Shameless, Priceless

That China Central Television would apparently use footage from the movie Top Gun to prop up a puff piece on China's air force hardly surprises me. It reminds me of the indoctrination disguised as a welcome party that I had to sit through when I first taught English at Liaoning University in Shenyang. A panel of city and provincial officials, plus an officer from the Public Security Bureau, spoke at length about the importance of "teaching from facts" and shunning "pseudo-science". The highlight, however, was the promotional video (set to the music of one of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns) intended to trumpet the glorious past, present, and future of Liaoning Province but which, for reasons not explained, included footage of a Space Shuttle launch.

I do not imagine that the CCTV producers, or whoever else was involved, thought they were truly getting away with anything, nor do I imagine it was an inside potshot or clever attempt at subversion (the penalties are too great), but I do think the incident reflects China's general disregard for intellectual property rights, to say nothing of a lack of creativity or even awareness of how ridiculous China looks on the world stage in the wake of such events. The chicken-or-egg question is whether China's lack of IP protections has such a chilling effect on homegrown talent, or whether there are deeper cultural and educational issues to be explored if the country is to become an "innovation" economy.

At least the Taiwanese media has shown there is a better way to produce compelling television news.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (But Will Be Tweeted)

I will admit to not following the recent events in Tunisia all that closely.  Frankly, I could not understand what was going on, who the principal actors were, or their motivations. Perhaps that is because the country's revolutionary spirit was so decentralized before being channeled suddenly through online social media in response to a single, and possibly apocryphal, catalyst. 

The Tunisian Revolution will no doubt be scrutinized by the Chinese Communist Party, and is likely all the assurance the Party needs to believe the continued blocking of Facebook, Twitter, and other high-profile and user-friendly social networking websites is a sound course of action. China is certainly not without its share of potential rallying cries, which have found currency despite all official attempts to squelch them.

I have just arrived in Beijing, so this is a fitting post given that Blogger.com is also blocked here. The only way I can update this blog is by email.

Third Time is the Charm

I am off for my third stint in China---in just a matter of hours from now. My first was as an English teacher at a university in Shenyang; the second was with the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, and the third is with a corporate advisory services firm specializing in investor relations communications (and also in Beijing). I will try to keep this blog going but expect future posts to be fewer and farther between.

Trash Talking

Doom-and-gloom predictions concerning the U.S. economy and the uncertain future of the United States as a hegemonic power abound--and the Chinese media are always quick to spotlight them.

In the wake of the Tucson shooting, however, I have not yet come across any Chinese editorials taking the sort of propagandistic cheap-shots that marked coverage of, for example, the Columbine tragedy (the U.S. equivalent is noisome enough). So far, coverage seems limited to basic reportage culled from wire services. If there has been a change in the party line regarding issues of gun violence, it may be because such events are no longer unheard of in China.