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American director Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, “Django Unchained”, was suddenly pulled from Chinese theaters on opening day. The movie was heavily advertised in the weeks leading up to the Thursday premiere. China represents the second largest movie-market, coming in after the United States.
Theaters in Beijing claimed it was removed due to technical problems with movie, however, most think it was because of issues with the censoring. Movies that are played in China must go through a censoring process, making edits like changing the color of blood to a darker shade and decreasing the “splatter”. Part of the reason for such intense editing is due to the fact that China does not have a rating system for the movies shown, unlike the US and Europe. Movies must be shown with the assumption that children can also see it, meaning that violence and nudity need to be removed.
Two days ago, a car being chased by the police drove into a crowd of people in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, killing 5 people (the 3 in the car and 2 tourists) and left 40 injured. The tragic event is being called a terrorist attack, with China pointing its finger at the Uighurs, a Chinese minority group practicing Islam in Xinjiang, a region in Western China. Today the Chinese authorities announced that 10 hours after the attack they had arrested 5 people said to be Islamic Jihadists who admitted to orchestrating the incident.
In recent years, tension between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese (making up about 92% of China’s population) have risen considerably, following a recent Han migration to the Western China area. This has led to a a change in the region that the Uighur say trivialize their culture and traditions.
There have been numerous clashes between the minority group and the police in the past, with the Uighurs citing reasons such as new policies that restrict their ability to practice their religion and a new push for Mandarin-speaking schools instead of Uighur language-schools. However, this is the first incident that has occurred in Beijing.
The Chinese government has been censoring any photos and accounts of the car crash. Any news stories of the event were lacking much detail and only stuck to the essential facts released by the official Xinhua news agency. Even searches with various combos of the words “Tiananmen”, “terrorism”, and “car crash” were blocked.
For the second time in just two weeks, a thick smog covered the Beijing area. The situation is getting so bad that flights into and from the city are being cancelled due to limited visibility and highly polluted air. The government warned residents to stay indoors if possible. Beijing released a report citing high levels of PM2.5, fine particles that pollute the air we breathe in. The levels were twenty times higher than what the World Health Organization deems “safe” over a twenty-four hour period. You can track the PM2.5 levels at this Twitter.
This comes at a bad time with the Lunar New Year soon approaching. One of the busiest times in China, many people are traveling across the country to head back home for the holidays. With all of the cancellations around Beijing, it is sure to add to the chaotic time.
Imagine this: after being acquitted of a crime in a foreign country, you not released. Instead, you are deported, without your consent, to a country with a poor human rights record where your citizenship is not even recognized. This happened to 23 Taiwanese last week in Kenya.
However, before Taiwan officials could react, Kenya acquiesced to Chinese pressure and illegally deported 8 of the acquitted Taiwanese men to the city of Guangzhou in mainland China (along with two Chinese citizens) on April 11th. This has become in personal nightmare for the Taiwanese involved as well as a diplomatic headache for the new government of Taiwan, which will assume leadership this May.
Yin Gang/Xinhua, via Associated Press
On Tuesday, April 12th, the rest of the acquitted Taiwanese, including 15 more Taiwanese citizens, were sent to China, despite resisting and barricading themselves inside their cells when Kenyan police came to extract them. “The episode outraged Taiwanese officials, who accused Kenya of violating international law and trying to curry favor with China” (New York Times).
The Kenyan authorities stated that all of the acquitted had violated Kenya’s visa policies. Mwenda Njoka, the spokesman for Kenya’s Interior Ministry, “insisted that they were deported, along with 12 Chinese suspects, to mainland China simply because the Kenyan policy is to return people to the country they flew from, and that all the Taiwanese had traveled to Kenya from China” (New York Times). It is important to note that China has invested significantly in the public infrastructure of Kenya in the past few years, and has even aided the government in developing its own national security.
