Well, a particular video game in Japan could be Good for you… if you’re a woman.. if you have the right peripheral… and if you consider "hysterical paroxysm" to be therapeutic. Via Japundit, Game Girl Advance discovers innovative uses for the trance vibrator.:

Even without the trance vibrator, the game puts you into a trance state - it’s a raver’s game, a game of pure sensation. The goals are simply to progress to the next level - not so complicated. But getting there is a sublime visual and aural experience. There’s also an invincible "travelling" mode, if you want to just sit back and move through the levels without worrying about your avatar’s taking damage.
But god damn, the trance vibrator started thumping like crazy in time with the music.
Well, what would you have done? I moved the vibrator into my lap.
"Oh my GOD! This game rocks! Here, you play." I handed him the controller but you’d better believe I kept that vibrator right there in my lap….

If censorship wasn’t enough, this should help encourage at least 51% of us to support the xbox boycott.

The North Koreans have agreed to return to talks, OneFreeKorea isn’t too optimistic: "North Korea will have to compromise substantially on transparency, something I doubt they’re prepared to do.". Also at 1FK, a reader’s letter indicates that the dictatorship’s film-making propaganda department may soon start to employ focus groups.:

A North Korean propaganda film about the repatriation of a spy Lee In-Mo who had languished for years in a South Korean prison may have a short shelf life, according to defectors now living in the South.
"What we could not believe in the movie was that Lee and others were conducting hunger strikes in the prison," said one defector about the movie.
"Refusing to eat was a form of resistance in the South? Boy, South Korea must be a paradise. That’s what we said among ourselves"

Deng Xiaoping will not be on the 500 yuan note - unfortunately that means, should such a bill come into existence, it will also have Mao’s murderous mug. Also from Danwei, news that China continues to use formaldehyde in beer.

Tokyo and Beijing have agreed to co-operate against the Triad and Yakuza.

After a successful soft launch, the Shanghaiist goes live tomorrow. Given that the venture is headed by Dan Washburn, and features esteemed contributors such as Running Dog and myself, expect nothing less than excellence.

Big media… well Canada’s CTV .. have started to notice Western corporate complicity in China’s internet censorship (though it’s sad that a Canadian broadcaster didn’t bother to mention Nortel (or Alcatel).:

Now, U.S. companies are providing equipment and software that
enables service providers to enter thousands of banned keywords and web
addresses for automatic blocking.
Cisco Systems Inc., which is based in San Jose, Calif., sold the
communist country routers that have the ability to block not only the
main addresses for web sites, but also specific sub-pages, while
leaving the rest of the site accessible.

Japundit continues to debunk myths about the ‘tiny archipelago ‘ although the ‘panty-pulling craze’ is a less attractive myth than two earlier debunked hoaxes.:

Two of the most famous Japan craze hoaxes are the see-through skirt hoax (neither the see-through version nor the printed-on version of this hoax is true) and the scanty bathing suit hoax.

In Malaysia, TV Smith reprints a letter to the editor that really should have been published.:

On April 29 this year, reader Donald Tan copied me a letter he sent to a major newspaper. In it, he stated his worries about a precariously perched flyover. It was being built over a busy expressway he uses daily. He also enclosed a picture (above). The letter was never published by the newspaper nor the subject investigated for reasons unknown…
This afternoon, prophetically enough, the structure collapsed onto the road below, smashed a passing car and injured several workers.

The bishops of the Philippines no longer live under the shadow of Sin (Cardinal Jaime Sin that is) and have decided to remain out of politics. A separation of Church and State in the Philippines would be amazing. Now all that’s needed is a removal of the influence of ex-presidents (While I like Ramos, I  would also extend Torn&Frayed’s list to include the late Marcos).

Who says Singapore is conservative… Cowboy Caleb brings us a look at the phallic souvenirs of the Lion City.

Of course just because Singapore isn’t conservative doesn’t mean it’s entirely liberal.:

Media freedom in Singapore is constrained to such a degree that the vast majority of journalists practice self-censorship rather than risk being charged with defamation or breaking the country’s criminal laws on permissible speech.

Wannabe Lawyer points out why I couldn’t find any decent pinball games in Singapore.

Yet more proof that the mouthless one from Sanrio is a corrupting influence.

