“The Father of China’s Great Firewall” Re-defines Internet Sovereignty

November 24, 2011 by jinge

Dr. Fang Binxing, an academician of the China Academy of Engineering who was one of the main designers of the infamous firewall confining China’s Internet, presented his new theory on Internet Sovereignty and reiterated his view on the importance of “border control” on the Internet, at a conference called “Innovation and Development of China’s Internet Forum” on November 11th.

Dr.…

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Housekeeping update: Welcoming Jin Ge to the team

November 24, 2011 by Jason Li

With Tricia having joined us recently, it seems like we’ve run into a spate of luck as another talented writer has decided to join us. About him:

Jin Ge aka Jingle is a writer, documentary filmmaker, and NGO organizer based in Shanghai. Jin does sociological research and produces multi-media content on the subjects of Internet subcultures and grass-root organizations in China. Jin…

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Black market pornography is big

November 22, 2011 by Jason Li

From Danwei’s A brief history of Chinese porn:

Despite the worlds most sophisticated monitoring and filtering software arrayed against them, tech savvy Chinese jump the Great Firewall with ease. For those less computer literate, pirated porn DVDs and VCDs are easy to buy if rarely on display. Porn is big business on the black market. In one 2008 bust…

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Group buying explanation + advertisement in one 30-second clip

November 17, 2011 by Jason Li

No explanation needed. Witty. Succinct. (Kind of cheesy.)

See their group buying deals here.

There are three “Oprahs” in China

November 10, 2011 by Jason Li

From TED’s speaker bios:

Yang Lan is often called “the Oprah of China.” The chair of a multiplatform business empire, Yang is pioneering more-open means of communication in the communist nation.

Yang Lan’s rise to stardom in China has drawn comparisons to Oprah Winfrey’s success in the US. It’s easy…

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Housekeeping update

November 7, 2011 by Jason Li

Just wanted to update everyone on our latest round of upgrades.

First, a warm welcome to ethnographer & sociologist Tricia Wang for joining our team here. As you may have noticed below, she’s already started on her first post. You can read more about her on her website or her work over on Bytes of China.…

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Shanzai Nokia N9 has 7 OS interfaces, but most importantly it has Talking Tom & Stripping Games

November 7, 2011 by Tricia Wang

Excerpted from Bytes of China:

In the wonderful world of shanzai, we have a new competitor made with a Mediatek chip- a Nokia N9 knockoff, the Noka (诺卡) N9. The Noka N9 has 7 operating systems interfaces: Meego, iOS 5.0, HTC Sense, Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, Smasung’s TouchWiz and Symbian Anna.…

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Angry Birds the next big cartoon character in China?

October 31, 2011 by Jason Li

In my recent trips to China, I’ve spotted various instances of Angry Birds merch and kids from all over playing the game on their PCs. According to their CEO, they’ve been downloaded (through official channels) 50 million times in China already. It seems that the phenomenon has not gone unnoticed at the head office. From TNW…

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Government edifice design in China

October 26, 2011 by Jason Li

LEAP has a great article by artist Bai Xiaoci (who is responsible for the photos above) on the architecture of government edifices in China. An excerpt:

As material manifestations of Chinese political principles, China’s city- and county-level government buildings have also developed their own architectural aesthetics. State-owned…

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The death of citizen journalism in China?

October 17, 2011 by Jason Li

Roland Soong from ESWN sums up a trend that I’ve also observed over the past few years:

Over the past few months, I have been seen so many major breaking stories turn out to be rumor-fueled. The small number of stories that I have written about were largely about rumors. So I have two reactions on this debate.

My first…

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