In one of the juicier quotes making the rounds on social networks this week a private equity investor in Shanghai savaged the Chinese media for its unblinking corruption, quipping to the New York Times that “if one of my companies came up with a cure for cancer, I still couldn’t get any journalists to come to the press conference without promising them a huge envelope filled with cash.”

Exactly how bad is this problem and were does it cross the line? This week Sinica dives into the question of how Chinese journalism works in practice with a show that splits cleanly along industry lines. Joining host Jeremy Goldkorn this week and representing the journalism and public relations industries in turn are Sinica friendsLi Xin, managing editor of Caixin magazine, and Will Moss, China PR expert and blogger of Imagethief fame.

Download or stream from the Sinica page, or search Sinica on iTunes to subscribe.

Pony up.

Curious where your “fat expat package” has gone? This week on Sinica, Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn welcome Will Moss of Imagethief and David Wolf of Wolf Group Asia for a dissection of the expat job market: what sort of jobs are available in China these days and what it takes to get on what we lovingly call the FEP. We put everything on the table this week, including some numbers that will either impress or horrify you. And for good measure, we also look at Sina Weibo’s slap-on-the-wrist for its involvement spreading coup rumors two weeks ago, a retaliatory strike that turned China’s biggest social network into a marginally better version of Twitter for a horrifying three days.

It’s all on the Popup Chinese site, as usual, in streaming and downloadable forms, or on iTunes (search Sinica). You can find the David Barboza article that I recommended at the end of the podcast here.

Although we kind of conflated them in the discussion, the decline in expat packages is actually a separate issue from the employment prospects for foreigners in China. After all, none of us in the studio is on an expat package or, with the exception of me for just over a year in 1996, ever been on one. Young people interested in working in China would do well to start with this old but still relevant Imagethief post.

NB: Astoundingly, this was the second anniversary show of Sinica. It just doesn’t seem like that long. Hats off to Kaiser for keeping it going, and to Dave Lancashire for allowing the production to invade his studio on a weekly basis. Set the wayback machine for April 2, 2010 to hear how it started.

But I thought it was worth revisiting China blog history today because it is, to the best of my knowledge, the fifth anniversary of the shuttering of Talk Talk China. This was the brain-droppings of three anonymous, long-time China expats who went by the nommes-du-snark of Dan, Dawanr and DD (no, I don’t know who they were). For about a year and a half, in 2005 and 2006 it was consistently the funniest, angriest China blog out there, and a wicked channel for the collected frustrations and gripes of the China expat community. This being the days before Twitter vacuumed up “the conversation”, it also had thermonuclear comment threads, as you’d expect.

I remember Talk Talk China not just because of the anniversary of its closing, but because of one post in particular, called “The Cycle of Funk.” It may be to this day the truest thing I have ever read regarding the experience of being a foreigner in China. While many of the rough edges of expat life here have been whittled away by the transformation of Beijing into fairly cosmopolitan city, enough remain so that I find myself thinking of this post pretty regularly.

But also, there has been a general shift in mood among much of the expat community in the past two years, as many foreigners I thought were here for the duration have started talking openly about life beyond China. This is purely anecdotal, and I have no data to back it up, but it’s enough of a trend that several other people I know have picked up on it. Rich Brubaker of the long running “All Roads Lead to China” business blog wrote a post touching on this just yesterday. It would seem that the “cycle of funk” is not just a personal thing, but perhaps a social one.

Talk Talk China is off the air, but thanks to the Internet Archive’s “Wayback Machine” much of the oeuvre, including the Cycle of Funk is still online. However, it is a pain to nut out. As a public service, and totally without permission, I am going to take the liberty of reposting the Cycle of Funk here. If Dan, Dawanr or DD want to send me a cease-and-desist, they know where to find me:

The Cycle of Funk
May 24th, 2006 by Dan

Y’know, not every day is a bad China day. Sure, at TTC this is the case but for most people, a bad China day occurs only every now and then. However, for my entire time in China, I have noticed a particular trend among all laowai that I call “The cycle of funk”. No matter how much you love China, the little things that bother you will start to gather in a little ball of rage deep within you and sooner or later that ball of hate and spite needs to be released (often obnoxiously). That’s fine. It’s understandable. When it gets to that point no one can tell you whether or not your rage is justified. What is important to note is that this clearly comes and goes in a cycle. I imagine for most people the frequency and intensity of maximum funk decreases with time however the length of maximum funk and the intensity of said funk will likely vary widely for each person.