Late-linkage after a blogging-free Friday.:

A new group blog for the Indian blogosphere DesiPundit

US conservatives attack Hollywood, but they should love Bollywood:

1. No sex. If you’re lucky, you might see some wet sari.

2. The films often revolve around finding a wonderful spouse and getting married.

3. The bigger the wedding, the better.

4. Lots of piety. Religion is *never* mocked or portrayed in a negative light.

From IslaFormosa, a look at Taipei’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics and Taiwan’s former president goes manga.

Even former ROC President Lee DengHui got on the bandwagon by posing as as the fictional character Edajima Heihachi of the anime series Sakigake!! Otokojuku. It’s no secret that Lee is a pocket ‘Japanophile’. He was educated in Japan and can speak Japanese quite fluently (he was given a scholarship to Kyoto Imperial University). His cosplay was widely seen as a way to shore up support from young people for his Taiwan Solidarity Union party’s Taiwan independence platform.

The first issue of the Cambodia Economic Review is online.

I mentioned that Bill Gertz’s Washington Times item on China’s rising military threat would be a good template for a Phillip K Dick-style novel, a libertarian site in the US has developed an initial treatment:

China has emerged as the world’s largest and fastest-growing economy.
After retaking Taiwan in 2007, and annexing North Korea a year later,
China then successfully "Finlandized" Japan, and now oversees a vast
Pacific empire that would have made the 1942 Japanese government green
with envy. China’s thirst for the Middle East’s oil leads it to support
radical Islamic clerics, but this support goes unpunished, as no major
country stands a chance if it goes against China’s wishes.
The
xhiang, introduced in 2009, is now the world’s premier currency,
followed by the euro, the Canadian dollar, and the U.S. dollar.

The top news story from Thursday? According to Xinhua and CCTV it was that Hu Jintao met world leaders. Tom Vanvanij, meanwhile, looks at Thailand’s Nation Channel.

Kevin in Pudong translates offensive reaction on Chinese bulletin boards about the London bombings:

Terrorism is the only way for the weak to fight back against the strong. No matter what reaons they may have, the US-British attack on the people of  Iraq was wrong and constitutes blatant terrorism. All the weak can do in response is to bring you down with them.

"Terrorism is the only way for the weak to fight the powerful"… it’s not surprising that so many Chinese netizens think this way. Perhaps its because they can’t access messages from birthday boy Dali Lama.

On the bombings, there was the typical reaction from the left to blame Blair and blame Bush. Reaction to the bombings from some in the anti-CCP camp was equally distressing.:

America, the United Kingdom, and the rest of the free world will never be secure until China itself is free. The road to victory in the War on Terror does not end in Kabul, Baghdad, Tehran, or Damascus, and it certainly doesn’t end in Jerusalem. The road ends, and lasting victory can be found, only in Beijing. Until China is on the list for liberation, preferably peaceful, the War on Terror will never end.

Rebecca McKinnion has a roundup of Arab reaction and displays a banner Muslim bloggers can use to show their disgust at the bombings.

Has Howard found his cajones? Australia has granted Chinese defector Chen Yonglin a visa.

Sure, sushi and sashimi can give you worms, but you should be safe if you use (sake wouldn’t hurt either).

More musings on Sinofascism.

Free condom distribution is helping the people of Uttar Pradesh, though not necessarily with birth control or AIDS prevention.:

Some workmen mix them with tar and concrete to give a smooth finish to roads, or to make waterproof ceilings, and some villagers use them to carry water when working in the fields. And, of course, youths turn them into water bombs. But the main use here is in the sari industry, where they’ve become an essential part of the production process

In Japan, it’s time to scare the neighbors - though anti-Japan sentiments from Chinese and Korean political leaders no doubt helped gain support for the constitutional amendment. An East Asian war is still unlikely. But Japan faces other security threats.

In our continuing series of links useful for tourists in Pyongyang, here’s a useful site on the city’s subway system.

The author of a slanderous tome on former Malaysian deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim has gotten one year in jail. The book’s financiers have not been established or punished.

Kenny Sia treats himself to a two ringgit luxury public toilet experience.

Imee Marcos, the glamor-shot savvy daughter (see left) of Ferdinand and Imelda, says Filipinos should not tolerate liars and thieves (chortle). More on the  situation in the Philippines at  MLQIII, PCIL, By Jove and Sassy. Also Gateway Pundit has a selection of links.

