Archive for the ‘media’ Category

thanks mainstream media! an article about NeochaEDGE ::

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

:: a nice article was recently written about us in China International Business. See below.  // AjS

Adam-Sean-interviewed-by-China-International-Business-1

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“shift happens,” did you know 4.0 ::

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

This is another official update to the original Shift Happens video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. For more information, or to join the conversation, please link here or here.  // AjS

clay shirky kills it, enough said ::

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

:: I peeked this TED Talk today and was pretty impressed. Shirky does many things really well in this presentation, but most notably:

  • he smartly and succinctly summarizes the entire “transforming media landscape” X “social / digital media is important and why” meme we have all come to know and love over the past 5 years.
  • he clearly illustrates the best example of social media in a China to date – better than any of us so-called Chinese digital experts have done. [Hail the power of online video and good public speaking skills!]
  • he says this, “on the Internet, every medium (i.e. TV, magazines, telephone, books, etc.) is right next door to every other medium, put another way, media is increasingly less just a source of information, and increasingly a site of coordination.”
  • he also puts forth this brilliant nugget of wisdom, “the media landscape that we knew, as familiar as it was and as easy as it was conceptually to deal with the idea that professionals broadcast messages to amateurs is increasingly slipping away. In a world where media is global, social, ubiquitous, and cheap; in a world of media in which the former audience are increasingly full participants – in that world [i.e. today], media is less and less often about crafting a single message to be consumed by individuals, it’s more and more often a way of creating an environment for convening and supporting groups [i.e. conversation and community-based interaction]. The choice anyone who has a message that they want to have heard anywhere in the world faces, isn’t whether that’s the media environment we’ve want to operate in, that’s the media environment we’ve got. The question now is, how to we make the best of that medium even though that means changing the way we have always done it.” [Halle-fucking-lujah! Shirky, you killed it with that closer – bravo!]

The last point is what I have spent a good chunk of my professional life trying to get others to understand (and pay for). It has vast implications for “media people,” (who is everyone now-a-days) as well as the communications, PR, marketing, advertising, etc. industries. The next time your client (or colleague, or your mom) just doesn’t get it, play them this video. If English is not their first language, get a professional to translate it into the appropriate language. It will save you a lot of time / effort / money in the long run.  // AjS

friday 5 | chinese journalist bloggers (part 2) ::

Friday, September 25th, 2009

:: this week’s Friday 5 takes a second look at Chinese journalists who blog. The individuals profiled here are all quite popular on the Chinese Internet, some because of the reporting they’ve done in the line of work, and others because of their online activities. Their blogs involve journalism and media to varying degrees; it’s interesting to see how much of their own lives and outside interests they bring to the massive online readership they command. Journalists also take advantage of the more open (yet still censored) online environment to post things that might not be able to make it into print.

sports ::
Dong Lu
(董路) was once the host of Beijing TV sports programs and remains an extremely prolific and well-known soccer journalist. His blog posts on Sina get page views in the tens of thousands. He comments on international and domestic football but often strays into other sports, as in a popular post titled “Yao Ming, China is calling you home for dinner!” (a play on the Jia Junpeng Chinese Internet meme mentioned in a previous Friday 5) that has been viewed 70,567 times. Dong Lu is a fan of posting videos to his blog: sometimes entertainment news, such as this discussion of Pan Changjiang (潘长江), a TV actor famous for his peasant roles, his unusually beautiful daughter, and the TV program they have together. There are also some more personal, moving posts about his daughter starting school, and a video of his daughter dancing in front of a KFC. Popular CCTV sports journalist Zhang Bin (张斌) started his career in soccer. Now the deputy director of the CCTV Sports department as well as producer for some of their primary soccer shows, Zhang achieved fame after graduating from Renmin University in 1991, going on to host Soccer Night (足球之夜) on CCTV as well as special sport shows during EURO 2000, also on CCTV. Zhang Bin keeps a blog on Sohu called CCTV-ZhangBin, with page views in the tens of thousands. A recent post on Liu Xiang (刘翔) in which he argued that China’s star hurdler should keep running if he is passionate about sport, received 30,000 page views. Zhang Bin keeps mostly to sports-related topics on his blog. In another recent post, he pondered on whether Caster Semenya, the South African 800-meter gold medalist, was male or female. Zhang Bin is often perceived as a model Sports anchor: friendly and kind. This is reinforced by a public announcement on his blog about drinking up all the contents of a mineral water bottle rather than wasting water by throwing it away half-finished. However, Zhang is also somewhat notorious for a public marital spat in which his wife. Hu Ziwei, another well-known television personality, crashed a live CCTV broadcast to accuse him of having an affair.

arts / Entertainment ::
Meng Jing
(孟静) is a senior reporter for the news weekly Sanlian Life Week (三联生活周刊) who is well-known for her celebrity profiles and interviews. Her blog, which she updates in periodic bursts, follows her work fairly closely. She writes about the practice of journalism (as in one recent post on the uncomfortable necessity of flattering an interview subject), and posts intriguing snippets of interviews that didn’t make it to print. However, her interests range widely, from feminism to groan-worthy jokes. Yuan Lei (袁蕾), who blogs under the name Milk Pig (奶猪), is often called the southern counterpart of Meng Jing. Yuan, who writes for the culture section of Southern Weekly (南方周末), is a keen-eyed interviewer in her day job. Her blog is considerably less formal, and employs a curious writing style that approximates a sort of girlish tone through the use of character substitutions and odd vocabulary choices. Ahead of the publication of major interviews, she’ll often present pull-quotes or teasers, and she also puts up interesting observations and anecdotes that may not amount to proper news stories (such as an account of a telephone scam). Other posts are devoted to media and policy rumors and wry comments on spiked stories, but the cutesy language distances her from other journalists who trade cynical comments about media and politics. Lately there have been quite a few photos of her dog.

columnist ::
Chang Ping
(长平 real name Zhang Ping 张平) is a journalist who has served as director of the news department of the prestigious Southern Weekly and as the deputy editor of Southern Metropolis Weekly (南都周刊) but was forced out from his editorial position after publishing “sensitive” editorials around the time of the Lhasa riots last March. Chang Ping has abandoned blogs on Tianya, Sina, and iFeng because of frequent deletions by blog administrators, and opened a blog on an independent domain. Most recently, Chang Ping blogged about the Kunming prostitution case, before “technical problems” took the blog down for three months before August. Thanks to Isaac Mao and Zuola (Chinese Internet insider and citizen blogger respectively; see these interviews from the CNBloggercon), it is active once again. Chang Ping has an as well as a column on the FT Chinese website where he writes about issues such as civic society. Xiong Peiyun (熊培云) is a European correspondent for the newsweekly Window of the South (南风窗) and a senior commentator at The Beijing News (新京报). This year he launched a new group commentary blog, 21Pinglun to replace his personal blog la république d’esprits which is blocked on the Chinese mainland. Posts concern a wide range of subjects, with a particular emphasis on rural issues (which Xiong occasionally writes about for the magazine and other media outlets). Xiong recently wrote about Internet Addictive Disorder and shock treatment, referencing the Ludovico Treatment from A Clockwork Orange. Much of the content consists of reposts of op-eds originally published elsewhere, with deleted portions restored in many cases, a common practice on blogs kept by print media columnists.

