• CHINA - Open versus Hidden Shamelessness/Zhang Yu interview
  On November 14, Zhang Yu produced four “letters of guarantee” and more than 20 reels of audio and visual tapes about the existence of “dark secrets” in the film/television industry. Apart from director Huang Jianzhong, Zhang Yu has many more people in he
• CHINA - The last stand
  “We would interpret this as meaning that in a truly harmonious society, the lives of ordinary people would be protected by the rule of law against the violence of forced evictions. When we were caught taking pictures by the police last time they said to u

• Microsoft Kills Another A-list Chinese Blog
  “Lian Yue, the outspoken Southern Metropolis Daily columnist, certified death of his Chinese blog hosted by Microsoft Live Spaces. To Microsoft’s credit, the execution is now much more civilised.”
• CHINA - Jin Ge’s Documentary On Chinese World of Warcraft Goldfarmers on MTV
  “Jin Ge has estimated there are at least half million goldfarmers working throughout China in organized game sweatshops, where they work to produce gold/points for market consumption–pimarily for gamers in America.”
• HONG KONG - Media Control and Self-Censorship in Hong Kong
  “The Hong Kong political environment is becoming increasingly more like that of mainland China. As this has yet to directly affect the personal interests and daily lives of ordinary citizens, most people do not feel strongly about this. “
• SOUTH KOREA/CHINA - Hyundai Gets What it Gives With Copycat Cars at DPRK Studies
  ” Hyundai is considering legal action against the Chinese manufacture of an SUV that has some strong design similarities to the Santa FE.”
• SOUTH KOREA - Why Koreans Would Love Battlestar Galactica
  “I’ve gone on long enough about why Korean people don’t like Star Trek and science fiction (real science fiction, not the Will Smith every 4th of July variety), and I’ve all but given up hope that the Trek will make any inroads into Korean culture ever. B
• SINGAPORE - Swingers swap sex partners in prudish Singapore
  “There are more than 10 swingers clubs in Singapore, most of them private, some of them online. With more than 6,000 members, the Web-based United SG Swingers is one of the biggest.”
• CHINA - Chinese journalists tire of Thomas Friedman
  “It seems that Chinese journalists and media people are getting a little tired of the Flat Earth Mantra.”

AsiaPundit will soon be returning to its group blog format.

We apologize for the recent lack of posting, we have been spending some time training the newest team member.

• SINGAPORE - Singapore to legalise oral, anal sex for heterosexuals
  “Oral and anal sex in private between consenting heterosexual adults would be legalised under Singapore’s first major penal code amendments in 22 years, the government said on Wednesday.”
• CHINA - Being reporter “third most dangerous job in China”
  “Being a reporter is the third most dangerous occupation in China, the official Xinhua news agency said, second only to miners and policemen.” — Clearly window cleaners and welders were not inculded in the survey.
• CHINA - Blockbuster busted (sort of)
  “We’ve never been to the knockoff DVD shop called Blockbuster … and now we’ll never get a chance to. The real Blockbuster has seen to it that the place — which apparently is of the overpriced, 10 kuai per DVD, Kade Club ilk — lose its name.”
• CHINA - I vote for Hu Jintao!
  “The standard excuse for China not becoming fully democratic is that ‘it is too big.’ This is obviously a load of shite, as having been in India during a local election I know how a nation of one billion can get well involved in democracy”
• NORTH KOREA - Hard currency in NK
  “For a Stalinist country, North Korea was unique in its permissive approach to hard currency transactions. Most Communist states followed the Soviet example and strictly forbade all private trading in currency. There were foreign currency shops in the Sov

• JAPAN - Podderbation
  [converted to Unicode] “There are stories all over the net these days about how Apple is going after companies using the word “pod� in the names of the products. Now a small company in Osaka, Japan has ended up in the sights of the Cupertino
  (tags: system:badutf8)
• CHINA - Is Gmail being blocked by some Chinese e-mail services?
  “A number of Chinese bloggers are reporting that several major Chinese e-mail services appear to be blocking Gmails. More testing and investigation in China is needed to determine exactly what is going on and to confirm whether this is some kind of anti-