Inflation in North Korea, yes the NK won has continued to become more worthless.

GI Korea and explore the even-handedness of Seoul’s press.

 

From Kevin in Pudong, translation of an item from a Chinese academic who argues that it is racist NOT to criticize China:

   According to a Xinhua report from Washington, “data from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that there are over 2 million people serving prison and jail sentences in the United States. According to documents prepared by the British gov—ment, this exceeded the amount of prisoners in all other countries, including Russia, ranking first in the world.”
   By the time I got to this part of the report, I started feeling a little suspicious: what does “all other countries, including Russia” mean? What about China, who accounts for half of the executions in the world one year after another? We Chinese citizens aren’t even qualified to be included amongst “other countries”? Wouldn’t you say this is a form of discrimination?

Who says blogs can’t be revenue generating? Via the Mainichi Daily:

Inviting her classmate Mai along for the ride, so to speak, Masami posted a notice on a blog and immediately got 30 responses, despite her fairly steep charge of 50,000 yen a head.
Jitsuwa Knuckles supplies photos of Masami accompanied by young Jun Hashimoto, 20, an underclassman at the same school who got the nod when he admitted to the campfire girls that he was still completely uninitiated in the ways sex.
"Really? How sweet," she crooned, eager to deprive him of his virginity.
Two other guys, Naoki and Masaru, joined in for the fun and games. The group left the train station set off the sticks like five perfectly innocent hikers. When they arrived at the camp site, darkness was fast approaching. While one of the guys pitched the tents and laid out the sleeping accommodations, another got the briquettes going on the barbie.

Interesting…

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. The husband’s lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.

The recently noted exodus of prostitutes from South Korea, following the domestic crackdown on the sex industry, is not without a dark side. Reports from CSR Asia and the Asian Sex Gazette remind us that prostitutes (even ones who voluntarily enter the trade) are easily exploited.

In February, it emerged that an organization sold 38 women to brothels in Australia, New Zealand and Canada in conditions of virtual bonded labor. Police say the organization would advance the women millions of won they had to pay back at 60 percent interest and forced them to pay medical expenses for diseases contracted on the job. The women had to sign up to a "code of conduct" that fined them US$300 for arguing with customers and US$50 for showing up a minute late to work.

A new indigenous television network is going live in Taiwan:

Aboriginal groups have often felt marginalised by mainstream society. But they hope the new 24-hour television channel - iTV or the Indigenous Television Network - will be a chance for others to hear their voice, both at home and overseas.
The station will collaborate with other indigenous television networks around the world, including those in the US and Canada.
The channel shows a mix of news, entertainment, and
documentaries, giving the island’s aboriginals their own access to the
mainstream media for the first time."There’s a diversity of cultures in Taiwan," said Walis
Peilin, who heads the Cabinet-level Council of Indigenous Peoples, and
is a member of the Tayal tribe.
"The indigenous people of Taiwan should also have the
right to access the power of the media and pass on our unique culture
and languages."
"But we hope all different groups in Taiwan can support this station, and respect different ideas and each other," he said.

(more…)

China has started court action against a dissident who, among other things, posted lyrics to a punk rock song on the internet. From Taiwan, POTS interviews the writer of those lyrics, Ao Bo, who - along with another member of the band Punk God - is now in exile in Sweden.

FOLLOWING A press release by the organization Human Rights in China
(HRIC) on Jun. 15, it was widely reported that Chinese dissident Zhang
Lin (張林) was being put on trial for subverting state power in China’s
Anhui Province, with evidence against him including lyrics from a punk
rock song he’d quoted on an essay published on the Internet.
Earlier
this week, Ao Bo (敖博), the writer of those lyrics and lead singer of
the band Punk God (盤古), contacted POTS, praising Zhang Lin as “a hero”
and commenting on the cited essay and his relationship with Zhang Lin.
The
essay in question, “Pangu – The Hysterical Ravings of the Chinese
People,” was singled out of the 192 Internet writings described in the
indictment handed down by the Bengbu municipal procuratorate on May 23
of this year, according to HRIC. The lyrics quoted were, “The Yellow
River should run dry, this society should collapse, this system should
be destroyed, this race should become extinct, this country should
perish.”