It is important to note that, in most cases, maximum funk is initiated not by some massive occurrence but usually by some small innocuous thing. Basically, you’re already at the edge and it is the very next thing that sets you off.

Remember, when you’re having a supremely awful bad China day and you are trying to tear the roof off the sucker, try to find where you are in your funk cycle. If you have obtained maximum funk you can relax knowing that it ain’t getting any worse and it will only get better…at least until the next funk hits.

After running less than two years Talk Talk China wound up pretty suddenly for reasons I don’t recall. Sinocidal tried to carry the snark-bucket for a while, but never played at the same level and it has long since gone by the wayside. These days I seem to carry the burden of being the “funny” China blogger (although George Ding of The Hypermodern and now The Beijinger’s back page is giving me a run for my money). Anyway, I’ve thoroughly shirked this burden, as any glance at post count for the past year or two demonstrates. But when they were at their best, the guys behind Talk Talk China were funnier and definitely more succinct than I was. And let’s face it, we need all the humor we can get.

So I commemorate five years since the end of Talk Talk China. For what it’s worth, I’m not in danger of leaving China any time soon. It’s been pretty good to me and my family. Nor am I particularly grouchy about it at this moment. But as anyone who has read Imagethief for any length of time knows, I’d be lying if I told you I was immune to the cycle of funk. And so would you.

Razor wit?

“It was really distressing for me to talk to a WHO expert and have him tell me, ‘I have no idea where it’s safe to buy food here….’” - Sharon LaFraniere.

When Luoyang journalist Li Xiang broke China’s latest food scandal last week, exposing the industrial reprocessing and resale of “gutter oil” in a massive operation allegedly concealed by government officials in Henan, the news sparked yet more public outrage over China’s food safety record, while triggering what seems to have been brutal retaliation by the producers, who are suspected of ordering the killing of Li earlier this week in what is being treated by the authorities as a murder-robbery.

As awareness has spread that the Chinese government is hoarding organic food for its own consumption, the question of food safety has never been a more sensitive public topic, which is why this week on Sinica we’re pleased to welcome Barbara Demick of the Los Angeles Times and Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times. Both excellent China watchers doing investigative work on China’s growing food scandals, Barbara and Sharon join Sinica regulars Jeremy Goldkorn and Will Moss to bring us the inside scoop on how bad the situation really is and why food safety is so difficult for China to get right.

Get the links to the show from Popup Chinese, download the MP3 here, or search “Sinica” on iTunes. Also, City Weekend just named Sinica the best China podcast. All credit to Kaiser and Jeremy, but I’m thrilled to be playing a regular part.

*Alright, I’m not entirely the Ed McMahon of Sinica. I’ve written extensively about the communication and trust issues surrounding the food industry in China. You may wish to browse the following from my archives:

• PR slime – in color! Imagethief talks PR scandals on BonLive (video interview, Dec. 2010)
• Sanlu melamine milk powder crisis becomes a national issue (Sept. 2008)
• Melamine in Sanlu milk powder? Now that’s a crisis! (Sept. 2008)
• China’s food crisis PR strategy: Blame everyone else (June. 2007)
• The great donkey meat – tiger piss – media whore axis (Sept. 2005)

What? No fries?

I co-hosted with Kaiser and we were joined by journalists Kathleen McLaughlin, of the Global Post and elsewhere, and Ed Wong of the New York Times. Ed recently wrote a superb story about Zhao Liang and has also written about the water diversion project (with an unforgettable lede). Kathleen’s recent stories about the water diversion project will go to print soon, and I’ll put links up when I have them. Meanwhile, enjoy the excellent discussion, available from Popup Chinese or iTunes (search Sinica). The standalone MP3 file is here.

Update

Kathleen’s articles:

• China’s biggest relation project yet
• For development, China moves millions

Not nearly enough...

