JAPAN - Posters of Japanese Labor and Social Movement

“OISR.ORG Poster Exhibition: Images of Japanese Labor and Social Movement in the Post-1945 Japan, is a great on-line exhibition by the Ohara Institute for Social Research. Hundreds of vintage posters of confederations, industry federations and enterprise.”

CHINA - Crisis and opportunity

“Hilarious, then, to discover that it is simply not true. The Chinese word for crisis - wēijī - actually means . . . crisis.”

CHINA - Zhang Jiehai is Enraged

“Remember Zhang Jiehai, a Chinese professor of psychology and member of the Shanghai Academy of Science? Sure you do, he’s the guy who has written such treasures as,: “Look! Look at the Faces of These Ugly Foreign Men!”

“In the restaurant, on the subway, around the company water coolers, the stock market is all people are talking about these days. Sound familiar? It should. The same exact phenomenon preceded the bursting of the last stock market bubble in the West in March 2000 — the difference being the Chinese market is even less regulated and more corrupt, and at the moment really, really expensive.”

CHINA - How to make a core State policy look like it is working

“There is no magic wand in China. Instead, there is a slow-moving army of 70 million-odd cadres and bureaucrats who need to be made to improve the situation. Needless to say, getting them moving is difficult. But there are ways.”

CHINA - When is something newsworthy?

“Don’t listen to everyone’s BS and think that being a journalist is dangerous as hell, that after you’ve written a report on something, there’ll be people waiting in an alley to cap you when you get off work at night, or when you’re  going out with your wife, you get in the car and it blows up with a bang….nothing like that; being a reporter is safe.”

INTERNET FREEDOM - Web giants ask for feds’ help on censorship

“Google, Yahoo and Microsoft representatives on Tuesday implored the U.S. government to help set ground rules for complying with demands by foreign law enforcement agencies for user records or censorship.”

INDIA - Why Dwarfy! What Happened?

“As a special surprise, we present the now legendary comicbook Nagraj vs Shakoora the Magician. Copyright infringements and grammar be dammed!!”

CHINA - Meizu’s M8? Apple lawyers, start your engines

“We’re not sure if the pics above are the result of an engorged, Chinese fanboy fantasy or actual product renderings of Meizu’s rumored M8. We wouldn’t be surprised either way what with China-based Meizu’s history of uh, Apple inspired design.”