From the category archives:

China Modern Culture

Blackmailing your family… Confucian style.

03.02.2010 China Modern Culture
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There is a reason that every girl wish to have a big brother – even they could be too protective sometimes, it’s still an enjoyable relation.
On the contrary, having a younger brother wouldn’t be such a lovely journey in China. Especially when you think of how old generation/rural residents favor sons much more than daughters. [...]

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Forcing Chinese College Students to Think. Period.

02.03.2010 China Modern Culture
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Hey all, yet another post from the prolific Veronica; this one focuses on China’s “college student problem”; the system continues to churn out clones that are above average (when taken in context) but not up to par to the standards set by their global counterparts.
Whereas it was a sellers market years previous (exemplified by [...]

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Chinese Netizens Rage at Google’s “Purposefully Anti-China” Search Results.

01.31.2010 China Modern Culture
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Hey All, as you’ve no doubt heard, Google is refusing to comply with China’s censorship policies. This has become a pretty heated political issue; today, Veronica has compiled commentary from Chinese netizens responding to perceived attacks from Google at China. Enjoy -Rand.
Google’s pulling out of China set off China netizens’ concern in a fairly large scale. As [...]

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“Does Zhang Ziyi Represent Chinese Women?”

01.28.2010 China Modern Culture
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Hey All, the below is from Veronica who is writing about Zhang ZiYi, a famous Chinese movie star and whether she represents Chinese women. It’s an interesting culture article and a good way to get quick insight into the heart of the Chinese woman. Enjoy; -Rand
As the proudest international star from China, the spotlight brings Ziyi [...]

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Breaking the rules without breaking the rules.

01.13.2010 China Modern Culture
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Perhaps the best recipe for fun is a mix of being smart, being cheap, and being bored. Posted today is a few pictures from Pizza Hut China; wherein customers have turned taking advantage of Pizza Hut’s “one trip to the salad bar” policy into a science. I’m not exaggerating, I’ll actually show you the mathematical formulas used to [...]

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Microblogs & Nuclear Explosions; Censorship is harder than you’d think.

08.27.2009 China Modern Culture
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If you’ve been following our blog, you might read my previous post on one of the China top micro blogging sites, fanfou.com, suddenly became inaccessible at the beginning of July.
Fanfou is still inaccessible out of no reason, and the situation seems to become worse and worse. Two more popular Chinese micro blogging sites – [...]

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Top political China SNS “inaccessible”, angers Chinese netizens.

07.13.2009 China Modern Culture
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Lately, more and more websites became “inaccessible” in mainland China, popular ones including Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Besides those foreign websites, there is one Chinese sns site Fanfou, which is one of China’s Top 4 Twitter Clones Rand introduced here previously, also became “inaccessible”. Regarding the reason, nobody has a confirmed answer, some says it [...]

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Obama’s “sponsorship” of Shanzhai “Blockberry”; Chinese netizens reactions.

07.06.2009 China Modern Culture
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BlockBerry Storm 9500, “Obama’s blackberry, my BlockBerry storm 9500.”
Created by HAFF-COMM ( 哈佛通信，“哈佛”also the Chinese translation of Harvard), a copycatting smart phone named “BlockBerry” together with its poster is all over China’s internet; distinguishing it from the rest is U.S. president Obama’s image as “spokesperson”.
In the poster of “Storm 9500, pure flat touch Internet smart [...]

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“Sichuan Earthquake Coke Boy”; Profit motivated generosity sparks controversy.

06.18.2009 China Modern Culture

A recent post at Chinasmack features a young boy who received a free college education from Coke. Named “Earthquake Coke Boy” by netizens, Xue Xiao became famous when after being rescued from the SiChuan earthquake, the first words he muttered through the pain was “Uncle, please give me an ice cold Coke.”

Now this is a [...]

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Traditional “house ownership before marriage” requirement causes modern Chinese relationships to fail; Chinese netizens express helplessness.

04.28.2009 China Modern Culture

First, let me give you some Chinese marriage background information. As an old Chinese tradition, upon marriage, the guy (or the guy’s family) needs to have a house for the young married couple to live in. Although times have changed, this tradition is still heavily encouraged practice for most Chinese marriages.
News from Sina.com (Source: rednet.cn)
“Nowadays, [...]

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Government issued “violence how-to” pamphlet for city officials angers Chinese netizens.