business ::
Apart from his day job as a host and anchor for various TV programs on CCTV’s international and business channels, Rui Chenggang (芮成钢) is also a blogger who keeps a high-traffic, influential blog where he regularly posts photographs in which he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with his world leader interviewees who usually have his book in their hands (former British prime minister Tony Blair, for example). With his established career in the media, his young, energetic screen image and good looks, Rui is idolized by numerous young students, who see him as a mentor and role model. His international outlook and rare fluency in English among his state media colleagues earns him the title of best qualified candidate for China’s ambassador to the world among some Westerners. However, Rui has no shortage of critics. He has been called an egotistic self-promoter, an unprofessional journalist who has overstepped the boundaries of his field by playing economist, a dyed-in-the-wool nationalist for his crusade to drive Starbucks out of the Forbidden City in 2007, and a propaganda mouthpiece for the government. Recently, Rui stoked controversy again with his questions to American president Obama at the G20 summit in London. After writer, car racer and blogger Han Han posted Rui’s questions and Obama’s answers in both English and Chinese on his blog below characteristically sarcastic comments, the topic was picked up by other netizens and heatedly discussed in various forums. Most netizens found Rui’s wording “on behalf of China” and “on behalf of the World” an inappropriate expression of a typically condescending attitude of the Chinese government toward the Chinese people. Rui’s upbeat blog post about his performance at the Summit only exacerbated netizen ire and heaped more ridicule upon him.

society ::
Chai Jing (柴静), a television journalist with CCTV’s News Investigation program, resumed blogging this year after a lengthy hiatus. Chai is conscious of the possibilities of her blog as an interactive platform, typically using videos of her programs as a prompt for readers to discuss the key issues at hand. She then responds to netizen questions. In two recent posts, she explained her view of the comments section and her moderation practices. Other posts address the practice of journalism in general, like a recent selection of excerpts from a Walter Cronkite book. Chai’s high profile, accentuated in the past month by her involvement in the exposé of shock therapy clinics for Internet addiction, means that she’s sometimes the target of nasty rumors. She recently had to fight back at online rumors that she had been arrested for accepting bribes in return for providing CCTV advertising spots to a Chongqing textile mill. Chai also occasionally contributes to Xiong Peiyun’s 21Pinglun (as in this anecdote about gentrification and cultural heritage). Wang Keqin (王克勤), a journalist with the China Economic Times (中国经济时报), has been called China’s chief anti-corruption journalist for exposing “the dark side of society.” Wang is unique in working up to a story to post on his blog, probably with the knowledge that the full version will not be published in print. For example, he tried to visit Deng Yujiao in June, when she was released from a trial centering on the murder of two officials in Hubei province. She was acquitted on self-defense grounds (she had stabbed the two after they tried to sexually harass her), but Chinese and Western media were prevented from visiting her at home. Wang’s record of his futile efforts to get there has since been taken down by Sohu, but is available in a reposted version. Wang’s accounts of his journalistic activities end up widely reposted: another account of violent attempted visit, this time to to the family of blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng (陈光城), was cross-posted to liberal blog service my1510 by Zhai Minglei (翟明磊), who is also a well-known muckracker (See this interview from the CNBloggercon). Wang is sometimes called China’s Lincoln Steffens as a salute to his muckraking tendencies. A list of his articles up to 2006 is collated at the China Elections and Governance Chinese website.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work for Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

周五5 | 中国记者博客 (第二部) ::

Friday, September 25th, 2009

:: 本周的Friday 5 将再次关注中国的记者博客。在本篇中予以介绍的记者在互联网上都享有较高的知名度,其原因或是因为其在传统媒体的成就,或者是更偏重其在网上的努力。这些博客不同程度涉及他们所从事的新闻媒体工作,另外,他们向大量网上读者所传达的关于他们日常生活的点点滴滴也相当有趣。而这些记者也大多利用互联网这个更加开放(虽然依然被审查)的环境来发表那些不能被传统纸媒所接纳的文章。

体育 ::
曾经作为体育节目主持人而任职于北京电视台的董路在转型为文字记者之后仍然保有相当髙的知名度。他在新浪网的博客上刊登的文章往往获得了数以万计的浏览量。除了对国内外足球赛事作评论,董在博客中对其他体育运动也多有涉及,例如他的一篇标题为“姚明,中国喊你回家吃饭”(该标题源自互联网上的流行语,详情参见前期的Friday5)。文中作者表达了自己对这位篮球明星的看法并获得了多达70567次电击量。董路喜欢在自己的博客上上传视频,其中既包括一些娱乐节目:例如一档由以扮演农民而著称的演员潘长江和他的漂亮女儿共同主持的娱乐节目。此外还有一些对自己家庭生活的温馨记录,例如小女儿第一天上学和在肯德基门前跳舞等等。央视知名体育记者张斌最初也是足球主播:在1991年毕业于人民大学之后,张开始主持央视的《足球之夜》并在欧洲杯的赛事转播中担任评论员。目前张担任央视体育部的副主任,兼任几档主要足球节目的制作人。张斌在搜狐的博客发表的文章浏览量往往逾万,并且多数都是关于体育的话题。最近的一篇被浏览超过三万次的关于刘翔的文章中,张写到“期望刘翔可以因为爱这项运动而继续跑下去…”而关于南非八百米跑冠军Caster Semenya的性别问题也是张斌另一篇文章索讨论的话题。张斌在体育主播界向来因待人诚恳友善而颇有声望,还为倡导环保而在博客上号召人们饮用瓶装水时务必饮尽而不是剩下半瓶随手丢弃。但是张的婚外恋风波也一度让他声名狼藉。他的妻子,也是电视节目主播的胡紫薇曾经在央视节目的录制现场对张的风流韵事痛加揭露。

文化娱乐 ::
三联生活周刊的文化娱乐记者孟静以其对娱乐圈名人的采访而在媒体圈名声颇著。她的博客与其媒体工作关系紧密,内容涉及媒体圈的各种规则(例如在最近一篇谈媒体行业中无可奈何的拍马屁现象的文章),以及没有在纸媒刊登的精彩采访片段。此外,她的兴趣还包括女权主义和各种冷笑话。以“奶猪”为笔名写博客的袁蕾是一个经常被与孟静相提并论,并称“南袁北孟”的另一位文化娱乐记者。袁为《南方周末》的文化版撰稿,以思维敏锐的采访而著称。她的博客更加随性,喜欢在博客中运用一些女孩子中间流行的同音字替代法和别的稀奇古怪的词语。袁喜欢在采访正式发表之前在自己的博客上发表节选一小段。此外,她还常常发表一点对日常生活别具眼光的观察(例如对一起未遂的电话诈骗案的描述)。其它的文章有关于媒体和政府政策的各方传言,以及对各种杜撰的新闻的评论。卡哇伊的语言风格让她显得与喜欢讥嘲语调评论媒体政治的其他记者有所不同。她的博客上的最新更新是她的宠物狗“熊总”的照片

