STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* North and South Korean naval forces exchange fire, Yonhap news agency reports
* Clash happened off their west coast, where previous skirmishes turned deadly
* N. Korean patrol ship entered S. Korean waters, prompting South to fire warning shots
* North Koreans then fired back, an unnamed South Korean defense official said
(CNN) -- North and South Korean naval forces have exchanged fire, South Korea's semi-official Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday.
The two Koreas clashed off their west coast, where previous skirmishes in 1999 and 2002 turned deadly, Yonhap reported, citing an unnamed South Korean defense official.
"No South Korean casualties were immediately reported," the official said.
He said a North Korean patrol ship crossed into South Korean waters, prompting the South's navy to fire warning shots, according to Yonhap.
"The North Koreans then fired back," the official said.
The two Koreas dispute the exact location of the sea border between their countries.
A clash in 2002 followed a series of incursions by navy ships from North Korea into South Korean waters. At least four South Korean sailors died in that incident and nine others were wounded.
In June 1999, several border violations by North Korean ships sparked the first naval clash between the two Koreas since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Backpacker’s Guide to Narita Airport
You can save around 1500 yen when you purchase the JR’s Narita Express & a Suica card combo if your purchase it at the airport. It’s a special deal only for those who can present a foreign passport at the time of purchase.
Watch this video for details on where and how you can get it:
It’s a great deal and is highly recommended. Just keep in mind you might be getting off the train at one of the busiest stations in the world.
Watch this video for details on where and how you can get it:
It’s a great deal and is highly recommended. Just keep in mind you might be getting off the train at one of the busiest stations in the world.
Kuril dispute affects trade relations - Russian PM
27/02/200716:00
TOKYO, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's prime minister urged Japan Tuesday not to allow a long-standing territorial dispute block bilateral trade or hinder economic relations.
Russia and Japan have contested the ownership of the Kuril Islands for over 60 years. Japan maintains that their seizure by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II was illegal, and the dispute has kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty.
"This [territorial] issue must not be a source of contention," Mikhail Fradkov said, speaking on trade and economic prospects.
Fradkov is leading a delegation that arrived in Tokyo Tuesday on a two-day official visit to determine new ways of developing and enhancing trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation between Russia and Japan.
Fradkov said that Japanese public opinion has made trade and economic relations contingent on the resolution of the territorial dispute
He said the dispute could be settled by working diligently, but that any solution would take time.
"A solution must develop as we advance to new levels of cooperation, primarily in trade and economic relations," Fradkov said.
In the Treaty of San Francisco signed by Japan and the Allied Powers in 1951, which formally ended WWII, Japan renounced its rights to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. However, the four southern Kuril Islands were not specifically mentioned in the treaty, which was not signed by the Soviet Union.
Last year, Russia offered to return to Japan the Shikotan and Khabomai islands, with a combined area of just 276 square kilometers (172 square miles), or 6% of the disputed territory, on the condition that Tokyo renounce its claims to the two larger islands, Iturup and Kunashir, whose combined area totals 4,629 square kilometers (2,890 square miles).
Japan rejected the proposal, claiming its right to all four islands.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
TOKYO, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's prime minister urged Japan Tuesday not to allow a long-standing territorial dispute block bilateral trade or hinder economic relations.
Russia and Japan have contested the ownership of the Kuril Islands for over 60 years. Japan maintains that their seizure by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II was illegal, and the dispute has kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty.
"This [territorial] issue must not be a source of contention," Mikhail Fradkov said, speaking on trade and economic prospects.
Fradkov is leading a delegation that arrived in Tokyo Tuesday on a two-day official visit to determine new ways of developing and enhancing trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation between Russia and Japan.
Fradkov said that Japanese public opinion has made trade and economic relations contingent on the resolution of the territorial dispute
He said the dispute could be settled by working diligently, but that any solution would take time.
"A solution must develop as we advance to new levels of cooperation, primarily in trade and economic relations," Fradkov said.
In the Treaty of San Francisco signed by Japan and the Allied Powers in 1951, which formally ended WWII, Japan renounced its rights to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. However, the four southern Kuril Islands were not specifically mentioned in the treaty, which was not signed by the Soviet Union.
Last year, Russia offered to return to Japan the Shikotan and Khabomai islands, with a combined area of just 276 square kilometers (172 square miles), or 6% of the disputed territory, on the condition that Tokyo renounce its claims to the two larger islands, Iturup and Kunashir, whose combined area totals 4,629 square kilometers (2,890 square miles).
Japan rejected the proposal, claiming its right to all four islands.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
Kuril issue should not spoil Russia-Japan relations - Kamynin
18/10/200719:42
MOSCOW, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - Cooperation between Russia and Japan should not suffer from the unresolved territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
Russia and Japan have disputed ownership of the southern Kuril Islands, in Russia's Far East, for over 60 years. Japan maintains that their seizure at the end of WWII was illegal, and the dispute has kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty.
"The comprehensive cooperation between Russia and Japan should not be a hostage of the territorial issue, which is the only complication in our relations," Mikhail Kamynin said.
Next week, on October 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will arrive in Tokyo on a two-day official visit.
"We hope that the forthcoming visit will continue the course assumed by both countries toward the expansion of cooperation on a broad variety of issues, and will help to improve mutual understanding and trust between Russia and Japan," Kamynin said.
During the visit, Lavrov will meet for the first time with his Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura. The 65-year-old former defense minister was appointed foreign minister on September 25 in a government reshuffle.
In the Treaty of San Francisco signed by Japan and the Allied Powers in 1951, which formally ended WWII, Japan renounced its rights to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. However, the four southern Kuril Islands were not specifically mentioned in the treaty, which was not signed by the Soviet Union.
Last year, Russia offered to return to Japan the Shikotan and Khabomai islands, with a combined area of just 276 square kilometers (172 square miles), or 6% of the disputed territory, on the condition that Tokyo renounce its claims to the two larger islands, Iturup and Kunashir, whose combined area totals 4,629 square kilometers (2,890 square miles). Japan rejected the proposal, claiming its right to all four islands.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
MOSCOW, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - Cooperation between Russia and Japan should not suffer from the unresolved territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
Russia and Japan have disputed ownership of the southern Kuril Islands, in Russia's Far East, for over 60 years. Japan maintains that their seizure at the end of WWII was illegal, and the dispute has kept the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty.
"The comprehensive cooperation between Russia and Japan should not be a hostage of the territorial issue, which is the only complication in our relations," Mikhail Kamynin said.
Next week, on October 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will arrive in Tokyo on a two-day official visit.
"We hope that the forthcoming visit will continue the course assumed by both countries toward the expansion of cooperation on a broad variety of issues, and will help to improve mutual understanding and trust between Russia and Japan," Kamynin said.
During the visit, Lavrov will meet for the first time with his Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura. The 65-year-old former defense minister was appointed foreign minister on September 25 in a government reshuffle.
In the Treaty of San Francisco signed by Japan and the Allied Powers in 1951, which formally ended WWII, Japan renounced its rights to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. However, the four southern Kuril Islands were not specifically mentioned in the treaty, which was not signed by the Soviet Union.
Last year, Russia offered to return to Japan the Shikotan and Khabomai islands, with a combined area of just 276 square kilometers (172 square miles), or 6% of the disputed territory, on the condition that Tokyo renounce its claims to the two larger islands, Iturup and Kunashir, whose combined area totals 4,629 square kilometers (2,890 square miles). Japan rejected the proposal, claiming its right to all four islands.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
Russia, Japan to continue efforts to end Kuril Islands dispute
05/11/200810:31
TOKYO, November 5 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian and Japanese foreign ministers agreed on Wednesday to continue their efforts to conclude a peace treaty marking a formal end to World War II.
The 60-year dispute over the South Kuril Islands, Japanese territory annexed by the Soviet Union after World War II, has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a peace treaty, and has been a major obstacle to closer cooperation in areas such as energy.
During his visit to Japan, Sergei Lavrov told his Japanese counterpart, Hirofumi Nakasone, that Russia and Japan should be guided by their leaders' agreed aim of finding a "mutually acceptable" solution to the territorial dispute over the islands.
Lavrov said the two countries would continue the dialogue in an effort to "strengthen bilateral ties, trust and mutual understanding," adding that "this is the very best way to find an acceptable solution."
The Japanese foreign minister called on both countries to reach a deal that would contribute to developing the Russian-Japanese relations in economy and other spheres.
Russia and Japan are preparing a host of agreements regarding nuclear energy, space, visa facilitation and criminal proceedings.
The foreign ministers also discussed the global financial crisis, which has toppled Western banks and pushed developed economies toward recession.
"The governments of the Asia Pacific Region have a great amount of free financial resources, making [the region] one of the key players in the search for answers to the challenges the world is facing today," Lavrov said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru schedule for November 22-23.
Russia believes that the principles developed in a new security treaty for Europe, which Medvedev first suggested to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in June, could also apply to the Asia-Pacific region, Lavrov said.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
TOKYO, November 5 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian and Japanese foreign ministers agreed on Wednesday to continue their efforts to conclude a peace treaty marking a formal end to World War II.
The 60-year dispute over the South Kuril Islands, Japanese territory annexed by the Soviet Union after World War II, has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a peace treaty, and has been a major obstacle to closer cooperation in areas such as energy.
During his visit to Japan, Sergei Lavrov told his Japanese counterpart, Hirofumi Nakasone, that Russia and Japan should be guided by their leaders' agreed aim of finding a "mutually acceptable" solution to the territorial dispute over the islands.
Lavrov said the two countries would continue the dialogue in an effort to "strengthen bilateral ties, trust and mutual understanding," adding that "this is the very best way to find an acceptable solution."
The Japanese foreign minister called on both countries to reach a deal that would contribute to developing the Russian-Japanese relations in economy and other spheres.
Russia and Japan are preparing a host of agreements regarding nuclear energy, space, visa facilitation and criminal proceedings.
The foreign ministers also discussed the global financial crisis, which has toppled Western banks and pushed developed economies toward recession.
"The governments of the Asia Pacific Region have a great amount of free financial resources, making [the region] one of the key players in the search for answers to the challenges the world is facing today," Lavrov said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru schedule for November 22-23.