The show was hosted by Sinica impresario Kaiser Kuo and rounded out by usual suspects Jeremy Goldkorn, Charlie Custer, Mary Kay Magistad and yours truly. The show page is here and the direct MP3 download is here. You can also subscribe on iTunes by searching Sinica or Popup Chinese. Enjoy.

Not as painful as Sedaris' essay.

With an assortment of topics like that presented by a China media expert, international journalist, noted bridge blogger, history Ph.D candidate and a spin doctor (for good measure) how can you go wrong? It’ll be like drinking knowledge straight from the garden hose every minute you listen.

Well, not really, but pretty good fun. Online on iTunes, or listen or download at the Popup Chinese Sinica page.

Also: If you’re interested in Groupon’s apparently earnest attempt to not learn anything from the failure of other US Internet firms in China, I urge you to read a guest post by Zhang Yajun on Jeremiah Jenne’s “Jottings from the Granite Studio” blog (Jeremiah is another Sinica veteran). If Groupon knows what’s good for them, they will run, not walk, over to Granite Studio global headquarters and offer YJ a completely unreasonable amount of money to consult for them.

Previously on Imagethief:

Could better PR have prevented Groupon’s China gaffe?

Kaiser, Gady, Jeremy and I recorded a nice, tight show on a range of topics –Korea, crazybad, the Shanghai apartment fire, and the woman who was sentenced to a labor camp for a tweet– and spent an unreasonable amount of time after the show congratulating ourselves on a job well done.

Hubris is, as always, shadowed by Nemesis, even in trivial matters. The audio file didn’t upload properly to the Great Cloud, and the original file was apparently deleted by someone before the upload was verified. So off into the abyss it went, resisting all attempts at restoration, undeleting and what have you.

We’ll reboot some of the topics this week, and Kaiser is looking at breaking out a separate show on the Korea issue with some real experts on the situation (a category that includes Gady, but emphatically excludes yours truly, who is much more at home talking about crazybad and other lightweight stuff).

Apologies and stay tuned for version 2.0.

The official blurb:

Simmering tensions between Qihoo 360 and Tencent broke into open war last week, as Tencent disabled its chat software on computers running 360 antivirus software. This move was the most aggressive yet in a serious of escalating attacks between the two companies that resembles nothing so much as a barnyard brawl. Microsoft appears to be the only winner of the fighting to date, with MSN messenger aquiring a number of users fed up with the behavior of both companies.

Just measured in terms of size, Qihoo 360 is the underdog here, the Chinese equivalent of Norton Antivirus with a userbase of only around 300 million machines throughout China. Tencent is one of the largest Internet companies in the world, and probably the cloest thing China has to Google. Want more information? Join Sinica regulars Jeremy Goldkorn, Gady Epstein, and Will Moss as they examine the fracas from the comfort of our studio. Kaiser Kuo also joins us with an audio postcard that fills in the back story of conflict that you won’t read in the news. And finally, we are also joined this week byMalcolm Moore, correspondent for Britain’s Daily Telegraph, who shares his thoughts on the significance of David Cameron’s ongoing visit to Beijing.

As always, get the podcast from our good friends at Popup Chinese (where there are also some links to background reading on these topics), from iTunes, or just download the MP3 right here.

I should be back in the studio tomorrow. Kaiser’s back and we have a good set guests and topics shaping up.

A deadly hit-and-run at Hebei University by the unapologetic son of a high-ranking official has sparked outrage across China, with early efforts to cover up the incident ultimately leading to father and son both making tearful apologies on national television. in other news, China stands accused of clamping down on the export of sensitive rare metals, while a new Chinese prize makes a surprise international debut. This week on Sinica, we discuss these developments and more from our studios in the heart of downtown Beijing.

With Kaiser Kuo still out of the country on his international speaking tour, Sinica cohostJeremy Goldkorn takes the reins today. Joining him in the studio are Sinica regularsGady Epstein, Beijing Bureau Chief of Forbes magazine; Will Moss, popular blogger at Imagethief and expert on public relations in China; and David Moser, an old China-hand and now academic director for the CET program in Beijing.

