Danwei.org

Typhoon Malou pushed over a drilling platform off the coast of Shandong, Xinhua reports. Two people are missing.

See also: A slideshow of Xinhua photos hosted at the China Daily.

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Shenyang Evening News, September 9, 2010

The bonfire shown on the cover of today's Shenyang Evening News was lit to incinerate 7,500 kilos of bad pork.

A hundred pigs that died of illness were discovered in a corn field in Tubaozi, a village in the city's Tiexi District. Animal health officials and the police are investigating the case, which is the biggest die-off of pigs Shenyang has ever seen.

Page A3, which carries the story, is absent from the paper's electronic edition, but the website does provide a gorier, uncropped version of the front-page photo.

The top headline concerns new regulations on transparency in housing sales: developers must publicize the price, location, and layout of houses they are promoting at the sales office.

This article is from Danwei.org.

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At The Diplomat, Dan Edwards looks at the tension between commercial film and ideological goals:

China's Communist Party finds itself in a bind. Although it still views cinema as an ideological tool and maintains a tight leash on local productions, it also wants the domestic film industry to develop into a global commercial player.

So how can filmmakers navigate the apparently contradictory pressures of commercial success and politics, especially when the ideological position they’re expected to reflect is far from clear? One good guide could be in China’s most recent blockbuster—a homegrown movie that smashed box office records.

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The Economic Observer reports on a tick-borne illness that was covered up for a year and a half:

A Xinyang Health Bureau official revealed that the Xinyang City government researched how to disseminate information about the disease, and this past April the city mayor and specialists listened to a report given by the Health Department. The city officials then concluded that until they find how the pathogen is spread, they would not publicize the disease to prevent the spread of panic. However villagers told The Beijing News reporter that if the government does not announce the precise situation of the epidemic, panic is more liable to spread.

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City Sun, September 8, 2010

Today's City Sun (城市信报), a commercial morning paper published in Qingdao by the Dazhong News Group.

The paper's top story concerns the apprehension of a criminal gang that smashed up a hotel nightclub on March 27 and engaged in drug trafficking. Nie Lei, the ringleader, was arrested along with more than 130 other gang members.

Perhaps of more interest to readers is the front-page feature story, which asks "How many bottles of genuine Maotai are there in Qingdao?"

Maotai, one of China's most famous brands of alcohol, is produced in the town of Maotai, Guizhou Province. Back in 2004, a bottle of the 106-proof variety would retail for 368 RMB, but now it commonly sells for over a thousand. However, other liquor stores in Qingdao are offering deep, deep discounts on bottles labeled with the official "Kweichow Moutai" trademark. What gives?

In the three-page feature, which feels increasingly like a soft ad for the conglomerate that produces the stuff, City Sun reporters take a trip to Guizhou, where they find that the entire town, it seems, is involved in the business of producing alcohol under the Maotai brand name. Coming back to Qingdao, they learn that just one company in the city is authorized to distribute genuine, top-of-the-line Maotai.

So how many bottles of genuine Maotai are there in Qingdao? The newspaper does not arrive at a satisfactory answer.

This article is from Danwei.org.

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Rosh Hashanah - Jewish new year - starts tonight. Shana tova to our Jewish readers.

Celebrate by watching this video shot at the North Sea Jazz Festival in summer 2009: Secret Chiefs 3 joined by Wu Fei (吴非) on guzheng playing music from John Zorn's Masada series which is based on traditional Jewish music.

Video also on Tudou.

This article is from Danwei.org.

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Xinhua:

A senior Chinese military officer said Tuesday that China attached great importance to the military relations with Myanmar.

Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Chen Bingde made the remarks when meeting with Thura U Shwe Mann, member of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar.

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James T. Areddy in :

Ladislav Hudec [was a] a Slovak who arrived in Shanghai as a World War I refugee. Or was he Hungarian?

The film “The Man Who Changed Shanghai” chronicles Hudec’s life and his impact on the cityscape during its most iconic period. In his 30-year career, all but one of Hudec’s 65 structures was in China.

Written and directed by Slovakia’s Ladislav Kabos for Media Film and Slovak Television, the film peers through Hudec’s own eyes. Rediscovered photos and 16mm film shot by Hudec document his travel between Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, the U.S., Japan and China.

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Li Shuang in The Global Times:

Controversial plans to redevelop the historic Gulou Drum Tower hutong area into a tourism attraction have been placed on hold after the merger of Dongcheng and Chongwen districts into a combined new Dongcheng district government.

Extensive plans to "restore" Gulou into something dubbed "Time Cultural City" by the former Dongcheng district director Yang Yiwen have all been shelved, according to a government insider who requested anonymity.

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Reuters:

A powerful Chinese film on the plight of political prisoners condemned to forced labor camps in the late 1950s wooed critics in Venice on Monday, with some tipping it as a strong contender for the festival's top prize.

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