Russia believes that the principles developed in a new security treaty for Europe, which Medvedev first suggested to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in June, could also apply to the Asia-Pacific region, Lavrov said.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
Russian State Duma calls peace talks with Japan 'senseless'
24/06/200920:19
MOSCOW, June 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's lower house of parliament adopted a statement on Wednesday declaring peace treaty talks with Japan pointless unless Tokyo cancels amendments to a law on the disputed Kuril Islands.
On June 11, the lower chamber of the Japanese parliament amended a bill on what Japan calls the Northern Territories, declaring the islands "the historical territory of Japan" and demanding action for their swift return.
The State Duma reacted on Wednesday by saying that the Japanese decision meant that "Efforts to resolve the peace treaty issue have no political or practical perspectives."
The statement added that the amendments left the Japanese government no room for maneuver in dialogue with Russia.
Russia and Japan have yet to sign a formal treaty ending World War II hostilities, due to the dispute over the four South Kuril Islands, former Japanese territory annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of the war.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has earlier ruled out the possibility of returning the territories to Japan.
"It is well known that the Southern Kuril Islands were transferred to Russia in the end of the World War II on legal grounds," the Foreign Ministry said. "For this reason, this issue was not, is not and will not be a subject for discussion."
MOSCOW, June 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's lower house of parliament adopted a statement on Wednesday declaring peace treaty talks with Japan pointless unless Tokyo cancels amendments to a law on the disputed Kuril Islands.
On June 11, the lower chamber of the Japanese parliament amended a bill on what Japan calls the Northern Territories, declaring the islands "the historical territory of Japan" and demanding action for their swift return.
The State Duma reacted on Wednesday by saying that the Japanese decision meant that "Efforts to resolve the peace treaty issue have no political or practical perspectives."
The statement added that the amendments left the Japanese government no room for maneuver in dialogue with Russia.
Russia and Japan have yet to sign a formal treaty ending World War II hostilities, due to the dispute over the four South Kuril Islands, former Japanese territory annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of the war.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has earlier ruled out the possibility of returning the territories to Japan.
"It is well known that the Southern Kuril Islands were transferred to Russia in the end of the World War II on legal grounds," the Foreign Ministry said. "For this reason, this issue was not, is not and will not be a subject for discussion."
Russian analyst plays down Japan's new claim on Russian islands
03/07/200918:55
MOSCOW, June 3 (RIA Novosti) - A new law passed by Japan's parliament calling the south Kuril islands a part of Japan is merely a propaganda move, as Russia has no plans to hand the islands over, a Russian expert on the issue said on Friday.
Japan's upper house of parliament passed a bill earlier in the day calling the four islands, which were annexed by the Soviet Union after World War II, an "integral part of Japan." The bill had been approved by the lower house in June.
"Their position is absolutely rigid, and does not allow for any compromise - this is yet another gesture that I think has a major propaganda factor - in any event we will not hand these islands over to Japan in the foreseeable future," Prof. Vladimir Alpatov, deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti.
Alpatov said the bill was an internal issue for Japan, and had no standing in international law.
"I think this conflict will remain frozen for many years and decades... The Japanese now see us as a weak state, but not so weak that Japan can dictate its conditions. Clearly, there can be no military conflict, and Russia has no intention of handing over the islands through peaceful means."
The dispute over the islands has so far prevented the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty.
MOSCOW, June 3 (RIA Novosti) - A new law passed by Japan's parliament calling the south Kuril islands a part of Japan is merely a propaganda move, as Russia has no plans to hand the islands over, a Russian expert on the issue said on Friday.
Japan's upper house of parliament passed a bill earlier in the day calling the four islands, which were annexed by the Soviet Union after World War II, an "integral part of Japan." The bill had been approved by the lower house in June.
"Their position is absolutely rigid, and does not allow for any compromise - this is yet another gesture that I think has a major propaganda factor - in any event we will not hand these islands over to Japan in the foreseeable future," Prof. Vladimir Alpatov, deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti.
Alpatov said the bill was an internal issue for Japan, and had no standing in international law.
"I think this conflict will remain frozen for many years and decades... The Japanese now see us as a weak state, but not so weak that Japan can dictate its conditions. Clearly, there can be no military conflict, and Russia has no intention of handing over the islands through peaceful means."
The dispute over the islands has so far prevented the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty.
Russia's row with Japan over disputed islands escalates
07/07/200911:36
MOSCOW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's upper house of parliament has called Japan's renewed claims on the Kuril islands an "insult to the Russian people," and called for the visa-free travel regime between the islands and Japan to be ended.
Japan's upper house passed a law last Friday calling the four southern islands of the Kuril chain Japanese territory. The islands were annexed by the Soviet Union after WWII.
Russia's Federation Council said in a statement released on Tuesday that it had asked the president to consider ending the visa-free system between Japan and the islands, which has been in force since 1992.
The house has also asked the president "to consider other measures to prevent provocative actions from the Japanese side."
The new amendments passed by Japan's upper house, a month after they had been approved by the lower house, apply to a 1982 law on "special measures for forcing a decision on the problem of the Northern Territories [Japan's term for the islands]," calling them an "integral part of Japan."
The dispute over the islands has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty.
The Russian senators' statement called the passing of the new law "an extremely unfriendly gesture, and an insult to the Russian people, who have always sought good relations with Japan."
Asked about Russia's plans to end the visa-free system at a press conference on Tuesday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said: "We have received no such official information. But taking into account that this issue was decided on the basis of mutual agreement between the countries' foreign ministries, we hope that the Russian side will react appropriately."
A Russian expert on the issue said on Friday that Japan's new law on the Kurils is merely a propaganda move.
"Their position is absolutely rigid, and does not allow for any compromise - this is yet another gesture that I think has a major propaganda factor - in any event we will not hand these islands over to Japan in the foreseeable future," Prof. Vladimir Alpatov, deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti.
Alpatov said the bill was an internal issue for Japan, and had no standing in international law.
"I think this conflict will remain frozen for many years and decades... The Japanese now see us as a weak state, but not so weak that Japan can dictate its conditions. Clearly, there can be no military conflict, and Russia has no intention of handing over the islands through peaceful means."
© RIA Novosti, 2008
MOSCOW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's upper house of parliament has called Japan's renewed claims on the Kuril islands an "insult to the Russian people," and called for the visa-free travel regime between the islands and Japan to be ended.
Japan's upper house passed a law last Friday calling the four southern islands of the Kuril chain Japanese territory. The islands were annexed by the Soviet Union after WWII.
Russia's Federation Council said in a statement released on Tuesday that it had asked the president to consider ending the visa-free system between Japan and the islands, which has been in force since 1992.
The house has also asked the president "to consider other measures to prevent provocative actions from the Japanese side."
The new amendments passed by Japan's upper house, a month after they had been approved by the lower house, apply to a 1982 law on "special measures for forcing a decision on the problem of the Northern Territories [Japan's term for the islands]," calling them an "integral part of Japan."
The dispute over the islands has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty.
The Russian senators' statement called the passing of the new law "an extremely unfriendly gesture, and an insult to the Russian people, who have always sought good relations with Japan."
Asked about Russia's plans to end the visa-free system at a press conference on Tuesday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said: "We have received no such official information. But taking into account that this issue was decided on the basis of mutual agreement between the countries' foreign ministries, we hope that the Russian side will react appropriately."
A Russian expert on the issue said on Friday that Japan's new law on the Kurils is merely a propaganda move.
"Their position is absolutely rigid, and does not allow for any compromise - this is yet another gesture that I think has a major propaganda factor - in any event we will not hand these islands over to Japan in the foreseeable future," Prof. Vladimir Alpatov, deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti.
Alpatov said the bill was an internal issue for Japan, and had no standing in international law.
"I think this conflict will remain frozen for many years and decades... The Japanese now see us as a weak state, but not so weak that Japan can dictate its conditions. Clearly, there can be no military conflict, and Russia has no intention of handing over the islands through peaceful means."
© RIA Novosti, 2008
Russian observers to attend land-based military drills in Japan
25/09/200906:28
TOKYO, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military officials will attend exercises of Japan's ground self-defense forces for the first time in the history of relations between the two countries, a Russian diplomatic source told RIA Novosti on Friday.
A group of Russian military observers has been invited to monitor the drills of the 7th tank division, which is part of the Northern Army deployed on the island of Hokkaido.
"It is the first visit of Russian military observers for land-based exercises of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). It is important to note that the drills will be held on Japan's most northern island, which is the closest to the Russian border," the source at the Russian embassy in Japan told RIA Novosti.
"The fact that the Russian officials were given access to the 'sanctum sanctorum' of the JSDF - the Northern Army could be rightfully called a historic event," the source added.
According to the source, the visit will continue from September 28 until October 2. The Russian military officials will monitor live-firing drills conducted by the 7th tank division, and visit the headquarters of the Northern Army.
The first official contacts between the Russian and Japanese defense ministries date back to 1993. The countries signed a "Memorandum on creating a foundation for the development of dialogue and contacts" in 1999, which was renewed in 2006.
The document envisions consultations between the respective defense ministries, exchange visits of observers and warships and joint sea search-and-rescue drills.
Japanese military observers attended for the first time Russian military exercises in the Leningrad military district in September last year.
The lengthy dispute over the four southern Kuril islands has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal WWII peace treaty. The islands were annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of the war.
In 2006 Russia offered to return to Japan the Shikotan and Khabomai islands, with a combined area of just 276 square kilometers (172 square miles), or 6% of the disputed territory, on the condition that Tokyo renounced its claims to the two larger islands, Iturup and Kunashir, whose combined area totals 4,629 square kilometers (2,890 square miles).
Japan rejected the proposal, insisting on its right to all four islands. Japan's parliament infuriated Russia in June by passing a law declaring the islands Japanese territory.
However, new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has recently told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he wants to resolve a territorial dispute with Russia and conclude a peace agreement.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
TOKYO, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military officials will attend exercises of Japan's ground self-defense forces for the first time in the history of relations between the two countries, a Russian diplomatic source told RIA Novosti on Friday.
A group of Russian military observers has been invited to monitor the drills of the 7th tank division, which is part of the Northern Army deployed on the island of Hokkaido.
