Chinese and Japanese students clash in Shanghai

Can't seem to find anything about it in the English blogging world, but the Chinese blogs based in Shanghai are being overrun by stories about a street fight that kicked off on Monday night between Japanese and Chinese students at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU).


According to one alleged eye witness report (that's being copied and pasted across blogs throughout the city, but with no link to where the report came from), Japanese students clashed with Chinese and ended up with a crowd of more than 100 people outside the foreign student dorms, where, apparently, people in the dorm starting throwing glasses down onto the crowd and three students – one Chinese and two Japanese – were injured, although how seriously I still don't know.

Some reports have claimed that more than ten police cars attended the scene.

It's another reminder of the racial tension that goes on between the two countries in China. Japanese and Koreans make up a huge proportion of the tens of thousands of students that study in the city, but there is still a huge amount of animosity between the groups.

I've just heard about this, and we're trying to verify what exactly happened, but for the time being reports (in Chinese) can be found across Chinese blogs, below are some translations of replies to these blog postings.

http://q.sohu.com/forum/20/topic/4061445
http://bbs.myspace.cn/t/3963367.html


Micheal: "Japanese pigs, if you see one, hit one."

Leo: "[a drawing done paint] Kill."

Libraandy: "Good, good, good. Beat the small Japanese to death." Keep on reading...

Fun time at Fudan

So it's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks, but I've decided to spend some time before I start my daily routine of wondering what exactly is going on to write a little bit about the insanity that is Fudan University. but before I get started, I'd like to apologise for the lack of pictures on this blog, my camera has been busted for a long time and I still haven't got round to fixing it. Check out Dara's blog for some pictures (Proxy needed in China).

Having lived in China before, and having gone to university here, I thought I was pretty prepared for the bureaucracy and general confusion that goes hand in hand with it all. I was wrong.


There are numerous factors that lead to Fudan being probably the worst university for foreign students to register, get a room, and work out what's going on, but the number one reason is most definitely that noone has the faintest inkling of an idea about what is going on.

There are (I have found so far, there might be more) three different foreign student offices, each of them staffed by people who seem to think that all your answers will be resolved in one of the other ones.

Then there are the police, who are trying to claim that it is now compulsory to get a physical in China before you can apply for residency and that this has never, NEVER, been any different. Of course, he just grunted when he was told that I had used the exact same form I had with me for residency two years ago...

And it's all topped off with the fact that I didn't seem to be on any Fudan electronic equipment. I just didn't exist. Luckily I had made a copy of my application acceptance letter, and that has helped me survive so far.

But once all that stuff was out of the way (even though it's not, I still don't have a resident's permit) Fudan is a decent place, with a really good School of Journalism – where I'll be spending most of my time over the next 6 months.
Keep on reading...

Is censorship such a bad thing?

A post will follow later, in more detail, about my recent adventures around Fudan University, but for now, a quick word on a book that someone mentioned to me.

Judy Polumbaum's China Ink is a collection of first hand interviews with people associated with the Chinese press and (apparently, I'm still waiting for a copy to reach me in China) it focuses on issues such as commercialism running the show with regards to censorship of the press. This is a pretty big issue now, although it tends to get downplayed in the Western press, most articles focus on the all-seeing, all-controlling power of the CCP when it comes to regulating the media, but not so much on the commercial implications – which, dare I say, resemble the West in more ways than we give credit for.


The whole issue of state control is one that people in the West love to cite as a reason to distrust China. But, as is usually the case, this argument often comes from the mouth of someone who has only read a few stories (Western press stories) about the issue and doesn't fully understand it. In reality, it is far, far more complex than a single entity that sees and regulates all, it's vague, incomprehensive, and, in many cases, just ineffective.

The whole introduction of advertising and commercial enterprises running news outlets now has a lot more play on what content can and cannot be printed. (A vulgar allusion to Rupert Murdoch could be quite easily used in this spot).

Anyway, the book draws conclusions, stating that it is the Chinese themselves: the journalists, the consumers, and the member sof government, who will be the changing force in media liberalisation – not international pressure groups such as Amnesty, or Reporters Without Borders.

And, just to wrap it up with a nice self-promoting tinge, this was pretty much what my dissertation at the University of Edinburgh was about. It was really good. Really. (As soon as I learn how to use this blogging thing I'll see if I can upload files to it, not sure if it supports that though.)
Keep on reading...