the Internet. Because I would really like to see the comments that ended up on the cutting room floor:

"I couldn't get a visa and I had to sneak my way into the country across the Burmese border," said American tourist Biff Snyderman. "Then I bought a bunch of counterfeit Olympic tickets. You people are all crooks and thieves."

Well, we'll just stop rolling the tape right now, Mr. Snyderman. Thank you so much for your time. Please stay here until the relevant authorities arrive with some duct tape.

But perhaps it wasn't even necessary to cherry pick in this case. After all, everyone they spoke to probably had Olympic tickets and perforce had successfully obtained a visa. Wander around Wangfujing and the Olympic Green interviewing foreigners and you're probably selecting for a certain point of view as surely as western journalists are when they comb the Internet chat rooms looking for nationalist rants.

And even taking the time to gather vox pop may be redundant when you can simply rewrite foreign coverage. Black and White cat had a great example of this a few days ago. Deadline coming? Rewriting too much trouble? Just write a glowing meta-story about the foreign story of your choice, as McLatchy's Tim Johnson discovered that Xinhua did with one of his pieces:

This time, Xinhua or China Daily didn’t actually carry the story, applying the scissors to negative paragraphs. Rather, Xinhua wrote a story about the story. Here’s what the agency said:

U.S. media: Beijing Olympics a "clear success"
WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- A week into the Beijing Olympic Games, athletes brim with praise for the Olympics venues, and the Games are seen as a "clear success," the McClatchy newspapers reported Friday.

Tim thoughtfully provides his original headline and lede:

Now here’s the actual story I wrote:

China sees Games as success, thanks to rain and fakery
By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
BEIJING — A week into the Summer Games, athletes brim with praise for the Olympics venues, rain has mercifully cleared the skies of smog and China beams at its success even as it deflects charges of "phony spectators" and other fakery at the games.

So, really, who needs vox pop?

Update:

See also Kaiser's interesting and opinionated post on Internet vox pop here.

I apologize to Beijing's air, plus how to get rid of an infestation of brides

will — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:14:00 GMT

Snark goeth before the eating of a generous helping of crow.

I owe Beijing an apology. On Thursday and Friday I lamented the return of Beijing's air pollution to what I assumed was status quo ante. But yesterday was one of those days --of which Beijing gets a mere handful each year-- that make you realize how time here erodes your standards for a "nice day". Any day where blue is visible at the vault of the sky is "nice", even if blue fades to sooty yellow at the horizon.

Not so yesterday. It was though someone had peeled waxed paper off of every surface in the city. Colors, textures and edges were suddenly everywhere. The zenith was blue, and the blue continued all the way down except where it was interrupted by white clouds. The Northern and Western hills were sharply visible in the distance, not just the vague suggestion of hills that they normally are.

If I needed proof that Beijing has a sense of humor, this was it. The city waited until all of its Olympic guests had left and then dropped the last of its veils and wallowed in unselfconscious glory. Take that, Olympic carpetbaggers! You could have run for endless kilometers in air like that.

Which is pretty much what I did, running along the Tonghui He both days. On Saturday I ran to the east, and around Gaobeidian Reservoir. On Sunday, when the air was truly magnificent, I ran west, toward downtown, with the Western Hills in front of me. I wrote two years ago about walking along Tonghui He, but I started running it just two or three weeks ago to add some variety to my normal Tuanjiehu routes. It was much less nasty than I remembered, although hardly gorgeous. There are some interesting old neighborhoods wedged between the banks and development to the north and railway lines to the south.

The canal isn't the only thing that was better than I remembered. On Sunday we also took Zachary for a walk through Chaoyang Park. Perhaps it's because my last walk through the park was a late autumn one nearly two years ago, or perhaps there has been some Olympic refurbishment, but I remembered Chaoyang Park as being rather desolate and bare. It was neither. While it doesn't manage the historic charm of Beihai or some of the big temple parks, it was pleasant and leafy and simply awash with families.

It was also awash with brides. Literally dozens of them, all over the park, all having their photographs taken for bridal albums. (Five years ago in Singapore, Imagethief and Mrs. Imagethief did something similar, although instead of going the park, which seemed dull, we made our photographers drive around until we found an enormous, abandoned backhoe near Changi airport and posed on top of it. That's just the kind of people we are.)

I don't know if these brides simply lucked into clear air on their appointed day, or if their are legions of photographers waiting on call for good weather, but there they all were. It was like an infestation of celebrity princesses, with girls in poofy white dresses prancing among the trees, often followed by teams of photographers and slightly sheepish looking young men in tuxedos in various unfortunate shades of blue.

It made me wonder how one gets rid of an infestation brides. When I lived in Singapore there was an aggressive program to trap the crows that infested the city. One technique involved enormous, wire cages with one-way doors placed in crow-friendly areas. The bait was generally a suspended, pink plastic bag of the kind that might contain two or three steamed buns from the local hawker center.

A similar technique might work for all these brides mincing about the park. A few large, wire cages with one-way doors and the appropriate bait --perhaps a Cuisinart, a Chery QQ or the deed to a new flat in Wangjing-- and we'd soon have that bride problem licked. Then they could all be relocated to a shopping mall, or the church on Wangfujing which, I am sure we all agree, is much more humane and environmentally friendly than poisoning them.

Note: Imagethief promises not to write about the weather or brides again any time soon.

Excellent gallery of late '50s Chinese political cartoons

will — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:58:00 GMT

Via Boing Boing, Ethan Persoff's website of political and counterculture cartoons (and other interesting things) has an excellent gallery of 35 late '50s and early '60s Chinese political cartoons. Unfortunately the cartoons are not translated, but the images generally speak for themselves. If you're interested in Chinese propaganda art or Cold War propaganda in general, check it out.

