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Jun 17

Nanyang Wanbao 17Jun
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Humiliating defeat leads to more agonizing on China’s national football team

Today is a baneful, humorless day for some of the newspapers that ran front page headlines on another humiliating defeat of 5-1 at home on Saturday for China’s football team against an under-strength team of youngsters from tiny Thailand. There’s hopeless despair, frantic questioning and anger at this latest flub, China’s third loss in a row. Although Chinese fans are quite used to China losing at football, the way the team capitulated against Thailand was (as the Oriental Guardian from Nanjing puts it today) “like a dagger deep into the heart of every Chinese football fan” (像一把尖刀深深地刺痛每一个球迷的心). Right at top of its front page, the Oriental Guardian today speculates on the reasons behind the sorry state of China’s national team, and asks “How many times do you still want to say sorry?” (The national team’s Weibo account said sorry after the 2-1 home loss to Uzbekistan on June 6).

The Nanyang Evening News from Henan today has only one word for the defeat: “Disgrace”. As the featured image illustrates, the newspaper’s front page today also has two other short descriptions for headline news: “Attitude” (态度) for the Snowden affair; and “Going separate ways” (分飞) for the Rupert and Wendi Murdoch divorce.
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Jun 13

Shichang Xingbao 13Jun
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No-one turns up to welcome China’s football team in Hefei

China’s national men’s football team is so unloved that the only reason the media report their arrival in a city in China is that no-one turns up to welcome them. Thus the team’s movements around the country is such a non-event that it’s actually newsworthy. This is indeed the case with the Star News (市场星报) from Hefei in Anhui province today, whose front page reports that the Chinese team “quietly” arrived at the Kaiyuan Hotel in Hefei yesterday with only a few attendants and journalists to welcome them; there was not a single member of the public in sight. Read more

Jun 3

Zhengzhou Wanbao 3Jun
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The big, slick Buddha of Luoyang that looks like an entrepreneur

In late April a strange golden Buddha statue was erected in an amusement park in Luoyang, Henan province. With protruding belly, big smile and long ears, the statue in various ways resembled many other Buddha statues. Yet right at the top of the statue there was a fashion statement that is rarely seen in Buddhist imagery: a slick and smooth combed-back hairstyle. This utterly incongruous modern addition was just too much for many Internet commentators.

In the eye of the storm of public outrage, the Buddha was suddenly removed after a few days. But as the front page of the Zhengzhou Evening News (郑州晚报) from Henan province reports today, the slick Buddha is back! And it’s likely that the reason for this is that the statue was in fact made in the image of some entrepreneur (although which one we don’t know) who likes to see a massive golden statue of himself made in the image of a golden Buddha.
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May 31

Shenyang Wanbao 31May
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Wild woman found living in a cave in Gansu

The “White-Haired Girl” (白毛女) was one of the first films made in the People’s Republic of China. Originally a Chinese opera and later a ballet, the film depicts the miserable life endured by a peasant girl whose poor father is murdered by a rapacious landlord. The landlord then takes the girl as a concubine and mistreats her, but she escapes and lives alone in the mountains for many years, surviving on the offerings at a nearby temple. Years later the landlord comes to worship at the temple during a stormy night. In a flash of lightning he sees the girl – now a disheveled, white-haired figure – and is nearly scared to death by what he perceives to be a reincarnated goddess come to punish him for his misdeeds.

The front page of the Shenyang Evening News (沈阳晚报) from Liaoning province today recalls this legend of the white-haired girl in the mountains with a very real report on a “wild woman” that was found deep in the mountains of Gansu. Like the White-Haired girl, this woman’s tale is likewise infinitely sad and appalling.

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May 28

Chuncheng Wanbao 28May
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“I was here” graffiti all over Yunnan

When a Chinese teenager named Ding Jinhao (丁锦昊) in Egypt last week was revealed to have defaced an ancient frieze with the graffito “I was here” (丁锦昊到此一游), there was widespread condemnation of the teen vandal who did so much to damage the image of Chinese tourists abroad. Yet after conducting its own survey of the scenic spots in the province of Yunnan, the Spring City Evening News today reports that “I was here” and other graffiti can in fact be seen all over Yunnan. Ancient buildings and parks have been scarred by innumerable “black hands”, and the paper says that poor Ding Jinhao has now been given all the blame for what many others do all the time in China itself. In fact, the “I was here” graffiti tradition goes back all the way to the Monkey King in the classic fable Journey to the West (西游记).
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May 23

23 May BYD chart
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Beijing to add charging stations, e-taxis and subsidies

This post is an extract from the Danwei Bulletin, a briefing of company and market news collected from the Chinese news and social media before the information appears in English language reporting and sent to premium subscribers of the FT’s China Confidential and Danwei. Please click here for more information.

