One area that intl journalism fails as a whole: big intl news orgs have very little accountability, power or willingness to protect their journalists especially for those who are contracted, working with visas, or serving “staff” as local “news assistants” 1/ But local reporters, stringers, field producers are what holds intl reporting together. Many of them don’t even get bylines. All they get is some recommendation letters applying for grad schools (where many are already experienced enough to teach there) 2/

When police ask the protesters not to chant “no more lockdowns”, so they chant this instead:

“MORE LOCKDOWNS!”
“I WANT TO DO COVID TESTS!”

Folks. Let me remind you this brave effort also encapsulates the highest Chinese wisdom: weaponized passive aggressiveness. SAME ENERGY

One good thing this site actually facilitates: in the past 48 hrs, numerous mini-protests took place across various Chinese college campus against zero COVID policy. Many are censored but they ended up on Twitter, then ppl get to smuggle them back behind GFW, even just briefly the irony of the time: such creative and daring protests take place within China, get censored, then end up a small fighting chance back in the country — with the help from a site that’s barely surviving

It’s increasingly impossible to describe the level of heartbreaking absurdity that Chinese people are experiencing, in every shape and form that varies from day to day and neighborhood to neighborhood… …It lives in every snippet of ridiculous anecdote you’d come across everyday and drowns in the piles and piles and piles of them accruing by the second…

Pundits can talk about Pelosi’s Taiwan visit for months but few would learn about the most talked topic in China weeks ago: sweeping cancellation of 18+ comic cons overnight due to an absurd anti-Japan conspiracy—yet it’s this kind of curated nationalism informs & feeds… the central gov to make decisions. One can also observe how much the government enables such extremism. This is also a reminder that why a huge amount China analysis is laughably shallow. In the words of Ursula K. Le Guin…

Such an honor to be included in this #AAJA22 Voices Investigation on the lack of diversity in American mainstream journalism awards. And what a time to learn that Pulitzer — after over a century — has its FIRST Asian American voting member only in 2020.
aajavoices.org/losangeles2022… I stand by my quote. The whole award scene has spared a lot of empathy on things that white Americans care about. It awards parachute journalism, white saviors, simplified narratives, and glorified tragedies at the expense of local ppl/media workers.

A warm tip: “Civilization go to the toilet thanks to everyone.” H/t Weibo. And this somehow feels too profound to be a mistranslation.

The sweeping pro-Russia disinfo on the Chinese internet isn’t created in a day. Want to recap a tiny bit of what happened in the past decade. As the idiom 草蛇灰线 goes, there’re always traces. All the developments below are intertwined with each other. 1/ First, social media’s evolution & commercialization of nationalism: Weibo moved from a social-issue-driven space to an idol-driven site. As the crackdown on celebrities grew, a younger, fandom-driven nationalism become the safest way to do media business and avoid troubles 2/

2021 has been a big year for me. Due to a combination of COVID, therapy, life and work, a lot began to unravel. Here're some simple things I legit didn't know until 2021.

First, that dull, murky feeling that often led to procrastination? It actually has a name: “I hate it.” 2. I’ll never finish my to-do list or get any relief from completing it. Capitalistic efficiency is ultimately a call to cram more tasks into my limited lifespan.

In the past 4 months, I've buried myself in creating this short doc on China's stunning underground queer ballroom scene. There's so much love and support in the community. I hope this vid brings you as much joy as it did for me: .@yilingliu95 has made her wonderful debut! Our video editor, the incomparable Jose Flores created something magical from an ocean of footage we filmed. Special thanks to @KarishmaTV and @thomson_craig for indulging me to chase this story that makes many ppl feel seen.

