China’s state-run broadcaster, CCTV is now producing a documentary on the Coming Collapse of America.:

A China Central Television (CCTV) unit is developing an epic, fall-of-Rome-flavored documentary TV series around the theme of America in decline.
Unlike the crude state-sponsored videos that glorified the September 11 terrorist attacks as a humiliating strike against an arrogant superpower, the planned multipart production promises to be a slick dissection of American economic and military might.
Production notes for the CCTV series, which is tentatively scheduled to air in 2007, are said to provide a revealing glimpse of how certain government officials see the US–namely, as a dying hegemon. The Chinese view is that a number of factors, including “structural” economic problems and imperial overstretch, are combining to end US global supremacy.
In an effort to support and promote this point of view, the CCTV documentary plans to cover all the bases, to use an old American expression borrowed from baseball.
For example, the producers plan to devote at least one episode to the US immigration crisis and attempt to draw historical parallels between a commonly perceived cause of the fall of ancient Rome–unchecked immigration and invasions–and the flood of illegal immigrants pouring into the United States from Mexico and Latin America.
In an ironic twist, the segments on the US economy will supposedly highlight the gloom-and-doom opinions of some smart, successful citizens–fund managers, investment bankers, and analysts–who argue that the country has entered a long period of decline, an economic twilight of sorts, from which no escape is realistically possible. The talking heads of finance are expected to make the case for aggressively investing in emerging markets, especially the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) that are destined to dominate the global economy by 2050, according to an increasingly fashionable Wall Street concept.

It’s unfortunate that this production will not likely air on the English-language CCTV station. It could have been interesting.
AsiaPundit doesn’t see a major decline of the US in the near future. But he is concerned about the States’ debt position and asset bubbles. A major correction would not be a surprise
That said, AP also enjoys talk of China’s Coming Collapse.

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

As the world’s largest producer of plastic and vinyl trinkets, it should be no surprise that China has become the world’s top source for sex toys. What is more surprising — and welcome in a country known for weak domestic consumption — is that the products are increasingly being bought domestically. Simon cites the SCMP.:

The Chinese are much more adventurous than Europeans and Americans when it comes to sex toys, said Wu Hui , chairman of Wenzhou Adam and Eve Health Products. “It’s strange. Among the countries we export to - developed countries in Europe and the Americas - they like simplicity. In China, they want more functions.”…

At one of the company’s shops in Wenzhou , a middle-aged woman clerk proudly shows products to a customer. “Before I worked here, I had never seen these things before,” she said. Despite a lack of customers on a recent morning, she claimed that all the types of products on display had found buyers. “Someone has bought everything, even these,” she said, gesturing to a pile of leather garments adorned with metal.
Holding up an item labelled the Erotic Butterfly, she said: “This is suitable for young ladies.” She then moved on to demonstrate several other products. Customers who make it through the door are not usually embarrassed. One day last winter, a man bought an inflatable doll and declared he needed it to keep warm.

Meanwhile, Frances visits China’s largest sex-product market in Guangzhou and discovers the trade is watched over by Deng Xiaoping:

South-East Asia’s biggest sex market that is, though I always expected Thailand, or Korea or Japan who have the first three places when it comes to matters of size, located off 战前路 Zhanqian Lu, near the main station, and like all main stations in all cities I’ve been, the part of town I have a mental border around labeled ‘dodgy’, though that is not the word that springs to mind to describe a meter high fat, erect schlong radiating a smutty deep orange glow.

Really I didn’t know whether to choose the walls of full-leather masks, ball-gags, restraints, harnesses and designer ropes, or the shelves of 20cm high manga-porno models, or the endless fields of dildos, vibrators, plugs, jelly-vibrating-crustations, things to insert into other things… So I settled on Orgaster! super vibration!, something about skinship scandal g-spot pornography? Is this turning into one of those sex-spam blogs? The other option was a poster of 鄧小平 Deng Xiaoping.

While he may not care to be associated with the market, as the trade wouldn’t have existed without his economic reforms, AsiaPundit considers the Deng poster appropriate.

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

Whether it’s satire or not, Juche Girl is disturbing:

I love leader Kim Jong Il very very much. All world people love Leader Kim Jong Il too. All the places Leader Kim Jong Il go, people give flower to Leader Kim Jong Il.

(Via the Flea)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, northeast asia, korea, north korea

Via the indispensable , AsiaPundit is pleased to present a look at American Otaku in Japan.:

Essentially, Otaku is Japanese for ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’, specifically someone deeply versed/obsessed in the worlds of Anime (Japanese Animation) or Manga (Japanese Comic Books). Mostly, Otaku are seen as being so obsessed with their made-up worlds that they can’t live in the real one. Kind of like people I know stuck in World of Warcraft. The term even spawned an awesome TV show that I’ll blog about some point in the future called Densha Otoko.
In a strange twist of events, the term has caught on here in the States as a label of pride for geeks of all types, specifically those into Japanese culture.
So why the hell should you care about all of this?
Well, check out this Google Video ‘Otaku From USA’. It’s a Japanese TV program that chronicled a group of American ‘Otaku’ on a group tour of a Anime Festival in Japan.
It’s basically a nature video about nerds. Totally awesome.

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

For a truly impossible mission, try getting a big-budget Hollywood movie simultaneously released in China.:

M:I:3, the last best hope for Tom Crusie to regains some public credibility, thought it was doing all the right things. It shot in China for over a month, it’s an official co-production, the script was submitted for - and received - approval, and China Films receives a credit. But despite the fact that THE DA VINCI CODE is getting a day and date release in China, M:I:3 is being pushed back to July. A black-out for foreign releases from June 10 - July 11 has been put into place, and M:I:3 had already been pushed from May to June to make way for DA VINCI.
There are no big Chinese productions to be protected during this period, and the producers of M:I:3 are gutted since this 10 week pushback means that piracy will eat up almost all their potential profits in China. Some sources are saying that the depiction of a crime at the start of the movie that the Public Security Bureau doesn’t know about casts Chinese law enforcement in a bad light, but we all know the real reason for the delay: China just likes to mess around and freak everybody out. No one tells China what to do!

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, mi3, northeast asia