Wannabe Lawyer sees some hope in Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s latest comments:

“The best way is to shrink the Government and have the Government do less,” Mr Lee quipped, during the 15-minute question-and-answer session with 450 delegates from American and Pacific Rim universities, at the closing dinner of a roundtable meet held here.

Never would I have thought that I would hear those words uttered in Singapore during my lifetime, much less by the Prime Minister of Singapore.

Headlines you don’t often see "China Threatens Iceland." (via Iceland News blog).

The infamous revisionist Japanese history textbook is now online in Chinese and Korean.

China’s state security officials are always thinking two steps ahead.

More evidence of closer ties between the Holy See and the CPP?

It’s not just the nationalist protests that are causing Japanese companies to have second thoughts on China - nor is it just mounting evidence of a downturn - staffing issues and weak rule of law are also problems.

With all of the heavy (and deserved) CPP bashing on this site, for balance it’s fair to have a link to an ESWN translation of an item critical of Taiwan’s administration.

China’s biggest hacker group has announced in advance that they will be mounting an assault on sites in Japan. Giving advanced warning to the enemy? I recommend they brush up on Sun Tzu.

Deutsche Bank is the latest foreign bank in South Korea to be be accused of irregularities in its dealings with state-run companies.

Jodi looks at Korean Air’s new advertising campaign - suggestion, find different music.

Amit Varma has distressing news on Gujarat.

Fabian at Macam Macam has comments on the UN’s 2005 Global Drug Report. I’m familiar with last years - the comparative pricing tables should be a good resource for anyone interested in arbitrage opportunities.

Arms Control Wonk looks at probable expanded US controls on exports to China.

At Global Voices, reactions from Chinese bloggers on the website registration deadline.

Not a good sign, 31% of Malaysian students say they would accept bribes.

Finally, Happy Independence Day. remember, the British Crown at one point didn’t care for ’splittists’ either.

 

Angry Chinese Blogger offers some analysis on China’s recent seizure of textbooks destined for a Japanese international school in Beijing suggesting, among other things, that the issue may not have been Taiwan/ More disturbing are the suggestions that international schools are being pressured to teach Communist Party propaganda.:

Though international schools in China often purport themselves to be independent of the curriculum restrictions placed on state and private schools for native Chinese, this latest incident has served to highlight some of the fears held by ex-patriot raising children in China, and to raised a number of awkward questions about the integrity of the education given by international schools in the country.
While most international schools around the world exist to provide native language education, and to allow children to continue their education using a curriculum that is similar to that in their native countries, many ex patriot families living in China, particularly those from Japan and western countries, also opt to send their children to international schools to ensure that they are taught to an internationally recognized standard for accuracy using material that is not subject to the ‘blank spaces’ and ‘manipulated’ versions of events that are found in ordinary Chinese schools.

One small quibble… expatriate not ex-patriot. I’ve been outside of Canada for close to a decade. While I am an expat, I remain a patriot.

Richard Willmsen has another great essay touching on education in China, although relating to domestic schools. Expats would not want their children taught in this fashion:

..when I told my students about the Guardian’s special week of articles on China, despite the fact that they had never heard of the Guardian before, and although the Guardian site is not in any way blocked in China, none of them was prepared to take a look. Of course they claimed that they would find the language too daunting, but I think that this was a pretty poor excuse for an excuse. I think that one reason is that they are genuinely apprehensive of the possible consequences of being seen to visit a non-Chinese website. But I think the main reason is that they feel they might encounter information which contradicts what the Party has told them about China; and if they do, they will have to take the time and effort to systematically disregard each and every word of it.

Aussiegirl points to an argument by Thomas Lifson that Engllish is no longer required for entry.:

. . . But the Anglosphere is also a political and (increasingly) a military alliance, aimed at guaranteeing the political, moral, economic and cultural freedoms necessary for Anglospherical societies to function.
Who are the members of the Anglosphere? At its heart are The United States (its leading force) and the United Kingdom (whose culture and imperium gave it birth and made it a world force). Other members include Australia, Japan, India, Israel, Taiwan, and (less closely attached, militarily) Singapore, and even more distantly Hong Kong and Canada, which are controlled by regimes somewhat hostile to the dominance of the Anglosphere. Other nations participate in the Anglosphere in some realms, but not others, as they choose. The Netherlands, South Africa, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and Malaysia are examples of countries which join in some ways, yet stay outside in others.

