Danwei Picks is a daily digest of the “From the Web” links found on the Danwei homepage. A feed for the links as they are posted throughout the day is available at Feedsky (in China) or Feedburner (outside China).
Taco Bell cuts and runs: The Taco’s did not sell. From Shanghaiist:
An article in this morning’s Metro Express commuter paper reported that a Yum Enterprises spokesperson has confirmed the closing of Shanghai’s two Taco Bell Grandes, at People’s Square and in Gubei, as well as the chain’s single Shenzhen location. Instead of pushing Americanized Mexican food in a tough market, the owners of KFC and Pizza Hut have chosen to concentrate on expanding their new Chinese ‘quick service’ venture East Dawning (东方既白)
Running a literary website in China: At Paper Republic, Eric Abrahamsen profiles Zhao Song, co-administrator of online literary website Heilan. Zhao discusses the online literary community and how net literature still needs the legitimacy that paper publishing provides:
Heilan first came into being in 1996, as a traditional paper literary magazine. It was started by Chen Wei (the other site administrator) in Nanjing, and only put out one issue before being closed down. "You know that period of time," says Zhao, "the authorities were very anxious then. It was an unofficial publication, and even though there was no sensitive content, the fact that it was unlicensed was enough to get it shut down."
Six years later, Heilan found its next incarnation as a website. It began life as a BBS forum, and within a year had added most of its present elements: the monthly magazine, digital publications, and the literary prize. The forum currently boasts 14,000+ members, though Zhao cautions that fake IP addresses probably mean the real number is about half that – respectable for a highbrow literary site, but nothing compared to the likes of Qidian. The monthly ‘publication’ (网刊, wǎngkān) draws its content from the site members, and gets anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand readers every month.
In memoriam: the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory: Adam Minter at Shangai Scrap presents a history of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, which is relocating to Zhejiang where light pollution is less acute:
if it’s not worth mourning on a scientific basis, it is worth mourning on a historical basis: That telescope and observatory is one of Shanghai’s last links to the great Jesuit scientists responsible for many of the city’s most important institutions, including many of its universities (including, indirectly, Fudan), hospitals, museums (including the much-maligned Natural History Museum), and public laboratories. In contemporary Shanghai, these origins are mostly unknown and increasingly irrelevant; but sixty years ago they were not only relevant, but pertinent: the Jesuits were the key piece in the city’s scientific establishment.
Shi Yajun: Surveying the Chinese Government: The Economic Observer interviews Shi Yajun, party secretary for the China University of Law and Politics, about a massive survey project he is conducting into Chinese government administration:
EO: In the coming years, what will be the biggest challenge for or sticking point in China’s administrative management system reform?
Shi: First, we must affirm the positive role of the system. If we deny this, then the great achievements it has made during the past 30 years would be unimaginable. At the same time, we must admit that the current system has many problems, and limits the governments’ ability to perform their duty accordingly. If we don’t change it, and continue economic, education, medical, cultural, scientific, and social reforms, all of them will encounter numerous difficulties.
China has a morality crisis: At New America Media, Xujun Eberlein writes about morality and marriage in light of the notorious Hu Ziwei video:
As recently as two decades ago, such broad-scale immorality had been considered only an American patent. When I, as a graduate student in the Chengdu Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences, married an American man in 1988, the director of the Education Department of the institute advised me to leave him.
"American men are notoriously unfaithful. He will abandon you in no time," the director had said. He would be disappointed to learn that my marriage is still intact today, while I hear an increasing number of extramarital scandals from my Chinese acquaintances.
Sub prime shmub prime — Bank of China denies SCMP report: On Tuesday, the Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended trading after the Bank of China did not comment on reports in the SCMP indicating that China’s gargantuan bank would take a big hit from the American sub prime crisis.
The bank is now rebutting the SCMP report. From Reuters:
In a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Bank of China said: ‘In line with our initial, unaudited 2007 operational data and taking into consideration … provisions for possible subprime losses, our bank’s post-tax profit will still rise in 2007 against the previous year.
‘Our bank believes the SCMP report is completely groundless and we don’t know its sources,’ the statement said.