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The Beijing municipal government has announced initiatives to install charge points for electric cars around the city and to promote electric vehicles for public transport and rental.  Read more

May 22

Jingzhou Wanbao 22May
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Small Hubei community has been free from fireworks for eight years (and loving it)

For eight years already now, a small workers’ residential community in Jingzhou, Hubei province has “quietly” been living a revolution. In 2005, errant fireworks caused a fire on a balcony in this community, and drawing the (painfully obvious yet in China excruciatingly absent) conclusion that fireworks on the whole just isn’t worth it, decided to ban the stuff altogether. As the front page of the Jingzhou Evening News reports today, for the last eight years Beiling has been living in a near nirvana-like state of calm and serenity. So can we all Learn from Beiling?

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May 21

Guizhou Dushibao 21May
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Man finds his brother’s killer after 16 years

Sometimes the wheels of justice turn slowly. And sometimes you have to make them turn yourself. The Guizhou Metropolis Daily today has a front page headline that reads “He’s lying!” (他在扯谎), which was the phrase uttered by a man who heard his brother’s murderer proclaim his innocence. For 16 long years, Yang Shunming has been looking for the man who killed his brother, and by something of a fluke, he found him sitting at another table at a society dinner. The man had a new name, a new job, and dark secret.  Read more

May 17

The Danwei Bulletin May 16, 2013
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AQSIQ: Excessive lead detected in L’Occitane exfoliant

This post is an extract from the Danwei Bulletin, a briefing of company and market news collected from the Chinese news and social media before the information appears in English language reporting and sent to premium subscribers of the FT’s China Confidential and Danwei. Please click here for more information.

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Chinese media last week reported that the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) announced that they had detected excessive amounts of lead in a foreign skin care product: “Almond Delicious Paste”, a skincare exfoliant product sold by the French company L’Occitane en Provence. L’Occitane is a Hong Kong-listed French company. Read more

May 13

Xiandai Jinbao 13May
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Migrant workers forming “temporary couples” in the cities

The millions of migrant workers in China have a tough life. Leaving their homes to find work and separated from their families almost all year round, they toil in the cities for little pay and reside in ramshackle lodgings. Yet this much we know about migrant workers, what we know less about is how these migrant workers deal with the loneliness and isolation of their long and difficult sojourns. After more than a month of research and interviews with migrant workers in the city of Ningbo, the Contemporary Gold (现代金报) newspaper from Zhejiang province today published a front page story on the phenomenon of migrant workers forming “temporary couples” (临时夫妻) in the cities.

The newspaper recounts the stories of a few individual migrant workers in Ningbo that have formed temporary bonds of love and support in the cities to help shoulder the difficult burden of urban life. The newspaper quotes statistics from the Ministry of Health that around 80% of migrant workers in China are in a sex-starved state. And not only this, they are alone in an unfamiliar location, with little money, and no-one to comfort them. So perhaps it’s not at all surprising that migrant workers are seeking to make temporary arrangements.

One of the stories that Contemporary Gold relates today is that of Old Shen and Xiaoyan, both married migrant workers, who found each other in Ningbo. Their tale illustrates just how some migrant workers are dealing with the difficult circumstances they face in the cities, and how they have to face the consequences of their decisions.

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May 10

Toothpaste Safety Scare Mentions on Weibo
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Whitening toothpaste safety scare

This post is an extract from the Danwei Bulletin, a briefing of company and market news collected from the Chinese news and social media before the information appears in English language reporting and sent to premium subscribers of the FT’s China Confidential and Danwei. Please click here for more information.

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On May 2, Modern Life Daily 当代生活报 reported on a study of test results of whitening toothpaste from Guangxi University for Nationalities, located in Nanning. The study found that six brands of whitening toothpaste contained ‘carcinogenic sulfites’. In response, the China Oral Health Products Industry Association cast doubt on the methodology of the study, but the report caused a spike of social media conversations on Sina Weibo, many of them negative. Read more

May 3

Sanitary Pads_Page_2
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Fake sanitary pads: Massive margins driving rampant piracy

A typical sanitary pad customer will remain loyal to one brand for several decades, so a company with a strong brand and good distribution has a license to print money. And where there is money in China, there are pirates. Southern Metropolis Daily 南方都市报 last week reported that counterfeit sanitary pads worth over 150 million yuan were seized by police in a port city famous for its smugglers: Quanzhou in Fujian province. Read more

May 2

Haixi Chenbao 2May
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May Day aftermath: 180 tons of trash left on Gulangyu Island

Another public holiday in China, another mountain of trash. The front page of the Haixi Morning Post (海西晨报) from Xiamen today is one of a few newspapers around China looking back on a public holiday of gridlocked traffic, congested scenic spots and – inevitably – mountains of trash, again.
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