“Ha! Your Western media’s up to its tricks again!” said my political editor with a mixture of mockery and satisfaction, laying particular stress on those two words “Western media.”
“What’s the story?” I asked.
“According your Western media, all foreign students are going to have to get out of Beijing in the summer. According to the Western media, that is.”
“Hang on a minute. Which ‘Western media’?”
“All of it. So you’ll have to pack your bags. According to the Western media.”
Three things: One, I’m not a student, so even if this story were true I wouldn’t have to leave. Two, I get on very well with this editor and he was just baiting me. And three, although I put that conversation in quotation marks I did not record it so I have no real certainty that those were our exact words.
But what is the story? And is it true or is it a repeat of the non-existent Bible ban?
EPA quo...
Content suppressed by ://URLFAN, for full article visit source
More posts from www.blackandwhitecat.org
Blog noteFrom: blackandwhitecat.org
Post Date: 2008-03-03 19:27:01
Since I’m such an irregular blogger, it doesn’t make much sense to announce that I won’t have internet access for about a week, so there won’t be any more posts until I’m back. But I’ll say it anyway for the sake of the few poor souls who do (misguidedly) keep checking in to see if there’s anything new. I’m also putting the comments on moderation-only until I get back to keep out the spam that occasionally gets through the filter.
My tempor...
more 
Meet the world - and totally misrepresent itFrom: blackandwhitecat.org
Post Date: 2008-02-24 11:52:06
There’s a very impressive collection of flags that has been circulating for some time, showing various interesting and disturbing facts about each of the countries involved. I saw it for the first time last night at ProState in Flames. A quick Google search identifies Icaro Doria, a young Brazilian designer, as one of the creators of the series called Meet the World. Doria says he and four others created it as part of an ad campaign for the Portuguese news magazine Grande Reportagem.
The f...
more 
Truth and lies - Tibet and IraqFrom: blackandwhitecat.org
Post Date: 2008-03-20 11:19:17
There is some anger being expressed by Chinese citizens about foreign media reporting on the Tibet protests and violence. To a certain extent it is justified. Showing pictures of Nepali security forces beating Tibetan protesters and labeling those pictures as Chinese violence is at best sloppy, at worst a lie. And I keep wondering why so many writers can only bring themselves to say that Tibetan protesters have “attacked” Han civilians. Is “killed” too hard a word to writ...
more 
Ethnic harmony - or notFrom: blackandwhitecat.org
Post Date: 2008-03-19 11:48:54
It’s been quite some time since Yahoo mercifully closed down its news discussion boards. Especially at times of crisis, whether real or perceived, they could make you lose almost all faith in humanity. Below is a translation of one Chinese person’s reaction, posted on Woeser’s blog, to the same phenomenon in China. Text in square brackets is mine, and does not appear in the original Chinese post.
Family relations established through rape
By a lonely Han
For days on end, events ...
more 
Websites mentioned in article
Buzz Words mentioned in article:
How popular is www.blackandwhitecat.org?