"It is the first visit of Russian military observers for land-based exercises of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). It is important to note that the drills will be held on Japan's most northern island, which is the closest to the Russian border," the source at the Russian embassy in Japan told RIA Novosti.
"The fact that the Russian officials were given access to the 'sanctum sanctorum' of the JSDF - the Northern Army could be rightfully called a historic event," the source added.
According to the source, the visit will continue from September 28 until October 2. The Russian military officials will monitor live-firing drills conducted by the 7th tank division, and visit the headquarters of the Northern Army.
The first official contacts between the Russian and Japanese defense ministries date back to 1993. The countries signed a "Memorandum on creating a foundation for the development of dialogue and contacts" in 1999, which was renewed in 2006.
The document envisions consultations between the respective defense ministries, exchange visits of observers and warships and joint sea search-and-rescue drills.
Japanese military observers attended for the first time Russian military exercises in the Leningrad military district in September last year.
The lengthy dispute over the four southern Kuril islands has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal WWII peace treaty. The islands were annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of the war.
In 2006 Russia offered to return to Japan the Shikotan and Khabomai islands, with a combined area of just 276 square kilometers (172 square miles), or 6% of the disputed territory, on the condition that Tokyo renounced its claims to the two larger islands, Iturup and Kunashir, whose combined area totals 4,629 square kilometers (2,890 square miles).
Japan rejected the proposal, insisting on its right to all four islands. Japan's parliament infuriated Russia in June by passing a law declaring the islands Japanese territory.
However, new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has recently told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he wants to resolve a territorial dispute with Russia and conclude a peace agreement.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
Putin says Japan must agree to Russia's terms for peace treaty
14/05/200910:06
ULAN BATOR, May 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will only sign a formal peace treaty with Japan on terms that meet Moscow's interests, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
Russia and Japan have yet to sign a formal treaty ending World War II hostilities, due to their territorial dispute over the four South Kuril Islands, former Japanese territory annexed by the Soviet Union after the war.
"This [peace treaty] can only be done in a way that will meet the national interests of the Russian Federation," Putin told reporters.
He said the content of a peace treaty would be a focus of future bilateral negotiations.
The premier said on Tuesday that President Dmitry Medvedev would discuss territorial issues and a formal peace treaty with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso at the upcoming G8 summit in Italy.
Putin visited Tokyo on Tuesday to discuss the long-standing dispute, along with economic, energy and international issues.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
ULAN BATOR, May 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will only sign a formal peace treaty with Japan on terms that meet Moscow's interests, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
Russia and Japan have yet to sign a formal treaty ending World War II hostilities, due to their territorial dispute over the four South Kuril Islands, former Japanese territory annexed by the Soviet Union after the war.
"This [peace treaty] can only be done in a way that will meet the national interests of the Russian Federation," Putin told reporters.
He said the content of a peace treaty would be a focus of future bilateral negotiations.
The premier said on Tuesday that President Dmitry Medvedev would discuss territorial issues and a formal peace treaty with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso at the upcoming G8 summit in Italy.
Putin visited Tokyo on Tuesday to discuss the long-standing dispute, along with economic, energy and international issues.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
The history of the Kuril Islands Dispute
01/05/200913:29
1855. Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimoda, marking the beginning of bilateral diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Russian-Japanese border passed between the islands of Iturup (Etorofu) and Urup (Uruppu), both part of the Kuril Islands. Subsequently, Japan established control over the disputed islands of Iturup, Kunashir (Kunashiri), Shikotan and Khabomai (Habomai), while Sakhalin Island remained under joint jurisdiction.
1875. Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of St. Petersburg ceding all Kuril Islands to Japan. In exchange, Japan recognized Russian jurisdiction over Sakhalin Island.
1905. Russia was defeated in the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. Under the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japan established control over Sakhalin Island south of 50 degrees north latitude (the fiftieth parallel).
1945. The final year of World War II. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and occupied southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
1951. The San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan was officially signed by 49 nations. Japan renounced claims to the Kuril Islands. The Soviet Union refused to sign the treaty. The government of Japan later said age-old Japanese territories, namely, the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai, were not included in the term "Kuril Islands" mentioned by the Treaty.
1956. The Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration brought an end to the state of war between both nations. Moscow agreed to cede the islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan after the conclusion of a bilateral peace treaty. However, the treaty was not signed because the government of Japan demanded that the Soviet Union cede all four islands.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
1855. Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimoda, marking the beginning of bilateral diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Russian-Japanese border passed between the islands of Iturup (Etorofu) and Urup (Uruppu), both part of the Kuril Islands. Subsequently, Japan established control over the disputed islands of Iturup, Kunashir (Kunashiri), Shikotan and Khabomai (Habomai), while Sakhalin Island remained under joint jurisdiction.
1875. Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of St. Petersburg ceding all Kuril Islands to Japan. In exchange, Japan recognized Russian jurisdiction over Sakhalin Island.
1905. Russia was defeated in the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. Under the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japan established control over Sakhalin Island south of 50 degrees north latitude (the fiftieth parallel).
1945. The final year of World War II. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and occupied southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
1951. The San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan was officially signed by 49 nations. Japan renounced claims to the Kuril Islands. The Soviet Union refused to sign the treaty. The government of Japan later said age-old Japanese territories, namely, the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai, were not included in the term "Kuril Islands" mentioned by the Treaty.
1956. The Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration brought an end to the state of war between both nations. Moscow agreed to cede the islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan after the conclusion of a bilateral peace treaty. However, the treaty was not signed because the government of Japan demanded that the Soviet Union cede all four islands.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
Russia says Japan's bill on Southern Kurils 'unacceptable'
11/06/200920:49
MOSCOW, June 11 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday a bill on the return of the disputed Southern Kuril Islands going through the Japanese parliament was "inappropriate and unacceptable."
"Such a move by the Japanese side is inappropriate and unacceptable," the Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow and Tokyo have sparred for 60 years over the four South Kuril Islands, former Japanese territory annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.
Earlier on Tuesday, the lower chamber of the Japanese parliament amended a bill on what Japan calls the Northern Territories, declaring the islands "historic territory of Japan" and demanding steps for their swift return.
The ministry ruled out the possibility of returning the territories to Japan.
"It is well known that the Southern Kuril Islands were transferred to Russia in the end of the World War II on legal grounds," the Foreign Ministry said. "For this reason, this issue was not, is not and will not be a subject for discussion."
The ministry expressed its concern over the recent moves by Tokyo that "seem to escalate its illegal territorial claims to Russia."
"First of all, unacceptable statements on 'the illegal occupation of Southern Kurils by Russia' were made, now the idea of their 'return' is being obtrusively voiced by the parliament," the statement said.
In late May, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso made remarks on the "ongoing occupation" of the South Kuril Islands by Russia, which provoked Russia's indignation.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow would only sign a formal peace treaty with Tokyo on terms that meet Russia's interests.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
MOSCOW, June 11 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday a bill on the return of the disputed Southern Kuril Islands going through the Japanese parliament was "inappropriate and unacceptable."
"Such a move by the Japanese side is inappropriate and unacceptable," the Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow and Tokyo have sparred for 60 years over the four South Kuril Islands, former Japanese territory annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.
Earlier on Tuesday, the lower chamber of the Japanese parliament amended a bill on what Japan calls the Northern Territories, declaring the islands "historic territory of Japan" and demanding steps for their swift return.
The ministry ruled out the possibility of returning the territories to Japan.
"It is well known that the Southern Kuril Islands were transferred to Russia in the end of the World War II on legal grounds," the Foreign Ministry said. "For this reason, this issue was not, is not and will not be a subject for discussion."
The ministry expressed its concern over the recent moves by Tokyo that "seem to escalate its illegal territorial claims to Russia."
"First of all, unacceptable statements on 'the illegal occupation of Southern Kurils by Russia' were made, now the idea of their 'return' is being obtrusively voiced by the parliament," the statement said.
In late May, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso made remarks on the "ongoing occupation" of the South Kuril Islands by Russia, which provoked Russia's indignation.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow would only sign a formal peace treaty with Tokyo on terms that meet Russia's interests.
© RIA Novosti, 2008
Russians in Far East protest Japan's claim to Kuril Islands
10/07/200913:14
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - About 750 residents of the Far Eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk protested on Friday against Japan's claim to four disputed Pacific islands.
The Japanese parliament on July 3 declared the four southern islands of the Kuril chain as "historical" Japanese territory. President Dmitry Medvedev told Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday that the move did not create an atmosphere of trust in which to resolve the long-running dispute.
Organizers said no political party was behind the gathering. Among those who addressed the crowd were World War II veterans and members of the city's nongovernmental organizations.
"The islands were, are and will be ours," said Yuri Andreyev, acting chairman of the city's council of WWII veterans.
The islands were annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and the dispute has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty.
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - About 750 residents of the Far Eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk protested on Friday against Japan's claim to four disputed Pacific islands.
The Japanese parliament on July 3 declared the four southern islands of the Kuril chain as "historical" Japanese territory. President Dmitry Medvedev told Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday that the move did not create an atmosphere of trust in which to resolve the long-running dispute.
Organizers said no political party was behind the gathering. Among those who addressed the crowd were World War II veterans and members of the city's nongovernmental organizations.
"The islands were, are and will be ours," said Yuri Andreyev, acting chairman of the city's council of WWII veterans.
The islands were annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and the dispute has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty.
Russian-Japanese tug-of-war over Kurils
10/07/200916:09
MOSCOW. (Andrei Kuznetsov for RIA Novosti) - The head-on clash between Russia and Japan over the so-called Northern Territories was bound to happen, sooner or later.
At their bilateral meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, during the G8 summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso exchanged opinions on the dispute that has darkened bilateral relations since the early 1950s. Medvedev was quite diplomatic, while Aso was uncharacteristically harsh.
According to The Japan Times, the territorial dispute, which dates back to 1945, has seen no significant progress in decades, but Medvedev promised Aso earlier this year that they would meet at the G8 summit to discuss ways to resolve the stalemate.
Preparations for the summit did not bode any real problems. Early this year, high-ranking Japanese diplomats said off the record that Aso would not promise anything new on the territorial dispute, and did not expect any breakthrough proposals from Medvedev.