Bonus: We also offered in Kaiser’s absence to sell the entire podcast to World Harmony Foundation founder Frank Liu for cheap. Find the podcast at Popup Chinese, on iTunes (search “Sinica”) or download the MP3 right here. Thanks as always to Dave Lancashire for facilities and engineering.

Some background reading for people interested in these topics:

On the Li Gang scandal:
http://www.danwei.org/video/ai_weiwei_produces_video_inter.php
http://www.chinahush.com/2010/10/21/sue-me-if-you-dare-my-dad-is-li-gang/
http://www.danwei.org/blogs/on_speeding_and_indifference_t.php

On rare earths:
http://blogs.forbes.com/gadyepstein/2010/10/29/names-you-need-to-know-in-2011-baotou-rare-earths-capital-of-the-world/

On the Seeking Truth article on the role of the media in downfall of the Soviet Union:
http://www.qstheory.cn/zxdk/2010/201021/201010/t20101030_54269.htm (Chinese)
http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/11/02/8448/ (English)

On the Shanzhai Peace Prize for General Chi:
http://www.danwei.org/state_media/chinese_general_gets_shanzhai.php

A most harmonious general.

This week on Sinica, we find out what happens when the media attacks, and China is caught in the crossfire. Specifically, recent weeks have brought us two prominent cases of bad press for China as the country gets caught in loaded battles fought by unrelated parties. In the first, an American political advertisement raises the spectre of an US economic collapse. The second is more homegrown, as two giants in the dairy industry are caught spreading lies to promote short-term sales.

With Kaiser Kuo out of the country on a speaking tour, the chairing role in Sinica today is filled by Gady Epstein, Beijing Bureau Chief for Forbes magazines. Joining him with his always candid insights into Chinese media is Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei fame. Also joining us in the studio are Chinese public relations expert and Imagethief blogger Will Moss, and Beijing correspondent for the Guardian, Tania Branigan.

Since Tania doesn’t have a website I’ll throw in her twitter handle instead: @taniabranigan (surprisingly enough). Find the podcast on iTunes, or on Popup Chinese, or download the MP3 directly. As always, I’ll be interested to hear what you think.

The second and longer segment of the show covered the issue of “China apologists”, foreigners who somehow seem to have crossed the line in their enthusiasm for China or Chinese government policy. Who is a China apologist? Are we China bloggers also China apologists? Why do some foreigners make their compatriots uncomfortable? China market analyst and consultant Shaun Rein, a friend of mine who has kindled some strong reactions elsewhere in the China blogosphere, figures heavily in the discussion and contributes a segment to the show. It’s a rousing discussion featuring something relative rare on Sinica: debate among participants.

Here’s the blurb from the Sinica site:

This week on Sinica, Jeremy Goldkorn, Gady Epstein, Will Moss and David Moser join Kaiser to talk about the Guo Degang Affair. When a fight with the media at the famous comedian’s house became news, the incident sparked a week of heated public debate. This ended abruptly as authorities closed ranks, muzzled the outspoken comedian and stepped-up an old school campaign against the “three vulgarities.” Looking beyond the headlines, what does this tell us about the media in China and why does it matter?

On a different front, we also talk about the insidious phenomenon of China apologism. A lively debate over this topic has emerged in the China blogosphere of late, especially regarding the controversial punditry of Shaun Rein. In an attempt to clear his name, Shaun joins us with an audio postcard and prompts a discussion of where the line should be drawn between presenting a nuanced perspective on China and defending the indefensible? When has someone simply gone too far?

Get the show here. See also Gady Epstein’s post and Richard’s response at Peking Duck.

Guo Degang: fast talker.

The blurb (which wasn’t written by me!):

The China blog is officially dead, moribund, cadaverous, extinct, buried, bereft of life, defunct and totally-and-utterly-inert. It could even be said to be resting in peace, save for the fact that Will Moss drove a silver stake through its heart before recording this podcast. “We single-handledly made the China blog obsolete,” he joked in our studio after further sawing off its head. But he has a point. Because who reads blogs these days?

