ESWN translates a defense of Zhang Ziyi, who has upset Chinese nationalists over her role in Geisha.:

Let us look at what Shi Changqing wrote:

She is not being screwed by just one Japanese person, for she is being screwed by every Japanese person!  She is not the only person to be screwed by the Japanese people, for every Chinese person is being screwed by the Japanese people!  She let shame fall on the Chinese people!  How could such a person deserve to be a Chinese?

After reading those words, I became super-dispirited.  How did all the Chinese people get screwed by all the Japanese people?  If you think that Zhang Ziyi’s butt can represent your face, then I do not object to that.  But could you please not bring the entire Chinese population into this!  When I read you words, I did not feel screwed by the Japanese people; instead I thought that you were screwing me when you decided to use Zhang Ziyi’s butt to represent my face as well as the face of all the Chinese people.  Why do you want to screw the Chinese people?  What kind of patriotism is that?  Do you deserve to be a Chinese person?  Do not use patriotism to elevate yourself, do not think that you win just by invoking the word ‘patriotism’ and do not think that you are elevated, haloed and flawless.  It is not so.  When you used Ms. Zhang’s butt to represent the face of the Chinese people, I consider you to be unpatriotic; instead, you have insulted the 1.3 billion Chinese people.

Even though AsiaPundit has spent a decade in the Orient, there are things that he will never understand about Asia: the dominance of Miracle Whip clones and 1,000 island dressing as the only form of salad toppings available, the adding of sugar to tomato juice and, now, to find Zhang Ziyi’s naked butt as a source of nationalist outrage.

AsiaPundit has always noted with pride that Christy Chung is Canadian even though she was topless in Jan Dara (reportedly, at least, I’ve not yet investigated):

AsiaPundit is even happy to claim that Pam Anderson is Canadian.:

Austin Arensberg, on a daily walk in Beijing strolled past a suicidal man on a ledge.

Today as I walked to go do a chore I noticed a crowd near one of the buildings in the Hua Qing Jia Yuan apartment complex in Wudaokou a university area in Beijing where I have lived for the past two months. As I approached the crowd I noticed many security guards hurriedly telling people to move back. Everyone was looking up.

When I glanced in the same direction I noticed a person on the top of one of the 18 story high buildings. He was suicidal. Everyone around me was staring. Many were laughing, some were taking pictures. The mood on the ground was almost jovial, as if this was something that was a fun distraction. I honestly felt that as I stood there.

I was faced almost immediately with a moral dilemna. Do I stand here and watch to see the man either jump and certainly die, or get saved by the police that were rushing to his aid. Or do I walk away shaking my head in disbelief and sadness. Or do I try and help.

I knew that I was no help. People were already in motion, and minutes later I could see that he was talking to someone on the roof. And after awhile just trying to soak in what was going on I left, sickened at the thought of watching him jump.

While Austin is naturally feeling shaken by the experience, his behavior was much better than that of another expat in a similar incident in Shanghai.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, northeast asia

Andres spotted this surprising news, ex-Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori has been detained during an unexpected visit to Chile.:

Police in Chile have arrested fugitive Peruvian ex-President Alberto Fujimori just hours after he began a surprise visit to the country.

Mr Fujimori is wanted in his home country on corruption and human abuse charges but Peruvian warrants for his arrest were thought invalid in Chile.

He was picked up at a Santiago hotel and surrendered without resistance.

The ex-leader had said he was visiting Chile as part of a bid to return to Peru and stand for president again.

Peru has been calling for the extradition of Fujimori since 2000. The former leader is accused of corruption and playing a part in extra-judicial killings and kidnappings.

Fujimori was of the most interesting and controversial characters in politics in his day, with his shock austerity reforms bringing both economic stability and displacement, and his widely successful war against the murderous Sendero Luminoso eliminating the single most notorious guerilla organizations in the Americas (while Latin America’s guerilla movements were supported by many on the North American left in the 1980s and 1990s, no one sane supported the Khmer-Rouge modeled ‘Shining Path’).

AsiaPundit will be watching events closely.

Prior to beginning a journalistic career, AsiaPundit was considering an academic career in Latin American studies and development economics. Peru was a favorite area of study. As an undergraduate, AsiaPundit even made an brief - and quickly aborted - attempt to register the “Sombreros Luminosos” (Shining Hats) as an official campus club with his student union. Though he would never admit to an act of such black humor today.

Among his other qualifications for becoming a Asian-based reporter, AsiaPundit also briefly studied the German language.

“Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug ist von den Aalen voll.”

Technorati Tags: asia, japan, northeast asia, fujomori

I’m tagging this under the China category as the below post is from the Frog in the Well Chinese history blog, but should be a boon to students and researchers throughout Asia. As a result, I expect it to soon be blocked in China.

Google print, which is scanning thousands of books in major research libraries, is useful when you want to scan across many English language books for terms. It only offers you a few pages, but will show you all the hits for words in given books, the pages they are on, and what pages surround them. Many books are not yet available, and you will find that some important books on East Asian history, both old and new are frustratingly missing will less common works are there. However, instead of going to the index of books you own, if it is on Google Print we have an increasingly quick alternative to consulting indexes.

For example, didn’t Poshek Fu’s book on collaboration in wartime Shanghai mention an organization called the Shanghai Association of the Theatrical Circle for National Salvation? Ah yes, Google Print tells me that it is mentioned on page 74, and in a footnote on page 188. I can then login to my google account and view that page, and in many cases a few pages surrounding it.

Technorati Tags: asia, books, china, gogle print