Sorry, that title should have been the diminishing returns of Japan’s horror.:

What if Takashi Shimizu (JU-ON, THE GRUDGE) released a movie and nobody came? That’s exactly what happened with last week’s release of his new movie REINCARNATION (RINNE). A relatively well-reviewed flick, even Variety said that "Local and international success look certain…" but then…psyche! The movie came out and made 98 million yen, 45% of what ONE MISSED CALL grossed.

But that’s just part of the pattern of declining J-horror revenues in Japan. RING 2 and the American remake of THE RING both grossed big, and ONE MISSED CALL did pretty well but every other J-horror flick, including the Hollywood remakes, have made less and less money. Nick Rucka gives a nice recap of the history of Japanese horror movies and looks at the creative deadend this particular trend has reached over on Midnight Eye, and Hoga Central provides a handy graph that charts the declining fortunes of the J-horror wave.

J-horror has been yesterday’s news for a while but now it might just be dead enough that producers stop wringing its corpse for a few more cents.

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

As AsiaPundit noted in a recent item, South Korea had a booming equities market in 2005 - with equity returns up 53.96 percent in local currency terms during the year. So why is AP expecting a bust? While many analysts have said the index has overshot in the past year and have used various accounting measures to suggest that it is already overvalued, AP just has a hunch.:

Here’s a great photo found at the blog of Nyquist Capital.  It’s of a rally to encourage people to invest in the stock market.  The up arrows, gigantic bull, and Rally Korea! sign pretty much gets the message across.  In a way it’s not that much different from those Nasdaq-100 ads with the CEOs of Starbucks, Staples and Microsoft, but in Korea it’s been deemed that there’s a pressing need to broaden participation in the market–in 2005 only 8% of the population owned stock.  Too bad, they’ve really missed out.  I guess that’s why they have a need for this kind of public rally.

One of the strange things about South Korea is that public rallies often work. Moreover, they often work so well that they create brand new problems.  In one of the notable recent examples, the government and banks promoted credit card use to encourage domestic consumerism and reduce tax evasion (cards leave a paper trail). That one worked really, really well.

As the above mentioned Nyquist Capital blog notes:

The shocking thing about this photo is the naked embedded marketing message. Buy now or you will be left behind. This is just one picture, but if this is the tone the exchange wants to set, it looks like the birth of an irrational exuberance investor culture. The folks that run the exchange should realize they are running a market, not a casino.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, economy, korea, northeast asia, south korea

Can anyone explain why this site is getting so many hits from the Netherlands today?:

That’s just based on the past 100 visitors. While there was an unusually heavy flow of Dutch traffic earlier today, it has turned into a flood in recent hours. Almost all of the visitors have been arriving without a referring link.

Technorati Tags: netherlands, blogs

… but in the Republic of China this time:

Software giants Microsoft face more opposition in future adoption of their software applications. Now, the parliament of Taiwan has voted and passed a resolution, which would lessen the government’s reliance on software products developed by Microsoft. The government has been told to reduce purchases from the software giant by 25 percent this year.

This resolution was passed on Friday and is aimed to end the domination of Microsoft products in the software application used by the government bodies in the country. However, experts have claimed that the decision might not be effective in the real world as it runs against fair trade regulations in Taiwan.

As for the People’s Republic, the article reminds us that the Mainland is still promoting open-source alternatives such as Linux.

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

Because we need one:

You’ve probably seen , but have you also seen , and ?

I don’t know what it is that makes these shows more entertaining than the similar crap on TV here. Maybe it’s just that I can’t understand them. But somehow I think that "Fear Factor" with the sound down would still just be fratboys eating bugs.

Don’t hit stop on before the boys show up. Also here’s a , and for some American horror, please and a furry stripper.

Comment below with links to more videos of absurd Japanese game shows. My scarred inner child thanks you in advance.

(Via Boing Boing)

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

AsiaPundit is a bit of a tech geek so the first thing he thought when he saw this was “cool.”

An Indian model wears a Analog integrated circuit (IC) with intelligent charging capabillities for Lithium-ion batteries pasted on a bindi during a launch ceremony in Bangalore.

The second thing was: “Why?”

