From Evan Osnos, at the New Yorker:

The U.S. Embassy has been straining, in vain, to get the Chinese government to change the official Chinese transliteration of Obama, from 奥巴马 to 欧巴马-basically, from Ao Ba Ma to Ou Ba Ma.

They never succeeded, because the incorrect translation popped up first and spread everywhere. And China own America now and could have slapped his ass and called him Charlie if they'd wanted to.

The generational and cross-cultural refractions obscuring exactly what a T-shirt depicting Obama as a Chairman Mao is supposed to mean are positively cosmic. So the Chinese authorities decided to just ban the things outright. And they're taking this so seriously that security guards at a subway station, apparently aware of how Glenn Beck would use pictures of young Chinese people wearing T-shirts comparing our president to their great leader, detained a CNN reporter for two hours yesterday after she tried to tape a report about the banned T-shirts.

In China, according to the Christian Science Monitor, the shirts are popular with hipsters who get the joke of comparing Obama to Mao, and apparently like to mock Fox News:

In China, the image comes across as witty and cool.... [They are] popular with young people who admire Obama and who get the Andy Warhol-esque joke about icons.

"Mao is kitschy and cool," says Mr. Jenne. "He gets a pass" in a way that other 20th century dictators don't.

But in the U.S., some folks are importing them from China and selling them to the teabag crowd, who wear them to announce their genuinely held belief that Barack Obama is literally like Mao Tse-Tung and will soon begin collectivizing farms. So a shirt that Chinese kids wear ironically because they understand a) how silly it is to compare Obama to Mao, but at the same time b) how Obama has through his style and rhetoric become nearly as iconic as Mao, and c) that even though Mao was a monster, through the passage of time the imagery associated with him has taken on a different, more light-hearted meaning, is also worn in earnest by American teabaggers who understand none of the above and think "kitschy" is Hebrew or something. This reminds us of stories about Christmas displays at Japanese malls featuring crucified Santas. We can't quite wrap our heads around it.

Anyway, the Chinese government was so terrified Politico might see one of these T-shirts that they banned them, and detained CNN's Emily Chang for two hours when they caught her walking around with one in a Shanghai mall. How long before the same thing happens here?

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer is vowing to clean up the comments sections of the stories on its website. The paper noticed that the comments "too often racist or otherwise hate-filled." GAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. LOL


Arthur "New York Times" "Pinch" Sulzberger the Elder is a "Brave Thinker," according to The Atlantic, because he has been brave by spending money on his company, a newspaper, which is undeniably in the newspaper industry. That makes him brave right up until the day when it makes him stupid.


The Newark Star-Ledger, which came perilously close to going out of business last year, just told its staff that "at least 50" more buyoutlayoffs are in the pipeline. Well. That sucks.


The Chinese magazine Caijing—respected internationally for its investigative stories—is in the midst of a staff uprising over questions of editorial integrity and censorship. The mag's editor Hu Shuli is one of China's foremost muckrakers and was profiled in the New Yorker a few months back. We should all send them good vibes celebrating freedom of the press against government intervention. "China government poop." There.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua dubiously reported the existence of a Swedish town called Chako Paul City, a town of 25,000 forbidden to men and guarded by two blonde female sentries who will beat your male ass "half to death" if you try entering. But the report raised as many questions as it answered; for example, it implies visiting men would be left half alive after their ladybeatings, and perhaps might be permitted to penetrate the town's gates and receive gentle care in one of the town's many hotels and restaurants, for "receiving women from around the world."

Chinese men have "swamped... Swedish tourism bodies" (ahem) with such burning questions in recent days, according to the Australian, and millions of them are "crippling the country's internet providers" frantically searching for more details. Yet not one kind, enterprising Web designer has set up a tourism website on their behalf, complete with a ridiculous quantity of AdSense banners and a members-only "Inside the Bathhouses of Chako Paul City" section. Hop to, internet!

(Pic by adamkaras on Flickr)

Not yet, at least: White House officials have reportedly asked Tibetan authorities to keep their distance when the Lama visits next week. This is the first time a President has refused to meet with the spiritual leader since he first came to the U.S. in 1991. Even Bush met with him, and he was evil!

Apparently Obama and his administration are worried about pissing off China, which rules Tibet with an iron fist. But some experts say it's a pointless gesture, because China doesn't really give a damn:

"We've got the classic case of a Western government yet again conceding to Chinese pressure that is imaginary long after that Chinese pressure has ceased to exist," said Robert Barnett, a Tibetan expert at Columbia University. "The Chinese must be falling over themselves with astonishment at what Western diplomats will give them without being asked. I don't know what the poker analogy would be. 'Please, see all my cards and take my money, too?' "

Oh well, Dalai: better luck next life!

