All of you Sinica old-timers might remember a show we ran two years ago on the death of the China blog, in which Jeremy, Kaiser and Will Moss mused about whether the combined forces of Twitter, Facebook and Bill Bishop would manage to drive a stake through the heart of independent China blogging. So how refreshing is it to find that despite the growth of these online collossi, we still find ourselves reading and recommending blog posts from other China hands old and new.

How has the China blog scene changed in the last two years? If you're curious about the state of affairs too, join Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn in our studio today as we are delighted to host two of the younger and more influential bloggers writing on China today: Eric Fish from the Economic Observer who gravitates to more analytic pieces at Sinostand, and Anthony Tao from Beijing Cream, who specializes in shorter posts and high-quality snark on Chinese popular culture.

Enjoy the Sinica show? Let us take a break from pushing our RSS feed today to remind you that we want this show to be a two-way street. So if you have any recommendations for show topics you'd like to hear us cover, or guests you think would make for great listening, please let us know. Suggestions are more than welcome in our comment section, and please consider yourself welcome to fire an email to us for private consumption at sinica@popupchinese.com. Oh yes, and lest we forget, you can download this show as a standalone mp3 file if the player isn't exactly your thing. Cheers!
Sinica
 said on
December 29, 2012
LINKROLL

Sinostand : http://sinostand.com/

"Cadres and Evangelists" -

http://sinostand.com/2012/12/20/cadres-and-evangelists/

Economic Observer Podcast -

http://www.eeo.com.cn/ens/multimedia/podcast/

Beijing Cream: http://beijingcream.com/

FB Page:

www.facebook.com/beijingcream

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/beijingcream

RECOMMENDATIONS

Jeremy

1. "A Foreigner's Life in a Beijing Jail" - Danwei -

http://www.danwei.org/crime/a_foreigners_life_in_a_beijing.php

2. "Caught in a bind that threatens an Asian war nobody wants; Hugh White in the Sydney Morning Herald" -

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/caught-in-a-bind-that-threatens-an-asian-war-nobody-wants-20121225-2bv38.html#ixzz2GAKA8VUy

3. "Plot set for conflict in tale of two Koreas" - Mark Mackinnon in The Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/plot-set-for-conflict-in-tale-of-two-koreas/article6697259/

4. "How India is Turning into China" - Pankaj Mishra in The New Republic -

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/111367/how-india-turning-china#

Anthony

1. "Japan halts porn exports to China over Diaoyu controversy: report" - China Daily Show -

http://chinadailyshow.com/japan-halts-porn-exports-to-china-over-diaoyu-controversy-report/

2. NiuBball -

http://www.niubball.com/

Eric

1. Bloomberg Stories on China's Princelings:

"China’s Eight Immortals Beget New Princeling Elite: Graphic" -

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-26/china-s-eight-immortals-beget-new-elite-of-princelings-graphic.html

"Heirs of Mao’s Comrades Rise as New Capitalist Nobility" -

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-26/immortals-beget-china-capitalism-from-citic-to-godfather-of-golf.html

"U.S. Family of Mao’s General Assimilates, Votes for Obama" -

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-26/chinese-in-ann-arbor-voted-obama-in-elite-family-of-mao-s-rulers.html

Kaiser

1. This American Life episode about a man's time in Chinese prison -

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/448/adventure

2. iGuzheng -

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iguzheng/id438675825?mt=8

MENTIONS

Sinica: Death of the China Blog -

http://popupchinese.com/lessons/sinica/death-of-the-china-blog

Rectified.Name -

http://rectified.name/

The Peking Duck -

http://www.pekingduck.org/

ChinaGeeks -

http://chinageeks.org/

Bill Bishop Newsletter - Sinocism -

http://sinocism.com/

Article about the alleged sexual assault in Beijing -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9257261/British-tourist-arrested-in-China-for-sexual-assault.html

Article about Russian Cellist -

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/05/22/beijing-symphony-axes-russian-cellist-after-foot-video/

Does This Writer Deserve the Prize - Perry Link on Moyan - http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/dec/06/mo-yan-nobel-prize/?pagination=false

jmulich
 said on
December 29, 2012
Excellent episode as always, and great guests.

I have pretty strong feelings on the Mo Yan controversy, coming down squarely on the side of Laughlin. I don't understand how anyone can read a book like Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out and not see the clear, if subtle, critique of the last 50 years of Chinese history contained within it. While I have a lot of respect for many of Mo Yan's critics, in this case they seem to unfairly presume the readers of his books to be naïve in the extreme. (And, judging by his NY Review pieces, Perry Link really dislikes books with donkey dicks in them.)
Brendan
 said on
December 30, 2012
@jmulich - I'm with you! Have been thinking about writing yet another blog post on Rectified.name about the Mo Yan controversy to say where I think Link and company are badly wrong, though I probably won't have time any time soon.

Short version: in his latest op-ed (http://www.chinafile.com/politics-and-chinese-language) Link does a very good job of summarizing and refuting an argument that nobody is making here. The dull tit-for-tat whataboutery ("Yes, Liu Xiaobo is in jail and Liu Xia is under extralegal house arrest in direct contravention of China's own laws, but what about Bradley Manning?") is a feature of many arguments with Chinese nationalists, but in this case the argument is simply that Mo Yan is being judged by standards that do not get applied, ever, at all, to non-Chinese authors. Mo Yan's own politics and literary merit (or lack thereof) do not really have any bearing on this part of the argument -- though as you say, one has to be pretty willfully obtuse not to see Mo Yan taking on contemporary events in all of his historical novels.
shane.xian
 said on
January 3, 2013
Is there no simple RSS feed for the Sinica Podcast? I'm not really interested in using iTunes. Would just like the podcast to automatically download to my non-iPhone.
trevelyan
 said on
January 3, 2013
@shane.xian,

The iTunes feed is a RSS feed with some additional fields. You can grab the direct feed here:

http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica
alinepnina
 said on
February 9, 2013
I sometimes find questions have a couple of possible answers even when that option of two possibilities is not offered.

And back to the f... word, no matter the usage in the US and Ireland, it still is not acceptable to see it in your lessons. OK, I'm a prude...and esaily shocked.
alinepnina
 said on
March 21, 2013
Dear David,

I don't know if you already have this covered at other levels. It occurred to me that I haven't a clue what to say at a Chinese hairdresser's when I need not just a haircut, but the roots dyed and highlights put in, not to mention a blow dry. You have the hamburgers covered I know and meat menus I will never have to use but the above is important too. Another thing is contact lenses. I don't know what to ask for when buying cleaning and rinsing solutions for semi-permeable lenses. I can't be unique in being a wearer. When I think of more subjects that are crucial to my day to day existence I will of course let you know.

PS. Mad, bad and dangerous to know. What has Lord Byron got to do with pop-up Chinese
Echo
 said on
March 22, 2013
@alinepnina,

Those are very good ideas. You are right, we don't have shows on those topics yet. I'll see if we can make some dialogues related. Thanks for the suggestions!

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
Mark Lesson Studied