Technorati Tags: asia, india, south asia

At the risk of developing a huge circular linkfest that will cause the blogosphere to implode, AsiaPundit is further consolidating the China internet censorship dialogue as Bingfeng, Angry Chinese Blogger and Tom Legg join in.

Tom rebuts several of Imagethief’s arguments and, like AP, is welcoming hearings, but with a lot more enthusiasm than was done here:

As long as decisions on who obtains access to the Chinese market is given a thumbs up or thumbs down by Chinese government bureaucrats, there is the possibility that US businesses could lose access to the Chinese market for extra-legal reasons. Given the vague and broad regulation of Internet Content Providers in China, which require responses to both judicial warrants {Shi Tao and Yahoo!} and extra-judicial requests from Media Control/Propaganda Officers {apparently, Anti and MSN Spaces}, and the wiggle room for arbitrary "rule of men", how will US corporations doing business in China react to extra-legal requests for action by Chinese authorities given the threat of loss of access to the market? {Should we argue for the repeal of US laws barring US corporations from bribing foreign officials to obtain business, if that is custom of that country? Is it a stretch to suggest that other extra-legal favours for foreign officials constitute an in-kind bribe? Would yanking a troublemaker’s blog, which hasn’t been officially censored, on behalf of an annoyed government official, who has the power to make the regular conduct of your business difficult, constitute an in-kind bribe?}

Shanghai-native blogger Bingfeng is opposing US meddling as unproductive:

…talking about internet censorship in china, suggestions like punishing MSN, yahoo or regulating foreign internet firms sound so stupid to me. it won’t contribute anything positive except increasing the already high level awareness of chinese internet censorship. and even worse, such regulatons might thwart the expansion of free thinkings in china which is hard to image without the involvement of foreign tech firms.

simply put it this way, chinese internet censorship can only be demolished by chinese people themselves. all the underlying reasons for internet censorship, the tradition of patriarch culture, the outdated ideology, the legitimate claim to protect kids, the difficulty of regulating internet in such a fast-developing market and immense country, are all hard to conceive to outsiders and such a system problem with so many intertwined elements requires wit to understand, strong desire to fight against, and patience to solve.

Angry Chinese Blogger takes a very analytical view bringing up, among other things, the long-passed out of discussion Internet Freedom Act:

In October 2002, Congressmen Christopher Cox and Thomas Lantos proposed legislation (The Global Internet Freedom Act) to create the ‘Office of Global Internet Freedom’. A body working under the auspices of the ‘Broadcasting Board of Governors’; the federal agency that maintains the ‘Voice of America’ and ‘Radio Free Asia’.

Under proposals, the Office of Global Internet Freedom would have the remit to "develop and implement a comprehensive global strategy to combat state-sponsored and state-directed Internet jamming, and persecution of those who use the Internet."

  "The Chinese government, and sadly, too many other regimes around the world, have been aggressively blocking access to the Internet, monitoring Internet activity and punishing those who seek only to share information"

Christopher Cox, Congressman, US (speaking before the US-C ESRC, June 2003)

Initially, OGIF was proposed as having a budget of $US100 Million over two years, however, this was paired down to $US16 in July 2003.

AP has stated the views he currently holds - these may shift with circumstances, arguments and new developments - but all of the above are worth reading in full (including Bingfeng’s first two posts on the topic).

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

The Nanny has just received a facelift. And she’s kinda cute:

The internet nanny is cute, until she confiscates your computer and hauls you away and locks you up for a couple of years on trumped up charges relating to national security leaking national secrets — and then you realize she’s a hard ass. Inspired by the hideous and tacky mascots of the Beijing Olympics, the Shenzhen police devised a way of making their new internet police force (which started work on January 1 of this year) seem more cute and acceptable to the masses — using cartoon mascots of their own. One is named Jing Jing (the male), and the other Cha Cha (the female). ‘Jing’ and ‘cha’ are the characters that comprise the word for ‘police’ in Chinese. Shanghaiist is sure that some of you readers are no doubt Westerners that just don’t get China and Chinese values, which is why the po-lice have to spell it out for you:

网上的各种行为同样有网络警察维护“社会秩序”，网站、论坛等都是网络公共场所，网民要注意自己的言行。

This basically states that websites, including BBSs, discussion groups (and most definitely blogs) are public places, and so internet denizens must likewise watch what they say and do. Thus the two cartoon figures will appear on various Shenzhen sites from now on. Apparently, you can click on either one and then be brought to a page (here or here) where you can talk live with real cops

