Fons picks up on the new Markle Foundation study on the attitudes of Chinese Internet users:

A new survey of professor Guo Liang of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences into the 103 million Chinese internet users has come up with some interesting material. Here is the survey in pdf-format.

The survey, presented on Thursday at the Brookings Institute in the US was the second done with international funding of also the Markle foundation and has already widely been quoted in the US media, like the International Herald Tribune and CNN. A few of the key findings, according to CNN:

- The overwhelming majority of Chinese feel some Internet content — such as pornography and violence — should be regulated;

- although the average Chinese Internet user spends nearly three hours a day online, 75 percent have never made an Internet purchase and 42 percent never use a search engine.

- Eighty-five percent spend their time viewing mainland Chinese-language content, while only three percent viewed overseas foreign language content.

In another post, Fons also notes what he sees as bias on the part of AFP:

AFP really had a to open their article on the new Guo Liang report today. It read: “Internet in China may become powerful political tool. Of course, they quoted Guo correctly by letting hem say:

The Internet is supposed to be the information highway but according to our survey, for many Internet users in China, it is an entertainment highway.

But that did not stop them from giving their own political bias to his words. As they wrote further on:

But survey respondents had “strong expectations” that the Internet would change politics in China, which is today — according to global media watchdog Reporters without Borders — the “world’s biggest prison for cyber-dissidents.”

My estimation is that in this case ‘change’ means something different for the internet users than for AFP.

I would agree that China’s Internet users, and particularly bloggers, have very different attitudes to censorship and the leadership of the communist party than their western counterparts. However, I haven’t met any who don’t want to see change. That may not mean an end to the one-party state, but the Chinese like everyone else would like efficient government and the elimination of corruption. To quote the study: “According to statistical results of the World Internet Project, more people in China than in other countries believe that the Internet will have a positive impact on political transparency.”

Further:

Among the respondents, 62.8% “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that by using the Internet people will acquire better knowledge of politics, 60.4% “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that higher-level government officials will better understand the common people’s views through the Internet, 55.3% “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that with the Internet people have more opportunities to criticize government policy and 45.1% “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that by using the Internet, people have more opportunities to express their political views.

Does AFP reveal a political bias? Probably, all reporters and writers have a political bias - my editors usually stomp mine out before publication (even though as a financial reporter I feel my ‘free-market’ bias probably goes over well with the readership). But Fons, you title your post “internet - Users want government control…,” that may be true from one part of the study cited - on porn and violence, specifically - but it may reveal one of your biases. From my reading and the above statistics, a better headline would be “Internet - Users want governmental change.”

But that’s just my bias.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, media, northeast asia

The invaluable Danwei reports on a by-product of the Super Girls craze that the promoters are not happy about, and notes something that Asiapundit has been trying to work into a post for some time: in post-communist China “comrade” has become a term of self-identification for gays.:

Remember Mu Zimei condoms? Bill Clinton condoms? Eventually it had to happen to Super Girls. This news is from the Beijing Times:

Yesterday at the Third Family Planning and Reproductive Health Technology Exhibition in Beijing’s Agricultural Center, “condoms named ‘Super Girls’ (超级女声) and ‘Female Music Troupe’ (女子乐坊) aroused great interest”.

According to the Beijing Times, the companies that own Super Voice Girls (the televised singing contest) and 12 Girls Group (a group of young Chinese women who play traditional instruments) “have expressed that they cannot accept such usage”.

The condoms, produced by Guilin Latex Factory, are especially designed for oral sex. Factory director Tao Ran said that oral sex condoms are one of their newest products. Apparently the condoms are not yet available on the market.

Mr Tao went on to explain the reason behind the names: the images of a Super Girls contestant singing into the microphone and a female musician playing the flute are “highly reminiscent of the act that this condom is intended for.”

Another new product introduced by the enthusiastic Mr Tao was a condom specially for homosexuals, named ‘Comrade’ (同志 — Chinese slang for gay). Other news from the Third Family Planning and Reproductive Health Technology Exhibition: sex toys are selling very well, with most purchases being made by women.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia

Which came first, Godzilla or King Kong?:

Scientific American—First came a new report on Gigantopithecus, a huge prehistoric ape that inevitably invites comparisons to King Kong because of the imminent release of the film remake by the same name. And now comes the discovery of Dakosaurus andiniensis, a monstrous species of 135-million-year-old aquatic crocodile that has been nicknamed “Godzilla.” The synchronicity of these reports can mean only one thing: People of Tokyo, run for your lives.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia, godzilla

Artist Michael Paulus has done the world a favor by showing us what the evil mouthless one from Sanrio looks like under the fur and flesh.:

These Icons are usually grotesquely distorted from the human form from which they derive. Being that they are so commonplace and accepted as existing I thought I would dissect them like science does to all living objects — trying to come to an understanding as to their origins and true physiological make up. Possibly to better understand them and see them in a new light for what they are in the most basic of terms.

(h/t Gaijin Biker)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, hello kitty, japan, northeast asia

Singapore, a country where the 10-dollar bill is pink, has decided to stop chasing ‘pink dollar’ tourism, something that has been a boon to tsunami-hit Phuket (Bloomberg via Singabloodypore):

Singapore hosted the first four Nation parties on Sentosa Island — soon to be home to a new casino. After the first three passed relatively unnoticed, 8,000 revelers turned up for Nation IV last year and local television news broadcast footage of the party, touching nerves in a state where gay sex remains illegal. Police refused a license for Nation V, and Singapore’s health ministry claimed the party was linked to a rise in HIV infections.

Phuket was more than willing to step in, said Suwalai Pinpradab, regional director of the tourism authority. Sulawai said she hopes Nation becomes an annual event on the island and anticipates bigger crowds if it gets the go-ahead next year, once deterrents such as the tsunami, Bali bombings and Pakistan earthquake no longer keep revelers away from Asia.

“It’s a good start. I talked to some of the participants and they’re happy,'’ she said via telephone. “They’re very good spenders compared to ordinary tourists because they had nine parties while they were in Phuket — day and night.'’

Gay-Friendly

Singapore’s fourth and final Nation generated an estimated S$10 million for the city state’s economy, said Fridae.com’s Koe. Attendees pay $220 each for unlimited-access tickets, on top of spending for accommodation, food, shopping and drinks.

That’s a boost for Phuket, where credit card spending fell 26 percent this year as of Sept. 24, compared with growth of 27 percent in December, according to Visa International Inc., the world’s largest card-payment network.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, singapore rebel, southeast asia, thailand

Americans will forever hold December 7, 1941 as “a day that will live in infamy.” Unfortunately, the events of that date seem to be absent from the textbooks of the People’s Liberation Army’s officers’ training program. Via Rand Corp’s presentation to U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission:

At least some Chinese military analysts believe that the United States is sensitive to casualties and economic costs and that the sudden destruction of a significant portion of our forces would result in a severe psychological shock and a loss of will to continue the conflict. When this principle is combined with the preceding two, it suggests a belief that a preemptive surprise attack on U.S. forces in the Pacific theater could cause the United States to avoid further combat with China. It does not need to be pointed out to this panel that the last time such a strategy was attempted in the Pacific the ultimate results were not altogether favorable for the country that tried it, but the Chinese military doctrinal writings we examined in this study did not acknowledge the existence of such historical counter examples.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, japan, northeast asia, taiwan