专栏作家 ::
原名张平的长平曾任《南方周末》新闻部主任兼《南方周刊》的副总编。在去年三月“拉萨”暴乱之后因出版涉及“敏感话题”的社论而被免职。因自己的博客经常被服务商删帖,长平停止了天涯新浪凤凰博客的更新,并开通了具有独立域名的博客。最近,他在自己的博客上发表了一系列关于云南卖淫事件的文章,随后博客因技术故障停服三个月,直到八月份才在毛向辉和左拉的帮助下重新上线(参见单位的中国博客大会采访:左拉毛向辉)。长平还是一个活跃的,并在Financial Times的中文网站上撰写专栏熊培云是新闻周刊《南风窗》的欧洲通讯员和新京报的资深评论员。今年,熊开通了一个名为“思想国21世纪评论”的团体博客,用以替代自己以前的在大陆地区被屏蔽的“理想国”博客。博客涉及内容广泛,其中包含大量关注农村问题的文章(熊本人经常围绕此方面为一些杂志和其它媒体供稿)。在一片关注网瘾治疗的文章中,熊将电击疗法和小说《发条橙》中的Ludovico疗法做了类比。博客的很大一部分内容是在媒体上刊发的文章的未删节版本,这在纸媒专栏作者中是较为常见的做法。

经济 ::
芮成刚是央视的国际频道和经济频道的主播,同时他有着很大流量的博客在互联网上也很有影响力。芮经常在自己的博客上发表自己与世界各国领导人比肩而立的合影,而这些领导人的手里往往会拿一本芮自己新出版的著作(例如与英国前首相托尼.布莱尔的合影)。年纪轻轻就在媒体界获得如此成功,又兼具英俊潇洒的气质的芮成刚是无数少男少女的偶像;在不少年轻学子眼中,芮是他们的导师兼榜样。他流利的英文在自己同行中更是凤毛麟角,因此被一些国外人士认为是中国形象大使的最佳人选。然而,对芮成刚的鄙夷之声也不绝于耳:他被视作一个自我炒作的作秀高手,一个跨越界限试图扮演一个经济学家的不称职记者,一个在领导了07年从故宫驱逐星巴克的极端民族主义者。最近,芮又因自己在伦敦G20上对美国总统奥巴马的提问而再惹争议。作家/赛车手/博客韩寒首先发难,在自己的博客上中英文双语全文刊发了芮成刚与奥巴马的问答,并用他一贯的反讽语气对芮进行了一番挖苦。其它网友也随后展开讨论,纷纷指责芮在提问中所用的“on behalf of China”(代表中国)和“on behalf of the world”(代表世界)不恰当,并体现了政府以民意代表自居的高高在上。与此形成鲜明对比,芮本人在博客中对自己的表现十分得意,而这更激起网民都反感,和更多都讥讽

社会 ::
柴静是中央电视台一档深度报道节目的记者。她的博客在经过很长一段时间的停顿后再次更新。柴自觉将博客作为一个与观众进行交流的公共平台,经常在博客上发布一些自己节目的视频片段以激发读者的讨论。作者本人也常常加入讨论,回应网友的观点。在最近的文章中,她解释了自己关于评论部分的看法,以及她对评论的删贴的原则。其它还有更多关于新闻职业的主题广泛的文章,例如一篇关于Walter Cronkite自传的读后感。柴在新闻界的髙调,尤其是在电击治疗网瘾报道中所做的工作,使她不断遭受恶意流言中伤,其中包括她因接受重庆某纺织厂为获得央视广告时段而支付的贿赂而被逮捕的传言。对此,柴不得不出面进行辟谣。柴也偶尔在熊培云的理想国21世纪评论上发表文章(例如这篇关于农村变化和文化传承的文章)。王克勤是《中国经济时报》的记者以其对社会黑暗面,尤其是腐败问题的深度调查而知名。王倾向于在自己的博客上发表文章那些他自认为难以在传统媒体发表的文章。例如,他在六月分试图采访因杀死政府官员而被短暂拘押的邓玉娇。邓虽然被认定属于正当防卫,并被释放,但中外媒体并未获准采访她。而王对自己申请采访未果的过程的记述在发表在网络上后不久就被搜狐删除。这篇文章的转帖仍然可以在网上被找到。王的其它文章也往往大量获得转载,其中包括一篇他访问失明律师陈光城而遭遇暴力的文章被翟明磊在“一五一十部落”博客群中转载,而翟本人也是一位知名的反腐斗士(参加单位的中国博客大会采访)。一篇CNBloggercon对他的采访。王有时被称作中国的林肯·斯蒂芬斯。他从2006年来的大量文章被收录在中国选举与治理网上。

// AjS

[Friday 5是我服务的爱德曼数码(中国)的一项产品。这里是全部Friday 5 的存档。 有意通过电子邮件订阅双语Friday 5者可通过以下地址向我发送邮件索取:adam 点 schokora 在 edelman 点 com。]

friday 5 | chinese internet “gates:” netizen memes & scandals ::

Friday, September 18th, 2009

:: “men,” as in 门 (the Chinese word for “gate”), is an important element of modern Web culture in China. Chinese netizens and even the local media at-large are fond of tacking “gate” (门) onto scandals and memes, perhaps even more than the Western press. Chinese netizens are even quicker on the draw; online conversation about scandals is often a forest of “gates,” many of which have similar or even identical names. This week’s Friday 5 takes a look at recent examples from five of the most common categories of “gates” on the Chinese Internet: food quality, donations, cars, espionage, and of course, the centerpiece of all durable Internet buzz, sex!

food: radiation-gate ::
Food safety has been a serious issue for Chinese netizens this year following the melamine milk scandal of 2008. A number of brands have been embroiled in their own additive scandals (a previous Friday 5 addressed Mengniu and Wang Lao Ji); in July, two instant noodle makers, Master Kong and UniPresident, found themselves in a scandal over labeling and irradiation. The allegations, published by a prominent business newspaper, accused the two companies of distributing instant noodle packages without clearly labeling that they had been irradiated. Both companies denied the charges and insisted that their products were completely safe. Dubbed “radiation-gate” (辐射门) by netizens and media, the scandal was related more to the deception than the radiation itself (although a small but significant portion of the online conversation was devoted to radiation fears). The initial response of both brands was mealy-mouthed: UniPresident claimed it did not use radiation but “could not rule out” use by its suppliers; Master Kong pled ignorance, saying it didn’t know it had to note that its suppliers used radiation. A rather snarky news report made the rounds of video sites and caught the attention of online gamers and other netaholics who survive off of instant noodles at Web cafe’s, etc. (“Woe to my instant noodle life!” reads one comment on the video.) Other netizens piled on with other quality complaints. Ultimately both brands said that they would improve their package labeling. Although the news caused considerable stir immediately after it was reported, Chinese Internet users quickly tired of the affair and it is no longer brought up in discussions of the brand and instant noodles in general. As with many of the minor “-gates” that crop up in online conversation, “radiation-gate” does not exclusively refer to the instant noodles affair: it’s also been used by Chinese netizens to describe mobile phone radiation scares and the effect of high-voltage power pylons on residential neighborhoods.