Smash Yi Seung-Man!
(Yi Seung-Man was the first president of South Korea. Image from
Ethan Persoff's site.)

Would sir like lung cancer or deafness with his old age?

will — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:53:00 GMT

Like a giant kid who's been holding a fart in during a three week elevator ride, Beijing has apparently relaxed its many industrial sphincters and let a big one rip. That's the only way I can explain the lighting-fast deterioration in air quality. In the space of about 36 hours the skies have transformed from the Olympic blue we all got perhaps just a bit too used to into standard northeastern industrial fug. Checking the SEPA website I was depressed to see that Beijing's air is actually worse than notorious air-pollution disaster areas Xian and Shijiazhuang. Payback's a bitch.

I knew it would happen, but it's depressing nevertheless. Yesterday morning I still managed a run even though the air was already silting up. Today it was all I could do to get out of bed and shuffle into the gym for some conspicuously non-aerobic exercises. Even so, I could feel my lungs calcifying while I lifted. A couple more weeks and it'll feel like I'm trying to breathe with two giant Brillo pads in my chest. The ones with the layer of cheap, pink soap on them.

Perhaps anticipating the change the in weather, my gym has installed two big IQAir filters. This should be a welcome addition given that, despite my best attempts to persuade myself otherwise, the air in the gym has always been as bad as the air outside, with haze visible in the spotlights during particularly grim days. On good air days the air in the gym is actually worse than the air outside, reeking of industrial carpeting, formaldehyde and burned plastic. Honestly, if not for the fact that during winter I can get from my apartment to the gym without ever stepping outside, I'd have given up on it long ago.

The problem with the filters is that the gym has exchanged one kind of pollution for another. One of the reasons why I like working out in the mornings is that the gym is quiet. There are no aerobics or spin classes filling the air with the shockingly loud THUMPA THUMPA THUMPA of bad dance music. The music coming out of the PA is quieter than in the evenings, and the girl at the counter is usually willing to turn it down when I ask.

This is good, because turning up my iPod to compete with ambient noise in the evenings had begun to damage my ears. Really. My standard first reply to anything my wife said had become, "Huh? What'd you say?" I had to switch to in-ear headphones to block more of the noise and enable me to keep the volume low enough that I wasn't caving in my eardrums.

Unfortunately, the IQAir filters in the gym are clearly comps. They're not free-standing, but rather embedded into large kiosks that contain brochures, which I don't mind, and LCD TV screens showing an IQAir marketing video, which I do mind. I mind it because the videos come with loud sound. Short of kicking the plug out, and thus turning off the filter, there seems to be no way to reduce the volume the level. This leaves me with a dilemma: Do I prefer lung cancer or deafness? Of course, you will recognize this as a false choice, with the likely actual outcome being deafness and lung cancer. But permit me my illusions.

At a stroke, I like my gym even less. I've also never been happier to be the owner of filters from IQAir's rival, BlueAir. If you're buying filters, remember: BlueAir. Their slogan: "We haven't fucked up Imagethief's gym with more ambient noise." If that's not reason enough to buy, I don't know what is.

Really, we're just editing for word count

will — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:29:00 GMT

Black and White Cat compares an August 10th New York Times article on Beijing's preparation for the Olympics with a heavily "improved" version run in translation in the Beijing Evening News (with attribution). The Cat creatively shows the ~~omissions~~ and additions together:

Visitors to the Olympics, however, ~~can be forgiven for thinking~~ are discovering that China is a land of ~~unnatural~~ youthfulness where it seems nobody is older than 30. About 100,000 volunteers, wearing blue “Beijing 2008” shirts, are working at these Games, staffing the stadiums, gymnasiums and security stations, ~~driving golf carts, answering questions or just standing around and greeting people — “communicating smile and building harmony,” in the words of a Beijing organizing committee news release.~~ all of them wearing a smile. Close to 90 percent of them are in their 20s. ~~Older Chinese, and there are plenty in Beijing, are mostly out of sight.~~

Imagethief is entirely sure they were editing solely for word-count, and the thought of massaging the content never entered their heads.

More seriously, if the entire meaning and tone of the story is changed, one wonders if the attribution is still desirable.

All hail the Olympic Games, except for those who praise them

will — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:35:00 GMT

Xinhua headlines from the last 36 hours, almost all of which came to me in one Google news alert:

Personally I don't know whether to praise the games or hail them. It's a tough choice.

Updated Aug 27 - The hails keep coming:

World media hail Beijing Olympic Games

Beware the woman carrying a box of Fuwa

will — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:13:00 GMT

Those who live in Beijing and commute on the subway will know that bags are now X-rayed on the way into the station. The security is already fairly porous in several ways. For instance, they only seem to cover one of three entrances at the station by my office. However, as I was heading home last night, I spotted a particularly Olympic-themed vulnerability. I noted that, while the security staff X-rayed the bag of the girl in front of me, they didn't feel it was necessary to X-ray the big box of five plush Olympic-mascot Fuwa/Friendlies toys she was carrying.

Insert your own dastardly plot here.

BoomBoom!

A bit twee

will — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:40:00 GMT

From a typical "Great Firewall" article from The Canadian Press, this delicious quote on the Power of the Interweb:

"We face so many shared global problems right now, you need some kind of global communications medium through which citizens around the world can communicate and share ideas," says Ronald Deibert, director of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab.
"We need to find ways to protect these commons as something essential for what you might call planetary democracy to thrive."

A few thoughts:

Planetary democracy? On which planet? Last I checked liberal democracy was the exception on this planet, which is all the more reason I'm happy to come from one.
China's Internet censorship ultimately does very little to impinge upon the value of the Internet as a global communications medium in China. I can attest first-hand to the large amount of international communication that the Internet is enabling within China. With regard to the majority of Chinese Internet users, language is probably a more important barrier to their ability to access international content.