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

IndCoup notes that Playboy is launching an Indonesian edition, enraging the country’s Islamist parties. IndCoup, however, argues that the outrage is not based on concerns that the magazine will diminish women.:

In politics, for example, the Muslim factions in Indonesia’s Parliament do everything they can to ensure that women are still seen as inferior to men and are excluded, wherever possible, from the sphere of political decision-making (women occupy just 8 percent of the seats in Indonesia’s Parliament).

Sure Indonesia may have had a female president - Megawati Sukarnoputri – but she was often made a target by the Islamists simply because of her gender (after all, men should never be ruled over by women, should they?)

Actually, I think the Indonesians should take a leaf out of the Swedes’ book given that women make up around 50 percent of Parliament members in Sweden. And this in a country where very permissive attitudes toward pornography are common. Coincidence? I think not…

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, playboy, southeast asia

When he was growing up in the bitterly cold Canadian wilderness*, AsiaPundit’s mother would always remind him to dress warmly. AP’s female friends were also advised to do the same by their parents. In Northern Japan, things are different. In Canada the furyou girls would be the ones wearing short skirts in winter..:

“Rules is rules” in Japan. It may have snowed almost meter in Nagoya but school rules say “sailor suit tops and pleated short skirts” are the required uniform.

Oddly, school uniform skirts have got so short in Japan many furyou girls (不良少女, delinquent wannabes) wear their gym sweatpants and short together with hyper-short skirts. Schools in “snow country” relax the uniform rules to allow girls to add training wear when needed but Nagoya fashion rules seems to not include common sense.

Technorati Tags: asia, japan, northeast asia

Picking up on items in The New Republic and Scientific American on the strategy and the mentality of suicide bombing, Joel at Far Outliers ponders the root causes of suicide bombing in China.:

The recent spate of suicide bombings in China seems to underline Mr. Skeptic’s point about despair in the face of oppressive and unresponsive governments.

Discontented or disturbed attackers in China have used mining explosives or fertilizer devices in previous bombings.

In August, a farmer with lung cancer set off a bomb on a bus in Fuzhou in southeastern Fujian province, wounding 31 people, and in July a murder suspect set off a bomb in a shopping mall in northeastern China, injuring 47 people.

A man set off a bomb on a bus in the western Xinjiang region in January 2005, killing 11 people.

On Saturday, Xinhua reported an explosion in a coal mine in Xinjiang in November was set off deliberately in the Beitaishan Coal Mine, killing 11 people.

Perhaps there are other bombings we haven’t heard about, and religious nationalism cannot be ruled out in the case of Xinjiang (or East Turkestan), but it seems that suicide bombing in China is driven as much by individuals bent on revenge as by religion, nationalism, or occupation. Some of these Chinese suicide bombers seem to be aiming their Propaganda of the Deed at international news media in order to exact personal revenge on their otherwise unresponsive government–and, of course, on many of its innocent citizens.

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

AsiaPundit would ordinarily avoid linking to sites showing nudity - but naked young Japanese women playing taiko drums clearly isn’t porn. This is art.

With its primeval pounding and frenzied movements, taiko is a breathtaking spectacle. The ancient art form requiring a tricky combination of both skill and stamina.

Yet by opting for a slightly unconventional approach, an all-female group has given the medium a novel new twist – naked taiko. The lithe and lively members more than happy to bang the night away, exhibiting barely a care in the world in regards to how much noise they make.

Clicking on the picture above will take you to a video of one of their performances. Which, due to a complete disregard for clothing and wanton jiggling of body parts, is definitely not safe for work.

Technorati Tags: asia, japan, taiko, northeast asia,

A scientific organization would have to be nuts to offer a position to disgraced South Korean scientist and cloning fraudster Hwang Woo-suk. The doctor is fortunate then that there happen to be a bunch of crazies that run what they claim to be a commercial cloning operation.  Clonaid has decided to offer him a position.:

It is interesting to do the mental exercise, for just a few seconds, and ask oneself - why would Dr Hwang play with the hope of millions of people who are desperately waiting for stem-cell cure to be available for either themselves or one of their relatives? Why would he declare that he has made these lines, if he wasn’t able to do it, knowing that millions are watching him and that he would have to deliver them soon?