The lights atop the Empire State Building are open to anyone (except Iranian dissidents), so the day after the Manhattan skyline pays homage to the founding of a brutal dictatorship, the lights will go blue and white in honor of the 125th anniversary of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

It didn't always used to be that way. There was a time, according to a history of the Empire State Building's tower lights on the building's web site, when they only represented one lousy thing:

1956: Revolving beacons, the "Freedom Lights", were installed. The "Freedom Lights", four beacons each five feet in diameter and weighing one ton, were installed 1,095 feet above the streets to symbolize not only a welcome to this country but also the unlimited opportunities in America and the hopes and prayers of the American people for peace.

Glad that changed! If you have any other closed societies you'd like to nominate for a shout-out, go here and fill out the form. We just missed the 20th anniversary of the Union of Myanmar, but the 33rd anniversary of the Soviet Union's crushing of Hungarian independence is right around the corner!

[Photo via Flickr by Christopher Chan.]

It's all obviously a charade in which everyone pretends that expectations for this woman were so low that her ability to read lies written by some anonymous party functionary was somehow surprising. But these very different reports on how her little talk was received are fun.

The New York Times on reactions to Sarah Palin's speech to Hong Kong investors:

A number of people who heard the speech in a packed hotel ballroom, which was closed to the media, said Mrs. Palin spoke from notes for 90 minutes and that she was articulate, well-prepared and even compelling.

"The speech was wide-ranging, very balanced, and she beat all expectations," said Doug A. Coulter, head of private equity in the Asia-Pacific region for LGT Capital Partners.

"She didn't sound at all like a far-right-wing conservative. She seemed to be positioning herself as a libertarian or a small-c conservative," he said, adding that she mentioned both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. "She brought up both those names."

The Times of London on reactions to same:

Several audience members reportedly walked out of Ms Palin's speech 30 minutes before the end, citing "more important things to do" or describing the talk as "too partisan and too much like a speech at the Republican convention".

One senior fund manager told The Times that the 80-minute lecture, and the lack of an opportunity to fire any questions at Ms Palin, was a disappointment. "You would think that with her team of speechwriters and a supposedly media-free environment Palin could have afforded to be either funny or thought-provoking, but she was neither," she said.

Curious!

[Photo: AP]

No, seriously, he is outright saying that the autocratic one-party Chinese government is superior to our own. There is no equivocation in this line:

There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.

And why are things better in China? Because the current "reasonably enlightened group of people" in charge of China, at the moment, can just impose "politically difficult but critically important policies" like raising gas prices to encourage clean power investment and so on.

So, yes, the party may be increasingly corrupt and full of the Princeling children of former Communist party officials, the party may stoke violence against ethnic minorities, it may censor the media and lock up journalists and cheerfully ignore human rights, but at least they can get cap-and-trade passed.

The rest of his column is about how the GOP is ideologically bankrupt, obstructionist, out of ideas, and actively damaging the nation, but prefacing that obvious point with one-party rule envy is a little bizarre. Friedman, you'd be the first against the wall in the Cultural Revolution!

Bummer. What gives? China wants to encourage "greater 'social responsibility' and 'civility' among users," which is more or less a euphemism for squashing debate about their government. Apparently, chiefs of the news organizations—which are mostly state-run or at the very least, heavily regulated entities to begin with—leaked the news back in July, but later. scrubbed it from their sites. Why wouldn't the Chinese want word of this getting out?

Asked why the policy was pushed through unannounced, the chief editor of one site said, "The influence of public opinion on the Net is still too big."

Hey, go commenters! You have influence on things, something we understand. And want you to have! Here, you're even given the ability (or responsibility) to give and take away voice to those with or without Gold Stars (like that other, uh, republic). Interesting. So! Quick rundown of what China doesn't have on the internet anymore:

Government censors have closed thousands of sites in a continuing war on "vulgarity," closed liberal forums and blogs for spreading "harmful information," blocked access to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and cut off Internet service where serious unrest has erupted, notably in the Xinjiang region of the west after deadly clashes between ethnic Uighurs and Han in July. Increasingly, officials have defended the Web shutdowns on the grounds of national security.

Which basically leaves Dolphin Olympics and, I don't know, Hamster Dance. Not the worst of all possible Internets, but definitely not the best. Meanwhile, in America, you have the right to say FIRST!!11! without us ever knowing who you are, or why you're such a jackass. I'm sure someone would put into place regulatory measures like this to ensure that people like YouTube's commenters have to exist with us knowing exactly who the illiterate moron used what racial slur from where, but, alas, there are problems with this, both in theory and principle. But mostly, practice:

From a comparison of the most commented-on articles in July and August on a number of portals it was hard to determine whether the volume of posts had been affected so far. But both editors at two of the major portals affected said their sites had shown marked drop-offs.

Kai-Fu Lee joined the company back in 2004, when Google was beginning its adventure in earnest and became the giant's President of Google Greater China and vice president for engineering. Unfortunately, mean old Microsoft reared its head and sued Google, for Lee was bound by a pesky "no competition" contract clause. The companies eventually settled, and Google hoped to go full speed ahead into uncharted territories. China's government, however, had other plans, and soon lured the company into its controversial web of censorship and, to add insult to injury, favored competitor, Baidu.