The Chinese government's attempts to manage communication within China are much more socially significant than its efforts to block undesirable content from outside China. That's why Imagethief subscribes to Danwei's point of view that "Net Nanny" is a better metaphor than "Great Firewall" for China's online censorship apparatus, even if it doesn't have the delicious historical ring about it. But I think Jeremy is fighting a lonely and probably doomed battle on this front.
This is one of those articles that manages, without ever saying it explicitly, to paint a picture of Chinese Internet users as helpless, befuddled souls who would be enlightened if they only had unfettered access to The Glorious Commons. It just ain't so.

Foreign media vs. Wang Wei II, plus the trouble with transcripts

will — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:36:00 GMT

Via the China Digital Times, this outstanding excerpt from the transcript of Wednesday's IOC/BOCOG press conference (the ninth in a wretched series, we are informed). I've excised some back and forth between the question and response:

South China Morning Post: Mr. Wang and Giselle, we did get to know there were 77 applicants to the protest. First question is: would you consider these parks a success or would they be part of the lasting legacy of the Games? Those few people in China who are not happy can now go to similar zones. Is there, if I look into history, is there any correlation between Chairman Mao's '100 flower campaign' and the protest parks? Giselle, does it make a mockery of the best practice of the IOC that they persuade of the host city to do? Thank you very much.

Wang Wei: On the issue of demonstration, the basic situation has been already announced by the authorities. And I think you should be satisfied with that. The demonstration parks are announced. There are three places on the basis of Chinese law. The idea of demonstration is to hoping to resolve issue it is not demonstrating for the sake of demonstration. We are actually quite happy to hear that many of the 77 cases have been resolved. Now the resolution of these protests was through dialogue and communication. And this is also a part of way to do in Chinese culture. For instance, in China, if somebody wants to complain to courts or they want to launch a protest to the courts, the courts probably first engaged mediation first to see whether dialogues are a possible solution. Even for civil cases, for instance, people want to get divorce, the community tries to mediate fist.

The Chinese cultural always emphasis the concept of harmony, so if it can be resolved through mediation and the divorce is withdrawn, then everybody is very happy about that. Other countries may not think that is very good but in China, we think it is a good thing. Of course, if you insist on divorce, you can go through the legal process to get the divorce. So I think for these people who want to demonstrate or protest, this is my personal opinion, is that they want to find a solution to their problem and once there is a solution, they will be satisfied. Of course, solution should come through legal means and not through demonstration. But now the Chinese law also accepts possible to use this method. I think that is a characteristic of Chinese law. You mentioned just now Mao Zedong led a ‘100 flowers bloom’ that is in an attempt to let everybody to express their opinion. I think everybody has the right to speak. Nobody said that you don’t have the right to speak. This is another thing. This is not the same as demonstrating. Thank you.

"Chinese culture always emphasizes the concept of harmony." In principle perhaps. In practice, I can safely say after four years here, less so. Still, track record to date: Zero protests approved. Very harmonious. You have to give Wang props for having the data points to support his thesis. You also have to admire the bureaucracy's perfect ability "resolve" these cases. How they might be resolved Imagethief will leave to his readers to imagine.

Reading through the transcripts, all of which are online here, gives you a real sense of the formula at work. Completely anodyne opening statements followed by probing questions from foreign media that receive mostly anodyne answers, and (generally later in the process) softball questions from Chinese media that receive mostly anodyne answers. One wonders why anyone is showing up at this point.

The transcripts themselves a sloppy bit of work, and seem not have been copy edited at all. I understand that there is probably a bit of pressure to get them up quickly, but still it's a bit of a shocker. They read like they've been transcribed and proofed by Chinese speakers, if at all. (In one transcript Wang Wei explains how they are "cramping down" on scalpers, which sounds really painful.)

But that's mostly a style issue, and it doesn't have much to do with the actual content. Which isn't to say that content might not be an issue. From that same session:

Fox News Radio - Mr. Wang Wei, Mr. Timo Lumme, Madam Davies, who makes the decision on the content of the transcripts of these briefings because they are not accurate.
Wang Wei - I think you can consulate [sic] with the website. It is the website that makes the final content. I think they are doing that according to what actually happened.
Fox News Radio - Ok, I accepted that. Thank you.

Imagethief has e-mailed the Fox News Radio journalist to ask if he has indeed "accepted that". I'll advise on any response I get.

However, the issue of transcripts is interesting. In China it is common practice for an organization hosting a press conference or interview to record the session and prepare a transcript for distribution to attending media. Occasionally these get printed wholesale, which can be uncomfortable for incautious spokespeople. Talk to local PR professionals and you'll often hear about how the transcripts are necessary for "lazy journalists." Maybe. But Imagethief thinks this is less an indicator of the energy of Chinese journalists than one of those unfortunate habits like the "transportation claim" that has been enshrined as standard practice, and to which all parties in the process, Chinese journalists included, have got too comfortable with.

There is nothing inherently wrong with providing a transcript to journalists who have often anyway recorded the interview themselves. In fact, when dealing with foreign spokespeople and interpreters, a translated Chinese transcript can be a big help to journalists trying to find relevant material. The problem is that such transcripts are often "cleaned up" prior to distribution. Much of this is relatively innocent, and has to do with fact checking and ensuring correct terminology survives interpretation. But it can go beyond that, with misstatements corrected, messages tightened, and that sort of thing. Even so, most of the time this is minor stuff that isn't going to shake the pillars of society. Journalists don't seem to care because it saves them doing their own transcription or listening back to sixty minutes of fluff to find the twenty seconds of quotable insight.