In the same way, how can people believe that Clonaid’s announcement of a cloned child being born was a hoax while thousands of parents-to-be were and are counting on us? Thankfully these parents didn’t trust the media and today many of them had their baby…

We at Clonaid, believe that Dr Hwang has cloned human embryos and has the knowledge to develop stem cell lines.

We also believe that, like Dr.Boisselier, he has been discredited as he wasn’t in line with what the political and religious powers of this world wanted regarding the cloning technology. It is easier to discredit someone than to believe in his words when he disturbs the establishment….

Dr. Boisselier has offered Dr. Hwang to collaborate in one of Clonaid’s laboratories.

(Via The Marmot)

Technorati Tags: asia, korea, hwang woo-suk, northeast asia, south korea

There’s a war going on in the local blogosphere between Team A (Xiaxue, Sillycelly and Sandra) and Team B (Blinkymummy and Xialanxue). Go read their blogs to find out what happened. Tomorrow has links to some blogs following the story. (Picture and words from IZ)

Young Asian girls, slander, a bikini photo shoot gone bad and catfights. This should be even bigger than the Dawn Yang plastic surgery controversy (if you don’t know, don’t ask).

As AsiaPundit understands, the story is that Asia’s ‘Best’ blogger XiaXue, along with friends Sillycelly and Sandra, were seemingly upset at Blinkymummy, possibly for posts related to a lad mag photo shoot that the three did.

At a restaurant encounter a somewhat drunk Blinkymummy had words with the girls.

Shortly after a Blinkymummy hate site appeared with the author baring the moniker "Xialanxue," the author of an anonymous anti-Xiaxue site.

Allegedly, bloglines screen grabs demonstrated that Xiaxue was impersonating Xialanxue in an effort to slander Blinkymummy. Ironically, one of the incriminating posts was one in which XiaXue was insulting anonymous hate-site owners and fast-food chain mascots,

This was followed a post on the ’scandal’ being put on aggregator site Tomorrow.sg, and then taken down - and then being replaced by a new post. Followed by a deletion of all trackbacks by a Tomorrow editor who may or may not have been XiaXue. Undermining the editorial stance of Tomorrow.

Got it? I didn’t think so.

Thankfully Shaolin Tiger has a generally readable review of the matter. Tomorrow has about 35 linked trackbacks to its post.

Funnily enough, in one of the gazillion comments on this in the S’poreblogosphere it was said that "Blinkymummy started it." That’s a classic schoolyard comment and, with it, AsiaPundit is willing to call this blogwar now.

The winner is… Steven. He wasn’t actually involved but no one else comes out of this looking very good and the whole incident adds immeasurable support for his controversial thesis.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, east asia, singapore, southeast asia

Via Jeff Ooi, a Malaysian newspaper juxtaposes photos of bomb squads in Malaysia and China.:

AsiaPundit wouldn’t consider this indicative of the relative strengths of workplace safety in the two countries - not by a long shot - but he does agree with Jeff that the New Straits Times has gotten much better at photo placement.

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

The 2005 results for the indibloggies are out visit the results here. Congratulations to Amit Varma for taking the top spot, and to DesiPundit and all of the other winners.

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, india, south asia

Are the People’s Liberation Army willing to engage in a first strike? Beijing certainly hopes not, they don’t want soldiers striking at all. Mingi links to an LAT item describing the social problems of China’s military modernization:

Over the past two years, the People’s Liberation Army has reportedly slimmed down by 10%, or 230,000, to create a leaner armed forces. However, as the Los Angeles Times reports, those laid off at the expense of a more efficient PLA are taking it to the streets. The LAT article also quotes a correspondent from the Jane’s Defense Weekly, possibly the most well-respected (and most expensive) magazine dealing with military issues. He says, "It’s a bad sign any time the military protests. They really depend on these guys to put down other protests. You can’t have these guys running around protesting with guns."