Yu Qiuyu’s “donation-gate” ::
Yu Qiuyu (余秋雨), a drama professor turned popular essayist turned TV commentator, has long been dogged by controversies ranging from accusations of being a henchman of the notorious Gang of Four to having accepted a luxurious villa from the Shenzhen government in exchange for favorable reviews. The source of Yu’s latest controversy, known as “donation gate,” was his old foe Xiao Xialin (肖夏林), whom he once brought to court for defamation. On May 14, 2008, shortly after the Sichuan earthquake, Yu announced that he would donate RMB 200,000 to build an elementary school in the quake-stricken Dujiangyan. In a blog post published on May 5 of this year, Xiao Xialin suggested that Yu had not spent a cent of his own money. He demanded that Yu provide proof he had really donated. A blog post Yu made in the wake of the earthquake in which he issued a “tearful plea” to the Chinese people had been mocked by a wide swath of Internet users, and his silence on the donation issue revived his “tearful professor” title and prompted more mockery from netizens, including this article sarcastically proposing that the Chinese government should help Yu to forge a donation receipt. Some public figures, such as Yi Zhongtian (易中天), also urged Yu to show evidence. The belated response came in June 22, when Yu denied the charges following a newspaper report that quoted a local government official from Dujiangyan confirming that Yu did donate RMB 200,000. According to the government official, because the construction standard has been upgraded after the earthquake, RMB 200,000 was no longer enough to build a school, so it was spent to buy books for three school libraries to be named after him. This was not enough for some netizens, who were put off by the thought that Yu had made the donation under public pressure or out of self-promotion. “Whether the donation is real or not, I think that the actions of Yu and his cronies are more disgusting than misappropriating RMB 200,000,” read one comment.

car scandals
In the beginning of September, a driver in Shanghai named Zhang was stopped by a pedestrian who complained that his stomach was killing him and who asked for a ride to the hospital because he couldn’t wait for a taxi. Zhang refused his passenger’s offer of payment, but when he reached the hospital, the passenger grabbed his keys, and the car was surrounded by seven or eight uniformed individuals. Zhang was charged with illegally operating a taxi. In many Chinese cities, unlicensed taxis are frequently targeted by law-enforcement campaigns and their drivers are subject to fines, license suspensions, or even more serious punishment, but this kind of fishing expedition, preying on the good intentions of ordinary citizens, raised the hackles of many netizens who already had a fairly poor opinion of local law enforcement. The situation first came to public attention when Han Han (韩寒), a bestselling author and race car driver who keeps a phenomenally popular blog, posted two letters under the heading “This is certainly just a rumor” on September 11. From Han, who has been named an online public opinion leader by a number of media outlets, the story received immense exposure, and the mainstream press tracked down and verified the story. “Fishing-gate” spawned op-ed columns on entrapment, the rule of law, and the limits of administrative authority, and these in turn generated even more netizen debate (“Where is my Party, my great Communist Party? We miss you so!”) and parody. Han prefaced his repost of the rumors with the following comment: “I’m republishing two posts that have not been verified. It’s highly likely that they’re just rumor-mongering by reactionary elements bent on ruining the National Day atmosphere. I’ve selected them so that the relevant departments can proceed with arrests.” This is a reference to the arrests of previous online rumor-mongers, including one of the netizens involved in a previous car-related “gate”: the “Hu Bin stand-in-gate” (胡斌替身门 or “surro-gate”, as one translator put it). That scandal captured netizen imaginations over the summer and demonstrated the limits of the power of crowd-sourcing to determine the truth from questionable photographs. Hu Bin, who struck and killed a pedestrian, turned up in court looking very different from photos taken at the scene. Rumors sprung up online that he had hired someone to take his place in prison. The “human flesh search engine” tracked down a likely stand-in. Someone masquerading as that individual denied the rumors, but it took the mainstream media to clear up the situation and determine that Hu Bin had actually appeared in court.

spygates ::
Espionage has considerable cachet online in China. Unverifiability of much of the information about spies has rumors flying fast and thick, and Chinese netizens attempt to ferret out the truth even as the mainstream media remains tight-lipped. In June, rumors snowballed that Fang Jing (方静), the host of prime-time CCTV programs such as Defense Watch who had lately been absent from the screen, was accused of being a spy for Taiwan, detained, and missing for three months. “Fang Jing Spy-Gate” (方静间谍门) led to a lot of speculation online about the situation, even after she denied the rumors. Later it was revealed that rival CCTV presenter and professor Ah Yi (阿忆), who could have been jealous of her, exposed her status as a “spy” for Taiwan in a cryptic blog post (since deleted; repost here). Fang Jing quickly returned to present another program for CCTV to put an end to the rumors altogether, although conversation about the incident continued: a blog post on Sina BBS dissects the heated discussion following Ah Yi’s rumormongering. In another recent spy-gate, Rio Tinto employees, including the Shanghai General Manager, were detained by the Chinese PSB in July on suspicion of stealing state secrets. Known as “Rio Tinto Gate” (力拓门) or “Rio Tinto Spy-gate” (力拓间谍门), the case came at a time of bad relations between the Australian government and China, and it sent a shock through the international iron ore industry. The murky situation was quickly elaborated upon, but the online response in China was widespread. Both the Fang Jing and Rio Tinto Spy-Gates were talked about in light of the then-popular espionage TV drama Hidden (潜伏), which involves a Communist spy in the KMT before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Variations of the spy cases have cropped up, after Rio Tinto’s “gate” turned into a “spy and espionage gate”: on the Netease Money BBS, for example, netizens talked about a senior member of Shougang (首都钢铁公司) being taken away for corruption. In the iron industry, it seems, espionage “gates” are closely tied to bribery “gates” at the moment.

sex-gates ::
Since the Edison Chen (陈冠希) “racy photo-gate” broke in 2008, leakages of private / bedroom photos and videos have turned up fairly regularly on the Chinese Internet. The ones that attract the most attention involve celebrities who inadvertently got their overexposed personal pictures leaked. Often these get compared to the Edison Chen scandal (as the topless paparazzi photos of Zhang Ziyi (子怡) – “beach gate” – was in January), but they tend to fade away much more quickly. Other popular sex scandals involve teens who intentionally post their own racy photos or videos to the Internet. In “breast rubbing gate”: In a video which has been circulating on the Internet since late June, a female student is lying on a desk in what looks like a classroom; around her are a number of male students fondling her breasts. Via “human flesh searching” tactics, Chinese netizens eventually discovered the real identity of the girl, a student at a vocational school in Cixi, Zhejiang Province. After the incident broke, the girl in the video posted to her QQ page (repost) that she was under immense pressure and felt suicidal. Netizens engaged in heated debate about the moral issues involved. This blog post argues that the moralists who criticize the girl have done more damage to her than her classmates. Netizens also discussed another issue highlighted by the incident, the imbalance gender ratio: as the only female in the class, the girl said she gave consent to the boys for the “solidarity of the whole class.” For these sex scandals, even though most websites swiftly delete the content whenever it pops up, a sufficiently determined and patient Internet user can eventually locate a reposted copy.

/// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work for Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

周五5 | 中国互联网上的“门”:网民热议的丑闻事件 ::

Friday, September 18th, 2009

:: 相比较于西方的同行,中国媒体对为各种丑闻贴上“门”

字标签的偏好有过之而不及。中国网民更是将此发挥到了机制。门字在网上对于形形色色的各种负面事件的讨论中随处可见,甚至不同的事件可以有类似或相同的名称。本周的Friday 5汇集了五大类“门”事件,其中涉及捐款,汽车,间谍,以及饮食男女等诸多方面。

食品安全:辐射门 ::
在2008年的三聚氰胺毒奶粉事件之后,食品安全成为人们关注的焦点。众多品牌也遭受到添加剂事件的困扰(此前报道的蒙牛和王老吉);在六月,一家经济报纸刊登文章,指出两家方便面企业,康师傅和统一,没有在其包装上明确标注其使用了放射性物质进行杀菌灭活。两家企业否认了这一指责。此事件被称为辐射门,相比与放射性物质所带来的恐慌相比,舆论更多的是对企业说谎的谴责声,只有小部分议论是关于放射性物质杀菌所可能带来的危害。两家企业的最初反应含糊其辞。统一声称自己并未使用辐射消毒,但不排除自己的供货商使用这种消毒方法;康师傅则声称自己并不知道使用了经过辐射的原材料必须要标识。一个对此事件的电视报道在各个视频网站被转载并在大量消费泡面的网民中间引起反响(一位网友评论到:哎,我的泡面生涯!)其他网友则纷纷反映其它质量问题。最终,两家企业表示将会改进自己的标识方法。尽管事件被曝光的最初获得大量的关注,但网民的注意力很快转移,此类话题在互联网上也很少再被提起。对于网上层出不穷的各种影响有限的门事件一样,辐射门也不仅仅局限于方便面食品,它还被用来指称手机高压变电器电磁波辐射所带来的恐慌。

捐款门 ::
从一名戏剧教授成功转型成为散文家的余秋雨,近年又成为一名活跃于电视荧屏的评论家。成名以来,关于他的争议一直不绝于耳,其中包括他曾经是臭名昭著的四人帮的帮凶,以及他以赞美文章从深圳政府处换取豪华别墅。余最新的一次争议同样来源自所谓的“咬余专业户”肖夏林。在2008年五月十四日汶川地震后不久,余宣布自己将为灾区捐赠二十万元,用于建造一座希望小学。肖在近年五月五日的一篇博客中余极有可能没有掏一分钱。夏还进一步要求余出示证据以表明捐款确有其事。此前,余秋雨的一篇《含泪劝告请愿灾民》已经招致网民的一片嘲笑,而他此次对于捐款问题的沉默再次引发众人对这位“含泪教授”的讥讽,其中包括这篇网民戏称要求政府为余秋雨伪造一份捐款收据。包括易中天在内的一些社会名人也纷纷向余秋雨开炮,敦促其公示证据。余对指责的否认直到六月二十二日才姗姗来迟。而此前的一篇新闻报道已经引述了都江堰的一位政府官员确认了余秋雨的捐款。该官员同时声称由于震后对新建建筑的抗震要求提高,建设一座小学的所需花费超出二十万元,因此余的捐款被用于为三座图书馆购置书籍。这仍然不能满足一部分网民,因为对他们而言,余的捐款究竟是出于自我宣传或者是舆论压力依然不得而知(不管真捐假捐,我都觉得余及其同伙此举比贪污挪用了20万救灾款还恶心)。

钓鱼门和替身门 ::
在九月初,上海一名张姓司机搭载了一名声称剧烈腹痛的行人前往医院。张拒绝了此人的支付车费的请求,但是当车辆驶入医院的时候,乘客夺取钥匙,同时,一群身着制服的人包围了车辆。张被控非法营运。在很多中国城市,未经注册的出租车是执法机构的打击对象,一旦被发现,往往被课以高额罚款,暂扣驾照,以及其它严厉惩罚。这种“诱使犯罪”,并往往殃及出于公德心的驾驶员的执法手法受到本来就对当地执法评价很低的网民的大加鞭笞。此事件最早被畅销作家兼赛车手韩寒在的曝光而引发公众关注。九月十一日,关于此事的两封信被韩冠以“这一定是造谣”的标题发表在博客上。韩的舆论领袖的身份使事件获得极高曝光度,而大量主流媒体随后跟进并确认信中反映属实。关于“钓鱼门”的大量专栏见诸报端,讨论了事件所涉及的诱捕,法制,以及政府权限等诸多问题,这些文章又进一步依法网上的讨论(“我的党在哪里,伟大共产党呀,我们想念你” ;惊爆上海好心车主被“钓鱼”后与执法大队的对话)。韩寒为此文作序,称“转两个帖子,未经核实,极其有可能是反动份子破坏国庆气氛的造谣之作,我特别选出,以便相关部门进行追捕”暗指此前数名网民因制作和散布谣言而被捕,其中包括另一与汽车有关的“胡斌替身门”。此事件充分调动了网民的想象力,并暴露了众多网民在鉴定嫌疑照片时的不足。驾驶汽车撞击过路行人致死的胡斌在法庭照片与以往的形象迥异,引发他雇佣替身为其坐牢的猜测。网民甚至通过人肉搜索,爆出一个与照片中人物相貌相似的所谓“替身”。此后有人以该“替身”身份发帖否认“自己”替胡斌入狱,主流媒体最终证明胡斌确实已经接受审判厘清关于此事的传言

间谍门 ::
形形色色的间谍事件常在。由于主流媒体往往三缄其口,使得众多传言一时漫天飞舞,令人真假莫辩。六月有关于中央电视台国防观察节目主持人方静被传为台湾间谍,已经离职并接受调查。尽管方出面否认此传闻种种猜测依然不止。央视前主持人兼北大教授阿忆是此次事件的始作俑者。阿忆或许出于嫉妒, 在博客上发表了一篇含糊其词的文章,指称方静为台湾间谍(原文已被删除,但转帖仍然能够被读到)方静很快重返央视,主持另一档节目,结束了种种传言。但网上对此的讨论依然不止:发表在新浪bbs上的一篇文章分析此事件的前因后果。另外一件间谍门则涉及澳大利亚铁矿巨头力拓。由于事发正值中澳关系紧张时期,国际铁矿石业也受此影响。尽管真相逐渐露出水面,但该事件在网上影响广泛。关于两起间谍门的讨论往往与热播谍战电视剧《潜伏》相提并论。此间谍门的后果不断延续,在网易论坛上,网民们谈论到首都钢铁公司一名高管被警方带走接受调查。在钢铁行业,“间谍门”似乎被称作为受贿门更确切些。