But like the transportation claim, no matter innocently employed it's a symptom of the unfortunately cozy relationship between press and PR in China. And when people get too comfortable with something, it's easier to abuse. Thus, it wouldn't surprise me to find that BOCOG are editing the transcripts of the press conferences. They don't seem to be removing entire questions, since there are plenty of pointy ones still in there. But it doesn't stretch the imagination too far to picture them editing the responses or softening charged language. There is no video or audio provided by BOCOG that would enable comparison.

Of course, it's also perfectly likely that they're simply sloppy and in a rush. But in China, a transcript issued by the hosts of a press conference is always a little bit suspect.

Foreign media incidents during the Olympics: So much for detente

will — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:27:00 GMT

The latest incident report from the Foreign Correspondents Club of China is out. It doesn't make for pretty reading:

BEIJING: OFFICERS ROUGH UP AP PHOTOGRAPHERS, SEIZE MEMORY CARDS
August 20, 2008: Two Associated Press photographers attempting to cover an Olympics-timed protest were roughed up by plainclothes security officers, forced into cars and taken to a nearby building where they were questioned before being released, the news service reported. Memory cards from their cameras were confiscated.

The two were separately trying to find a planned protest by free Tibet supporters late Wednesday southwest of the Bird's Nest stadium. They arrived separately and each was set upon by people in civilian dress, apparently plainclothes state security agents or police. One was knocked to the ground, had his face pressed in the dirt, arm twisted behind his back and his cameras ripped from him. The other was tackled from behind, pushed to the ground, had his camera grabbed, all while being filmed.

They were forced into different unmarked cars, taken separately to an office a few blocks away, and held separately. Their photo cards were taken away. One was asked his views on Tibet. He was held for about 30-40 minutes before he was released. The other photographer was held for a similar length of time and then released.

There have been other incidents during the Olympic period, despite pledges of freedom to report. Many of them have been out in the provinces where Beijing's guarantees have often been about as useful as an anvil in a life raft. But some of them, as evidenced by the report above, have been closer to home. Details on the FCCC's ominously titled "Detentions and Harassment" page.

More debate on He Kexin and "babygate"

will — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:29:00 GMT

"Babygate" being the best sounding label I can come up with for this controversy.

First, interesting posts from the Stryde Hax blog on "Google hacking" information about He Kexin. Essentially this involves using Google's advanced search features to target very specific kinds of information. His queries on Google.cn and Baidu lead him to cached versions of spreadsheets from the General Administration of Sports of China that pretty clearly list a 1994 birthday for the golden girl of Chinese gymnastics. The Baidu cache versions (here and here) were still live when I looked. Interestingly, however, the files started evaporating from Google.CN's cache more or less as the Stryde Hax blogger was doing his digging.

What does it mean? <Rod Serling>I invite you to draw your own conclusions.</Rod Serling> But it's also worth reading a post from the always interesting Fool's Mountain blog that looks at the problem of age manipulation in Chinese sports and wonders if He Kexin's age could have been massaged down rather than up:

In fact, in the comments to a prior post, I’ve raised the point that Chinese parents change birthdays of children quite often for a variety of reasons or advantages, to older or younger, hence the possibility that things could go either way with He Kexin. He really could be 16, yet still nobody would want to come out and explain the age changing in local competitions — that’s just another can of worms. Anyway, this certainly isn’t proof of anything nor is it great news. The point is simply that, before jumping to conclusions on something having to with China, it is worth considering the other possilities, and at the least, consider that other possibilities do exist.

That last thought is definitely worth bearing in mind. Nevertheless, Imagethief had the good luck to be in the stands for the finals of the women's uneven bars on Monday night, which meant I had the pleasure of seeing He, her only slightly less microscopic teammate Yang Yilin, and American Nastia Liukin (who seems gigantic by comparison) compete. All the Chinese female gymnasts are tiny. He is teeny tiny. If it's a stretch to accept her as turning 16 this year, imagining her any older is downright impossible. Still, it was thrill to watch all three of them perform. They're all great athletes and they all deserve recognition.

While He has got most of the attention, both because she's a pint-size medalling machine and because the controversy hovers most closely over her, Yang has come in for her share of attention as well. I was interested to see a commentary from the AP that is constructed around the theme of Yang as helpless victim:

How fragile she looked, like a baby deer in the headlights of an oncoming SUV. Little pink hearts and the word "love" in blue letters decorated her hair clips. The glitter on her forehead twinkled under the lights. Chalk was encrusted where the skin met her slender fingernails. So thin, so uneasy, so out of place she seemed, in a downstairs room in Beijing's National Indoor Stadium. She'd just won an Olympic bronze medal in all-around gymnastics, one of the toughest sporting tests there is.
***
[A little hesitantly], Yang started to answer the questions. And the more she said, the more shocking it was. The answers were brief, spoken without heart. What emerged was a picture of a young girl who has been kept largely cut off from family and the outside world for more than a year, so she could be intensely trained to win medals for China at its own Olympics.

I have no doubt that China's gymnastics training regimen is brutal, and the cold mechanics of China's national sporting machine definitely deserve scrutiny. I also think the evidence of an age scandal is pretty compelling. Perhaps Yang is a victim. But she, along with He, is also a talent and should be celebrated as such. The rest of the world, America included, has had its grim training stories, especially in sports like gymnastics and figure skating for which the feedstock is young girls. This article has a whiff of the old cold-war double standard. Ours=plucky, heroic achievers. Theirs=manufactured robots/slaves/dopers.

Perhaps she's a victim of the Communist Sports Machine. Perhaps she's just a teenage girl who is a spectacular gymnast, who's had a hard year of training, and who is uncomfortable talking to the media. As Nimrod wrote on that Fool's Mountain post, consider that other possibilities do exist.

Hat tip: Adrian.