But the situation worsened shortly before the meeting. The lower house of Japan's parliament adopted amendments to the 1982 law on special measures to facilitate the solution of the Northern Territories question, with the upper house approving it on July 2. According to the law, the four South Kuril Islands belong to Japan.
The Northern Territories is the Japanese name for the South Kuril Islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai Archipelago, whose return to Japan is presented as the condition for signing a peace treaty with Russia.
The actions of Japanese parliament, even though very few local media reported the event, have provoked a negative reaction in Russia.
The lower and upper houses of Russia's parliament issued harsh statements proposing to ratify the San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan, signed in 1951, which officially renounced, among other things, Japan's rights to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island.
At the same time, the administrations of the Kuril and South Kuril regions announced the termination of the visa-free regime with Japan.
President Medvedev said during his meeting with Prime Minister Aso yesterday that any discussion on a peace treaty and territorial problems requires the appropriate atmosphere.
"This atmosphere has not improved lately after a number of steps by the Japanese side, which have heightened emotions," Medvedev's foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters.
Medvedev said the Russian parliament's upper house insisted that the Japanese parliament's decision should be disavowed. "This does not mean that we will stop all contacts, but either side should take steps towards the other," he said.
Seeing that Russia has again resorted to diplomatic defense and is unwilling either to allow a solution according to a Japanese scenario (that is, return the islands to Japan), or to offend the partners with a lack of concessions, Taro Aso launched an offensive.
"Japan cannot be satisfied with this situation," he said. "Unless Russia takes practical steps to sign a peace treaty, we will be unable to develop partner relations with it in the Asia-Pacific region."
In other words, Russia must make territorial concessions to Japan.
When the Russian president said that there is often more understanding between Russian and Japanese businessmen than between politicians, Aso retorted: "In the absence of political change, the Japanese business quarters may stall on issues of [joint] development of Russia's East Siberia."
Clearly, the Japanese premier meant that there would be no economic cooperation in Russia's Far East without progress in the solution of the territorial problems.
This is a big threat, given the impressive results of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's recent "economic" visit to Japan. Aso has threatened to stop or halt the implementation of multibillion-dollar contracts, which would seriously hamper the region's development.
But should we be frightened?
When analyzing the reasons for Aso's harsh statements, we should take into account the fact that Aso's term in office is almost over, and that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has few chances of success at the upcoming election to the lower house of parliament. So, Aso has decided to take win-or-die moves both on the domestic and foreign policy scenes in a bid to improve his party's rating.
But will Japanese businesses meekly do Aso's bidding? Will they suspend the potentially very profitable deals during the global economic downturn?
We should bear in mind that LDP's rival at the election is the main opposition Democratic Party led by Yukio Hatoyama, chairman of the Russia-Japan society, who has for years maintained close relationship with the leading Russian politicians.
If Hatoyama's party wins the election, he will become the new premier. He is unlikely to sharply change Japan's attitude to the territorial dispute, but he will certainly not be as categorical as Taro Aso.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090710/155492397.html© RIA Novosti, 2008
MOSCOW. (Andrei Kuznetsov for RIA Novosti) - The head-on clash between Russia and Japan over the so-called Northern Territories was bound to happen, sooner or later.
At their bilateral meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, during the G8 summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso exchanged opinions on the dispute that has darkened bilateral relations since the early 1950s. Medvedev was quite diplomatic, while Aso was uncharacteristically harsh.
According to The Japan Times, the territorial dispute, which dates back to 1945, has seen no significant progress in decades, but Medvedev promised Aso earlier this year that they would meet at the G8 summit to discuss ways to resolve the stalemate.
Preparations for the summit did not bode any real problems. Early this year, high-ranking Japanese diplomats said off the record that Aso would not promise anything new on the territorial dispute, and did not expect any breakthrough proposals from Medvedev.
But the situation worsened shortly before the meeting. The lower house of Japan's parliament adopted amendments to the 1982 law on special measures to facilitate the solution of the Northern Territories question, with the upper house approving it on July 2. According to the law, the four South Kuril Islands belong to Japan.
The Northern Territories is the Japanese name for the South Kuril Islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai Archipelago, whose return to Japan is presented as the condition for signing a peace treaty with Russia.
The actions of Japanese parliament, even though very few local media reported the event, have provoked a negative reaction in Russia.
The lower and upper houses of Russia's parliament issued harsh statements proposing to ratify the San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan, signed in 1951, which officially renounced, among other things, Japan's rights to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island.
At the same time, the administrations of the Kuril and South Kuril regions announced the termination of the visa-free regime with Japan.
President Medvedev said during his meeting with Prime Minister Aso yesterday that any discussion on a peace treaty and territorial problems requires the appropriate atmosphere.
"This atmosphere has not improved lately after a number of steps by the Japanese side, which have heightened emotions," Medvedev's foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters.
Medvedev said the Russian parliament's upper house insisted that the Japanese parliament's decision should be disavowed. "This does not mean that we will stop all contacts, but either side should take steps towards the other," he said.
Seeing that Russia has again resorted to diplomatic defense and is unwilling either to allow a solution according to a Japanese scenario (that is, return the islands to Japan), or to offend the partners with a lack of concessions, Taro Aso launched an offensive.
"Japan cannot be satisfied with this situation," he said. "Unless Russia takes practical steps to sign a peace treaty, we will be unable to develop partner relations with it in the Asia-Pacific region."
In other words, Russia must make territorial concessions to Japan.
When the Russian president said that there is often more understanding between Russian and Japanese businessmen than between politicians, Aso retorted: "In the absence of political change, the Japanese business quarters may stall on issues of [joint] development of Russia's East Siberia."
Clearly, the Japanese premier meant that there would be no economic cooperation in Russia's Far East without progress in the solution of the territorial problems.
This is a big threat, given the impressive results of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's recent "economic" visit to Japan. Aso has threatened to stop or halt the implementation of multibillion-dollar contracts, which would seriously hamper the region's development.
But should we be frightened?
When analyzing the reasons for Aso's harsh statements, we should take into account the fact that Aso's term in office is almost over, and that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has few chances of success at the upcoming election to the lower house of parliament. So, Aso has decided to take win-or-die moves both on the domestic and foreign policy scenes in a bid to improve his party's rating.
But will Japanese businesses meekly do Aso's bidding? Will they suspend the potentially very profitable deals during the global economic downturn?
We should bear in mind that LDP's rival at the election is the main opposition Democratic Party led by Yukio Hatoyama, chairman of the Russia-Japan society, who has for years maintained close relationship with the leading Russian politicians.
If Hatoyama's party wins the election, he will become the new premier. He is unlikely to sharply change Japan's attitude to the territorial dispute, but he will certainly not be as categorical as Taro Aso.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20090710/155492397.html© RIA Novosti, 2008
Japan to stop aid to Russia's South Kuril Islands
08/11/200906:37
TOKYO, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Japanese government has resolved to halt humanitarian aid to Russia's South Kuril Islands after the Russian side rejected it, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper said on Sunday.
The aid, provided to the islands since early 1990s, will be stopped on April 1, 2010, when the new fiscal year begins in Japan.
The aid was to help tackle social and economic problems, aggravated by the devastating quake, which hit the island in 1994.
Russia informed Japan in August that there was "no need for further Japanese humanitarian aid" to the Far Eastern islands in the center of decades-old territorial dispute.
Tokyo's continued claim over four South Kuril islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai) has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty to end World War II hostilities.
TOKYO, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Japanese government has resolved to halt humanitarian aid to Russia's South Kuril Islands after the Russian side rejected it, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper said on Sunday.
The aid, provided to the islands since early 1990s, will be stopped on April 1, 2010, when the new fiscal year begins in Japan.
The aid was to help tackle social and economic problems, aggravated by the devastating quake, which hit the island in 1994.
Russia informed Japan in August that there was "no need for further Japanese humanitarian aid" to the Far Eastern islands in the center of decades-old territorial dispute.
Tokyo's continued claim over four South Kuril islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and Habomai) has so far prevented Russia and Japan from signing a formal peace treaty to end World War II hostilities.
Japan's high-tech cemeteries
Japan, known for cutting-edge technology as well as ancestor worship, is merging the two with the latest in the funereal: card-activated crypts. (Reuters)
Seoul asks Russia to donate Siberian tigers
The government has recently requested that Russia donate three Siberian tigers in an effort to prevent the genetic isolation of the endangered animals.
The request for two male tigers and one female tiger came during a Korea-Russia environmental cooperation meeting in Moscow on Oct. 30, the Environment Ministry said yesterday. The next biennial meeting is to take place in Seoul in 2011.
"We have decided to hold a working-level meeting to discuss how and when the tigers will be donated after having found that tigers bred in zoos or elsewhere that would be donated," said a ministry official who participated in the meeting.
"We asked Russia to donate tigers born in the wild but raised in captivity, or their offspring, for enhanced genetic diversity."
The tigers, which had widely inhabited the Korean Peninsula until the early 20th century, are presently on the list of critically endangered species due to poaching and habitat destruction. Siberian tigers, most of which currently live in the Russian Far East, are also known as the Amur, Manchurian or Korean tiger.
Vice Environment Minister Lee Byung-wook first made a request for the donation in May when a high-ranking Russian environmental official visited Korea.
The request was made in a bid to prevent possible genetic problems stemming from inbreeding among some 20 tigers, which have come from the United States or North Korea and are currently bred in the Seoul Zoo.
In August, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during an environmental meeting in Russia's Irkutsk that it is an "obligation" for Russia to donate some Siberian tigers in response to Seoul's request.
Efforts have been underway to protect the endangered species since the 1940s when their population was reduced to only 20-30. Currently, the population of Siberian tigers living in the wild is estimated at 500 while the number of those bred in captivity stands at 421.
(sshluck@heraldm.com)
By Song Sang-ho
2009.11.10
The request for two male tigers and one female tiger came during a Korea-Russia environmental cooperation meeting in Moscow on Oct. 30, the Environment Ministry said yesterday. The next biennial meeting is to take place in Seoul in 2011.
"We have decided to hold a working-level meeting to discuss how and when the tigers will be donated after having found that tigers bred in zoos or elsewhere that would be donated," said a ministry official who participated in the meeting.
