Yes, after seeing the clip above, the only thing I’m waiting for is an actual online video game in which a person can go to Google maps (or some version of them), pick out a car and drive it (virtually) in a city just like this great video from Honest Directors.
Such a video game might actually exist. But you know, I’m a bit old school. I might be out of the loop.
Ah, yes: Google maps. You can do much with them these days. I actually still have paper maps of China, if you can believe that.
In December, I wrote about Edith Macefield, the late Seattle resident, and her refusal to take $1 million from a developer for her house. That prompted crews to build around that structure.
Her actions later sparked online chatter in China – about a homeowner in Seattle who said no to developers – because a Chengdu area woman ended her life when she was forced to move so developers could begin work.
As you can see in the video and story from The New York Times, the issue remains hot, especially among ordinary people who are being pushed from their homes.
In China, a “nail house” is one in which the owner refuses to leave and make way for development. Fair compensation for the property is often a sticking point.
Certainly, I appreciate The New York Times for covering this issue, especially since its journalists were detained, and for letting people embed the video on websites.
UPDATE: The Times was letting people embed this video after I first saw it. But the company has since removed the code from its website. I should add that my site is free of advertisements.
On Monday, Hummer ended producing the boxy all-wheel drive vehicles. Photo source: super-cars-wallpaper.blogspot.com
The fascinating arc of the Hummer – the big, boxy all-wheel drive vehicles that came to symbolize the strength of the United States – ended Monday when the last model was driven from the assembly line.
NBC News reported the end of the production line for Hummer.
An offer from a Chinese company in Sichuan province to buy the brand and continue selling Hummers never cleared approval from Chinese regulators.
Fireworks and crowds in Beijing's Tiananmen Square mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in October 2009. There are some reports that the square is no longer China's largest. Photo source: Xinhua
Oh, boy.
On the day that my thoughts turned to Tiananmen Square, in the sense of the vast public space near the Forbidden City and which is so central to China, comes word (in English, too) of an eyebrow-raising news story. It certainly prompts questions as to whether some Chinese people are lost in the new awakening occurring there. Or possibly, is a new push for privacy and freedom emerging?
It involves a former college professor, who in Mandarin would be addressed as “jiao shou.” But as my wife reminded me, some in China have taken to chat rooms to describe this instructor as “jiao shou.”
The pronunciation is the same. The Chinese characters are different. When these other Chinese characters are used, people are calling the person a “shouting animal” – essentially, a wild animal.
I’ll stick to Tiananmen Square and one of the more intriguing possibilities that I thought would never happen – that other public squares are larger in square meters than the symbolic center, or heart, of the People’s Republic of China.
For years, this was the typical view that ordinary people saw of Zhongnanhai, the government compound in Beijing used by senior Chinese leaders. Google maps, especially the Earth view option, has changed that. Photo source: beijing2007.wordpress.com
The one earlier this year in which the Silicon Valley-based search and technology giant made global news with reports of hacked email accounts and possibly stolen code? The company – which questioned operating a filtered site in the rapidly-growing country – later decamped its mainland China search engine operations to Hong Kong.
Well, in an interesting twist, it looks like the California technology wizards have scored a point (or two) for transparency regarding Zhongnanhai, the compound near the Forbidden City that many in the senior Chinese leadership call home.
While some English signs in Shanghai might be poorly translated and humorous, the Chinese city boasts numerous skyscrapers and has become a financial capital. Photo source: www.simple-chinese.com
From the looks of it, The New York Times story about butchered or poorly-translated English phrases in China is making the rounds in a big way, judging from the fact that it’s one of the Gray Lady’s most emailed stories since being published on Sunday.
The article, which carries a Shanghai dateline, includes some egregious examples of words and phrases that are embarrassing, incorrect, offensive and need to be fixed. Some translations can make you chuckle – especially if you’re a native English speaker.
The world’s party is happening in Shanghai – at Expo 2010.
And China’s “The Crown of the East” is turning heads at Expo 2010, which runs through the end of October.
Officials estimate 70 million people will attend. In many ways, the entire Expo 2010 symbolizes much of China – big, beautiful, complex, meaningful, modern, traditional and head-scratching.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is greeted by a friendly crowd on a trip to Germany in 2007. Photo source: Xinhua
When Chinese President Hu Jintao landed in Washington, D.C. earlier this month to attend a nuclear summit, one group of flag-waving greeters apparently did not show up at the airport: Throngs of ethnic Chinese.
That fact might have been overlooked by some observors in the United States.
When I spotted The Seattle Times story about the Confucius Institute officially opening in Seattle to further Mandarin studies, I perked up. Knowing more languages always opens doors.
The Institute, as the Times reported, has ties to China’s Ministry of Education. But I also thought of a saying in Chinese: One eye open, one eye closed.
The way I interpret it, it means that you keep one eye closed in case, well, things that might be questionable pop up but you still want a long-term relationship. Yes, you look the other way.
You keep one eye open whenever the news, information or financial offer will benefit you.
I have long argued that better relations between the United States and China are needed, that large-scale tensions between the two countries will have an adverse effect and innocent people in both countries will be caught in the middle.
rss feed