Previously on Imagethief:

Gymnasts, now and then

Update:

The UK's Times on the IOC's opening of an investigation following the Stryde Hax disclosures. For whatever reason, these spreadsheets seem to have catalyzed more of a reaction than the well-documented disappearing Chinese press reports that started the controversy.

Who knows if the investigation will go anywhere. Having seen He compete, I'd be sad to see her stripped of her medals. Her talent is genuine. I'd much rather see any sanctions that might eventually arise applied at the national team level. But that's probably not the way it would work. As I wrote in a comment on my previous post on this topic, you can't overlook violations just because the people involved are particularly young and cute.

I also wonder how the Chinese public will respond if He was stripped of her medals.

Golden girls.

Olympic pavilions deconstructed

will — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:43:00 GMT

For those who are a bit weary of the whole idea of corporate pavilions, Media magazine has a witty review of the pavilions of all of the Olympic TOP sponsors. Each is helpfully compared to the Olympic athlete or icon that it most resembles. Two examples:

China Mobile
SMS a vote on your favourite Olympic photograph and receive a set of stickers and no doubt a lifetime of junk text messages. Move on to write a wish on a touch-sensitive screen, play a kids’ sports game to see it beamed out of the top of the ‘wishing tree’. The naff Chinese culture performances should be avoided.
Highlight: Mischievously writing naughty messages and then seeing them projected onto the ceiling.
Verdict: The China basketball team - Very Chinese, quite good, but still a bit rubbish.

GE
Standing in the queue you are presented with a mission statement subtly set across the front. ‘Earth, metal, fire, wood and water meet another important element. Imagination.’ So far, so corporate, but the inside really does make good the boast. After the obligatory dull video in a beautifully air-conditioned space, halls introduce each of the Chinese elements and highlight GE’s work in that field with a mixture of cool presentations and fun little games that are popular with kids and adults alike.
Highlight: The water projected on the floor that ripples as you walk across it - makes any man into Jesus.
Verdict: Michael Phelps - Fulfilled the task with ruthless efficiency and a touch of flair.

Good fun. Check it out.

Good to see Guangzhou has its priorities straight

will — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:53:00 GMT

From the "you couldn't make it up" department here in Imagethief Towers, an old-school China Daily gem:

City gets tough on foreign jaywalkers
By Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)

The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is taking stern action against foreigners who break traffic rules, the public security bureau said Tuesday.

It follows tough measures against local residents introduced in June.

Three crossings on Xiaobei Road, where most foreigners live or work, will be closely watched.

"Like local residents, any foreigner who crosses against a red light or jumps over a road divider will be fined between 20 yuan ($2.90) and 50 yuan.

Those not able to afford the fine or are reluctant to pay the fine will be forced to watch a video on traffic safety," Lu Zhengguang, a bureau official, said yesterday.

"We will record their behavior on video and have interpreters at the scene, so that there will be no misunderstandings," he said.

"We will then report the incident to their employers, as we do in the case of local residents."

The new rule against foreigners was introduced on Sunday, and by Tuesday, six offenders had been dealt with, Lu said.

Most opted to watch the video on traffic safety, rather than pay a fine, he said.

Pu Malong, a taxi driver, said police action against foreigners who break traffic rules was "necessary and fair".

"Don't take it for granted they (the foreigners) are all law-abiding. Many of them pay no regard to traffic signals.

"They glare or curse at us when we have to slam on our brakes to avoid hitting them," Pu said.

Many foreigners jaywalk along Xiaobei Road, forcing him to drive extremely slowly, he said.

American teacher Gordon Cook said: "Foreigners should obey local laws and regulations.

"However, the local government should do more to publicize new laws and regulations to the foreign community."

Since June, hundreds of local residents have been fined or required to watch the traffic safety video, the public security bureau said.

Imagethief fully agrees that foreigners should be subject to local traffic laws. I don't think this is a matter of contention. However, a few thoughts:

Foreigners may be choosing to watch the video because they think it will be a riot.
Foreigners' employers by-and-large won't care if they are jaywalking.
Chinese taxi drivers have no grounds whatsoever to complain about anyone's road habits. Ever. Not even a little.
Who is Gordon Cook and how on earth did he come up with a quote that sounds just like the government talking points?

Gunning for another one in Guangzhou. Image from
Peter Bergdahl's China & Hong Kong photo gallery.

Nationalism in the news: Jon Ansfield on the Global Times

will — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:56:00 GMT

Take some time and read journalist Jonathan Ansfield's post on Newsweek's China blog recounting his participation in a meeting with the editors of the Global Times (环球时报). The Global Times is the fiery, flag-waving, tabloid companion to the Party's unreadably staid People's Daily. Ansfield discussed the dialogue with the editors, the Global Times' growing prominence, and provides translations of segments of some of their recent articles:

In late July, as Beijing girded for August, the Global Times took American newspaper accounts of its heavy-handed security measures as a direct affront. “Do Not Taunt the Chinese People,” fumed a front-page headline. A day or two later, when Beijing organizers revealed authorities' plan to designate three parks as protest zones during the Games, the front page of the Global Times played up favorable foreign press about the move (So far, not one protest has been approved) From there the cover piece veered sharply into a recent Pew public opinion poll, which showed 86 percent of Chinese surveyed were content with the direction of the country’s development.

The free talk session came a couple days after that. What, the editors embarked, was so wrong with the Beijing Olympics? How had the coming-out bash devolved into such controversy? I’m a sucker for these sorts of behind-the-scenes affairs. At the rap session, as I’d experienced before, the editors were affable and diplomatic. In private they come off as significantly more flexible than their paper. Besides five or six of them, there was one young Japanese research fellow, one author, one U.S. affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and one foreign reporter (me). We spent the afternoon around a long carved wooden table at a glassed-in teahouse. We chomped on sunflower seeds and talked over one another’s voices. Talking points included traffic, visas restrictions, security, and medal supremacy. Why did Beijing have to be so uptight? Political pressure had filtered down throughout the system, said a ranking editor. It could not be helped.