Does anyone even remember the China blogs of days past? Back then there were greats like Peking Duck, Imagethief, Sinosplice and Danwei, and you could even indulge in a little China-bashing at Talk Talk China. Then came Sinocism and EastSouthWestNorth, and then the mainstream media blogs from magazines like Time and journalists like Malcolm Moore, Peter Foster and Tom Lasseter. And then the explosion of blogs like the Shanghaiist, China Geeks, China Hearsay, ChinaSmack, ChinaHush and CNReviews, not to mention the more eclectic and academic writings of China Youren, Jottings from the Granite Studio, In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock and The China Beat?

Well… we’re sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but all of these blogs are dead. Or that’s the opinion of the curmugeons in our studio this week: Kaiser Kuo, Will Moss and Jeremy Goldkorn, veteran bloggers in China who’ve seen the ups and downs of social media and are prepared to tell it like it is. So join us this week on Sinica for a dissection of the Chinese blog scene. And then get the hell off our lawn. What is it with kids these days anyway?

Download the podcast from the Sinica site, hosted by Popup Chinese. It will also be available on the Popup Chinese page on iTunes, but it’s not there yet.

Two follow-up notes to the podcast. First, it was impossible for us to name all the blogs we like and read, so if you find yourself left out please don’t take it personally. I am happy to take other mentions or suggestions in the comments, below. Also, there is one blog we agree we should have mentioned when we were discussing China business blogs, but somehow neglected to include: David Wolf’s Silicon Hutong. Well worth your time.

Flashback: Imagethief.com circa 2004, before it was on a blogging engine. It's a long story.

The show’s blurb:

After the collapse of international climate change talks in Copenhagen in 2009, Mark Lynas’ devastating article as published in the Guardian laid the blame squarely at China’s feet, accusing the Chinese government of deliberately scuttling American-led efforts to secure an international agreement on climate change. This begs the question: is China really to blame for the collapse at Copenhagen, and what plans if any does the country have for curtailing its own cascading environmental problems?

Joining hosts Kaiser Kuo and Will Moss this week are Jonathan Watts, Guardian correspondent and author of the new book When A Billion Chinese Jump, and Alex Wang, senior attorney and director of the China Environmental Law Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing. Both experts in Chinese environmental policy, Jon and Alex join us for an in-depth discussion of Jonathan’s new book on China’s growing environmental crisis and the various efforts underway to solve it.

The Podcast is online here, or on iTunes.

So long, and thanks for all the fish...

• Will the Boat Sink the Water? by Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao (also known as An Investigation of the Chinese Peasants – 中国农民调查)
• Poorly Made in China, by Paul Midler (reviewed by Imagethief earlier this year)
• Mao: A Life, by Philip Short
• China Shakes the World, by James Kynge
• Nixon and Mao: The Week that Changed the World, by Margaret MacMillan
• A Penguin History of Modern China, by Jonathan Fenby

There is much, much more in the discussion, including Peter Hessler, Philip Pan, Orville Schell, Ian Johnson, Sang Ye, Tim Clissold, Li Zhisui, Ma Jian, Liao Yiwu, Richard McGregor, Ma Jun, Jonathan Spence and others. If you’re interested in China it’ll be an hour of your time well spent. I promise.

In the studio with Kaiser and me were Forbes Beijing bureau chief Gady Epstein and Qing Dynasty historian and Jottings from the Granite Studio blogger Jeremiah Jenne. Contributing recorded segments were Guardian journalist Jonathan Watts, Bureau of National Affairs and Global Post reporter Kathleen McLaughlin, and Danwei.org editor Jeremy Goldkorn, and Academic Director of CET Beijing, David Moser. The blurb:

Looking for a little summer reading? This week Sinica sorts the wheat from the chaff with a massive review of books on China. Our discussion touches on a everything from Chinese fiction to non-fiction academic works on Chinese politics, economics and history. There’s a good selection here and a combative discussion: we’ll tell you what we love, and what we hate and why….

Sinica is also available through iTunes podcast subscriptions. Search “Sinica”, or use iTunes to subscribe to the Sinica feed.

Update: The Sinica page now has a nearly complete list of the books discussed, with Amazon links.