The article also alludes to a possible disbanding of the elite PLA lychee guarding unit.:

China is also working overtime to lighten many of the army’s ancillary responsibilities, including planting crops, teaching school and running shops. These activities grew out of a tradition dating back to the conflicts with the Japanese and the Nationalists, when fighters were supposed to be self-sufficient.

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

AsiaPundit appreciates the work of Reporters sans Frontieres. Seriously, it is an important lobbying group that has been successful at aiding journalists under detention and in peril worldwide. But the latest release is a tad silly.

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today at the news blackout imposed by the Chinese authorities on a visit by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, which no Chinese news media has mentioned. One official after another at every level has repeatedly denied that any such visit is taking place.

“This is not so much a lack of transparency as an orchestrated state lie to protect the planet’s worst dictator,” the press freedom organisation said. “Are the Chinese authorities ashamed of their troublesome ally.”

Kim arrived in China in his armoured train on 10 January. Today (13 January) he is said to be in southern China visiting the city of Shenzhen, the symbol of Chinese capitalism. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that Kim stayed in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. All other visitors were asked to leave the hotel, which - according to the receptionists - was full.

Outrage is a pretty strong term. AP and other reporters he talked to over here, were actually pretty amused at the whole farce. AP expects that includes other blogging journalists Running Dog and Shenzhen Zen.

A reworked lede could make it a bit more authentic.

Reporters Without Borders laughed immensely today at the news blackout imposed by the Chinese authorities on a visit by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, which no Chinese news media has mentioned. Authorities were mocked and derided as one official after another, at every level, made themselves look like total dinks by repeatedly denying that any such visit is taking place.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, kim jong-il, korea, north korea, northeast asia

News that the US Congress is going to hold hearings on corporate involvement in Chinese censorship has prompted some great essays from this side of the Pacific. Two of the best, as can be expected, are from Imagethief and ESWN. AP recommends reading each in full.

For starters, Will at Imagethief seems to have spent his entire weekend writing a thorough essay on what hearings could mean, and how they could be counterproductive.:

We westerners seem to be conflicted in how we feel about China. We have an idealistic conviction that the simple flow of our ideas and culture and the relentless march of technology will somehow precipitate change, yet we can’t resist an interventionist desire to actively impose our values. At the same time we mythologize China into something unknowable and impenetrable. The result is that no matter what we do we risk patronizing the Chinese Internet users we want to help, and driving them further away.

Imposing foreign activism on China has a pretty dismal record of failure. In a country where nationalist sentiment runs high and is easily provoked, it is liable to backfire. Imagine for a moment that American Internet firms are drummed out of China by legislation or activism. My guess is that Chinese youth would not swell with admiration for courageous, highly-principled foreign companies. Rather, they would likely seethe with nationalist contempt for companies that don’t "get" China and for foreign governments that are trying to dictate what is good for China. That won’t do wonders for dialogue. I can tell you who would be happy though: Bokee (who launched a devastatingly self-interested attack on MSN prior to Anti’s removal, as reported here by ESWN) and other Chinese blogging engines who would be pleased to see off foreign competition.

Not that they need to at the moment. Most Western Internet companies in China are not doing very well. In the grand scheme of forces affecting China, the inclination of American (as opposed to Chinese) Internet companies to toe the censorship line is so far down the list as to be nearly beneath concern. The free operation of China’s domestic mainstream media ranks substantially higher. Although the two issues are tangentially connected via the Shi Tao case, US Internet companies and American interventionism are probably not the key to freeing Chinese media.

Roland at ESWN also argues that legislation could be a mistake, a key passage is his translation of a post by Michael Anti (the blogger who was shut down by MSN):

As for what the US Congress Representatives want to legislate, this is totally the business of the American people.  I don’t feel that the freedom of speech of the Chinese people can be protected by the US Congress.  If the freedom of speech of the citizens of a great country has to be protected by the legislature of another country, this shows how distant the country is from the greatness that we longed for.  Opposing the shutting down of my blog and my defense of my freedom of speech should not be based upon relevant legislation by the US Congress.