On Wednesday, the Chinese government announced their rationale for the deportations: they planned on persecuting the men, despite their acquittal in Kenya, on charges of telecommunications fraud. However, Taiwanese cannot help but see this as a challenge from China towards the newly elected Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen. Truly, the “the deportations underscore the limited leverage of Taiwan’s government. Even though China and Kenya do not have an extradition treaty, Kenya has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan” (New York Times). Now in China, two of the men have apologized on Chinese television, in a confession akin to coerced confessions of Chinese “criminals” (such as human rights activists or critics of the ruling Communist Party) in the past.
This is not the first time that this has happened. “In February 2011, the Philippines deported 14 Taiwanese involved in an investment scam to China alongside 10 Chinese nationals, sparking anger in Taipei. Manila refused to apologize for the incident” (The Diplomat). A strong concern is that this will set an international precedent for other countries when dealing with criminals with Taiwanese citizenship. Thankfully just yesterday, Malaysia announced that it would not deport dozens of Taiwanese fraud suspects to China. However, it remains a shocking display of diplomatic impunity on the part of Kenya and China. What remains ambiguous about this grave incident is China’s motivation - is their perceived threat toward Taiwan real, or should their words be taken at face value? Interpreting these signals seem to be growing not only more challenging for the Taiwan administration, but also more dangerous as well.
Update on the Beijing smog issue: This picture is from Wednesday. The government has put forth emergency measures such as shutting down 100 factories and cutting down on one-third of government vehicles on the road.
Ai Weiwei, the best-know artist in Beijing, China, has been detained by Chinese Government on accuse of economic crimes, including tax evasion. In fact, Ai is one of the most provocative artist in China, who does not hide his political view of the government in his arts. His arts got widely accepted and highly apprecaited internationally, which were exhibited in leading museums around the world.
Since the political upheaval in Egypt last month, the Chinese Government has taken more than ten provocative artists in China into custody with different accuses. Early in Januarty, his studio in Beijing has already been demolished under the name of zoning regulation.
The Obama Administration and European countries have been pressing China to release Ai. The Museum of Soloman Guggenheim in New York also participates in a collective effort to have Ai released.
According to the Zodiac calendar, 2013 marks the Year of the Snake. Despite Beijing’s recent significant increase in air pollution and warnings from the government to decrease the amount of fireworks being set off, residents of the city still went all out for the big celebration. Fireworks are meant to scare away evil spirits and attract the god of wealth to people’s front doors for the New Year. The picture above shows a celebration taking place in Shanghai.
People who were born in the Year of the Snake are said to have traits of wiseness, materialism, and gracefulness. They are typically subtle and elusive people, which makes sense when you think about the reptile itself.
This year was supposedly the largest migration yet for the lunar new year. For many Chinese people, Chinese New Year marks the only vacation they get. Beijing reportedly had 20 million people leave to travel home. Check out some photos from celebrations around the world.
Today, the UN Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions against North Korea in response to the nuclear test from last month. China and the US drafted the resolution. South Korea’s banking, travel, and trade will all be affected. The quick vote (15-0) came after North Korea threatened, for the first time, to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and neighbor South Korea.
The sanctions are meant to “bite and bite hard”, as put by US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice. Even China’s ambassador, Li Baodong, came out saying that the long-term goal is to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
The crowd at one of Shanghai’s real estate centers after the news of the property tax.
Recent news of a national 20% tax on the profit of a sold home has driven thousands to property bureaus to put up their homes for sale before the tax goes into effect. The State Council, fearing that rising housing prices will cause inequality and a housing bubble, has ordered a property tax for all secondary homeowners.
Some couples are even filing divorces to avoid the tax by claiming one home each. By selling them independently, they are able to bypass the capital gains tax for selling second homes. Divorcing would not only give couples a pass on the 20% tax, but a lower interest rate and down payment for purchasing a new home afterwards. (Re)Marriage will have to wait.
Yet another story about the injustices of the Chinese government has splattered across the internet. And yet again, it is concerning how the Chinese government has dealt with those citizens who try to profess their opinions, opinions that differ from theirs.