Despite the uphill battle, Google has made a few strides in recent months and gained 6 percent on Baidu. But that means little, because Baidu still controls about 62% of search traffic, while Google has a scant 21%.

Now Lee has abandoned his post to pursue some hush-hush "new venture" in Beijing, and Google's attempting trying desperately to refocus its energies by splitting his duties between two executives while simultaneously double its sales force. After five years struggling to be the big wig, you would think Google would give up on imposing its capitalist ideals amidst an aggressive communist state. But that's the magic of the internet: it's a field of ambitious dreams rife with international and political barriers.

When dealing with the most extreme and bizarre practices of foreign cultures, it's often best not to judge. Grotesquely stretching women's necks with a series of metal rings? Outsiders wouldn't understand. Setting old people adrift on ice floes to die? It's just their way. Chinese people using the Beijing Ikea like it's some theme park, spending hours and hours there hanging out like common homeless people, but ostensibly for pleasure? It's not something we could or would desire to understand, no. Nevertheless, the LAT reports:

"It's the only big store in Beijing where a security guard doesn't stop you from taking a picture," said Jing Bo, 30, who was looking for promising backdrops for a photograph of his girlfriend.

Sure, it's tempting to believe that our friends in the Far East have already fast-forwarded directly into our dystopian nightmare future in which soulless big box stores are offered to a zombie-like populace like a fast food menu to replace any dangerous, free-thinking "culture." But who are we to judge?

Imagining the possibilities here is one of the reasons Bai Yalin drove an hour and a half from her apartment to spend a day at the store with her 7-year-old son and two teenage nieces. There are few other indoor spaces, she said, where she can entertain the children free on an oppressive summer afternoon.

Bai mapped out a five-hour outing. First, they had hot dogs and soft ice cream cones at noon. Then they enjoyed a long rest lounging on the beds. Bai kicked off her sandals and sprawled out on a Tromso bunk bed. The 36-year-old homemaker made herself comfortable and even answered passing shoppers' questions about the quality of the mattress.

Fuck it! These people are crazy. I will swallow cyanide if America ever gets to the point that we forsake the outdoors in favor of whiling away long hours lounging in corporate chain stores while... oh, Barnes & Noble.

Global dystopia, huzzah!
[Pics: pmorgan, Mana Dili]

Like most teenagers, Rogers simply pissed away the money on homes, vacations and, we're sure, no small amount of baubles. To be fair, though, she did spend a hefty amount on relatives and friends. Sadly for Rogers and her fortune, that brought nothing but ruin, stress and general angst. Said Rogers, who's now 22:

My life is a shambles and hopefully now it has all gone I can find some happiness. It's brought me nothing but unhappiness. It's ruined my life. I've just wanted to make people happy by spending money on them. But it hasn't made me happy. It just made me anxious that people are only after me for my money.

And that's likely the case. Now that she's broke, however, Rogers says she's trying getting her life back on track and has put her dark past — including two suicide attempts — behind her. She's picking up the pieces and works as a cleaning woman to keep herself afloat. Thus, she learned a valuable lesson about money and its many discontents. That's a good thing.

The bad thing? Well, she's in debt, which is obviously the opposite of good. But that's hardly the worst part: while she was flying high on that lottery dough, Rogers got involved with a criminally-inclined man and bore him two children. Money makes people do crazy things!

Of course, children aren't bad — not always, at least — but a 22-year old who's in debt and trying to raise two children? That's definitely bad and provides a cautionary tale for all of us: if you win the lottery, don't piss away the earnings, especially if you have children. One would think such advice would be common sense, but apparently that's not the case. Rogers says it herself:

Until you win such a large amount of money at such a young age, you don't realize the pressures that come with it. I did it because winning the lottery has ruined my life.

Not to mention that it all fits into China's grand plans. Be warned.

Photo via iirraa's flickr.

As China's seemingly unstoppable engine of economic expansion grinds on, its purportedly Communist social values are being steadily eroded by the demands of the capitalist global marketplace.

Old news? Yes.

No wonder we're still talking about it, though. We're all interconnected on this crazy little rock, spinning through empty space. China, for example, buys our debt to finance our reckless consumption, quietly plotting our economic demise all the way. We, in turn, use this easy foreign money to buy scratch-off lottery tickets. And, if we are one 19 year-old student in Brooklyn, we win one million dollars! Now tell us all about how lottery tickets are not a "wise investment," eggheads!

"He'll be able to afford his own apartment now," says the Post, with hope in its voice. Yea his own apartment in China maybe. He should set his goals a bit lower. How about this: He'll be able to actually purchase his own college textbooks instead of renting them, which is what kids are doing now, because they can't actually purchase them. Oh man. And where do you think these young American students are renting these educational books from at 50% of the full cost?

From China. I shit you not.

That's not actually true but still China is taking over all the money.
[Pic via]