Month: September 2021

China’s broadcasting regulator said it will encourage online producers to create “healthy” cartoons and clamp down violent, vulgar or pornographic content, as Beijing steps up efforts to bring its thriving entertainment industry to heel.

The chain reaction has been triggered. Ultraman was censored not because of direction from the authorities. It arose from a complaint from the ground. Once the fuse has been ignited, the “cultural revolution” grows by itself. Sydney Daddy shows us some of the censored footage. Violence is not unique to Ultraman, but foreign content is an extremely vulnerable target in these times.

In a related yet unrelated video, Mai Zedong swam the Yangzi River in 1966. This was another “trigger” deliberately orchestrated by Mao to revive his cult personality. Did it work? No at first, but after he had put away all the non-believers, only the believers and surrendered were left.

There is a second part to this story. Wuhan residents who witnessed the swim and who had the disaster of the Great Famine still fresh in their minds refused to believe that Ma swam 9 miles in 65 minutes. They knew he was up to no good and surrounded his villa. Mao managed to escape and send in the PLA. 184,000 Wuhan residents were killed in that failed mutiny.

We hear about how harsh laws are in China, but are people really frightened by them? In spite of orders to shut down this fabric dyeing factory at Shaoxing (due to environmental concerns), the boss secretly ran his business, running the machines at night and getting the workers to sneak in through the backdoor to do the less noisy work in the daytime while the seal at the front entrance remained intact.

When the machines got locked up by the authorities, the highly resourceful and well-connected boss even managed to get the keys from insiders. People are only driven by profit and benefits, not by morals and conscience. This is China.

Ma Daode – a fictional character in Ma Jian’s novel China Dream was the director of a China Dream project aimed at implanting a chip in the brains of Chinese people to control their thoughts. But as he indulged in the sensual pleasures at the Cultural Revolution Nightclub where the hostesses were numbered and dressed as Red Guards (unappealing until they were undressed), memories of the atrocities he committed during the Cultural Revolution came back to haunt him.

Like many young Red Guards, he drove his own parents to their deaths. The novel shuttles repeatedly between present-day China and China during the Cultural Revolution. He desperately sought the recipe for 孟婆汤 to help him erase the past and bury his conscience. But the magical soup only works for dead people ready to cross 奈何桥 on the path to rebirth.

A brilliant Orwellian piece of work. Ma Jian is China’s second Lu Xun!

The princess has been released, but what about the former Huawei employees who pointed out the Huawei infringements that Meng Wanzhou confessed to? Were they not right? Why have they been imprisoned in China?

Back in 2018, some folks have argued that the arrest of the 2 Canadians has nothing to do with Meng Wanzhou – China was just applying the rule of law. What do they have to say now?

Meng was returned to China on a chartered plane. It may seem that she is being treated like a princess, but is she really regarded as a princess or is it because she holds too much sensitive information about Huawei? If there is no sensitive information, why not let her clear her name under cross examination in a US court? Why should China stake its dignity on this standoff? Which “normal” business person gets such treatment from the Chinese government?

China now celebrates Meng’s return as a victory for China. I don’t see how this saga can be regarded as such. Back then, I wasn’t sure if Huawei represents any security risk for countries that do business with it. Now I’m sure. So much has been revealed over these 3 years. You can even figure it out by thinking with your toes.

But make no mistake, Wall Street only recognises money.

The CCP’s influence on TCM!

Bullying is generally not tolerated in most societies, but it tends to be better tolerated in some societies than others. If you can’t beat them, join them. This applies to many people in China. They hate forced demolition yet they join the demolition team. So what? It’s not their house that is being demolished … well, until it is their house that is being demolished without neither notification nor reasonable compensation. It’s this sort of endless and ruthless “development” that is the main drive for China’s economy.

However, bullies are not immune to bullying because there are always bigger bullies who will bully the bullies. It’s horrible food chain and league of apex predator is too small and exclusive to accommodate the average man on the street who aspires to join the bullying club.

Whether it’s retribution or just plain bad luck, many of these bullies, whether they are demolition teams involved in forced demolition or security officers who beat up petitioning folks do end up getting a taste of their own medicine.

But if you think that others can learn a lesson from this, then you are wrong. There is always a queue to join the club. Some of the potential victims have resorted to an old trick to protect their property. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s image and slogans are often used to protect property from the Red Guards which are in turn divided into different sects, each claiming to be more loyal and authentic than the other. After they have put down the rightists and other counter revolutionaries, they started fighting among themselves.

Like I said, it’s actually an old trick. The following passage is taken from China Dream by Chinese exile Ma Jian. The book is obviously banned in China.