色情门 ::
自从2008年陈冠希艳照门曝光之后,不时有个人私密照片或视频泄露到互联网上。最引人注意的多是那些不慎流出的娱乐界明星超尺度的私房照。这些照片经常被拿来和陈冠希艳照门做对比(例如一月份章子怡几近赤裸的“沙滩门”事件),但是这些事件大都很快从公众视线中淡去。此外,色情门还涉及还涉及一些未成年人在网上发布的自己的性爱照片或录像。一个名为“摸奶门”的视频自六月底以来在网上大量传播。视频中的女主角躺在貌似一间教室的课桌上,身边围绕着一群男学生,轮流抚摸女生的胸部。网民还确定了该女生的真实身份:浙江慈溪某职业学校的一名女生。事后,该女生在自己的QQ页面上声称自己面临很大的压力,甚至有自杀的念头。网上对该事件的讨论大多涉及的道德伦理方面。一篇博客文章认为道德的卫道士给该女生造成的伤害远大于视频中的男同学。对于此事件中折射出来的另一个问题:男女人口比例的失调,网民们也有讨论:作为班里的唯一女性,该女生声称她之所以同意男生的请求是出于班级的团结。这些尽管多数网站迅速删除了所有这些色情门有关的内容,对于有毅力兼耐心的网民,找到被大量转载的内容并非难事。

/// AjS

[Friday 5是我服务的爱德曼数码(中国)的一项产品。这里是全部Friday 5 的存档。 有意通过电子邮件订阅双语Friday 5者可通过以下地址向我发送邮件索取:adam 点 schokora 在 edelman 点 com。]

friday 5 | e-magazines in china ::

Friday, July 31st, 2009

:: under China’s current press rules, anyone who wants to launch a new magazine is required to first register with the General Administration of Press and Publication in order to obtain a publication license that is tied to distribution area and content type. These publication licenses are hard to come by, and practically out of reach of small start-ups who lack the backing of major state-owned publishers. There are grey-market ways around this, but for many magazines, it might be easier to reach a target audiences by publishing exclusively online, where regulation is significantly more relaxed. It’s also less of a risk, a way to roll out a magazine without the capital outlay involved in printing and distribution.

China’s e-magazine marketplace is home to small, short-lived titles as well as digital versions of major print publications. Many of them are downloadable in executable files of about 30M in size (which means they are only readable on Windows machines), or are viewable as a Flash application in a browser window. Although a small percentage take advantage of the multimedia possibilities offered by digital publication, the vast majority basically reproduce the experience of reading a print magazine, “enhanced” with virtual page-flipping, (cheesy) background music, and an animated advertisement or two.This also means that the text is frequently non-searchable (and non-copyable), but despite the limitations, e-magazines are still a surprisingly active sector of the mainland Chinese internet. Below is a snapshot of a few of the ways they’re used online in China.

celebrity brands ::
e-Magazines have been around for years in China, but it was only when Xu Jinglei launched Kaila in early 2007 that they really attracted much attention from the mainstream media. Xu and other celebrities have extended their brand to the e-publishing world, giving them some of the benefits of a personal magazine without the hassle of the print regulation system in China. Kaila builds each issue around a particular theme (the current issue is all about weddings) and features writing by well-known columnists and ordinary readers alike. In the past two years, the magazine has extended its brand to two new titles: Kaila Street Photos (开啦街拍), which focuses on pictures of fashionistas, including Xu herself, and Kaila Workplace (开啦职场), which is even more closely-targeted at urban white-collar life. As e-magazines, the presentation occasionally takes advantage of digital functionality like audio and video clips; the current issue of Workplace features a parody of a song by pop-group Shin done by a graphic design office in Shanghai, who sing about pulling long hours to edit their images (it’s also viewable on Youku). Readers can interact with the magazine through Kaila’s forums, and there’s a sub-board devoted to article ideas, including a post seeking submissions for the August issue. The new celebrity e-mag H-Sports (最体育) was launched on June 26 (Paolo Maldini’s birthday) by Huang Jianxiang, a high profile TV presenter with a long history in football commentary. The magazine takes advantage of Huang’s extensive connections in the field: the current issue features race-car driving novelist Han Han on the cover and a lengthy interview that Huang conducted with him. The e-mag presents the interview as a video, but it’s also available on Sina, which is one of the magazine’s sponsors and the host of its official blog. Two other celebrity e-mags that are fairly popular belong to the “Oprahs of China,” Yang Lan and Chen Luyu, and like Oprah’s O Magazine, they’re primarily aimed at women and feature the two TV personalities on the cover. Yang Lan’s is hosted on Tencent, while Chen Luyu’s is on Zcom.

online glossies ::
SoMode is an online magazine agency that publishes several fashion-oriented titles. Its flagship publications are Me (Me爱美丽), a women’s fashion magazine, and Wo (Wo男人志), an FHM-style men’s fashion and gadgets magazine. Both magazines are available as downloadable executable files (Windows only) and as a set of full-page images readable online. The men’s magazine gets the most publicity on the Internet because of its scantily-clad cover girls and racy photo sets, but the online BBS discussion forum is almost entirely devoted to the women’s magazine. SoMode also publishes a travel title, LaVie, an e-magazine aimed at 25-35 year-olds. There are flash graphics for most of the spreads in the magazine, which sometimes feel like adverts for hotels and furniture. Some sections of the magazine even have a smoky female voiceover announcing the labels and comfortable cotton clothes that are ideal attire for going outdoors. Here’s one for Sander Mulder, a design label from the Netherlands. Another online glossy magazine is Aria (ARIA阿丽雅), a music magazine published by Kuke, a digital library of classical and other music styles that are not mainstream pop. It’s a downloadable, Windows-only executable, but some of its articles are available online in text form as well. The full e-magazine features musical selections from Kuke’s library of albums, accompanied by liner notes and other text.

zines ::
The e-magazine format is also used by non-professionals looking to produce periodical publications. Although they’re not as readily readable as plain text blog entries and the like, PDF and flash-based e-mags are more convenient than print and less influenced by keyword filters and censorship than blogs and discussion forums. Besides, there’s a certain special feeling that comes with producing a single, 80-page digital publication that’s not found in a list of links to separate blog posts. New Realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction (新幻界) is a SF zine produced by fans of the genre that aims to provide a space for new writers to publish their material in an edited journal and for readers to critique SF and fantasy writing that appears in other venues. China’s SF and fantasy audience is fairly Internet-savvy, so the online community is quite active, with a Douban group that fosters interactivity between the magazine’s volunteer production team and its readers. As a PDF of text and images, it does not utilize the multimedia capabilities of other e-mags, but it has taken advantage of relaxed content regulation as compared to print magazines: the novelette Darkroom (暗室) by the well-known SF writer Han Song, which was featured in the June issue, had previously been killed by print magazine Science Fiction World for being too sensitive. The e-mag format is also a relatively easy way to produce a publication tied to a particular event. Young China Speaks (少年中国说), a magazine of politics written by post-80s Chinese young people, is affiliated with Wang Xiaodong and Huang Jisu, two of the authors behind the recent nationalist bestseller Unhappy China, and its launch was timed to the media frenzy surrounding that book’s release. While a short-term print magazine would have been overly expensive and logistically difficult, Young China Speaks was able to release five full issues before the Unhappy China phenomenon faded from public view. The magazine was produced in PDF format for maximum readability, and had an associated Douban ID and group which, along with the Sina blog, allowed for reader-writer interactivity.