To state it more clearly, we want legislation from China’s Congress.  We want the Chinese to defend the freedom of speech by the Chinese.  Maybe not today, but it will be possible tomorrow.  This is the only glory and dream for continuing to live on. …

Furthermore, at a time when globalization and politics are mixed up, I do not think that we can treat everything in black-and-white terms as being for or against the improvement of freedom and rights for the people of China.  On one hand, Microsoft shut down a blog to interfere with the freedom of speech in China.  On the other hand, MSN Spaces has truly improved the ability and will of the Chinese people to use blogs to speak out and MSN Messenger also affected the communication method over the Internet.  This is two sides of the practical consequences when capital pursues the market.  How the Americans judge this problem and mete out punishment is a problem for the Americans.  If they totally prevent any compromised company from entering the Chinese market, then the Chinese netizens will not be freer at least in the short term.  Besides, we must distinguish between the sellout by Yahoo and the compromise by Microsoft, because they are completely different matters.

Roland concludes: "it will be a net loss for freedom and democracy if MSN Spaces were to depart from China.  In fact, given the circumstances, the best thing is to allow MSN Spaces to grow as rapidly as possible in China.  For example, if they can get 50 million users, who is going to block them?"

It’s regrettable, but these are much better defenses of the actions of US corporates in China than the companies have  themselves offered.

That’s part of the reason AsiaPundit is welcoming hearings. AP hopes that they will force the companies involved to provide more information on their activities. Microsoft, Yahoo!, and other firms stonewall the press when asked for information on their China activities - they are less likely to do that to requests from Congress. AP’s hope is that the additional pressure would encourage those involved to adopt a code of conduct and to state - bluntly - what they consider acceptable or unacceptable.

That said, AP questions the desirability of legislation. Partly, that’s because AP swings libertarian and always questions the need for legislation. but on top of that Congress tends to go overboard on issues related to China. This was shown with the proposed 27.5 percent tariffs for alleged currency manipulation and the bipartisan intervention in the Unocal/CNOOC matter.

One of AP’s first reactions to news of the hearings - after thinking "good" - was to envision a McCarthy-esque spectacle. This is an issue that will almost certainly lead to overblown rhetoric and could lead to legislative overreach. Quite simply, there’s lots of room for both the left and right to engage in the populist bashing of both China and evil corporations. Plus, Congressmen would surely welcome a chance to paint themselves as defenders of free speech.

As for the RSF petition, again AP welcomes the fact that groups like RSF and CPJ see this as an issue - not only because of the awareness of the issue, but also because the organizations are considering issues affecting their unpaid brethren in the blogosphere.

That said, AsiaPundit is a bit ticked that the Paris-based RSF decided to focus on US corporates and ignore those from the Continent. While Cisco has faced scrutiny for its business in China many of its main competitors here are European. Whatever questions are put to Cisco could also be directed at Alcatel, Siemens, Ericsson and others.

Also see Danwei, Rebecca and Howard French.

UPDATE: Roland has adjusted his position:

The responses on the US Congressional Hearings seemed to be far too homogeneous around here: RConversation, ESWN, Imagethief, Danwei, AsiaPundit.  This is the whole problem about Group
Polarization on the Blogosphere
in which like-minded people in a group talk to each other in the same
way.  So it will do here to bring up a dissenting opinion: "I
absolutely support the action taken by American congresses and senates.
Those opposed to these such measure are dirty, unethical and ummoral
liberal who want to support the communist regime under the name of
mulitculturalism."  Take that!

Technorati Tags: anti, asia, blogs, censorship, china, east asia, media, MSN Spaces, northeast asia

Via Nomad, Kim Jong-il has been sighted in Guangzhou by a Japanese television crew, which managed to take some footage that is only slightly more grainy and out-of-focus than your average bigfoot sighting:

TOKYO, Jan. 14 (Yonhap) — A Japanese television network aired footage of a man believed to be North Korean leader Kim Jong-il taking a luxury excursion on a riverboat in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Friday night.

The scene caught by Japan’s TBS station around 10 p.m. showed the man dressed in a beige suit similar to the ones favored by former leader Mao Zedong sitting on a white sofa inside the ship and watching the landscape roll by through a window.

In the footage, several figures in black suits are seen standing behind the man believed to be the North Korean leader as another man approaches him.