BusinessPundit links to a Harvard Business School item that offers a wide (though not unfamiliar) discussion on the differences between US and Asian corporate leadership.:

To a significant degree, large American firms are at
a later stage of development than many Asian firms—they have passed
from founders’ family leadership to professional management and to
capital obtained from the capital markets (rather than obtained from
government—directly or indirectly—or from family fortunes). In this
transition they have adopted particular styles of leadership responsive
to boards (often led by outside directors) and to Wall Street.
It is possible, but not certain, that Asian firms will follow this
evolutionary path. The political connections so important for top
business leaders in Asia, whether in democracies or one-party states,
are not unknown but are much less important in America. It is a
characteristic of Asian top executives that they have such connections
that are important to their businesses. In America, the chief executive
officers of very large firms often have virtually no direct connections
to top politicians—the government is treated at arm’s length and
business is done by business people.

It’s an interesting read, but nothing that would be a surprise for anyone who has spent significant time in Asia. I would be more interested in turning the issue on its head: how important are ‘connections’ for expatriate executives who work within Asia. In China, it would seem to be high - almost every foreign-business press conference or event has a government component. In Singapore, conversely, the PAP only seems to come out for major infrastructure projects or pet projects (i.e., biochem developments). Expat managers have far less need to build government contacts.

Also, it would be interesting to note how much management styles and business practices differ within countries.

Here is a fascinating story from The Boston Globe–a kind of story that I don’t see much of in contemporary newspapers. It tells of one Ma Zumei and the revival of the artform of which she is a master–storytelling:

Zumei, a traditional Chinese storyteller, performs in the pingshu style
common in China’s northern provinces, where the storyteller’s stylized,
high-pitched voice, accompanied by folk instruments, alternates between
passages of prose and rhymed metrical verse. As Zumei whispers her
first words, accompanied by a young man playing a three-stringed
instrument called the san xian, giggles burst from the younger people
and foreigners in the audience. Her shrill voice, cascading tones, and
exaggerated gestures are a far cry from the saccharine smoothness of
modern popular music. But before long, the audience is laughing and
applauding enthusiastically.

As the correspondent suggests, storytelling was a traditional and popular artform in China, and in other parts of the world–a world before the days of the internet, Hollywood, television, radio, etc.  It also served as a means of socio-political critique, among other things:

(more…)

I pleased that
Tze Ming Mok has joined Asiapundt as a junior author. While China’s war on blogs has beem covered extensively elsewhere, the best and funniest summary so far is this post at Yellow Peril.:

In solidarity with censored Chinese bloggers, this special post will replace the offensive and banned English words for 贪污地共产党, 民主, 西藏, 妓女, 法轮工, and 自由, with ‘the Chinese Coprophagist Party’s colonic-irrigation’, ‘demography’, ‘Titfest’, ‘wholesome’, ‘Feel-my Dong’ and ‘fucktown’.

Did Xinhua just plagiarize Asia’s most popular blogger XiaXue? Not really, but close enough.

Danwei reports that China’s state news news agency has just run an item on how to measure a penis. XiaXue already posted her method for that ages ago.

I’m surprised the lads at Danwei missed the connection - they’re usually quite on-the-ball about plagiarism in China’s press.

The other day, Ian at Harvard Extended was considering a thesis comparing how Chinese nationalism is displayed in its Chinese domestic state news service as opposed to its English-language service. He mused:

The copy that Xinhua produces for Chinese newspapers and broadcast
media has a propoganda mission. The Xinhua foreign language services
try to let foreigners understand China, promote China’s progress and
the struggles it faces, and, when it comes to foreign news, to uphold
China’s national independence, territorial integrity, and sovereignty.
Therefore, the mix of stories that are aimed at these two audiences
should be different. The gatekeepers for the English service — the
editors, translators, and reporters — may dump a lot of the
nationalism-themed stories, because they think it will not appeal to
the audience they are targeting.