digital print ::
Tons of print magazines have digital versions for sale (providers like Dragonsource handle digitization and subscription services for hundreds of titles ranging from popular fashion to arcane academia), and a number of titles turn up frequently on e-mag-specific websites. e-Magazine portal ZCom (see below) for example, has a digital version of China National Geography (中国国家地理) as a featured brand on its front page. The latest available issue, from March 2009, focuses on the Yangtze and the three other great rivers in China. The magazine is downloadable but cannot be read online, and is one of around 60 other travel e-magazines. ZCom also has an extensive list of business magazines, ranging from CBN Weekly (RMB 409 per year) to The Founder (RMB 229 per year). These digital versions are mostly identical to their print counterparts, meaning there’s virtually no online-specific content for any of these titles. In an interesting reversal of the print-to-web process, Blogbus, a blog host, recently launched a print magazine, iCity, that draws content from its stable of bloggers. iCity is oriented toward a well-off, urban, white-collar, creative readership (the same sort of people whose blogs make up most of the magazine’s content). It has published three bimonthly issues so far this year, all of which are available both online and in print. With netizens active in the production process as well as making up the readership, iCity is an interesting example of e-mag interactivity – it even claims to be “The First Interactive Chinese Magazine (中文第一本互动杂志).

e-Mag providers ::
Although some e-magazines are self-produced and independently hosted, the vast majority of China’s huge range of e-magazines find a home at one of a number of e-magazine providers. ZCom, founded in 2004, provides software for designing interactive e-magazines and offers hosting and subscription management services. It’s the 500-pound gorilla of e-magazines in China: it has a hosting deal with all of the four celebrity magazines mentioned in “celebrity brand” section above, and a large stable of digital versions of popular print titles to boot. In addition to providing reading material, ZCom also hosts a magazine-oriented SNS, where netizens can discuss particular titles, articles, or other e-mag-related topics. As befits an SNS portal that grew out of a photo-sharing service, Poco’s e-magazine section features the photography magazine Interphoto at the top of the front page. Poco’s flagship title is Pocozine, a fashion-oriented urban lifestyle magazine. Brand presence in Poco’s in-house titles matches the promotional campaigns that appear throughout the rest of its online offerings: ice-cream brand Magnum, for example, is running a game on Poco’s SNS (see this earlier Friday 5) and has a section in the current issue of Pocozine that features a number of photographers and a free photo instant message promotion (page 21). Poco also hosts digital versions of major titles like Betty’s Kitchen and Auto Magazine along with a vast array of e-magazine startupsiebook is an e-magazine developer with a slightly different focus: corporate and organizational publications. Listed on the front page are ready-made plans for e-pamphlets for companies and government agencies, advertising circulars, media and educational institutions, and wedding photography. iebook has a few brand-name clients, such as the Ray Li stable of fashion magazines.

/// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

things well done | super mario brothers ::

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

:: a video of a Chinese kid recreating the original Super Mario Brothers theme song with a remote control car toy and wine bottles. Bravo, well done.  // AjS

kaixin001 + magnum ::

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

:: Kaixin001.com, the wildly popular Chinese social networking site, appears to have opened up its platform to full-on branded campaigns and mini-sites! Brands have always had a presence on Kaixin001 as part of the site’s casual games / applications (Parking Wars, Buy a House, Send a Gift, Buy / Sell Friends, etc.) but the site seems to have upped the anti with the release of a new game / application yesterday called “Special Treatment” (非常礼遇), which is presented almost entirely as a branded Magnum (Unilever product) ice cream-branded effort, see below:

Magnum + Kaixin001

I won’t get into the specifics of the game, but in short, it revolves around publicly “teasing” your friends on the site and a resulting individual ranking among all participants. The higher your rank, the more opportunities you get to tease your friends and the more ways you get to do it. All pretty straight forward and very much done-before stuff, but, what’s interesting is 1) how boldly with game / application is presented as Magnum-branded within the Kaixin001 ecosystem, and 2) that success in the game is linked to offline purchases of Magnum ice cream bars (novel!). Gaming codes can be found on the sticks of Magnum bars and redeemed directly on the site or via mobile phone for more “teasing” opportunities / methods, etc. I can’t recall seeing anything like this on other Chinese social networking sites; definitely a first for Kaixin011. See below:

magnum + kaixin 2

As the campaign just came out, it’s too early to know if and how it will be successful, or if it will lead to more brands opening up shop within Kaixin001. But, it’s worth keeping an eye on as another way brands are trying to engage with target audiences online in China.

In the meantime, what I want to know is if the Kaixin001 team created the application and approached Magnum for brand involvement, or was it the other way around? If the latter, who’s behind the campaign for Magnum, does anyone know? I’m curious about the costs involved for Magnum, thoughts? It’s also interesting to note that the offline purchase element of the game seems to only be offered in Beijing and Shanghai – that seems like a massively missed opportunity, but I can understand the possible logistics issues involved.  // AJS

[UPDATE: I've learned from Kaixin001 directly that the campaign at this stage is just an experiment and that the site is not openly cooperating with brands on this scale, not yet anyway. They want to see users' reaction first, then they may consider similar brand campaigns in the future. If the campaign goes over well with users, I can imagine Kaixin001 charging huge amounts of money for brands to do this kind fo stuff inside it's domain: some of the priciest real estate online in China.]

snaps | comrade goldkorn ::

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

:: taken at a Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club event in which Danwei.org founder and editor Jeremy Goldkorn addressed a full house with insightful and humorous anecdotes from his 15 years of experience in China’s online and offline media world. [Please take notice of Jeremy's quasi-jewfro shadowed on the projector screen, superb!]

The following evening I had the indescribable pleasure of having Mr. Goldkorn at my home for dinner, during which he was gracious enough to introduce me to an old-school Internet meme of monumental vileness: Goatse. Thanks Jeremy.  // AjS

Mr. 玉米

[full disclosure: I am a contributor to Danwei.org]

friday 5 | podcasting & the chinese internet ::

Monday, March 16th, 2009

DannyYungOnPodcasting:: audio podcasts are fairly scarce on the Chinese Internet, but it’s hard to pinpoint a key reason for this. Perhaps it’s because there are no painless, all-in-one automated subscription systems for downloading podcasts from the Internet comparable to iTunes and similar systems that have had success abroad. The technical aspects of transferring podcast updates to MP3 players and other handheld devices may be a barrier to widespread adoption. Or maybe the rollout of podcast services by major blogging platforms was eclipsed by the rise of video websites in China, which followed closely on their heels.

The Chinese word for podcast, 播客, encompasses both audio and video media these days, but netizen-generated video clips are far more common than audio podcasts. Exclusively audio podcasting platforms have unfortunately all but disappeared on the Chinese Internet.

Likewise, the few independent podcasts that became popular have reached the end of their lifespan with nothing to take their place. Antiwave was wildly popular when it started in 2005, and received significant coverage in the mainstream media over the following two years. But, its creators turned to other pursuits in 2008 and it has updated very rarely since a relaunch late last year.

Listed below are some examples of well-known Chinese podcasts and podcast aggregators.

