:: I recently came across a video from last year’s Blip Festival in New York City (H/T Sean Leow) featuring my favorite 8-bit musician, Beijing-based Sulumi. This clip is amazing. Enjoy.  // AjS

:: this video is the ninth in a Danwei.org series of short interviews conducted at this year’s Chinese blogger conference (cnbloggercon 2008, Guangzhou, November 15 & 16th).

In this interview, Guo “Daxia” (郭”大虾”), a controversial and prolific grassroots Chinese blogger well-known for tackling many of China’s most sensitive social issues on his blog (which has long been blocked / inaccessible in mainland China), discusses his experience blogging, “civic consciousness” in China, the influence social media is having on official policymakers, censorship, free speech / public discourse, and the Chinese government propaganda department loosing control.

This video is also available on Tudou for faster loading in China.

To see other interviews from this series, link here.

Filming, editing, and interviewing: Adam J. Schokora
Subtitles: Alice Liu
Music: B6

:: Netease, one of China’s leading Internet portal Web sites, has just released some interesting “top 10″ data in its 2008 China Internet Communication Report; essentially a catalog of mainstream Chinese pop culture. Netease sums up how the report’s results were determined with “…there are about 200 million netizens in China who are active in the application of various NetEase Internet products…every click or search they have done, and any words they have posted on the Internet, have contributed to this report.” (Wow!)

Link here to download a not-so-great English translation of the the report’s results, or here to download a Chinese language PDF of the report’s results.

Below is a summary of the report’s 2008 “top 10″ listings:

Hot Internet Figures in 2008

1   Liu Xiang
2   Yao Ming
3   Edison Chen
4   Gillian Chung
5   Andy Lau
6   Cecilia Cheung
7   Kobe Bryant
8   Ma Ying Jeou
9   Faye Wong
10 Guo Jingjing

Hot Internet Key Words in 2008

1   Sichuan Earthquake (四川地震)
2   Olympic Games (奥运)
3   Naked Picture Scandal (艳照门)
4   Financial Crisis (金融风暴)
5   Sanlu Toxic Milk Powder (三鹿奶粉事件)
6   Faked Photo of the South China Tiger (华南虎)
7   Shenzhou VII (神舟七号)
8   Presidential Election of the United States (美国大选)
9   Thunderstuck (雷人)
10 Shanzhai (山寨)

Top Sports Personalities of 2008

1   Liu Xiang
2   Yao Ming
3   Guo Jingjing
4   Kobe Bryant
5   Yi Jianlian
6   Sun Yue
7   David Beckham
8   Michael Phelps
9   Lin Dan
10 Li Ning

Top Entrepreneurs of 2008

1   Wang Shi
2   Li Ka-Shing
3   Li Ning
4   Huang Guangyu
5   Wang Yung-Ching
6   Ma Yun
7   Niu Gensheng
8   Zhang Yin
9   Pan Shiyi
10 Ding Lei

Top Entertainment Stars of 2008

1   Edison Chen
2   Gillian Chung
3   Andy Lau
4   Cecilia Cheung
5   Faye Wong
6   Jay Chou
7   Jacky Chen (Chan)
8   Nicolas Tse
9   Zhang Ziyi
10 Vicki Zhao

Top Movies of 2008

1   Red Cliff
2   Painted Skin
3   Lust, Caution
4   CJ7
5   The Forbidden Kingdom
6   Transformers
7   The Forbidden Legend Sex & Chopsticks
8   007: Quantum of Solace
9   Forever Enthralled
10 The Warlords

Top TV Series of 2008

1   Prison Break
2   You’re My Destiny
3   Soldiers Sortie
4   Sweet as Honey
5   The Jewels
6   Royal Tramp
7   The Ugly Girl Wins
8   Adventure in Northeast of China
9   Hot Shot
10 The Legend of Bruce Lee

Top Music Singles of 2008 (OUTdustry.com has posted music videos for these singles)

1   You and Me (Beijing Olympic Games’ theme song sung by Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman)
2   The Air (Beijing Olympic Games-related song, sung by Tan Jing)
3   Beijing Welcomes You (100-day countdown to Beijing Olympic Games)
4   Be Together, Alive or Not (composed by Shu Nan, performed by Jackie Chan)
5   Blue-and-white Porcelain (composed / sung by Jay Chou, lyrics by Fang Wenshan)
6   We Chinese (a song for victims of the Wenchuan earthquake, sung by stars from E.E-Media)
7   Capricorn (Jay Chou)
8   The Rice Aroma (Jay Chou)
9   I Know You Will Come (Xiao Ke)
10 Painted Heart (composed by Yumiaska, lyrics by Chen Shaoqi, sung by Zhang Liangying)

Top Fund Companies in 2008

1   Bosera Funds
2   ChinaAMC
3   Dacheng Fund
4   HuaAn Funds
5   China Post Fund
6   Southern Fund
7   E Fund
8   China International Fund Management Co.
9   Lion Fund
10 Penghua Fund

Top A-Share Listed Companies in 2008

1   Ping An of China
2   PetroChina Company Limited
3   China Unicom
4   Vanke
5   The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
6   Sinopec
7   Bank of China
8   Yili Industrial Group
9   Bao Steel
10 China Merchants Bank

// AjS