"We asked Russia to donate tigers born in the wild but raised in captivity, or their offspring, for enhanced genetic diversity."
The tigers, which had widely inhabited the Korean Peninsula until the early 20th century, are presently on the list of critically endangered species due to poaching and habitat destruction. Siberian tigers, most of which currently live in the Russian Far East, are also known as the Amur, Manchurian or Korean tiger.
Vice Environment Minister Lee Byung-wook first made a request for the donation in May when a high-ranking Russian environmental official visited Korea.
The request was made in a bid to prevent possible genetic problems stemming from inbreeding among some 20 tigers, which have come from the United States or North Korea and are currently bred in the Seoul Zoo.
In August, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during an environmental meeting in Russia's Irkutsk that it is an "obligation" for Russia to donate some Siberian tigers in response to Seoul's request.
Efforts have been underway to protect the endangered species since the 1940s when their population was reduced to only 20-30. Currently, the population of Siberian tigers living in the wild is estimated at 500 while the number of those bred in captivity stands at 421.
(sshluck@heraldm.com)
By Song Sang-ho
2009.11.10
Hello Kitty: A cool cat turns 35
Hello Kitty: A cool cat turns 35
The 1970s Japanese cartoon character has her paws in many enterprises all over the world.
By Sophia Kercher
November 1, 2009
Hello Kitty is all grown up.
The docile little creature with red bow and yellow button nose turns 35 today. And just look at her now! At her inception in the 1970s, few could have known that the cute cartoon would become a global phenom complete with a theme park, TV series and restaurant featuring an image of her sweet whiskered face baked into bread.
Indeed, Ms. Kitty has come a long way from her Japanese homeland. Christian Dior, Cynthia Rowley, Betsey Johnson and Kimora Lee Simmons have all hopped on the Hello Kitty pop icon bandwagon over the years, whisking the kitten around the world in high style.
But back to the beginning: Hello Kitty was created in Japan, in 1974, by Shintaro Tsuji as part of his greeting card company Sanrio. After an in-house design contest, the little Sanrio kitten was born, and Hello Kitty quickly became popular, boosting Sanrio's sales in just two years and bringing her cute "kawaii" style to coin purses, diaries, stationery and notebooks. The childlike Sanrio cat quietly made its way to the United States in 1976, only two years after she was invented, and remained relatively dormant until the 1990s. As Hello Kitty matured into her late teens she was given her first boyfriend, Dear Daniel, an equally enigmatic fellow kitten with a spiky pompadour. Daniel tends to wear blue and, like Hello Kitty, he embodies the Sanrio values of sharing and friendship.
By 1995, the Sanrio star's fans were growing up along with the fetching feline, and not without frisky behavior: The New York Times that year noted that the kitty was popular in the rave scene. Hello Kitty fans in their late teens and early 20s took to wearing such Hello Kitty merchandise as barrettes, watches and backpacks equipped with supplies for all-night parties. In 1997, Hello Kitty was suspected of having a naughty streak -- going feral, maybe? -- when a licensee introduced a Hello Kitty shoulder massager that ended up being a popular item on adult store shelves. The massager was taken off the market after a couple of years, but Hello Kitty's introduction into sexuality was born. By this time, Hello Kitty had blown up in the U.S. with the help of Grammy-winning darling Mariah Carey and other seductive celebrities who were captivated by the critter.
At the start of the millennium, Hello Kitty pitter-pattered into adulthood with an assist from top designers, who helped her develop into a regal, elegant icon while keeping her youthful charm. For Kitty's 30th anniversary, the bouncy Betsey Johnson designed a flashy, three-tiered pink dress in honor of the kitten, while the chic Cynthia Rowley created a simple yet classic Hello Kitty design for an Airstream trailer. But nowhere has Hello Kitty's foray into adulthood been more present than in her collaboration with Kimora Lee Simmons, which began in 2004.
"I thought how can we make this bigger and better than just some little notepad?" Simmons says.
Simmons, designer for Baby Phat and Simmons Jewelry Co., crafted a line of high-end jewelry featuring Hello Kitty's face plated in diamonds and platinum, selling the top-dollar designs at tony stores such as Neiman Marcus. To those unfamiliar with the lure of the brand, the success of the jewelry has been surprising, but not for the model-mom-mogul.
"Who doesn't love Kitty? Everyone from Paris Hilton to me, to Kelly Ripa, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Tyra Banks, Iman. I mean everybody loves Kitty," Simmon says. She adds that though she is a woman in her 30s she adores the timeless inner youth that the Sanrio icon represents. Simmons even designed a blue pendant of the kitten for Vogue's editor-at-large André Leon Talley.
This isn't the first time the moon-faced creature has made an impression on Vogue. Christian Dior featured his collection in Japanese Vogue in 2008 with the stubby white feline as a model for his designs. Further confirming Dior and Simmons' view of the pop icon as fit for grown-ups, a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital recently opened its doors in Taiwan. The hospital chose the cartoon theme hoping to ease the stress of childbirth and increase business. The facility features Hello Kitty baby blankets and nurses in pink uniforms with kitten-themed aprons, proof that a whimsical world follows the feline along with her maturing fans.
In Los Angeles, Hello Kitty's birthday is being celebrated with a multi-week extravaganza. A birthday party today takes place at the site of a multidimensional exhibit titled "Three Apples" -- in the lore, Hello Kitty weighs as much as three apples -- which opened Oct. 23 and runs through Nov.15. The exhibit at Culver City's Royal/T cafe and art space, features more than 80 pop artists and designers including Amanda Visell, Frank Kozik, Natalia Fabia and Simone Legno showcasing their interpretations of the feline. Several other fashion-infused events are planned as well. (See details in accompanying story.)
The wave of celebrations -- including a sushi workshop, karaoke night and a Halloween party over the last few days -- suggests that Sanrio's little kitty has come a long way from her early years as a schoolgirl obsession.
Simone Legno, the L.A.-based designer/artist of the colorful tokidoki brand, grew up in Rome glued to anime TV shows, obsessed with the Japanese. Not surprisingly, he's ecstatic at displaying his art at the show. "It's a huge honor because Hello Kitty is the most iconic cute character," Legno says.
As for the adorable Japanese kitten's future in 2010? Her popularity shows no signs of slowing. Lady Gaga was recently shot by famed photographers Markus Klinko and Indrani swathed in a remarkable gown of stuffed Hello Kittys. Janet Hsu, president of Sanrio Global Consumer Products, expects to keep welcoming up-and-coming designers to the Hello Kitty family, and knowing the little Nov. 1 Scorpio, there will be some mischief along the way.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
The 1970s Japanese cartoon character has her paws in many enterprises all over the world.
By Sophia Kercher
November 1, 2009
Hello Kitty is all grown up.
The docile little creature with red bow and yellow button nose turns 35 today. And just look at her now! At her inception in the 1970s, few could have known that the cute cartoon would become a global phenom complete with a theme park, TV series and restaurant featuring an image of her sweet whiskered face baked into bread.
Indeed, Ms. Kitty has come a long way from her Japanese homeland. Christian Dior, Cynthia Rowley, Betsey Johnson and Kimora Lee Simmons have all hopped on the Hello Kitty pop icon bandwagon over the years, whisking the kitten around the world in high style.
But back to the beginning: Hello Kitty was created in Japan, in 1974, by Shintaro Tsuji as part of his greeting card company Sanrio. After an in-house design contest, the little Sanrio kitten was born, and Hello Kitty quickly became popular, boosting Sanrio's sales in just two years and bringing her cute "kawaii" style to coin purses, diaries, stationery and notebooks. The childlike Sanrio cat quietly made its way to the United States in 1976, only two years after she was invented, and remained relatively dormant until the 1990s. As Hello Kitty matured into her late teens she was given her first boyfriend, Dear Daniel, an equally enigmatic fellow kitten with a spiky pompadour. Daniel tends to wear blue and, like Hello Kitty, he embodies the Sanrio values of sharing and friendship.
By 1995, the Sanrio star's fans were growing up along with the fetching feline, and not without frisky behavior: The New York Times that year noted that the kitty was popular in the rave scene. Hello Kitty fans in their late teens and early 20s took to wearing such Hello Kitty merchandise as barrettes, watches and backpacks equipped with supplies for all-night parties. In 1997, Hello Kitty was suspected of having a naughty streak -- going feral, maybe? -- when a licensee introduced a Hello Kitty shoulder massager that ended up being a popular item on adult store shelves. The massager was taken off the market after a couple of years, but Hello Kitty's introduction into sexuality was born. By this time, Hello Kitty had blown up in the U.S. with the help of Grammy-winning darling Mariah Carey and other seductive celebrities who were captivated by the critter.
At the start of the millennium, Hello Kitty pitter-pattered into adulthood with an assist from top designers, who helped her develop into a regal, elegant icon while keeping her youthful charm. For Kitty's 30th anniversary, the bouncy Betsey Johnson designed a flashy, three-tiered pink dress in honor of the kitten, while the chic Cynthia Rowley created a simple yet classic Hello Kitty design for an Airstream trailer. But nowhere has Hello Kitty's foray into adulthood been more present than in her collaboration with Kimora Lee Simmons, which began in 2004.
"I thought how can we make this bigger and better than just some little notepad?" Simmons says.
Simmons, designer for Baby Phat and Simmons Jewelry Co., crafted a line of high-end jewelry featuring Hello Kitty's face plated in diamonds and platinum, selling the top-dollar designs at tony stores such as Neiman Marcus. To those unfamiliar with the lure of the brand, the success of the jewelry has been surprising, but not for the model-mom-mogul.
"Who doesn't love Kitty? Everyone from Paris Hilton to me, to Kelly Ripa, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Tyra Banks, Iman. I mean everybody loves Kitty," Simmon says. She adds that though she is a woman in her 30s she adores the timeless inner youth that the Sanrio icon represents. Simmons even designed a blue pendant of the kitten for Vogue's editor-at-large André Leon Talley.
This isn't the first time the moon-faced creature has made an impression on Vogue. Christian Dior featured his collection in Japanese Vogue in 2008 with the stubby white feline as a model for his designs. Further confirming Dior and Simmons' view of the pop icon as fit for grown-ups, a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital recently opened its doors in Taiwan. The hospital chose the cartoon theme hoping to ease the stress of childbirth and increase business. The facility features Hello Kitty baby blankets and nurses in pink uniforms with kitten-themed aprons, proof that a whimsical world follows the feline along with her maturing fans.
