Category: China

The December issue of Far Eastern Economic Review has an article in Internet censorship; how the filtering is done, which western companies are supplying the technology, as well as a grass-roots effort to try to bypass the filter.

An interesting passage in the article deals with the difference in censorship of local and foreign language sources:

The ONI [OpenNet Initiave - an organization mapping Internet censorship] has also documented a more concentrated effort among states to target content in local languages, such as Vietnamese, Mandarin, Arabic and Farsi. […] Although determining the motivation for such variation is difficult, one might surmise that political authorities may want to target that web content which hits closest to home while leaving English speaking visitors to the country (e.g., journalists, Western human-rights activists) with the impression that censorship is rare.

It is indeed very easy to forget the censorship when you can reach most any English language web site you want to (Wikipedia being a notable exception). You simply don’t see it. It’s sometimes good to get a reminder.

(The Economist also recently published an article on the subject, with a few more examples of methods to bypass the filter.)

What you get for 50 RMB (5 euros):

1. An excellent dinner for two at our local Szechuan restaurant here in Beijing, or
2. 350 ml of Evian mineral water at the Pudong Shangri-La in Shanghai.

“Does your friend need an ayi”, the woman cleaning the floor in the China Mobile store asked our Chinese colleague. “I can be their ayi.”

We don’t. We’ve already hired one.

An ayi is a housekeeper, common among expats (and more affluent Chinese families, I guess).

The job market seems very informal here.

Came to Beijing a week ago, and have just started to find my way around the area where I live (Seasons Park, in the Dongcheng District).

I’ll stay here for nine months. Will write about what I see and experience.

The view from our living room: A mix of skyscraper skyline and abandoned buildings.

• Gadgets’ new label: Made for China. No more dumping last year’s devices on the Chinese market.
• The Plot To Hijack Your Computer. About the $2 billion disrespect-for-users spyware business.
• How your product can inspire The Nod.

• From the July, 2006 issue of Business 2.0, a list of 50 people who matter now. Cool to see David Allen on the list.
• Internet partly to blame for your lack of close friends. I knew this thing was bad for us.
• Boeing Connexion may be shut down. Too bad, the service is great. Back to watching movies on an envelope-size screen?
• The Chinese tourists are coming! But they spend nothing on hotels and food, apparently saving up for the Hugo Boss discount store (?).

I just returned from a trip to China. In Shanghai I took the opportunity to visit the Xiangyang market. I had been there once before, and to a couple of Beijing markets a few years ago. One thing really struck me at these last two visits; how much better the copies have become!

Now, there is still a lot of crap on offer. But there are also bags, belts and clothes that at least to my untrained eye look fairly high-quality.

There’s just this thing; they insist on slapping ridiculously unrealistic, and sometimes just plain wrong, logos on them. “Gucci” written in the wrong typeface, a Polo horse that looks nothing like the real thing, or “Boss” on the back of a tie, written on a kind of cheap plastic label I doubt they would ever use.

Why?

Fact is, a lot of these product would fare pretty well on their own merits. Just invent your own brand name. Sales, at least to foreigners, would increase.

Sergey Brin’s latest comment on China is certainly interesting. This is how he explained Google’s decision to launch a censored service at google.cn, reported by Times Online:

“We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference.”

And then he continues:

“Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense.”

This is something quite uncommon; a large corporation publicly discussing a change in position on a question where it has been heavily criticized but has yet to change its position.

We don’t know if this was planned or not. Maybe he just slipped, or maybe he launched a “test balloon” to gather reactions. Maybe he likes to chat about ethics.

It comes at an interesting time as China just decided to shut down access to the uncensored version of Google (as has been reported at numerous sites). Expect some media focus.

I still think they were right to launch in China. But it doesn’t mean it will be right under all circumstances. That’s why they should get some credit for continuing to evaluate their decisions. And for being open about it.

You’ve read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman and recognize that “Made in China” will soon become “Dreamed up in China”. Now read this lengthy article (The Gucci Killers, Fast Company) for an example of this happening. It’s about the creation of Shanghai Tang, Chinese “Gucci Killer”.

My colleague Ola (based in Beijing) observes that on the list of top 50 restaurants, not a single one is Chinese. In fact only one is in Asia.

Not all that surprising perhaps, if one looks at the list of panelists, where Italy is represented by about the same number of panelists as all of Far East Asia.

Read Ola’s post here (in Swedish).