This month I tried something new: each Thursday I'll visit a restaurant in Sunset Park, and I'll email friends details beforehand—they can show up if they want. This is to share my the experience with minimal emotional effort. Here's an ongoing thread on this #SunsetThursday /1 The motto: 好吃好喝，爱来不来. Feel free to sign up, run late, or ghost me altogether. I ain't putting in efforts to organize, and my friends don't need to spend energy to commit. The more ppl come, the more food we get to try. Yesterday was Malaysian joint Langkawi /2

Nowadays, when it comes to China coverage, it’s VERY important to distinguish how information is censored from how the government actually addresses the situation. Nuances often get lost between these two… …Info control itself in China is now a well-oiled mechanism, but it doesn’t always automatically shed light on the events themselves. Gag orders—often coordinated with private platforms thru self-censorship—could be used to cover up utter incompetence on the ground level…

Exactly. “Think” pieces often argue that “media” ignore the Wuhan lab theory. But it’s actually the opposite. Many who try to make the case actually disregard the report from seasoned journalists and coverage from the field…

https://twitter.com/emilyrauhala/status/1397917767223844871

…as well as the context and trajectory of the conspiracy’s initial spread (first inside China based on a retracted India study, then picked up by right-wing outlets in collaboration with Chinese diaspora disinfo machine). Ofc this doesn’t mean lab leak theory is impossible…

Thread: Here's the most fun & frivolous tech news today: Railway Operation Depot in the Chinese city Dalian just published an article on their harrowing journey racing to restore the old version of Flash after Adobe's ban, which collapsed their system and paralyzed the railway /1 The article was written a bureaucratic, propaganda, war diary style, with a detailed timeline down to minutes. "Jan 12, 8:16, Depot received malfunction report. The computer system stopped displaying pages...within 30 mins, computers in the entire depot had the same prob" /2

guess I’m old enough to say that one of the saddest things in my life is to witness an entire generation of talented artists in China don’t have the privilege to freely express themselves—without sacrificing their future, finance, or abandoning their home and native language This goes beyond my generation, but the realization is personal and visceral: They are my friends. They have great ambitions. They are so talented. Some already earned national attention until smackdown from past speeches. Some caved in and drown themselves in nihilism.

A CCTV-affiliated Weibo account (央视网快看) posted a news video claimed, "Two-thirds of U.S. medical workers are hesitant about or hope to delay the vaccine." Oddly, the video cannot be accessed from America. Weibo videos are rarely region-locked. The video below shows how the region-lock works. Note: Other videos from the same Weibo account are unrestricted. As a seasoned Weibo user, I can only recall similar region-lock used when accessing third-party video platforms from Weibo

To combat illegal parking in their neighborhood, 66 households in Shenyang installed a massive chain lock made with 66 personal padlocks to their gate—each resident can open the gate w/ their own keys. This turns out to be a true, decentralized, free *blockchain* For some who’s wondering why did the households install a centralized & unified system, here’s a resident’s response: “That costs money.”

Obsessed with Taiwan’s “down-to-earth” Halloween party, where you ONLY dress up as normal people in everyday situations. This is “the woman looking for a seat at food court”: “the Starbucks employee forced to smile through an exhausting Halloween”

A man in China was caught by police for using VPN to browse Wikipedia. While using VPN has been deemed illegal in China, this is a rare case for the gov to specifically disclose what the VPN is used for: reading wikipedia for research This case is publicly listed on Zhejiang gov's website. Link here: zjzwfw.gov.cn/zjzw/punish/fr…

This month I wrote about Chinese new immigrants and their vibrant food communities on WeChat, the msg app that’s soon to be banned by Trump administration. It’s largely unbeknown to non-Chinese eaters, but the app has brought a lifeline to struggling Chinese restaurants NYC 1/

https://twitter.com/EaterNY/status/1320808836123545601

It all started when @diaodiao_yang added me to a WeChat group of August Gatherings. The fusion Cantonese restaurant was reopened in August and struggling with all the NYC reopening problems. And they launched their very first WeChat group to connect with loyal customers /2

This dog training class sold on Taobao is way more advanced than I expected: This ad gives me hope for The Planet of Labrador