What about the Global Times? That was another area of particular sensitivity. “People say we’re a just a patriotic tool,” explained the ranking man. “But we aren’t. We have a duty to reflect the ordinary Chinese people’s views. That’s what we’re doing.”

He also links to a David Bandurski post at the China Media Project blog that is worth a read.

When Imagethief was buying Chinese newspapers commemorating the start of the Olympics on August 8th and 9th, the Global Times had some of the best covers. Most of the rest were unconscionably dull.

Olympic match-up II: Foreign press vs. BOCOG spokesman Wang Wei

will — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:11:00 GMT

This New York Times article is a few days old, but I didn't have time to get to it when it first came out. Apparently some of the press conferences got a little scratchy as journalists got frustrated with BOCOG's oblique responses to any question not focusing on China's immense medal haul, and the IOCs equally vapid responses. In this case, the catalyst was Beijing's three pointless "protest zones" (pointless because no protests have been authorized, thus rendering the zones moot):

The microphone passed to Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News in Britain. “My question is short,'’ he promised sweetly. It was. “Given that the Chinese government has lied through its teeth in keeping its promises, is the I.O.C. in any way embarrassed?'’
Giselle Davies, the I.O.C. spokeswoman, thanked him for his question and continued, “We are very proud of the fact that these Games are progressing with spectacular sport, spectacular sports venues,'’ adding that they were also running smoothly.
Thomson was not deterred.
‘’Is the I.O.C. embarrassed?'’ he asked again.
He asked the question five times in all as Davies answered repeatedly with variations on the theme that the I.O.C. was happy that the Games were “operationally running very smoothly.”
When Thomson told her that nobody in the room thought she had answered the question, she replied that the Olympics were “an event first and foremost for the athletes.'’

Right. So no need to broadcast it or have hundreds of millions of dollars in sponsorships or turn the Games into a nationalist chest-thumping contest then. It's first and foremost for the athletes.

Moments later, when Michael Bristow of the BBC asked about the protest parks that had been set up, Wang’s cool again threatened to crack.
Not one Chinese person has had his application to protest approved, Bristow said. He added that Wang kept saying that the parks were not Bocog’s responsibility, but it had been that body’s director of security, Liu Shaowu, who had announced their creation in the first place.
Wang answered that the parks represented “a step further for the Chinese.” They are part of the Chinese people’s constitutional rights.
So is voting, Bristow said, and asked how the parks represent progress if no one was being allowed to protest.
Wang said: “China has stepped forward. The ordinary Chinese in the street will give the same answer. Do not underestimate the wisdom of the Chinese people. Do not think that you are smartest.'’

Smooth. I think I'm going to introduce insults into my spokesmanship training classes as an effective tool for deflecting tough questions. Why go through all the trouble of memorizing key messages and techniques for dealing gracefully with difficult questions when a succinct, "Your momma so dumb it took her two hours to watch '60 Minutes'" will do the job.

For the record (such as it is) it would be nearly a week before more details on protest applications came out.

It's a sure sign of too many journalists in too small a space when the media starts writing about its duels with spokesmen at press conferences. Still, if there is an organization that deserves a little roughing-up in Q&A, it is probably BOCOG. Pent up frustration, especially from journalists who've been dealing with BOCOG for the past two or three years, may explain the desire to needle Wang and the other spokespeople. I've yet to find the journalist with a kind word for BOCOG's press conferences, quality of information or responsiveness. Any that want to be the first can contact me care of this website.

Previously:

Olympic match-up: Brooks vs. Fallows

No questions, please. This is
a press conference.

An angry-youth asks who you're calling brainwashed

will — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:50:00 GMT

Two or three weeks ago the New Yorker carried a good article by Evan Osnos on the phenomenon of China's "angry youth" (fenqing). Much of the article was a profile of one young man in particular. In truth, he sounds more passionate than angry. It's worth reading the whole thing, but there was one section I found particularly interesting:

When people began rioting in Lhasa in March, Tang followed the news closely. As usual, he was receiving his information from American and European news sites, in addition to China’s official media. Like others his age, he has no hesitation about tunnelling under the government firewall, a vast infrastructure of digital filters and human censors which blocks politically objectionable content from reaching computers in China. Younger Chinese friends of mine regard the firewall as they would an officious lifeguard at a swimming pool—an occasional, largely irrelevant, intrusion.
To get around it, Tang detours through a proxy server—a digital way station overseas that connects a user with a blocked Web site. He watches television exclusively online, because he doesn’t have a TV in his room. Tang also receives foreign news clips from Chinese students abroad. (According to the Institute of International Education, the number of Chinese students in the United States—some sixty-seven thousand—has grown by nearly two-thirds in the past decade.) He’s baffled that foreigners might imagine that people of his generation are somehow unwise to the distortions of censorship.
“Because we are in such a system, we are always asking ourselves whether we are brainwashed,” he said. “We are always eager to get other information from different channels.” Then he added, “But when you are in a so-called free system you never think about whether you are brainwashed.”

A couple of things stand out there. The first is the casual disdain with which China's Internet censorship issues are treated by computer literate youth. The main effect of Chinese censorship is to inflict inconvenience rather than lack of access. This doesn't excuse it, or make China's internet censorship any less of a disagreeable vestige of the Party's worst instincts. Even inconvenience serves a restrictive purpose. But the realities are that the net nanny is a good deal less omnipotent than she is sometimes made out to be and that, perhaps uncomfortably, unfettered access doesn't necessarily lead to a common point of view. (Another good article about Internet censorship is James Fallow's piece from the March 2008 Atlantic Monthly.)

