This year’s Spring Festival ended with a fatal building fire in Beijing. This time, the fire show starred no any organization – it’s the China Central Television (CCTV). Like China Football Association (CFA), CCTV has become a main target of publicly felt resentment that should have been directed at the boss behind them. It’s very safe for the Chinese people to say anything bad about these two organizations without worrying about being taken revenge of by the authorities. The two are supposed to be authoritative – one is a self-confessed “mouthpiece” of the Party and the Government and the other an organization affiliated to the Government that runs China’s football industry.
CCTV tower fire and others
Posted on 15 February 2009 by Guohua | No Comments
China is a country in change for the better
Posted on 04 January 2009 by Guohua | 8 Comments
I wrote a post about how native English speakers should understand the Chinese when they say their “feelings” are hurt. I’m not sure if my idea has sunk in well for people who have read it.
After having linked to the post in his blog, justrecently read my May 3, 2008 post about whether Chinese fenqings can think for themselves and followed it with a post that focuses on freedom of speech in China.
He said that it’s okay for Chinese people to exercise their freedom of speech to foreign countries and foreign people. But doing so inside China is dangerous and carries imprisonment as Hu Jia has suffered.
Tiger Zhou finally comes clean
Posted on 30 June 2008 by Guohua | No Comments
Even idiots could see Tiger Zhou (周老虎)‘s photos didn’t look right. But experts and witnesses bet their heads that the photos showed a real South China tiger.
The fuss started on October 12, 2007 when Shaanxi’s forestry bureau published digital and film photos of what it believed was a South China tiger taken by hunter Zhou Zhenglong ("Tiger Zhou"). The cyberworld, South China tiger experts and China Academy of Sciences (CAS) experts were quick to identify something wrong with the photos.
Zhou now says everything was false. But you can be sure some heads will get rolling because they were bet.
Lost Amazon tribe? – Just a hoax!
Posted on 24 June 2008 by Guohua | 2 Comments
Things like big-footed modern-day barbarians and this time "lost Amazon tribe" are around in media reports. I don’t believe they are true or completely true even though they might appear in "mainstream" media outlets or are re-run in other equally "authoritative" ones.
We have to develop a sense of humor and have our own judgment when being inundated by information. I had no proof they were just cooked up. But, the picture didn’t look to me more real than Hollywood movies. Also, I don’t believe there are any areas where non-barbarian humans cannot reach on Earth, especially where there are trees in the Amazon and where there are more than 90-percent-naked tribesmen.
Quake, shake
Posted on 17 May 2008 by Guohua | No Comments
The quake is Sichuan is a disaster of enormous proportions. It hit an area where houses are built on mountainsides and are not designed to withstand strong earthquakes. There are building codes in force that would otherwise avoid murderous damage to buildings if enforced to the letter.
The scenes and stories of the rescuers, survivors, the bereaved, and victims now broadcast almost 24 hours a day on TV are encouraging, heartening, and heartrending.