• PHILIPPPINES - Imelda Marcos recycles her jewels for the masses
  “Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines who amassed a vast collection of jewels and shoes as her subjects suffered, has launched a signature fashion line aimed at bringing affordable glitz to the masses.”
• CHINA - Zoo sells crocodile meat to raise money
  Yum! AsiaPundit makes a mean croc fajita!
• SE ASIA - Poot, kerbaboom!*
  “But far more interesting is the fact that here, as far as I know, audible farts are described as ‘poot’. I haven’t read any other culture’s or linguistic group’s onomatopoeic word for it apart from the English, where the word ‘fart‘ itself
• CHINA - Fake GMail provider to launch fake YouTube?
  “Beijing based e-mail provider and domain registrar ISM Internet Technology Development Company (http://china.gmail.cn) will release an online video blog service soon, reports Ccidnet. ISM offers a free web-based email service called Gmail China. ISM will
• INTERNET FREEDOM - Reporters Without Borders lists 13 “enemies of the Internet”
  Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Monday listed 13 countries it labelled as “enemies of the Internet”: Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Myanmar, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

• CHINA - The Real-Name Blogger Registration System
  “The “future” will be arriving soon. On October 25, the Chinese Internet Society confirmed that it has forwarded its proposal for the registration system to the Ministry of Information Industry.”
• CHINA - Wife-swapping is out, but crotchless body stockings are go
  “Apparently the theme of this year’s exhibition was “Building moral sexual attitudes”, and hence the rejection of such louche tomfoolery as wife-swapping, public hugging, donkey-spanking, and group Red Flower Oil rubdowns.”
• PHILIPPINES - Strippers add soft personal touch to Toyota workers meetings in Philippines - Japan Sex News
  “Nine workers from Toyota Motor Philippines were punished after they used a company meeting to call in a stripper.”
• INDIA - Superman: Also Indian III
  “Someone finally uploaded one of the Indian versions of Superman, Dariya Dil, with Govinda and Kimi Katkar in a clingy Spiderman outfit (via Basmatic). They wiggle their hips even as they fly.”
• CORRUPTION - The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index
  The 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), launched today by Transparency International (TI), points to a strong correlation between corruption and poverty, with a concentration of impoverished states at the bottom of the ranking.
• SOUTH KOREA - South Korea moving to legalize miniskirts
  “The headline speaks for itself.”
• JAPAN - Chocolate sushi
  “KookiSushi: fetishistically accurate replicas of sushi, executed in fine chocolate, including green-tea “wasabi” and chocolate soy sauce”
• JAPAN- HOWTO make candy sushi
  “KookiSushi inspired me to create my own candy fake sushi for April Fools Day. I was so happy with the resulting marshmallow nigiri (tamago, unagi, ebi) that I created a how-to guide on my food blog. The candy sushi can look startling real!”