But it was the last quote that really got me. It reminded me of a quote I read years ago in another article, which I've always tried to find again without any success. I think it was a Russian speaking to an American journalist, but it could have been someone from any country with a state-managed media. He said something like this (I necessarily paraphrase a bit):

"I feel sorry for you Americans. You have a free media, so you've never learned to read between the lines."

That's always stuck in my head, and I was interested to see Tang Jie offer a similar sentiment, if in somewhat different language.

So, does he have a point?

Imagethief believes it's the rare individual in most systems who asks himself, "Am I brainwashed?" Or even the slightly less charged, "How does media and propaganda influence me?" For raising the idea, Tang Jie deserves credit. In modern society most people swim in media and propaganda like fish swim in water. It's everywhere; occasionally we are acutely aware of it; but most of the time we swim through it with little thought for its effects on us.

I also believe that as Americans we sometimes fall into the trap of believing that operating in a country with a "free media" relieves us of the responsibility of having to think critically about the information we ingest. A PR person would be the first to say that it just ain't so. If anything, the volume and ubiquity of media in American society place an extra burden on us to consider its effects on how we think (although much of the rest of the world is catching up). Unfortunately, there seem to be two kinds of widespread media criticism in the US: Lofty, academic analysis that is interesting for a few but tiresome for many, and screaming at and denigrating people who espouse a different point of view on an emotional topic such as politics.

Media criticism and analysis should be a mandatory high school class in the United States. It should be taught not as rarefied analysis, but as a practical class: understanding the author of a message, teasing out the agenda, and identifying how a point of view or the construction of content affects how we respond to it. It should cover commercial and political media and entertainment. (Ask a professional film-maker how cinematic tools are used to subtly manipulate an audience's emotions and then look for those same tools being used in advertising.) It should also cover print, broadcast and the Internet and computer games. A semester of media criticism in high school isn't going to reinvent America's relationship with the media, but at least it would prompt people to ask that important question above: Am I brainwashed?

Although we as a nation are as vulnerable to propaganda as anyone, Imagethief doesn't think that Americans are brainwashed. That word, as originally conceived, implies violence and coercion that simply doesn't apply to us as willing and enthusiastic consumers of media (although parents of small children who have seen too many ads for sugary cereals may disagree). But it's good to keep asking the question. We may not be brainwashed, but we are certainly influenced deeply, and should be mindful of the water through which we swim.

Note: Yeah, this article has been out for a while. I subscribe to the New Yorker (speaking of media consumption, Imagethief, as full-on a media junkie as you are likely to find, is as guilty as anyone), but I only get about one out of three issues, and those tend to come late. The rest are presumably being read by extremely literate Chinese postal inspectors.

Could the Bird's Nest become the Coca-Cola National Stadium of China?

will — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:46:00 GMT

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on efforts by the operators of China's gleaming, new Olympic sports facilities to sell the naming rights. According to the article, six multinationals are competing for naming rights to the National Stadium/Bird's Nest among various other "partnerships" on offer for the new facilities:

Ben Sturner, chief executive of New York-based Leverage Agency, which is helping broker both deals, says six multinational companies are competing for title rights to the stadium, which cost $500 million to build and whose steel superstructure resembles a bird's nest. He won't name them but says he has been taking top executives through a whirlwind sales pitch in recent days, including visits to high-profile Olympic events.
"I would call it the most valuable piece of real estate in the world right now," Mr. Sturner says.

I don't doubt it. Imagethief attended a round of Olympic athletics finals at the Bird's Nest last night (where he was fortunate enough to see Jamaican Udain Bolt break the world record for the 100 meter dash). It was my first time in the stadium, and it's truly a remarkable structure; sleek, eye catching, and relatively comfortable inside with good sight-lines and well designed lighting. It is, with justification, a symbol of China's development and Beijing's progress toward world city.

Which makes me wonder how willing the authorities would be to see it carrying the name of a foreign brand. I think there is probably a substantial number of powerful people here who would consider the idea of the "Coca Cola National Stadium", the "Nokia National Stadium" or similar to be simply unacceptable. The article points out that (this being China), the final choice is subject to review by the Beijing municipal government.

I used the word "symbol" above intentionally. If the Bird's Nest is symbolic of Chinese national aspirations then the name or brand you put on it bears some relationship with that symbolism. That's perhaps part of what will make it attractive to potential sponsors, but also makes this a sensitive exercise.

The article reflects on this, and reminds us of the bad precedent of Starbucks' doomed Forbidden City outlet:

Putting a corporate name on such a high-profile public space in China comes with some risk. Starbucks Corp. closed a small shop in Beijing's Forbidden City after complaints from Chinese bloggers, who thought it was unsuitable to have one inside a national treasure. National Stadium's Mr. Zhang says selling the name after the Olympics has been in the plan for the stadium all along, and a survey conducted for the company by Nielsen Co. found that 70% of people in five big Chinese cities accepted the idea in principle.
Any sign going up on the front of the stadium "has to be very classy and sophisticated," Mr. Sturner says. "We will choose a company that has a very good reputation in China."

That goes without saying. I doubt we'll be seeing the SKII National Stadium any time soon. But a "good reputation in China" is, for many companies, a fragile thing. And having the audaciousness to put your name on the Bird's Nest might be kind of move that could destabilize a previously good reputation, much as the Forbidden City store plagued Starbucks' otherwise fairly smooth-sailing ship.

But which Chinese MNCs might have the juice to pull off a sponsorship deal this big, and the interest in doing it? The list seems pretty small, and largely confined to the usual suspects. Lenovo, China's only global Olympic partner, comes to mind; Air China; Haier; current part-owner CITIC; and two or three others. It will be interesting to see who ends up holding the ring.