For an example of this at play, Kevin in Pudong has translated coverage of the Pew popularity poll by China’s state press:

Recently in France, the media has been reporting a number of stories about things like “Chinese counterfeit money” and “Chinese textile dumping,” which had an effect on the population’s assessment of China. However, from a historical perspective, any French person with the slightest understanding of China will know that China is an ancient country with deep historical and cultural traditions….
One Danish college student said: “Chinese food is good, Chinese people are good. America is a big country, and everything is big there. But China is big too. And China is much more culturally-developed than America. So I like China.”
Regarding America’s poor image in the world, a number of media pointed out that following the Iraq War, America has strived to improve its image in the eyes of the people of the world, but the image of America as a hegemonic power has already been firmly planted in people’s minds.

(more…)

Torn & Frayed in Manila has come across a site of interesting links from the Philippines - included in which is a link to the site of the Philippine’s only bagpiper-for-hire.

My name is Roy Macgregor-Esposo Espiritu, the Philippines’ first and only Filipino bagpiper to date. I am a Filipino of Scottish descent from the Macgregors of Nairn, Scotland. Growing up in a family that is well in touch with its Scottish roots, I grew up listening to the music of Scotland and the Great Highland Bagpipes.

This boggles the mind - not that there’s a piper in the Philippines, but because Pinoy Piper has a monopoly and the product is not crap. That is a true rarity. Sample MP3s are here.

Here is an interesting analysis of the Time issue on China. What does the picture say to you?

It was a busy week, here are some items of interest that Asiapundit missed from yesterday and last week:

Daniel Drezner asks whether the liberal paradigm - that markets bring democracy - is failing in China.

At Diacritic, a look at how Vietnamese language press - both domestic and overseas - covered Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s US visit.

Brad Setser has a good analysis on CNOOC’s bid for UNOCAL (one key point: "China’s oil firms have cash and customers but not enough oil: their current interest in stretching their wings abroad makes a certain amount of commercial sense.")

The Ordinary Gweillo points to an Economist item that explains last week’s shoe incident.

Ian Lamont also weighs in on Microsoft’s banning of democracy and other words on sections of its China blog portal - also keep checking Ian’s other blog a site on his developing thesis based on content analysis of China’s state-run news agency Xinhua.

Via China Digital Times a the Guardian spins a tale of two massacres. Plus a long piece from the Online Journalism Review on blogging in China.

Spirited discussion on China’s ‘new left’ continues at Simon World.

A roundup of yesterday’s news at China-e-lobby.

ESWN ponders the reliability of reports on bird-flu deaths in China.

Disappointment. After only recently discovering one of the best essayist blogs in China, Richard Willmsen announces he’s leaving China.

Taipei is taking the ‘love hotel’ and moving it upmarket.

China’s Nurse Ratchet may sometimes be acting in the people’s interest. CSR Asia notes authorities are shutting how-to suicide sites. Also, a good number of questions raised on China’s suicide statistics.

The FEER’s Traveller’s Tales blog informs us that the June issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review has been banned in Beijing "because of the content on pages 44 and 55-59." My copy arrived Thursday, page 44 is an item on poaching with a similar thesis to this one. Pages 55-59 contain content similar to what got the Economist banned a earlier this month. Btw Hugo, when do I get my password for archive access?

China may be viewed in a better light than the US globally, but lets forget about ‘Old Europe’s’ opinions and be thankful that the US is held in high regard in Asia’s other rising economy. (via the Acorn)

The Swanker starts on Rebecca’s request with a post on the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Malaysia’s LoneStar and Lucia Lai also oblige. As does Alan in Canada. And Roger L Simon.

Nicholas in Canada alerts us to addictive Malaysian curries.

Sepia Mutiny brings news that Australia’s Handi Ghandi has bowed to pressure and changed its logo: "their solution is to make Gandhi a Punjabi rapper. Apparently they felt that was the polar opposite of a nonviolent vegetarian."

Maobi points to a report saying that Malaysia is terror free (translation, not on-guard).

New Mongols alerts us to a new Central Asia blog. Also at New Mongols, a look at Taiwan’s changing view of Mongolia.

Lost Nomad helps us realize that South Korea’s riot police look a lot less threatening out of uniform.

Via NK Zone, in spite of a looming return of famine, Pyongyang’s range of restaurants is growing.

Kenny Sia’s new quiz: Which Malaysian blogger are you?

Cowboy Caleb alerts us to a Singapore Press Holdings reporter who is having an ethical dilemma about blogging and privacy. My view, anything that isn’t password protected is public.