In Los Angeles, Hello Kitty's birthday is being celebrated with a multi-week extravaganza. A birthday party today takes place at the site of a multidimensional exhibit titled "Three Apples" -- in the lore, Hello Kitty weighs as much as three apples -- which opened Oct. 23 and runs through Nov.15. The exhibit at Culver City's Royal/T cafe and art space, features more than 80 pop artists and designers including Amanda Visell, Frank Kozik, Natalia Fabia and Simone Legno showcasing their interpretations of the feline. Several other fashion-infused events are planned as well. (See details in accompanying story.)
The wave of celebrations -- including a sushi workshop, karaoke night and a Halloween party over the last few days -- suggests that Sanrio's little kitty has come a long way from her early years as a schoolgirl obsession.
Simone Legno, the L.A.-based designer/artist of the colorful tokidoki brand, grew up in Rome glued to anime TV shows, obsessed with the Japanese. Not surprisingly, he's ecstatic at displaying his art at the show. "It's a huge honor because Hello Kitty is the most iconic cute character," Legno says.
As for the adorable Japanese kitten's future in 2010? Her popularity shows no signs of slowing. Lady Gaga was recently shot by famed photographers Markus Klinko and Indrani swathed in a remarkable gown of stuffed Hello Kittys. Janet Hsu, president of Sanrio Global Consumer Products, expects to keep welcoming up-and-coming designers to the Hello Kitty family, and knowing the little Nov. 1 Scorpio, there will be some mischief along the way.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Matsui and the league that Ruth built
November 5, 2009 -- Updated 1822 GMT (0222 HKT)
The New York Yankees' Hideki Matsui is the first Japanese-born World Series MVP.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Japanese baseball book author says Babe Ruth sparked professional game in Japan
* Robert Fitts says 1934 tour by American all-stars led to first pro teams
* He says Yankees star Matsui is example for American ballplayers
* Fitts: Matsui's emphasis on perfecting and practicing technique leads to success
New York (CNN) -- To the delight of fans back home in Tokyo, Hideki Matsui drove in six of the New York Yankees' seven runs in their World Series-winning victory Wednesday and became the first Japanese-born player to win a series Most Valuable Player award. For much of his career, Matsui was a star player for the Tokyo Giants.
Matsui's key role in the series highlights the close ties between American and Japanese baseball. Playing in the Yankees' new stadium, the successor to the "House that Ruth Built," Matsui's performance brought to mind the key role that Babe Ruth played in the development of professional baseball in Japan, according to Robert Fitts, author of several books on Japanese baseball.
Fitts became a student of Japanese baseball in 1993, when his wife, an attorney, was transferred to Japan. Fitts, then working on his Ph.D. in archaeology from Brown University, was looking for something to get him immersed in Japanese culture. He wrote to 30 of the greatest Japanese ballplayers and was surprised to hear back from nearly all of them, with some sending gifts.
He's the author of "Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game" and of "Wally Yonamine," a biography of the first Japanese-American to play professional football and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan. "He was called the Jackie Robinson of Japan," Fitts said. Yonamine led the Japanese league in batting twice and won the MVP award as a center fielder for the Tokyo Giants.
CNN spoke with Fitts, who is based in New York, on Thursday.
CNN: What are your thoughts on Matsui's key role in the Yankees' victory?
Fitts: It's wonderful for Japanese baseball, of course. I would say that five years ago, maybe seven years ago, it would have been incredible, because people in America and in Japan weren't sure about the status of Japanese professional baseball. Many Americans and some in Japan thought that Japanese baseball wasn't as good as American baseball. ... Since then, Ichiro [Suzuki] came over, and he set numerous Major League Baseball records. ... And then Japan won both of the World Baseball Classics.
So Japan's baseball has already proven itself to be of high caliber. Most Americans, even if they don't know the history of Japanese baseball, recognize now that they play a very good game.
CNN: In Japan, how significant is baseball?
Fitts: It's the Japanese national sport. It's been so since the 1890s. Japan had no native team sports. In the 1870s. American and British teachers introduced team sports to Japan. Cricket was introduced, along with rugby and baseball. Baseball is the one that became the most popular.
In the 1890s, a Japanese high school team beat a team of American adults from the Yokohama Country Club. They beat them in three straight games. It took on national importance.
Japan, of course, was opened up to Westerners in the 1850s by Commodore Perry. The Western nations were far more advanced in technology, and Japan did a rapid modernization. By 1890, Japan felt it was ready to join modern nations as an equal, but the Western powers weren't ready to accept Japan.
CNN: How did the game develop after that?
Fitts: The biggest change came with two tours. The first was in 1931, an American all-star team whose big star was Lou Gehrig, and the bigger tour came in 1934. Both of these tours were sponsored by the Yomiuri newspaper.
In 1934, they brought over what at the time was considered the greatest baseball team ever. It included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, Earl Averill, Lefty Gomez, Connie Mack was the manager, and we can't forget Mo Berg, the future spy [for the United States in World War II].
The '34 tour was significant for two reasons: The first is that relations between Japan and the U.S. were really rocky at that point. There was a very significant treaty, the naval treaty, which limited the size of the major powers' navies. For every five warships the U.S. and Britain could have, Japan was only allowed three. Japan found this quite insulting, even though they had agreed to it in the 1920s.
When the all-star team went over there, the Japanese people went crazy. Half a million people turned out on November 2 for a welcoming parade in Tokyo for the American baseball team. The tour really did create a great deal of goodwill.
However, that ended quickly. Within a month of the tour ending, Japan announced that it would not renew the naval treaty. Several months later, in February 1935, an ultranationalist group tried to assassinate the president of the Yomiuri newspaper because he brought over the American team. He was wounded very seriously but survived.
CNN: What was the importance of the tour for Japanese baseball?
Fitts: The Yomiuri newspaper used the enthusiasm generated by the tour to start their own professional league. The first team they created -- to play the American visitors -- was a Japanese all-star team called All-Nippon. After the tour, the All-Nippon team transformed into the Yomiuri [Tokyo] Giants.
CNN: What was Babe Ruth's role?
Fitts: Babe Ruth was credited as the man who helped start Japanese [professional] baseball. He was just Babe Ruth. He sold out every game. He had just been released by the Yankees prior to the tour. He hit over .300; he led the Americans and Japanese for most home runs.
CNN: How did Hideki Matsui become a baseball star in Japan?
Fitts: He was signed right after high school. He was the hero of the annual high school tournament. His rookie year was 1993 with the Yomiuri Giants. He spent much of '93 in the minors. By 1994, he became a true star, and he was the face of the team from '94 till he came over to the Yankees in 2003.
CNN: How did people feel about Matsui coming to the Yankees?
Fitts: The vast majority of people were very happy for him. There was no sense of betrayal except for the true Giants fans. This was very exciting news. I was there when it happened. This was a chance for Japan's most popular player to prove himself in the major leagues.
The Yankees are a special team in Japan just like they are in the U.S. They're probably the most popular American team in Japan.
When [Hideo] Nomo first came over in 1995, I found my Japanese friends only cared about how the Japanese players did. They were a fan of the Dodgers one day when Nomo pitched; they were a fan of the Angels when [Shigetoshi] Hasegawa pitched, but over time the Japanese fans became fans of different major league teams as they watched more major league baseball on TV.
CNN: What have been the differences between the American and Japanese games?
Fitts: There were real substantial differences from the 1940s even through the early 1990s. ... The Japanese would sacrifice bunt far more than the Americans (they still do but less than they used to). Players didn't go first to third on singles often. They would play line drives on hops rather than trying to make a shoestring catch and risk giving up more bases. It was a very conservative brand of baseball. Since the ties have become closer, Japan's baseball has become more aggressive, more exciting, in my opinion.
There are still differences. The Japanese really focus on practice and perfection of the technique. That's something American players can learn from, and I think it helps explain the success of Hideki Matsui and Ichiro. They're both dedicated players who practice many, many hours.
If you watch Matsui at the plate, he's a very disciplined hitter. His swing is very compact, very practiced, almost perfect. He rarely makes mental mistakes when he's playing the field or running the bases.
CNN: How do you think people view the fact that he's going to be a free agent and might not stay with the Yankees?
Fitts: I think the Japanese people would be very disappointed if he doesn't remain a Yankee ... and I think most New Yorkers would be very disappointed, too. He's an extremely classy player and a classy individual.
CNN: Were you rooting for the Yankees?
Fitts: I'm a Phillies fan. I grew up in Philadelphia. I'm in mourning this morning, but at least it was Matsui who did the damage.
The New York Yankees' Hideki Matsui is the first Japanese-born World Series MVP.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Japanese baseball book author says Babe Ruth sparked professional game in Japan
* Robert Fitts says 1934 tour by American all-stars led to first pro teams
* He says Yankees star Matsui is example for American ballplayers
* Fitts: Matsui's emphasis on perfecting and practicing technique leads to success
New York (CNN) -- To the delight of fans back home in Tokyo, Hideki Matsui drove in six of the New York Yankees' seven runs in their World Series-winning victory Wednesday and became the first Japanese-born player to win a series Most Valuable Player award. For much of his career, Matsui was a star player for the Tokyo Giants.
Matsui's key role in the series highlights the close ties between American and Japanese baseball. Playing in the Yankees' new stadium, the successor to the "House that Ruth Built," Matsui's performance brought to mind the key role that Babe Ruth played in the development of professional baseball in Japan, according to Robert Fitts, author of several books on Japanese baseball.
Fitts became a student of Japanese baseball in 1993, when his wife, an attorney, was transferred to Japan. Fitts, then working on his Ph.D. in archaeology from Brown University, was looking for something to get him immersed in Japanese culture. He wrote to 30 of the greatest Japanese ballplayers and was surprised to hear back from nearly all of them, with some sending gifts.
He's the author of "Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game" and of "Wally Yonamine," a biography of the first Japanese-American to play professional football and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan. "He was called the Jackie Robinson of Japan," Fitts said. Yonamine led the Japanese league in batting twice and won the MVP award as a center fielder for the Tokyo Giants.
