Danwei and billsdue have already blogged this stuff, but it’s just so brilliant that I have to repost!  China’s most popular indigenous MMO, ZT Online (征途), which is run by a guy who got rich selling a vitamin tonic, is described in a Southern Weekly article that was taken down after its publication online, but…

Continue readingChina’s exploitative MMO: ZT Online 征途

December 26, 2007, was the 111th Birthday of Mao Zedong. Chinese people held various ceremonies to memorize the first Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. In Beijing, over ten thousand people visited Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (mausoleum) to see dear Chairman Mao’s body. In Mao’s hometown, Shao Shan…

Continue readingMao Zedong’s 111th Birthday

I recently discovered Charles Frith’s blog, Punk Planning, which details his journeys through China as a planner from the advertising world.

(FYI: In the advertising world, the planner is the bridge between the consumers and the writers/producers. They’re typically the ones running focus groups and interviews, and are responsible for crafting creative briefs to capture the essence of the consumers’…

Continue readingAn ad man explores China

I’m going to tell this story backwards from the way I read it on billsdue, because I have a different take on it.

Part 1: BaoBao BengBeng (宝宝蹦蹦)

BaoBao BengBeng is a safe, candy-coated virtual world for kids. See the video above — there are rooms,…

Continue readingSafe virtual worlds for Chinese children?

If you like Chinese teens singing online, or if you just want to see what a lot of young women seem to be using the Internet for in China, you’ll want to check out Mingming1986’s YouTube channel. It makes sense, of course, given the Chinese love for karaoke. 

Mingming86 is a Hong Kong video collector who specializes in webcam karaoke by…

Continue readingtaking karaoke online: singing cute songs in China

I find it difficult sometimes to keep track of Chinese power politics.  Now the Brookings Institution has provided us with a lovely, succinct 2-3 minute video analysis of the two new top leaders (Shanghai Party Secretary Xi Jinping and Liaoning Party Secretary Li Keqiang) who were recently promoted as possible successors to President Hu Jintao, at the 17th Party Congress in October. The…

Continue readingthe Youtube approach to understanding Chinese politics

Since September, 2007, Shanghai government released a new regulation about house renting, in which group rentals are considered harmful and have to be got rid of. Lots of apartments were checked and walls were destroyed by government people. Young people living in this kind of apartment were persuaded or even forced to sign a paper and move away in a certain period of time. Let’s…

Continue readingShanghai ban on group rentals: “I don’t like this Regulation”

gorgeous, isn’t it?  Dr. Pan Meiyun is a professor and professional photographer who has been taking pictures of the Olympic construction sites over the past two years.  SSPhoto, a website for Chinese scenic photos, has a page of her National Swim Center, aka Bubble Building, photos.

Over the last three years, three and a half million mobile users have
created over 14 million “red” SMS messages (“红段子”), which have been downloaded
and passed on over 100 million times, according to this Xinhua article about Guangdong’s “red SMS culture” (红色短信文化) (in Chinese), found via Zhejiang Online.  “Healthy” red SMS have…

Continue reading“red SMS culture” in China

Great factoid found from a (somewhat old) SF Chronicle article about Alibaba (the China-based company best known for their web service that connects
manufacturers from China with customers around the world) Specifically, how they
get manufacturers in middle-of-nowhere China aboard and online:

“Beneath its high-tech sheen, the success of Alibaba.com relies on
the…

Continue readingThe door-to-door salesmen of tomorrow