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Posts from the ‘Front page of the day’ Category

Mar 13

Sanjin Dushibao 13March

Changsha’s unruly drivers challenged to be like butterflies shaking their wings

The front page of the Sanxiang Metropolis Daily from Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, today unloads on the city’s unruly drivers. The front page is festooned with a line of images of orderly straight lines of traffic in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen, contrasted with a line of images of a muddled rabble of cars moving every which way in Changsha. One of these images even shows a stationary car in the middle of a highway with the driver on foot next to the car, under the words “this is also Changsha”.

The images are some of the evidence compiled yesterday by the newspaper in a multi-region fact-finding operation. The object of the operation was to establish which of the cities has the most unruly drivers, i.e. the ones worst at driving patiently in orderly lines. The newspaper conducted an online survey in Changsha before sending a journalist driving around the city to observe first-hand the state of its driving, and what he found wasn’t pretty. It then organized journalists in the other cities mentioned above (plus Guangzhou) to do some observing of the traffic in their own cities and take some pictures of what they saw.

As the front page so graphically illustrates, Changsha’s drivers are the worst of the lot. Hence the Sanxiang Metropolis Daily today does some soul-searching for its readers. What to do about the city’s muddled roads? What the newspaper first proceeds to do today is guilt-trip its readers in Changsha about the bad driving in the city, which is so uncivilized. It then informs them of a rather odd campaign launched in the city to inspire “new citizens” to become model drivers. As a single butterfly can shake its wings and cause a storm, it urges, so the drivers of Changsha must drive orderly and thereby shake their wings and ignite a civilized storm of orderly driving. Anyone who fails to fall for this passionate rhetoric is reminded that there are now high definition cameras on the streets of the city, and they will record every instance of uncivilized driving.

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Mar 12

Qiyejia Ribao 12 March

Smooth talking entrepreneurs at the Two Sessions

If you thought that the Two Sessions taking place in Beijing right now were boring and trite and not made for vigorous discussion and a frank exchange of ideas, the Entrepreneurs’ Daily newspaper is today intent on convincing you that the outspokenness of a group of Chinese entrepreneurs is setting this year’s Two Sessions on fire. The newspaper today has a front page roundup of the “smooth talking” of a few leading entrepreneurs at this year’s Two Sessions, ranging from the wacky suggestions of Chen Guangbiao to more practical ideas for reforms in certain industries. Read more

Mar 11

深圳晚报

Farewell Ministry of Railways

China’s newspapers today slightly ruefully report the departure of an institution as old as the PRC itself: the Ministry of Railways. The behemoth ministry has overseen the rapid development of the railway network in China in the last decade but was dogged by claims of massive corruption (especially in connection with its disgraced former minister Liu Zhijun, he of “18 mistresses” infamy), and its fate appeared to have been sealed by the disastrous Wenzhou train crash in July 2011.

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Mar 5

Dongguan Shibao5Mar

The elegant new spokesperson vs. the steadfast old cultural icon

Today is Lei Feng Day, but there’s an elegant and amiable woman who stole his thunder on China’s newspaper front pages today.

Who would you put on your front page today? There’s the elegant, amiable, humble, eloquent and female new spokesperson of the Two Sessions who held her first news conference yesterday…

 

And then there’s this guy who turns fifty today….


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Mar 4

Dushi Nvbao 4Mar

“Red descendants” at this year’s “two sessions”

The annual session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), dubbed China’s leading political advisory body, commenced at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing yesterday, and will run until 12 April. Traditionally held concurrently with the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s highest legislative body that will convene on 5 March, the two meetings are collectively referred to as the “two sessions” (两会).

The mood at this year’s two sessions is slightly more subdued than usual, with Xi Jinping’s incoming administration aiming to restrict ostentatious displays of wealth, lavish banquets, and excessive exchange of gifts that were the hallmark of meetings in recent years. This year the 2,237 delegates will have to make do with alcohol-free buffets.

This year’s two sessions and the reforms supposedly to be discussed there dominate the front pages of China’s newspapers today (see gallery below). The City Lady (都市女报) from Shandong province, however, has as usual taken a slightly different view with a front page story on the “Red descendants” at the two sessions this year, i.e. the delegates who are children and grandchildren of previous Party leaders. Read more

Mar 1

Dongnan Shangbao 1March

Did you lose something? Micro Lei Feng can help

Is there no end to the multifarious usefulness of the paragon of selflessness and virtue that is Lei Feng? A little early for Lei Feng Day on March 5, but the front page of the South-East Business Daily (东南商报) from Zhejiang province today tells us that, in order to encourage the study of the spirit of Lei Feng and of volunteerism, we present: “Ningbo Micro Lei Feng!” (宁波微雷锋) Read more

Feb 27

Dongfang Zaobao 27Feb p.1

Shanghai nonagenarian writes comic book memoir commemorating love of his life

Rao Pingru (饶平如) has lived a long life marked by great hardship and perseverance. Yet Rao survived war, famine, incarceration, separation and illness, and lived his entire life with undying love for one woman. Now aged 91, Rao’s long life was characterized by all the trials and tribulations that the Chinese people experienced in a turbulent twentieth century. His story is anachronistic in our current age of self-absorption and fleeting love, and will soon fade back into the mists of time. But old though he is, Rao has determined to preserve his journey and the memory of his beloved wife of 60 years, Mao Meitang (毛美棠).

So ever since his wife died in 2008, Rao has been engaged in writing a comic book history of his life and lifelong love with Mao Meitang. After working on the project daily for five years, the comic book will be finally published in April this year under the title “The Story of Us” (我俩的故事).

