我們的祖國... 唉 Part VI

Sometimes stories about China make you laugh, sometimes they make you cringe. With this story, I'm not sure if I should cry or get mad.

Click here for an update on the ShanXi slavery incident.

Brick factories kidnapping kids into forced labor is the latest embarrassment in the Mainland. It is very sad to hear about the individual stories of fathers looking for their children who were abused and starved in these horrific working conditions. Children as young as 8 years old were forced to work in inhumane conditions: forced to work in still hot kilns to speed up production, not given medical treatment despite life threatening burns and wounds, some of the injured were even buried alive.

You hear about China's rapid economic growth, the 2008 Olympic games, and the modernity of Shanghai/Beijing. Then you hear about regions like ShanXi plagued by ruthless slave owners and human traffickers, you wonder whether it is the same country. A nation starving for growth can't be bothered to take care of its own people in the outermost regions.

What happened to cracking down on corruption? I can't stand see lines like "central government leaders shocked at news", cause its just bullshit. They know very well what goes on. They just choose to allow it to happen.

Another Happy Couple

My buddy Philip got married last weekend. Congratulations! A sarcastic thanks to Philip for the idiot ring fiasco!

www.flickr.com

Censorship Strikes Again

China censorship strikes again! Targeting foreign films is no surprise, but this time China has censored one of its own. Though no one is willing to admit it, most of Chow Yun Fat's scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End have been deleted in its China theatrical release. Now, them silly China internet folk are complaining about how Chow's role is depicted in the movie. They disapprove of his hair, his clothes, his behavior, claiming that it is a skewed Hollywood view of Chinese people.

Well, this may hold some truth, but then I challenge Mainlanders to tell me what a westerner of the 1500s looked like. Ninety-nine percent of them will derive their answers from movies or the internet. You can't expect a Chinese person to know what Westerners looked like 500 years ago, and you can't expected Americans to what Chinese pirates looked like 500 years ago. Plus, if Americans see Chow's image hair and clothes, and see a "Chinese pirate", then the filmmakers have reached their goal. Its no one's fault, but why remove footage of your own actor from a foreign film? Let the people see and decide for themselves what's right and wrong.

I guess the only way to see the complete version of Pirates is to watch the pirated version.

We Have A Winner

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new candidate for the biggest wuss in Hong Kong. This time, its Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (yeah, what a load of crap, I know) party chairman, Ma Lik. This loser claims that the Tiananmen Square Massacre did not happen. Ma reminds me of those dumb fucks who claim The Holocaust didn't happen. Of course, there is strong speculation that China had ordered him to make such a silly statement. Perhaps China is thinking of deleting the massacre from its people's memory (including those in Hong Kong) entirely, and this is the first step.

So naturally, what does Ma Lik do after making this boldly absurd statement? He scurries off to China right before June 4th. Hopefully, his political career in Hong Kong is done. Unfortunately, he'll probably go on to bigger and uglier things in China for doing them this "favor".

Though right now its fun to make fun of Ma and laugh at the DAB, perhaps we should think about how China is trying to downplay/eliminate/ignore/deny the Tiananmen Square Massacre despite the whole world knowing about it so well. What measures will they take in the upcoming years to achieve this goal?

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