Singapore’s mr brown brings us news that Mr Miyagi has joined him as a Today newspaper columnist.

The Singapore government may try to stop the use of Singlish in the city state’s media, but the People’s Action party has no power over DC Comics.

Over at XiaXue, Wendy has decided to post the private e-mail addresses from her critics. She knows, of course, that they will now be bombed by hate mail from her readers, making her appeal for sympathy seem more like a quest for revenge. Very bad form Wendy.

Tom Vamvanij has noted some creative translating by Thailand’s (usually respectable) Nation Media Group.

Reacting to China’s latest blocking of blogs, Instapundit says boycott Chinese goods. CSR Asia responds.

Naming a child something like this almost makes me want to call welfare services.

Finally, despite having too much on my plate already, I have accepted Dan’s invitation to become a contributor to the Shanghaiist. While he has literally offered to pay me in peanuts, even in ‘beta’ form the site is attractive enough to make me want to join. Still, Dan may want to consider James Goldsmith’s proverb.

For years I’m made it a habit to stop by the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) site. Sometimes I visit because of news events, usually it’s just to get some amusement at how bad North Korean propaganda is. For instance, from yesterday, we have this gem of a report.:

Pyongyang, June 23 (KCNA) — Leading artistes of the State Academic
Moiseyev Dance Company of Russia on a visit to the DPRK were deeply
impressed to tour various revolutionary battle sites and revolutionary
sites in the area of Mt. Paektu, holy place of the revolution. Director
Elena Scherbakova, head of the dance company, said …
   
Standing on the peak of Mt. Paektu, I was convinced that Kim Jong Il’s
grit and pluck are just the same as the majestic appearance of Mt.
Paektu. The solemn and splendid appearance of Mt. Paektu is reminiscent
of his spirit.

Now Dean Ismay informs me that Kim Jong Il, upset at his portrayal as a ‘ronery’ maniac in Team America, commissioned a South Korean company to come up with a response. The result is a must-see music video, available from Dean’s World.

Watch the video. It is the absolute funniest thing I’ve seen in weeks - and it’s surprisingly catchy too. If this was DPRK-commissioned, I fear that the North’s propaganda machine has taken an astounding leap forward.

Kim Jong-il has actually given me an earworm. F**kin’ USA!

(UPDATE: 19:46: Bill at INDC Journal notes in Dean’s comment section that the video pre-dates Team America. In that case, I suggest the Dear Leader sue Parker and Stone for appropriating his idea. I still have the earworm though.)

SinoEye is a new find, today the author argues that, environmental concerns aside, killing whales or sharks is no worse than killing most of the animals used in Western dishes.:

Killing is an ugly thing. Animals kill and eat each other. Humans unnecessarily kill and eat animals, this happens all over the world. More attention should be paid as to how these foods are processed, and enforcing control to prevent extinction of any species. Chinese and Japanese people have seen the documentaries too - more and more they are becoming aware of the issue. Just like how western people see their McLibel documentaries, some many decide not to eat this stuff anymore, or at least make more informed choices…..
Whaling and shark-finning may be an environmental and animal rights issue, but it should not be used to vilify Asian culture.

I’m a pescetarian (see Dan for the definition of that) so I sympathize with vegetarian arguments. Still, I I have tried weird food in Asia that is non-pescetarian and non-vegetarian simply because I wanted a different experience. Thankfully in Shanghai I can eat really weird stuff without having to touch mammalian meat.:

 

Tomorrow, for instance we will eat these "vegetarian hedgehog hydnum balls." There’s decent Chinese vegetarian food in Shanghai - which is an improvement over both Singapore and Hong Kong. Plus, where else can you find vegetarian hedgehog hydnum balls? I have never seen real  hedgehog hydnum balls offered at a restaurant. If I did I would likely try them just for the sake of experimentation. But now, I’ll be able to resist that temptation because I’ve had mock hedgehog hydnum balls.

It’s amazing what can be done with soy protein. And it’s healthy wonderful stuff too.

Wait… what’s that Japundit?

A fertility expert in London is claiming that consuming too much soya can interfere with human conception.
Has anyone bothered telling China about this?

Crap! Sorry Lisa, no mock hedgehog balls for you.