CNN spoke with Fitts, who is based in New York, on Thursday.
CNN: What are your thoughts on Matsui's key role in the Yankees' victory?
Fitts: It's wonderful for Japanese baseball, of course. I would say that five years ago, maybe seven years ago, it would have been incredible, because people in America and in Japan weren't sure about the status of Japanese professional baseball. Many Americans and some in Japan thought that Japanese baseball wasn't as good as American baseball. ... Since then, Ichiro [Suzuki] came over, and he set numerous Major League Baseball records. ... And then Japan won both of the World Baseball Classics.
So Japan's baseball has already proven itself to be of high caliber. Most Americans, even if they don't know the history of Japanese baseball, recognize now that they play a very good game.
CNN: In Japan, how significant is baseball?
Fitts: It's the Japanese national sport. It's been so since the 1890s. Japan had no native team sports. In the 1870s. American and British teachers introduced team sports to Japan. Cricket was introduced, along with rugby and baseball. Baseball is the one that became the most popular.
In the 1890s, a Japanese high school team beat a team of American adults from the Yokohama Country Club. They beat them in three straight games. It took on national importance.
Japan, of course, was opened up to Westerners in the 1850s by Commodore Perry. The Western nations were far more advanced in technology, and Japan did a rapid modernization. By 1890, Japan felt it was ready to join modern nations as an equal, but the Western powers weren't ready to accept Japan.
CNN: How did the game develop after that?
Fitts: The biggest change came with two tours. The first was in 1931, an American all-star team whose big star was Lou Gehrig, and the bigger tour came in 1934. Both of these tours were sponsored by the Yomiuri newspaper.
In 1934, they brought over what at the time was considered the greatest baseball team ever. It included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, Earl Averill, Lefty Gomez, Connie Mack was the manager, and we can't forget Mo Berg, the future spy [for the United States in World War II].
The '34 tour was significant for two reasons: The first is that relations between Japan and the U.S. were really rocky at that point. There was a very significant treaty, the naval treaty, which limited the size of the major powers' navies. For every five warships the U.S. and Britain could have, Japan was only allowed three. Japan found this quite insulting, even though they had agreed to it in the 1920s.
When the all-star team went over there, the Japanese people went crazy. Half a million people turned out on November 2 for a welcoming parade in Tokyo for the American baseball team. The tour really did create a great deal of goodwill.
However, that ended quickly. Within a month of the tour ending, Japan announced that it would not renew the naval treaty. Several months later, in February 1935, an ultranationalist group tried to assassinate the president of the Yomiuri newspaper because he brought over the American team. He was wounded very seriously but survived.
CNN: What was the importance of the tour for Japanese baseball?
Fitts: The Yomiuri newspaper used the enthusiasm generated by the tour to start their own professional league. The first team they created -- to play the American visitors -- was a Japanese all-star team called All-Nippon. After the tour, the All-Nippon team transformed into the Yomiuri [Tokyo] Giants.
CNN: What was Babe Ruth's role?
Fitts: Babe Ruth was credited as the man who helped start Japanese [professional] baseball. He was just Babe Ruth. He sold out every game. He had just been released by the Yankees prior to the tour. He hit over .300; he led the Americans and Japanese for most home runs.
CNN: How did Hideki Matsui become a baseball star in Japan?
Fitts: He was signed right after high school. He was the hero of the annual high school tournament. His rookie year was 1993 with the Yomiuri Giants. He spent much of '93 in the minors. By 1994, he became a true star, and he was the face of the team from '94 till he came over to the Yankees in 2003.
CNN: How did people feel about Matsui coming to the Yankees?
Fitts: The vast majority of people were very happy for him. There was no sense of betrayal except for the true Giants fans. This was very exciting news. I was there when it happened. This was a chance for Japan's most popular player to prove himself in the major leagues.
The Yankees are a special team in Japan just like they are in the U.S. They're probably the most popular American team in Japan.
When [Hideo] Nomo first came over in 1995, I found my Japanese friends only cared about how the Japanese players did. They were a fan of the Dodgers one day when Nomo pitched; they were a fan of the Angels when [Shigetoshi] Hasegawa pitched, but over time the Japanese fans became fans of different major league teams as they watched more major league baseball on TV.
CNN: What have been the differences between the American and Japanese games?
Fitts: There were real substantial differences from the 1940s even through the early 1990s. ... The Japanese would sacrifice bunt far more than the Americans (they still do but less than they used to). Players didn't go first to third on singles often. They would play line drives on hops rather than trying to make a shoestring catch and risk giving up more bases. It was a very conservative brand of baseball. Since the ties have become closer, Japan's baseball has become more aggressive, more exciting, in my opinion.
There are still differences. The Japanese really focus on practice and perfection of the technique. That's something American players can learn from, and I think it helps explain the success of Hideki Matsui and Ichiro. They're both dedicated players who practice many, many hours.
If you watch Matsui at the plate, he's a very disciplined hitter. His swing is very compact, very practiced, almost perfect. He rarely makes mental mistakes when he's playing the field or running the bases.
CNN: How do you think people view the fact that he's going to be a free agent and might not stay with the Yankees?
Fitts: I think the Japanese people would be very disappointed if he doesn't remain a Yankee ... and I think most New Yorkers would be very disappointed, too. He's an extremely classy player and a classy individual.
CNN: Were you rooting for the Yankees?
Fitts: I'm a Phillies fan. I grew up in Philadelphia. I'm in mourning this morning, but at least it was Matsui who did the damage.
Qian Xuesen dies at 98; rocket scientist helped establish Jet Propulsion Laboratory
OBITUARY
Deported in 1955 on suspicion of being a Communist, the aeronautical engineer educated at Caltech became known as the father of China's space and missile programs.
By Claire Noland
November 1, 2009
Qian Xuesen, a former Caltech rocket scientist who helped establish the Jet Propulsion Laboratory before being deported in 1955 on suspicion of being a Communist and who became known as the father of China's space and missile programs, has died. He was 98.
Qian, also known as Tsien Hsue-shen, died Saturday in Beijing, China's state news agency reported. The cause was not given.
Honored in his homeland for his "eminent contributions to science," Qian was credited with leading China to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, Silkworm anti-ship missiles, weather and reconnaissance satellites and to put a human in space in 2003.
The man deemed responsible for these technological feats also was labeled a spy in the 1999 Cox Report issued by Congress after an investigation into how classified information had been obtained by the Chinese.
Qian, a Chinese-born aeronautical engineer educated at Caltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a protege of Caltech's eminent professor Theodore von Karman, who recognized him as an outstanding mathematician and "undisputed genius."
Qian's research contributed to the development of "jet-assisted takeoff" technology that the military began using in the 1940s.
He was the founding director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center at Caltech and a member of the university's so-called Suicide Squad of rocket experimenters who laid the groundwork for testing done by JPL.
But his brilliant career in the United States came to a screeching halt in 1950, when the FBI accused him of being a member of a subversive organization. Qian packed up eight crates of belongings and set off for Shanghai, saying he and his wife and two young children wanted to visit his aging parents back home. Federal agents seized the containers, which they claimed contained classified materials, and arrested him on suspicion of subversive activity.
Qian denied any Communist leanings, rejected the accusation that he was trying to spirit away secret information and initially fought deportation. He later changed course, however, and sought to return to China.
Five years after his arrest, he was shipped off in an apparent exchange for 11 American airmen captured during the Korean War.
"I do not plan to come back," Qian told reporters. "I have no reason to come back. . . . I plan to do my best to help the Chinese people build up the nation to where they can live with dignity and happiness."
Welcomed as a national hero in China, where the Communist regime had defeated the Nationalist forces, Qian became director of China's rocket research and was named to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. China, whose scientific development lagged during the Communist revolution, quickly began making strides.
Qian was born in the eastern city of Hangzhou, and in 1934 graduated from Jiaotong University in Shanghai, where he studied mechanical engineering. He won a scholarship to MIT and, after earning a master's degree in aeronautical engineering there, continued his doctoral studies at Caltech.
He taught at MIT and Caltech and, having received a security clearance, served on the Scientific Advisory Board that advised the U.S. military during and after World War II.
Sent to Germany to interrogate Nazi scientists, Qian interviewed rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. As the trade magazine Aviation Week put it in 2007, upon naming Qian its person of the year, "No one then knew that the father of the future U.S. space program was being quizzed by the father of the future Chinese space program."
Qian returned to Caltech in 1949 and a year later faced the accusation by two former members of the Los Angeles Police Department's "Red Squad" that he was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.
He admitted that while a graduate student in the 1930s he had been present at social gatherings organized by colleagues who also were accused of party membership, but he denied any political involvement.
Few can agree on the question of whether Qian was a spy. An examination of the papers Qian packed away failed to turn up any classified documents. Colleagues at Caltech firmly stood behind him, and he continued to do research there after he lost his security clearance. In fact, the university gave him its distinguished alumni award in 1979 in recognition of his pioneering work in rocket science.
Although federal officials started deportation procedures in 1950, he was prevented from leaving the country because it was decided that he knew too much about sensitive military matters that could be of use to an enemy.
For years, Qian was in a sort of limbo, being watched closely by the U.S. government and living under partial house arrest. Eventually he quit fighting his expulsion and actively worked to return to China. Some associates said that he was insulted because his loyalty to this country was questioned and that he initially wanted to clear his name.
Once he returned home in 1955, he threw himself into his research with what some saw as calculated revenge.
"It was the stupidest thing this country ever did," former Navy Secretary Dan Kimball later said, according to Aviation Week. "He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go."
Qian survived the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, when many Chinese intellectuals lost their positions, probably because his scientific research and development for military purposes was considered too vital to suspend.
He is said to have supported the government's crushing of the rebellion in Tiananmen Square in 1989. And he never returned to the United States.
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
claire.noland@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Deported in 1955 on suspicion of being a Communist, the aeronautical engineer educated at Caltech became known as the father of China's space and missile programs.
By Claire Noland
November 1, 2009
Qian Xuesen, a former Caltech rocket scientist who helped establish the Jet Propulsion Laboratory before being deported in 1955 on suspicion of being a Communist and who became known as the father of China's space and missile programs, has died. He was 98.