The ship was flanked by patrol boats and police were deployed along the banks of the river every few meters.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, kim jong-il, north korea, northeast asia

Via Rebecca, the Boston Globe reports that Congress has taken an interest in US companies aiding Cninese censorship:

One of the most aggressive human rights activists in Congress has found a new cause: stamping out Internet censorship in China.
Representative Christopher H. Smith, a New Jersey Republican and chairman of a House subcommittee on human rights, plans to hold hearings next month on reports that US Internet companies, including Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., aid efforts by the government of China to suppress free speech

Using the AP time machine (beta version), we have managed to grab a preview of the hearings:

MR. SMITH: Will you please state your name?
MR. GATES: William Henry Gates III. . . .
MR. SMITH: Mr. Gates, I will ask you, are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
MR. GATES I am not a member of the Communist Party, but I have done business with the Communist Party.
MR. SMITH: When did you start to associate with the Communist Party?
MR. GATES: We opened a Beijing representative office in 1992.
MR. SMITH: Mr. Gates, Have you or have any of your associates ever censored or deleted a weblog on behalf of the Communist Party?

A Chinese professor has discovered that the Chinese invented golf.:

In addition to gunpowder, the wheelbarrow, origami, spaghetti, fans, kites, the compass, etc., China is now claiming to have invented golf…

    A description of the sport, written during the Song Dynasty (AD960-1279), has been found in a volume called the Dongxuan Records. Professor Ling says the book refers to a Chinese magistrate instructing his daughter "to dig goals in the ground so that he might drive a ball into them with a purposely crafted stick". Golf "clearly originated in China", he said, adding that Mongolian travelers took the game to Europe.

    However, it is generally accepted that the first place where all the modern aspects of the game were brought together was in Scotland. Scots were also the first to use holes rather than targets.

A wise man once said "If it’s not Scottish it’s crap!" Taking that into consideration, AsiaPundit will back the Chinese on this, if only because AP hates golf. It’s crap.

AsiaPundit did not try to stalk Kim Jong-il when he allegedly was in Shanghai*, but Justin of Shenzhen Zen gave it his best in his city:

It was a bit like searching for Elvis, though probably more people in Shenzhen know of Elvis (aka ‘The Big Cat’ as he’s known to the Chinese) than The Great Leader, aka North Korean President Kim Jung Il.

After news reports that the sudden arrival of Kim (or one of his close relatives) had forced the eviction of several hundred guests at the Guangzhou White Swan hotel from January 12 through Monday morning, rumors flew that he would be spending Friday in Shenzhen touring the city’s two major telecom firms, ZTE and Huawei, and possibly taking a breather at the swank Kylin hotel and villa complex where presumably he could indulge himself in his passion for foreign DVDs.

The assignment was simple. Find Kim. How hard could it be in a city of 11 million, after all? There aren’t too many dictators in bushy bouffant hairdos sporting spiffy green jump suits and 12 centimeter platform shoes in an effort to boost their estimated 165cm height to something approximating Great Leader stature.

Official confirmation was nil, of course. According to wire reports, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing said he had "no information to offer" on Kim’s whereabouts. Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency quoted an unnamed in source in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, as saying: "The leader, as far as I know, is at present in North Korea" and added that the mystery visitor might be Kim kin.

(*AP’s day job is financial reporting. Although a Kim hunt could have been marginally justified due to the ‘super notes‘ - the Dear Leader would be very unlikely to  answer any questions, much less be in a scrum. So, being out of the office chasing Kim wouldn’t be very productive. Stalking someone like EU trade commissioner Peter Mandleson or US Treasury secretary John Snow is acceptable, although it often proves to be about as much of a waste of time as the experience Justin describes.)

What’s cooler and more rare than the endangered giant panda?  Three florescent green pigs. The timing of this announcement leads AsiaPundit to believe that this must be a DPP plot:

Apparently, this has been done before by labs in other countries, but this is the first time that the fluorescence gene has expressed itself throughout the animals’ body.  It’s not really mad scientist stuff, because for genetics studies it’s very useful to have a fluorescence gene inserted into the organism.  When subsequent genes are added, it becomes easy to tell if the insertion worked because the animals stop glowing.  However, the two reports above state that the purpose is for stem cell and regenerative tissue studies.

Jason at Wandering to Tamshui shows the three little piggies in all their kryptonite glory and comments: "This has to be one of the greatest things to happen to Taiwanese nationalism since Lee Teng-hui got his teeth capped":