Asia Blog: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam

Chotiros Suriyawong, know as Amy in Western circles, appeared wearing a stunning evening gown for Thailand’s version of the Oscars.  Unfortunately, her dress did not meet local moral standards and she has been sentenced to community service, and dropped from the casting of her next movie.  She has also been ordered to make a public apology.

Here are a couple photos of her dress that evening–you’ve seen the same worn by plenty of American and British actresses going up for their awards:

In this next one you can tell the camera man is totally enthralled by her dress:

Yes, the dress is very sexy, but it’s also fairly modest and sophisticated, with a long skirt.  If it weren’t for that slit running top to bottom there would be no problem… and nothing to distinguish it from every other black evening gown.  It’s only by taking risks with fashion that you can shock and impress the people around you.  If you wear what society expects, you’re not making progress.

Dare to go against the norm!  Be unique and special!

Did you know that for running a relatively unprofitable pornography site in China, you could receive a life sentence? Eight of his associates also received prison terms of up to 10 years. The site, Qingseliuyuetian (Pornographic Summer) was China’s largest, featuring nearly 10 million media items and 600,000 users.

Xinhua reported that police said it was difficult to know the exact amount of profits the Web site earned. Police found about 200,000 yuan ($25,000) in the bank accounts of the nine.

The government encourages Internet use for education and business, but strictly controls content and tries to block access to material deemed pornographic or subversive.

Interestingly, the internet is only about 3% porn, according to some unknown study I read recently.  Why is this such a big focus for China, then?

Sometimes the most interesting news is the worst kind of news.

As you know, in 1951 the People’s Republic of China asserted control over Tibet, forcing them to sign a 17-point agreement. Before that, Tibet existed as a sovereign nation. However, Tibetan exiles say that 1.2 million people have died as a direct result of the “Great Leap Forward,” which China denies. Living conditions in Tibet are also considered substandard as a result of Chinese rule.

Yesterday, Boing Boing collected a series of stories detailing how Tibetan refugees were shot crossing the border. Stranger yet is that China admits that the PLA killed some of the refugees:

China admitted that its soldiers killed a person who was trying to flee Tibet, but the official account contradicted eyewitness reports that the troops had shot at unarmed refugees. The state-run Xinhua news agency released a short report of the September 30 incident that occurred near Mt Everest, saying soldiers had found nearly 70 people trying to illegally cross the Tibetan border into Nepal.

Interestingly enough, there is actually video footage of the atrocity:

The video footage, taken by a Romanian cameraman who was at advance base camp on Mount Cho Oyo at the time, depicts a line of Tibetans walking uphill through the snow on the Nangpa Pass when a shot is heard and one of the figures falls to the ground. The video clearly depicts that the Tibetans had their backs to the soldiers, were unarmed, and offered no resistance. The nun who died, Kelsang Namtso, appears to have been shot in the back.

I have no idea what can be done about this, but given China’s poor human rights record, this will just keep on happening. It’s the classic Machiavellian state–do what you need to to browbeat the people, assert power, and silence dissidents.

There’s something strange about Malaysia. Even though most of its citizens are conservative muslims, the rest are conservative whatever-they-ares. The country is notorious for censorship. Here’s just three random examples from the BBC:

1. Malaysia outlaws unsuitable names
2. Botox ban for Malaysian Muslims
3. Kiss warning to Malaysia tourists

Tourist aren’t allowed to kiss because, “kissing and hugging [isn't] acceptable to Malaysian citizens” according to Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz. According to the 2004 Global Sex Survey by condom manufacturer Durex, Malaysian’s are the second most-virgin (losing to Vietnam), and the sixth least-sexed. So, if abstinence is the goal of censorship, the banning of public affection, and other laws in Malaysia, it’s probably working.

I wonder what would happen if you correlate things like “standard of living” and “GDP” with sexual satisfaction and cultural tolerance.  It’s probably no accident that well-to-do countries are often made up of more open societies.

While it is well known that developing nations produce large amounts of pollution which are blown by winds to neighboring countries, this picture from NASA says a thousand words:

As a giant country, China has a responsibility to the rest of the world to reduce emissions.