Imagethief at the Coca Cola National Stadium?

Gymnasts, now and then

will — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:03:00 GMT

Now: China's gold medal team. Their talent is not to be doubted. Their ages...perhaps:

Then: The 1956 US national squad:

Things sure have changed. And not just the fashions.

Why child-singing-gate is a PR perfect storm -- Amended

will — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:52:00 GMT

Amended:

Sorry--this wasn't meant to be published. It was a placeholder and a few notes for a possible full-length post. Apologies to all those who thought I'd got lazy and decided to move the tweet format into my regular blog posts.

However, for posterity, here are those notes:

Why child-singing-gate is a PR perfect storm

All the ingredients:
Cute children, showbiz, glamor, skullduggery, shady officials. Fits into pre-conceived notions of government control freakery. [Outrage] disproportionate to the offense. Worry about the 12-year-olds on the gymnastics team.

Maybe I don't actually need to write anything more...

-Will

21 Olympic edicts from the Chinese propaganda department

will — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:29:00 GMT

As published by the Sydney Morning Herald. No link to a Chinese version, no citation of a source, and no way of confirming if these are genuine. But they look pretty credible and consistent with prior guidelines from the propaganda bureau. Nothing surprising or extra scandalous, at least from my perspective (your mileage may vary). But interesting to see under the hood if these are real:

The telecast of sports events will be live [but] in case of emergencies, no print is allowed to report on it.
From August 1, most of the previously accessible overseas websites will be unblocked. No coverage is allowed on this development. There's also no need to use stories published overseas on this matter and [website] operators should not provide any superlinks on their pages.
Be careful with religious and ethnic subjects.
Don't make fuss about foreign leaders at the opening ceremony, especially in relation to seat arrangements or their private lives.
We have to put special emphasis on ethnic equality. Any perceived racist terms as "black athlete" or "white athlete" is not allowed. During the official telecast, we can refer to Taiwan as "Chinese Taipei". In ordinary times, refer to Taiwanese athletes as "those from the precious island Taiwan....." In case of any pro Taiwan-independence related incident inside the venue, you shall follow restrictions listed in item 1.
For those ethnic Chinese coaches and athletes who come back to Beijing to compete on behalf of other countries, don't play up their "patriotism" since that could backfire with their adopted countries.
As for the Pro-Tibetan independence and East Turkistan movements, no coverage is allowed. There's also no need to make fuss about our anti-terrorism efforts.

The remaining fourteen at the SMH site. H/T @niubi via Twitter.

Updated:

Here is the complete SMH story that cited the points. They come originally via the unlinkable South China Morning Post. The Herald refers to them as "stunningly frank". To me they look stunningly usual.

Olympic match-up: Brooks vs. Fallows

will — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:21:00 GMT

First go to the New York Times website and read David Brooks' column about collectivism and the opening ceremony:

The world can be divided in many ways — rich and poor, democratic and authoritarian — but one of the most striking is the divide between the societies with an individualist mentality and the ones with a collectivist mentality.
This is a divide that goes deeper than economics into the way people perceive the world. If you show an American an image of a fish tank, the American will usually describe the biggest fish in the tank and what it is doing. If you ask a Chinese person to describe a fish tank, the Chinese will usually describe the context in which the fish swim.

Then go to James Fallows' blog and read his fisking of Brooks' column:

This is the kind of thing you can say only if you have not the slightest inkling of how completely different a billion-plus people can be from one another. Beijingers from Shanghainese, Guangdong entrepreneurs from farmers in Sichuan, Tibetans from Taiwanese, people who remember the Cultural Revolution from those who don't, people who remember the famines of the Great Leap Forward from people who've always had enough. The guy across the street from his brother. His daughter from his wife. People hanging on in big state enterprises from those starting small firms. People who stayed in the villages from those who came to the city for jobs. Christians from Buddhists. Hu Jintao from Jiang Zemin, Olympic weightlifters from Olympic tennis players, Yao Ming from Liu Xiang, Wen Jiabao from Edison Chen -- and while we're at it, Filipinos from Koreans, Japanese from Chinese, Malaysian Chinese from Malaysian Malays. Lee Kuan Yew from Kim Jong Il. People from Jakarta from people in Seoul. Hey, they're all "Asians".

A few quick and unworthy thoughts to add:

When pat "scientific" examples are offered to make sweeping points I really like a citation (although the newspaper column format isn't particularly friendly to that, a hyperlink will do).

In semi-defense of Brooks, I don't think an inclination to collectivism at a social level excludes personal individuality or even sub-cultural differences.

Still, I think Fallows is right to take Brooks to task on this one*. I think using the Olympic opening ceremony to draw large conclusions about Chinese society is a dangerous game. Better to use it to draw large conclusions about the government's obsession with micromanagement of propaganda.

*Plus I'm sympathetic to Fallows because of his approachable writing style and endearing nerdy streak.

Update:

Speaking of "nerdy", don't miss Language Log's dissection of Brook's use of scientific studies to support his assertions. It's somewhat academic (perforce, perhaps), but interesting. The money quote:

As for David Brooks, he wants to use this stuff as the scientific foundation for the hypothesis that western societies are fundamentally and essentially individualist while Asian societies are fundamentally and essentially collectivist. That might be true, but it's a long and winding road to that conclusion from the complex and equivocal results of various experiments on how people group various triples of words and pictures, or describe undersea scenes. And we should be wary of following David Brooks too far down that road, given that he can't be bothered to keep straight who did which experiments, or whether the subjects were Chinese or Japanese, or whether it was the Americans or the Asians who more often mentioned the focal fish, or essentially any of the evocative details that he loves to use to bring his ideas to life for his readers.

Indeed. H/T SYZ and Thomas Crampton.