Read all about it.

The blurb:

Despite efforts to downplay the story in the face of the Shanghai Expo, news of a recent wave of copycat killings has spread quickly through China, driven in part by the surprising revelation that many of the killers have been middle-aged and apparently well-educated men. Online, some netizens have blamed the government, which in turn blames social contradictions. Writing for the Telegraph, Malcolm Moore summarizes these attacks as a “turning point” created by alienation engendered over the last twenty years of China’s industrialization. Where does the truth lie?

With Kaiser Kuo out of the country, Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei takes up hosting duties this week joined by Sinica regulars Gady Epstein, Beijing bureau chief for Forbes magazine, and China public relations expert Will Moss, whom you may know as author of the popular blog Imagethief. We also have Qin Liwen as a guest in the studio. She is a Chinese author and bookstore owner in Beijing who has written about these killings in the domestic media.

Unfortunately, this is Imagethief’s valedictory performance on Sinica. On Monday, after four and a half months of sabbatical fantasy life, I return to full-time work (in a new job, more on this soon). Sinica tapes on Thursday afternoons, so I will have to pass the torch to those with more flexible schedules than I expect to have. It’s been great fun. Do keep listening.

Huang Guangyu, the richest man in China, went on trial last week in Beijing. The founder of home electronics chain Gome was brought up on charges of bribery, money laundering, and insider trading. The dragnet in the investigation leading up to the trial has already widened, and has implicated a number of high-ranking cadres in the Ministry of Public Security’s white-collar crimes division. In this edition of Sinica, we discuss the perils of wealth, and what Huang’s trial means for rule of law in China. We also examine China’s dilemma over soaring property prices, and Beijing’s sharp new policies to curb speculation. Do they portend the collapse of the real estate bubble?

The usual lively discussion ensued. Find it through the Sinica link above, or on iTunes.

This week, Kaiser Kuo hosts a discussion all about China’s best-known gadflies: artist-cum-activist Ai Weiwei and writer, auto racer and blogger Han Han. So join us as we talk about who both of these public figures are and why they’ve gained so much attention both inside China and in the foreign press. We’ll look at how both are perceived domestically and abroad, talk about why they haven’t been silenced the way other equally vocal critics have been, and ask if it even makes sense to speak of them in the same breath. Following this, we close with a quick discussion of the Wangjialing mine rescue you’ve read all about in the newspapers.

It was a great discussion although upon listening back I appear to be suffering from a terminal case of the “you knows.” Time has diluted my radio chops. As always, the podcast is hosted by our friends at Popup Chinese. It’s also available through iTunes.

I’m sitting out next week’s Sinica, but should be back in the week or two after that. Jeremiah Jenne, author of the excellent Jottings from the Granite Studio, will be joining in the meantime.

If only I wasn't so pensive...

This week: how should we interpret signs that China may be preparing for an about-turn on Iranian sanctions? Have recent Israeli visits hardened Beijing’s position, or are we seeing quid pro quo linked to American pressure on currency manipulation and upcoming nuclear disarmament talks? And what is going on with the vaccination crises in Shanxi and Jiangsu? Are we seeing the first stages of another major public relations crisis, or does evidence point to this blowing over quickly?

The podcast can also be downloaded from the iTunes store.

Hosted by ex-journalist, digital guru and metalhead extraordinaire Kaiser Kuo, Sinica is a podcast in which your favorite English-language China bloggers discuss current events in China. This week featured entrepreneur and blogger Bill Bishop and me as guests. (Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei had a cameo, too.) I was woefully unqualified to address the Iran topic (not that this has ever stopped me), but got nicely stuck into the vaccine issue. It was a great discussion all around. You can also listen to last week’s installment, on the Google issue, with Bill and Jeremy (I didn’t participate in that one).

Sinica will be produced weekly by Kaiser and I’ll be a semi-regular. Bill Bishop is the author of Digicha and Sinocism, and is possibly the highest-value China Twitterer. Kaiser is also on twitter and, of course, writes “Ich Bin Ein Beijinger” for The Beijinger.

Your feedback is welcome. We’d be interested to hear any suggestions for making the podcast better.