04.27.2009 China Modern Culture

Left is an image of the government issued “violence how-to” book uploaded by a netizen.
Book name: Practical Guide for Chengguan [city officials]
Published by: National Administration Institution Publishing House
News on Sina.com (Source: Shanghai Morning Post)
“Carefully avoid blood on counterparts face or wound on their skin, also avoid gathering of onlookers.” Yesterday, a training material for Beijing [...]

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Did actress Zhang Ziyi insult China? Chinese netizens respond to her nude photo shoot in movie “The Horsemen”.

04.26.2009 China Modern Culture
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Recently, Zhang Ziyi becomes a hot topic on China internet again. This time, it is about her “China insulting” in newest Hollywood movie “The Horsemen”. Below is the news report and related comment from Chinese netizens.
News from 163.com (source: Chongqing Times)
Lately, the international blockbuster movie “The Horsemen” is showing in Taiwan, Hollywood Chinese movie star [...]

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“China average daily salary is RMB 111.99???”; Chinese netizens challenge government statistics.

04.22.2009 China Modern Culture

News reported by The Beijing News:
According to the data released on Apr.9th by National Bureau of Statistics, in year 2008, the average yearly salary of employed Chinese urban citizens is RMB 29,229 [Sherry: USD 4,298; all the exchange rate I’m using here is according to Apr.22nd USD/RMB=6.8], which is RMB 111.99 (USD 16.5) per work [...]

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“Sissy” star revitalizes Chinese folk arts; represents major Chinese brands.

04.22.2009 China Modern Culture

Xiao Shenyang is a recent entertainment phenomenon, not because he’s new to the Chinese folk scene, but because his “sissy” performances breathe new life into an old, tired art form.
Renhe’s recent Chinese medicine TVC adopted Xiao Shenyang’s TV comedy sketch <Bu Cha Qian er (Money is not a problem)>, performed during the 2009 National Spring [...]

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Jackie Chan: “Chinese need to be controlled”; Chinese netizens respond.

04.20.2009 China Modern Culture

Recently a statement made by Jackie Chan, a world renowned Chinese kungfu star, raised a lot of attention from Chinese netizens. Below is a news summary of the statement and Chinese netizens reactions.
News report from Chinanews.com.cn:
Recently, Jackie Chan made a statement on Hai’nan BOAO Forum that Hong Kong and Taiwan are “very chaotic because of [...]

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Chinese netizens respond to foreign cartoon censorship.

04.19.2009 China Modern Culture

Below are two restrictions on oversea cartoons announced by China State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT). SARFT also attached a huge list of restricted Japanese cartoons.
1st announcement on 2006.8: In order to leave out room for domestic cartoon development, create closeness between domestic cartoons and kids. From Sep.1st television stations at various levels [...]

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Chinese netizens express mixed responses to college student’s job application for “full-time housewife to rich man”.

04.17.2009 China Modern Culture
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A fourth year college girl’s job seeking advertisement received many Chinese netizens’ attention recently. Instead of looking for opportunity to work for a company, the girl is looking for a full-time housewife “job position”.
Here is the news article from Sina (source: Jinan Times) -
“Fourth year college girl is looking for a job – Look forward [...]

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Chinese netizens express mixed responses to seeing Mao Tze-Tung’s image used in condom advertisement.

04.15.2009 China Modern Culture
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If seeing this advertisement alone, it will take me some time to find out that is Mao Tze-Tung.

Recently, huangqiu.com (a website belongs to Global Times) reported a German condom advertiser used Mao Tze-Tung’s image on their product advertisement, which was also produced by a world renowned advertising agency, Grey Worldwide. This “brave creativity” raised lots [...]

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Shwatch; The traditional watch once worn by Mao Tze-Tung; now fashionable for modern Chinese teenage punks.

04.15.2009 China Modern Culture

What is Shwatch? Is it ‘Shanzhai’ (山寨copycatting) of Swatch? Nope.

The Chinese characters ” Lao Luo” literally means “old chaos”; modern slang translates this to “fucking cool”.
Shwatch represents the Shanghai Watch Factory, which was established in 1955. In China, Shwatch is famous for its high quality. For the past 53 years, the Shwatch brand was very [...]

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Chinese netizens respond to ladyboys publicly crying for help in southern China.

04.14.2009 China Modern Culture
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This article was posted on rednet.cn; following the news article, I also selected some comment to this news from BBS on Sina.com and 163.com. This is a pretty “wild” scene in China, let’s see how Chinese respond to it.
Rednet.cn news article:

Around 1pm on April.13th, two strange guys held “I want to change sex” signs appeared [...]

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