How should the worth of a life be weighed? For when a phenomenon like Father John P. Daly, S.J., dies, that’s a question you start asking yourself. What is a life worth? In his own over-intellectualized Harvard way, T.S. Eliot used to tantalize around that question with this unforgettable line…
Category: East Asia
Chinese Blog Blotter – Taking China Down?
The Chinese are certainly following the U.S. presidential campaign. A video of a televised Republican primary debate was circulating on the Internet, attracting the attention of up to 500 million Chinese Netizens. In this video, former U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman stated that his hope for China is to…
SOUTH KOREA: Getting Back a Few Pages of Its History
According to Yonhap News Agency, a leading English-language news source, South Korea is celebrating the Japanese return of 1,200 ancient Korean texts that were taken during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and kept by the Japanese Imperial Household Agency. Among the books is the “Uigwe,” a collection of…
CHINA: Piling-on, Mainland Style
Ai Weiwei, probably China’s most famous anti-regime artist, has been facing to blast after blast from the establishment. The list of the most recent round of his critics almost reads like a Who’s-Who in the Mainland Media. They include Hu Xijin, editor of the state-run Global Times; Wang Wen, a…
JAPAN: Trying to Get Those Outsiders to Understand
Language can represent a daunting obstacle to traveling abroad. Kyodo News, Japan’s leading nonprofit news agency, aims to diminish this barrier through the introduction of Japan Portal. According to The Japan Times, the nation’s leading English-language publication, the trilingual website was created to both convey pertinent Japanese issues to foreigners…
PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES: The Death of a Great American Professor: A Story of Scholars and Journalists
Scholars and journalists don’t always get along (right, call this Dept. of Understatement). But their need for each other is endless and often deep, even when each side bull-headedly refuses to admit it. Let’s put the matter this way: Journalists are generally scavenger birds of the moment, tweeting their view…
JAPAN: Okinawan Newspaper Puts It All on the Record
The relocation of the U.S. Futenma airbase in Okinawa continues to be a pressing issue in Japan’s political discourse. The government has been criticized for its sluggish pace and lack of definitive decisions…
SOUTH KOREA: Launch of 5 TV Channels to Shake Up Nation’s Media
On December 1st, five television channels will be launched simultaneously, beggining what some hail a new chapter in Korea’s media landscape. Four are general broadcasting networks; JoongAng Ilbo’s JTBC, Dong-A Ilbo’s Channel A, Chosun Ilbo’s TV Chosun and Maeil Business’ MBN. And the fifth is an all-news channel, Yonhap News Agency’s news Y.
NORTH KOREA: College Students Get Third Degree on Hurry-up Construction Sites
Pictures taken in North Korea by an American tourist purport to show that the country is mobilizing college students to help finish massive construction projects in time for the nation’s centennial birthday celebration of its late founder Kim Il-Sung, according to Yonhap News Agency, the leading news agency of South Korea.
China Blog Blotter – Issue #4: Nudity is Not Porn…On the Internet
Ai Weiwei, the sensational Chinese artist who often criticizes China’s government, is in trouble again. Last time, he was detained for three months for “tax evasion.” This time, an artistic photo of him and four women, all nude, titled “One Tiger, Eight Breasts” is deemed pornography. The government is now…
SOUTH KOREA: Kim In-suk’s Expat Odyssey The Long Road is Now Available in English
Kim In-Suk’s award winning 1995 novel, The Long Road, is the lone work of Korean expatriate fiction that has been translated into English.
CHINA: Confucius Institute Prospers as China Attempts to Change Foreign Misconceptions
The Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) has recently joined with seventeen other foreign universities to set up Confucius Institutes, non-profit institutions that promote Chinese language and culture internationally, in fourteen countries overseas.
NORTH KOREA: Communist Country’s Citizens Stranded Across the Middle East
North Korean citizens are stranded in the Middle East, specifically Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Kuwait. They are being prevented from returning home, for fear that they would spread news of the social unrest in the region throughout North Korea.
JAPAN: Free Speech VS. Political Correctness in Journalist’s Comments
According to the Japanese government, seventeen Japanese citizens were abducted and taken to North Korea during the 1970s and 1980s. Among those who are reportedly held by the communist nation is Keiko Arimoto. In 2009, TV Asahi, a Japanese television network, featured a debate program during which journalist Soichiro Tahara…
TAIWAN: The Taiwan Critique
Taiwanese journalists are almost up in arms over the increase in corporate involvement in its media system. They argue that corporate monopolization and political appetite are putting at risk the ability of Taiwan’s news media to support democracy via ethical and professional journalism.
SOUTH KOREA: Where Men Get Treated Like Dogs?
According to Korea JoongAng Daily, a major English-language Korean daily newspaper, two recent complaints against entertainment outlets regarding demeaning representations of men were dismissed by separate arbiters…