• SINGAPORE - Insider’s view on the purging of a Today editor
  “There are no real editors at Today, they are all a bunch of word processors. They send good reporters like Derrick Paulo and Ansley Ng to cover political happenings, then censor and rewrite everything to suit their political masters.”
• CHINA - Red Packages
  “for most Chinese reporters, no matter on whose press conference they got a commercial envelope, it always equals to a Hongbao (Red Package in Mandarine), the most important source of their afterhours income.”
• CHINA - Inside the China Daily recruitment drive
  “Place ads in the paper, and also on the website. However, this is somewhat undermined by the fact that the website is ALSO recruiting. This means the China Daily print edition recruitment ad is buried deep underneath mangled layers of porn and Chinglish,
• CHINA - Transforming the China Daily
  “Of course, a key obstacle in transforming China Daily is the continuing dominance of ideological correctness. As long as the Party holds the reins, CD, and other English-language Chinese media, will never garner much of a global audience”
• CHINA - Microsoft Giving Up Ad Money And Cheap Labour?
  “Will Microsoft ever exit the China market willingly? Not while they receive competitive advantages from CCP[?] interference in the marketplace. But they have learned the art of PR in the US and understand the need to shed a few crocodile tears to keep their critics at arms length.
• PHILIPPINES - How Mike Arroyo treats guest journalists
  “As of last count, Mr. Arroyo has filed 43 libel suits against journalists, quite a record for a single complainant”
• CHINA - 90 Percent of China’s Billionaires are Children of Senior Officials
  “According to a research report, 90 percent of China’s billionaires are children of senior officials. There are about 2,900 senior officials’ children in China, with total wealth amounting to two trillion yuan.”
• NORTH KOREA - Follow Kim Jung Il’s Money–But How Far?
  “…humiliate and discredit Kim Jung Il in the eyes of the North Korean elite by forcing him to give out home-baked fruitcake and hand-knitted scarves instead of Mercedes, Rolexes, and XO as Christmas gifts to his disgruntled followers.”

• CHINA - When I say there is no censorship in China, I mean there is a certain amount…
  “Dodgy bunch, those journalists, always getting thrown in jail for god-knows what transgression completely unrelated to their coverage.”
• CHINA - Blogspot: blocked or unblocked - that’s the question
  ” I was thinking about calling the domain blockedspot, but this morning I see that all my RSS feeds from these accounts are suddenly filled with new posts.”
• CHINA - Xinhua Stays Naughty
  “n Simonworld’s ongoing crusade to demonstrate that China’s party organ Xinhua has a deep sense of humor, a few photo collages from today’s edition.”
• HONG KONG - Hip-hop by the numbers
  “Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ attempt to lure hip young things into the profession with a rap recruitment video is climbing rapidly up the YouTube charts.”
• NORTH KOREA - Kim Jong-Il Interprets Sunrise As Act Of War
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il condemned this morning’s sunrise, calling it “another hostile, deliberately timed act by the world community” and “a clear and blatant declaration of war.”
• THAILAND - Halloween Thai Style
  In the South of Thailand on the tenth lunar month, we celebrate wān sàt or pràphēnī dūean sìp, when people offer food to the dead. On the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, ethnic Chinese do the same to their ancestors on Chinese Hungry Ghost D
• THAILAND - ‘Rambo’ warned not to destroy environment during shooting
  Thailand’s new military installed government is thrilled to welcome Hollywood heavyweights like Sylvester Stallone …they have asked producers to make sure that violent scenes do not harm the environment, nor target ethnic minorities.
• NORTH KOREA - Why has North Korea decided to negotiate?
  As a side note, I rather dislike headlines such as,”Breakthrough: North Korea agrees to talks.” … This really limits future word choice.
• SOUTH KOREA - OhmyNews’ Oh My Biz Problem
  “The Korean site for citizen reporting hasn’t had much success so far with its moves into other markets—and it’s in the red at home”

• CHINA - Ancient Chinese sex advice
  “There is a long section on how to tell if a woman is having an orgasm, but frankly the modern method (asking her) is a lot easier. “
• PHILIPPINES - Peeping toms go hi-tech
  “…technology has unwittingly enhanced the activities of voyeurs in the Philippines and taken their “game” into an entirely new level.”
• CHINA - Bloggers, innovation, and China’s future
  “”Those who think that blogs are violent or threatening only see it that way because they view society as threatening.”
• JAPAN - Right wing blog, 2-channel harassing Mainichi reporter of Korean ancestry
  “Almost anything Koreans do sets them up for ridicule and scorn, or denouncements as spies in their midst. The mere knowledge that a well-known person has Korean blood makes them a member of the Korean conspiracy.”
• CHINA - We don’t censor the Internet. Really - Declan McCullagh
  Ironically, the above report cannot be accessed in China without a proxy.
• CHINA - The thoughts of Chen Liangyu
  ” By issuing this document–if it is real– the party is clearly signaling a turn toward more socialist policies”