This is the story of Qian Yunhui, leader of a village in eastern China. In 2004, corrupt officials had gone into the village and had convinced the farmers to give their land to the government to construct a power plant. Unknowingly, these farmers had signed away their land for free. Since then, Qian had dedicated his life to getting justice for his villagers. Throughout this journey, he had been jailed twice, but each time, he continued his campaign after serving his time or being released. He had even traveling to Beijing demanding justice. To his village, he is seen as a hero.
However, last Saturday, Dec. 25, it is speculated that government officials decided to put an end to Qian’s leadership once and for all. That day, Qian was run over by a heavy truck. Witnesses there snapped photographs of the incident, the most graphic showing Qian’s head detached from his flattened body.
Afterwards, two witnesses claimed that three masked men held down Qian while the truck “slowly drove over his neck”.
In response to the rage of both the villagers and other Chinese citizens, the government announced they would investigate the incident. In less than 48 hours, the government reached a conclusion. The results: Qian’s death was merely an accident and no one is at fault. There were no masked men holding down Qian. Qian had just been careless while crossing the road. His carelessness along with the wet and slippery conditions of the road that day and the driver’s lack of experience led to Qian’s gruesome demise.
CCTV, China’s main television station also interviewed the two witnesses who claimed Qian was held down by three men. In the interview the witnesses reclaimed their statements. One of the witnesses admitted that he was bribed into reporting Qian was murdered by men who promised him medical treatment for his daughter if he followed their orders.
Even with this investigations, its conclusions, and the interviews with the two witnesses, many online still remain suspicious. On the one hand, Qian’s death may have been an accident. But an accident is just too coincidental when looking at his past history with the government.
So, the 60th Annual Grammy Nominations were announced yesterday morning, and somehow it left me with more mixed emotions than I’ve felt in a long time. On the one hand, we have many reasons to celebrate this year–the 2018 list of nominees is the most diverse group in all of Grammy history, especially when it comes to Black and LGBTQIA inclusion. Jay-Z, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, and more were all (deservedly) nominated for record of the year. Kesha and Lady Gaga were both nominated for two Grammys each, and out songwriter Justin Tranter was nominated for his first award as well.
When it comes to inclusion in the entertainment industry, we’ve come a long way, and these nominees are just one example of that. Unfortunately, this progress has not been reflected within the Asian American community, as you can clearly see by the lack of Asian nominees for the 2018 Grammys. I can’t say I’m surprised, considering there aren’t really any huge Asian American names in the music industry. But it’s not because we’re not trying–it’s because those who run the system aren’t listening. This year I got the chance to discover Alice Gao, Niki Zefanya, Yaeji, and several other incredible Asian artists whose music deserves recognition–but none of them are getting the attention they deserve.
While Grammy nomination entries can by submitted by any artists/record companies with commercially released music, all submissions are reviewed by a group of over 350 experts in the fields of jazz, R&B, rock, classical, new age, and more. These experts within the Academy go through several rounds of screening, being advised to vote in up to 15 categories in their areas of expertise as well as the 4 general categories (Record of The Year, Album of the Year, Song of The Year, and Best New Artist). Unfortunately, if you are a lesser known artist in the US (aka most Asian American artists) signed to a label with more well known artists, your label will most likely submit their song/album to be considered for Grammy nomination over yours. At the end of the day, it’s pretty much a self fulfilling prophesy. Since Asian American artists are almost never well known enough to qualify for the final rounds of nomination, their work is not often submitted. As a result, Asian Americans are continuously left out of the mainstream. The whole thing is a cycle that seems to have no end.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe we should celebrate the victories we achieve, but I’m honestly so tired of writing and complaining about Asian American representation. You guys have heard it all before and I’m not here to preach the same message all over again, but my soul is tired y’all. While we should celebrate and cheer on our fellow POC, let’s remember that the entertainment industry is still far, far, from being the all inclusive community that we so desperately need.