Princess Remy  |  黑米公主
A woman from Taiwan who’s currently living in Europe records podcasts under the name Princess Remy (RSS http://princessremy.podspot.de/rss ). She’s produced more than 550 episodes since 2006; for the first year she released one short episode more or less every day, slowed down slightly the second year, and currently does about one a week. Her subject matter ranges widely, from fashion, to European culture, to issues involving Taiwan. Princess Remy frequently turns up on lists of recommended podcasts that circulate on the Chinese mainland.

Justing  |  静雅思听
A wealth of educational podcasts on a wide range of topics, from daily life and contemporary culture to history and law to language learning to stories and anecdotes. One major source of content is blog posts and columns that authors have agreed to let Justing convert into podcasts so that young white-collars can listen to them during dead time when they’re away from their computers: during commutes, waiting in lines, before bed-time, or in particularly boring meetings. The podcast archive (available through iTunes) starts in 2007. Notable contributors include cross-cultural blogger Zhai Hua, popular historian Shel JeAnns, and economist Ding Xueliang.

Piekee  |  派派网
This podcasting platform was founded in 2005 and currently offers blogs with integrated podcasting functionality. Featured on the front page this week is a post on Arbor Day (March 12) by leading podcaster Feixiang (DJ飞翔), several dramatic readings, and a history of jeans presented by “Transhon Studios” (书琴杯剑). The site has its own community, but Piekee has made the odd decision to wall itself off from the rest of the Internet: there’s no RSS provided. In addition, listeners are mostly restricted to in-browser media players, unless the podcaster has specifically chosen to make downloading available. Although this follows the practice of major video websites, it doesn’t give these podcasts the wider exposure they’d get through feed subscriptions and iTunes browsing: listeners are unable to transfer most of Piekee’s podcasts to offline MP3 players and handheld devices.

Converted Phoenix TV podcasts
Some of the most popular podcast feeds have been converted from talk shows, with Phoenix TV being one of the major sources. Perhaps the most widely-known is “Behind the headlines with Dou Wentao” (锵锵三人行) (RSS feed), an interview show that discusses the issues of the day. Since the 20-minute daily show is basically all conversation, it works quite well as an audio-only podcast. Noted cultural critic Leung Man-tao hosts another PhoenixTV talk show, “8 Minutes Reading” (开卷八分钟) (RSS feed), which introduces listeners to different book each episode. Lu Yu’s popular celebrity interview show, “A Date with Lu Yu” (鲁豫有约) (RSS feed) is also available in podcast form.

Sohu Holds Forth  |  搜狐侃事
This series is a joint project between Sohu, which provides netizen-generated content, and China Radio, which hosts the programs. Episodes come out approximately every week and are about ten minutes long. They’re usually devoted to subject matter taken from one of Sohu’s special focus sections. A host recaps the situation and then reads off BBS postings from netizens. Recent topics have included the boundaries online speech (podcast link). This topic started out with a discussion of the stabbing of well-known blogger Qianliexian to address the question of whether violence is ever a justified response to offensive blog posts, and whether bloggers should be more careful about what they write. Hengyuanxiang’s tasteless Spring Festival commercial (feature, podcast link), and the appropriateness of college students acting as nannies (podcast link) were other popular topics that were recapped on this program. Sohu’s wrap-up is packaged for use on China Radio, which means it has pauses for station breaks and then recaps the issues afterward (to some degree, most Chinese podcasts employ common radio announcer techniques like musical backgrounds and solemn diction). Like Piekee (and like many terrestrial radio stations that have an online presence), it doesn’t offer RSS, which limits its exposure.

For more podcasts in addition to the above examples, the best place to go is probably the Douban Podcast Group. Members share new podcasts they’ve discovered – both Chinese and foreign-language – and exchange tips for the best ways to listen.

// AjS

[Friday 5 is the product of my work at Edelman Digital (China). Link here for the full Friday 5 archive. If you'd like to be added to the bilingual (English & Chinese) Friday 5 email distribution list, please send me an email at: adam DOT schokora AT edelman DOT com.]

things well done | ads for ads ::

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

:: clever advertisements selling advertisement space in the Shanghai subway. These photos were taken at the People’s Square interchange station.

地铁广告: 形式包罗万”象.” “Subway advertisements: an all-inclusive format, WOW!” A play on the character “象” (pronounced xiang 4th tone, meaning elephant) in the phrase 包罗万象, which means all inclusive.

1

地铁广告: 体验”瞄”不可言. “Subway advertisements: experience for yourself something more wonderful and beautiful than words. WOW!” A play on the character “瞄” (pronounced miao 2nd tone) and the character “妙” in “妙不可言” (pronounced miao 4th tone), the former typically being used to represent a cat’s meow. 妙不可言 (pronounced miao4bu4ke3yan2) means something to the effect of indescribably marvelous and is often used sarcastically.

2

地铁广告: 创意”蝶”出不穷. “Subway advertisements: endless originality / innovation and creativity. WOW!” A play on the character “蝶” (pronounced die 2nd tone, the second character in 蝴蝶 – the word for butterfly) and the character ”喋” (also pronounced die 2nd tone) in the phrase 喋出不穷 (pronounced die2chu1bu4qiong2), which means something to the effect of things continuously coming one after another.

3

地铁广告: 宣传如”鱼”得水. “Subway advertisements: promotion that you need like a fish needs water / promotion that will thrive like a fish does in water. WOW!” A clever use of the phrase “如鱼得水” (pronounced ru2 yu2 de2 shui3).

4

地铁广告: 新线蓄势”袋”发. “Subway advertisements: the new line is prepared and ready to go. WOW!” A pun on the phrase “蓄势待发” (pronounced xu4 shi4 dai4 fa1) that replaces ”待“ (pronounced dai, 4th tone) with “袋” (also pronounced dai, 4th tone) but means pocket / pouch as in a kangaroo’s pouch. The phrase “new line,” I believe is is in reference to the new #7 subway line. Bravo, well done.  // AjS

5

mobile guides | shanghai unlike ::

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

shanghai.unlike

:: the folks at Unlike have created a series (seven to date) of city guides that they boldly brand “the definitive city guide for the mobile generation.” The most recently profiled city is Shanghai and Unlike does a solid scan of the Shanghai scene. Heck, even locals will probably learn something from this well-crafted guide. And cheers on how utterly sensible it is for a mobile to double as a city guide.

Anyways, the guide is broken into six, helpful categories: Shop, Food, Hotel, After DarkArt & CultureEscapism

    Each category lists best-in-category destinations along with vital information easily accessed from your mobile (address, hours, nearest subway, phone number, etc.).

    I used the Berlin guide while traveling there and it dramatically enhanced my experience. I also played around with the Shanghai guide this weekend and visited boutique hotel, Jia Shanghai, which is ridiculously indulgent and stunning.

    I have only two, simple suggestions for improving the guides: 1) include user recommended / uploaded 1 / 2 / 3 day itineraries (a la Lonely Planet) for those on a schedule and, 2) allow user comments, which will layer additional insight onto each write-up. User uploads / comments will only burnish further what is already a comfortably excellent guide. All in all, kudos to Unlike, who has created a guide that unlocks Shanghai for locals and visitors alike. //

    [ is a guest contributor on 56minus1.]

    shorts | guo daxia ::

    Thursday, February 12th, 2009

    :: 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