Jeff in Korea is hosting a hilarious US-produced video explaining why Asian women dig white guys:

And Chinese viewers should appreciate how Indian guys have it worse.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, india, yellow fever, japan, korea, northeast asia, south asia, southeast asia

China’s internet police are so scary they can cause a grown man to faint.:

In Chongqing, China, the police inspection team entered an Internet bar in the morning.  About seven or eight students were present.  One student was concentrating hard on pornographic websites and was totally unaware of the police officers behind him.  The officers stood there for a miute and then they asked him to cooperate.  The student stood up, his body wavered and he passed out.  The police gave him some water and he came to a few minutes later.  He said, "I was scared."  The student was brought back to the station when he apologized and was let off with a lecture and a warning.

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

Two of the most ubiquitous and derided devices in much of developing Asia are the cell phone and the moped.  The former due to a lack of etiquette and the latter because they tend to be driven on pedestrian thoroughfares. While AsiaPundit will be forever annoyed by people who stare at their phones instead of answering them, and at the scooters that always honk at him on the sidewalks of Shanghai, he will agree with Neelakantan that the two have empowered millions of new entrepreneurs.: 

The moped is a much derided vehicle, at least on Indian roads. It is slow on the highways, a pain in traffic because it runs circles around other vehicles far more than a bike or a scooter and an irritation when it breaks down at signals. Some of these contraptions also have a pedal option, which is used by its owners to get out a signal at 3 km/h, when their contraption fails to start. But, it also has a role to play in our economy. Down South, where TVS motor rules the roost, the moped is popular. It is not popular with college students (guys prefer bikes, girls prefer variomatics), but it popular with another segment. The milk delivery man, postmen, the newspaper delivery men, even the scrap traders (as pictured above) who I call micro entrepreneurs. These were the guys who used a bicycle once upon a time and have now upgraded to mopeds.

Mopeds are dirt cheap and give amazing value for money for a litre of petrol. (A 100 cc bike gives upwards of 80 km to a litre, these 50 and 70 something cc vehicles can give much more. It is not uncommon some of these things being filled with petrol for 25 rupees (half a litre) or less. I have seen a moped being filled for 10 rupees. These things are not fast, but they are rugged and remove the dependence on public transport for their owners. The moped is as functional a vehicle as it can get, since their owners really dont care for how a moped looks.

Technorati Tags: asia, economy, india, south asia

Saying that a coup was being plotted against her government, Gloria Arroyo has declared that the Philippines is now in a "state of emergency."

I Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Republic of the Philippines and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested upon me by Section 18, Article 7 of the Philippine Constitution which states that: “ The President…whenever it becomes necessary,…may call out (the) armed forces to prevent or suppress…rebellion…, “ and in my capacity as their Commander-in-Chief, do hereby command the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to maintain law and order throughout the Philippines, prevent or suppress all forms of lawless violence as well any act of insurrection or rebellion and to enforce obedience to all the laws and to all decrees, orders and regulations promulgated by me personally or upon my direction; and as provided in Section 17, Article 12 of the Constitution do hereby declare a State of National Emergency.

The above is from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism blog - which is currently providing far too many articles to link to individually. Go read the site.

Torn and Frayed also have live updates from a Manila anti-Arroyo march.

Image stolen from here.

Technorati Tags: asia, arroyo, philippines, east asia, southeast asia

Who censored Roger Rabbit? The Communist Party of China!

China’s ancient culture has outlasted famine, Mongol hordes, the British Empire, opium wars and Japanese militarism.

So why is Beijing scared of Tinky Wink?

That’s the member of U.K. kids’ favorite Teletubbies, which aroused the ire of televangelist Jerry Falwell. Now the animated gang has fallen afoul of Communist China–although not for the preacher’s reasons.

See, Teletubbies is a mixed media show, in that it blends cartoons with live action. And that melange is now officially banned by Beijing.

The People’s Republic of China has declared verboten TV shows and movies that blend hand or computer drawings with breathing human actors, in a drive to nurture home-grown animators–and perhaps wean the nation off of foreign cartoons.

AsiaPundit doesn’t care about Tinky Wink - but surely a regime is most wretched if it bans Jessica Rabbit.

This is what AsiaPundit means when he says content-related businesses in China are at risk from political and regulatory whims.

AP was out for dinner and drinks with some fellow hacks last weekend and the Google issue was discussed. AsiaPundit mentioned that he would question any attempt to set up a content business here, noting how poorly News Corp had fared in spite of abiding by requests from authorities that it censor the BBC and not publish a biography by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten.

A colleague agreed and said: "that’s China!‘

For more on the cartoon ban, Imagethief has some comments on the banning of ""so-called cartoons."

GZ expat notes some of the toons’ that will be banned.
Simon reveals the real reason for the ban.

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

AsiaPundit is concerned about the size of this feline.:

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