The Oriental Morning Post (东方早报) from Shanghai today featured Rao’s comic book history on its front page. It is a deeply moving tale. The following are the news report and some excerpts published by the Oriental Morning Post today:

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Feb 19

Shenyang Wanbao 19Feb

Shenyang anti-spitting campaign, take two

The city of Shenyang is getting tough (or tougher) on spitting and other such unhygienic habits. The Shenyang Evening News front page reports today that 200 specialist hygiene supervisors have been appointed, and they will be able to dish out fines of 20 yuan for each person spitting in public, among other such offences and their corresponding fines.

On 8 October 2010, however, an almost identical headline appeared on exactly the same spot on the front page of the selfsame newspaper, announcing that spitting will now incur a fine of 10 yuan, and 100 specialist hygiene supervisors have been appointed to monitor unhygienic behavior and dish out fines for spitting, among other offences.

So we’ll say good luck this time Shenyang, or see you next year for the 3o yuan fine/300 supervisors upgrade.

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Feb 18

Haixia Dushi Bao 18Feb

The groundwater of 90% of Chinese cities is polluted

The holiday is over, and here’s some news to bring you right back to down to earth. Or even further down underneath the earth where its apparently pretty smelly. The front page of the Strait Times (海峡都市报) from Fujian province today reports that the groundwater of 90% of Chinese cities is polluted to some degree, and that of around 60% is “severely polluted”. These depressing findings were recently uttered by an official from the China Geological Survey (中国地质调查局) at an international groundwater forum.

Strait Times today also reports on the Weibo river campaign recently launched by Deng Fei on his microblog, and one man who took Deng’s campaign a step further by promising openly to give the head of a city environmental protection office 200,000 yuan if he swam for 20 minutes in a polluted river. Read more

Jan 29

Yanzhao Wanbao 29 Jan

Survey of China’s 24 most corrupt officials in 2012

2012 was the annus horribilis of the “trial by Weibo” of government officials, their public humiliation and ultimate sacking in disgrace. More than ever before, last year witnessed multiple cases where government officials were implicated in sex videos and other corruption scandals that first appeared in full public view on the Chinese Internet and led ultimately to their dismissal. If it wasn’t already before, the public image of government officials of various ranks in China was in crisis in 2012.

In light of this situation, the Crisis Management Research Center at Renmin University (中国人民大学危机管理研究中心) in Beijing earlier in January this year published a report entitled “The Public Image Crisis of Government Officials” (官员形象危机2012报告). As the Yanzhao Evening News (燕赵晚报) from Hebei province today explains in a front page story, the Crisis Management Research Center surveyed 24 cases of corruption that became public knowledge on the Chinese Internet in 2012 so as to divine some trends and patterns in corrupt behavior among government officials in China. Their findings included that 95% of corrupt government officials keep mistresses, and more than 60% of these corrupt officials are openly cohabiting with their mistresses. Yet this is merely the beginning. Read on for what misdeeds the men behind the faces below got up to in 2012, before paying the price brought on by full public knowledge. Ah, the Internet…

Some of China’s most corrupt (and most publicly known) former government officials in 2012

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Jan 21

Shenzhen Wanbao 21Jan

How to have a “convenient” Spring Festival transport rush

“It must be said, says Shenzhen Evening News today, “that going home for Spring Festival is a deeply ingrained desire of all Chinese people.” That’s to say, all of 1.3 billion Chinese people. Hence the annual Spring Festival rush is a migration of epic proportions characterized by pushing, waiting, queuing, standing for hours, and generally having your stamina severely tested. So why haven’t more things been invented to make this difficult journey just a little more convenient? The front page of the Shenzhen Evening News today illustrates that some attempts have actually been made in this regard, and it showcases some odd contraptions such as the Hard Seat Helper and the Ostrich Pillow. There’s even a new portable “convenience” tool to help you go when you can’t go. So if you are going to do the Spring Festival rush this year, consider getting yourself one of the following (somewhat) helpful gadgets. Read more

Jan 18

Qingdao Ribao 18Jan

The “tower stands empty”: Q Park as a microcosm of China’s faltering animation industry

Q Park in Qingdao,  Shandong province was meant to be a flashy new shot-in-the-arm industrial hub for the animation industry in China. But today the front page of the Qingdao Daily laments the sorry state of Q Park with a reference to a line from an ancient poem entitled Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼) by the eighth century Tang Dynasty poet Cui Hao (崔颢). The poem reads “The people of former days have all mounted yellow cranes and gone away, now all that’s left in this place is the empty Yellow Crane Tower”. With a sense of infinite sadness, the line denotes that the past will never return, the good days are gone forever.

Where hundreds of animators used to throng about using the latest technology, this Yellow Crane Tower of Q Park now stands as a stark microcosm of China’s faltering animation industry that is still searching desperately to wean itself off government subsidies as it struggles to give expression to its own unique style.

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Jan 14

Henan Shangbao 14Jan

“A city besieged” with pollution, but life goes on

The main theme on the front pages of China’s newspapers today is the record levels of pollution that convulsed China over the weekend and into this week. The front page of the Henan Business Times (河南商报) today displays the smog horizon over the city of Zhengzhou, and the newspaper has a special four page section on the pollution called “A city besieged” (围城). In this section the newspaper tries to make sense of why China is being plagued by such extreme pollution at present, and offers its readers the dubious consolation that although there’s basically nothing that can be done about it, it will eventually go away.

See below for a gallery of how a few other newspaper front pages covered the pollution bugbear today, and see also the Links and Sources section for links to a few other pollution-related stories in English.

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