Qian, also known as Tsien Hsue-shen, died Saturday in Beijing, China's state news agency reported. The cause was not given.
Honored in his homeland for his "eminent contributions to science," Qian was credited with leading China to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, Silkworm anti-ship missiles, weather and reconnaissance satellites and to put a human in space in 2003.
The man deemed responsible for these technological feats also was labeled a spy in the 1999 Cox Report issued by Congress after an investigation into how classified information had been obtained by the Chinese.
Qian, a Chinese-born aeronautical engineer educated at Caltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a protege of Caltech's eminent professor Theodore von Karman, who recognized him as an outstanding mathematician and "undisputed genius."
Qian's research contributed to the development of "jet-assisted takeoff" technology that the military began using in the 1940s.
He was the founding director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center at Caltech and a member of the university's so-called Suicide Squad of rocket experimenters who laid the groundwork for testing done by JPL.
But his brilliant career in the United States came to a screeching halt in 1950, when the FBI accused him of being a member of a subversive organization. Qian packed up eight crates of belongings and set off for Shanghai, saying he and his wife and two young children wanted to visit his aging parents back home. Federal agents seized the containers, which they claimed contained classified materials, and arrested him on suspicion of subversive activity.
Qian denied any Communist leanings, rejected the accusation that he was trying to spirit away secret information and initially fought deportation. He later changed course, however, and sought to return to China.
Five years after his arrest, he was shipped off in an apparent exchange for 11 American airmen captured during the Korean War.
"I do not plan to come back," Qian told reporters. "I have no reason to come back. . . . I plan to do my best to help the Chinese people build up the nation to where they can live with dignity and happiness."
Welcomed as a national hero in China, where the Communist regime had defeated the Nationalist forces, Qian became director of China's rocket research and was named to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. China, whose scientific development lagged during the Communist revolution, quickly began making strides.
Qian was born in the eastern city of Hangzhou, and in 1934 graduated from Jiaotong University in Shanghai, where he studied mechanical engineering. He won a scholarship to MIT and, after earning a master's degree in aeronautical engineering there, continued his doctoral studies at Caltech.
He taught at MIT and Caltech and, having received a security clearance, served on the Scientific Advisory Board that advised the U.S. military during and after World War II.
Sent to Germany to interrogate Nazi scientists, Qian interviewed rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. As the trade magazine Aviation Week put it in 2007, upon naming Qian its person of the year, "No one then knew that the father of the future U.S. space program was being quizzed by the father of the future Chinese space program."
Qian returned to Caltech in 1949 and a year later faced the accusation by two former members of the Los Angeles Police Department's "Red Squad" that he was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.
He admitted that while a graduate student in the 1930s he had been present at social gatherings organized by colleagues who also were accused of party membership, but he denied any political involvement.
Few can agree on the question of whether Qian was a spy. An examination of the papers Qian packed away failed to turn up any classified documents. Colleagues at Caltech firmly stood behind him, and he continued to do research there after he lost his security clearance. In fact, the university gave him its distinguished alumni award in 1979 in recognition of his pioneering work in rocket science.
Although federal officials started deportation procedures in 1950, he was prevented from leaving the country because it was decided that he knew too much about sensitive military matters that could be of use to an enemy.
For years, Qian was in a sort of limbo, being watched closely by the U.S. government and living under partial house arrest. Eventually he quit fighting his expulsion and actively worked to return to China. Some associates said that he was insulted because his loyalty to this country was questioned and that he initially wanted to clear his name.
Once he returned home in 1955, he threw himself into his research with what some saw as calculated revenge.
"It was the stupidest thing this country ever did," former Navy Secretary Dan Kimball later said, according to Aviation Week. "He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go."
Qian survived the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, when many Chinese intellectuals lost their positions, probably because his scientific research and development for military purposes was considered too vital to suspend.
He is said to have supported the government's crushing of the rebellion in Tiananmen Square in 1989. And he never returned to the United States.
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
claire.noland@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Russia reconsiders: Was Stalin really so bad?
The country's attachment to its Soviet past is growing stronger. Some Russians are horrified at what their comrades now glorify.
By Megan K. Stack
November 2, 2009
Reporting from Moscow
When Russian businessman Yevgeny Ostrovsky decided to name his kebab joint Anti-Soviet Shashlik, he thought of it as black humor.
It was a little tongue-in-cheek, a little retro, a little nod to the old-timers who still remembered when the meat grill, across the street from the famed Sovietsky hotel, was known by just that nickname.
But it was also, in that ambiguous, extrajudicial way so common in today's Russia, a little bit illegal.
Three applications for an "anti-Soviet" sign were rejected by the city without explanation. And when Ostrovsky went ahead and hoisted one without a permit, a local politician warned him that he was insulting the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is locally known.
Then came the coup de grace: a crane and work crew, accompanied by police escorts. With a groan and a clatter, the government of Moscow erased all evidence of lingering dissidence against the bygone Soviet Union.
Ostrovsky hadn't banked on the burgeoning admiration and nostalgia for all things Soviet -- a sentimentality tangled up with pride that has come about as the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin seeks to restore Russian patriotism and reawaken imperial self-regard.
"The authorities are just taking advantage of Soviet symbols and values to secure their own personal interests," Ostrovsky griped.
But the visceral attachment to the icons is also the consequence of a country that never quite shook off the shadow of the Soviet system. The world may regard Russia as a place utterly distinct from the Soviet Union, but here in Russia, where government buildings are still festooned with hammers and sickles, there is an abiding sense of continuum.
"The same doctors, teachers, builders and steelworkers continue to live and work in the same country, and everything in our midst was built by the hands of people in the Soviet Union," said Russian author Mikhail Veller. "The state changes, but the country remains the same."
The kebab house quarrel was one small battleground in a swelling war over identity. The unresolved question of how modern-day Russia ought to relate to its Soviet past continues to rattle through society, one culture clash at a time.
On Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took to his blog to decry the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens killed "as a result of terror and false accusations" -- and to lament the revisionism that seems to blanket contemporary Russia's remembrance of its past.
"It is still possible to hear that these many victims were justified by some higher state goal," Medvedev said.
The president cited with dismay a poll in which 90% of young Russians were unable to name a victim of Soviet purges and prison camps. Russia must remember its tragedies, he said.
It was a striking departure from the general drift of the country, which takes a nuanced, if not positive, view of longtime Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. But Medvedev, who has often provided a rhetorical softening to the ruling elite's hard-line stances, is regarded as politically weaker than Putin, and so far his more liberal statements have done little to change the Russian status quo.
Last month, a Moscow court heard a libel suit filed by Stalin's grandson, who claimed that a lawyer had besmirched Stalin's "honor and dignity" in newspaper columns that referred to him as a "bloodthirsty cannibal."
In the end, the court ruled against the Stalin family. But the finding was cold comfort to many in Russia, who were appalled that the case had even made it to trial.
The defendant, Anatoly Yablokov, said that even a decade ago, he couldn't have imagined being summoned to court for having written pejoratively about Stalin.
Today, however, he isn't particularly surprised.
"The main point of the lawsuit was political," he said. "They have decided it's time to start whitewashing Stalin again."
There's no question that Stalin is undergoing a sort of renaissance in Russia. Despite the many millions killed or sent to labor camps during his reign, many now view his rule with a sort of hazy nostalgia.
True, they say euphemistically, he made difficult decisions, but on the other hand, it was a time that called for tough measures. And at least in those days, they often add, Russia was powerful.
Others go further. "The personality of Stalin is covered with lies and slander. There is tremendous injustice done to this person," said Leonid Zhura, a former government bureaucrat who spearheaded the lawsuit against Yablokov.
Like other "Stalinists," Zhura regards the leadership of the Georgian-born dictator as a time of prosperity and power for the Russian people.
"The cynical position of the Stalinphobes is that only innocent people were kept in the gulag," he said. "Criminals who violated the law were kept in the gulag. And let the Western reader ask himself, should criminals be kept in spas or resort hotels?"
Meanwhile, Stalin's image and name, systematically bleached out as the waning Soviet empire began to grapple with its bloody past, are creeping back into Russian life. His name was restored this fall to a Moscow metro station. His unmistakable mustached face beams from the wall of Soviet Meatpies, a kitschy diner downtown.
"This place is popular among those who are driven by nostalgia," said manager Sergei Mogilo, 39. "And, of course, Soviet times were better."
And yet the trend isn't clear-cut. Even as Stalin's image is burnished, many Russians are reconsidering cultural icons who were shunned by the Soviets.
Anti-Bolshevik White forces commander Aleksandr Kolchak, for example, is the subject of a popular Russian biopic currently being serialized on prime time state television. Kolchak was reviled by the Soviet government, and attempts to rehabilitate him posthumously had been rebuffed repeatedly.
This fall, excerpts from "The Gulag Archipelago" were introduced into the curriculum of Russian schools. The masterwork by dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn had been banned during Soviet times, the author himself hounded out of the country. The book remains among the most scathing depictions of Soviet prison camps.
But Solzhenitsyn had come home to Russia, and in his old age emerged as an improbable supporter of Putin. When he died last summer, his body lay in state -- and the government changed the name of Big Communist Street in Moscow to Alexander Solzhenitsyn Street.
megan.stack@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
By Megan K. Stack
November 2, 2009
Reporting from Moscow
When Russian businessman Yevgeny Ostrovsky decided to name his kebab joint Anti-Soviet Shashlik, he thought of it as black humor.
It was a little tongue-in-cheek, a little retro, a little nod to the old-timers who still remembered when the meat grill, across the street from the famed Sovietsky hotel, was known by just that nickname.
But it was also, in that ambiguous, extrajudicial way so common in today's Russia, a little bit illegal.
Three applications for an "anti-Soviet" sign were rejected by the city without explanation. And when Ostrovsky went ahead and hoisted one without a permit, a local politician warned him that he was insulting the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is locally known.
Then came the coup de grace: a crane and work crew, accompanied by police escorts. With a groan and a clatter, the government of Moscow erased all evidence of lingering dissidence against the bygone Soviet Union.
Ostrovsky hadn't banked on the burgeoning admiration and nostalgia for all things Soviet -- a sentimentality tangled up with pride that has come about as the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin seeks to restore Russian patriotism and reawaken imperial self-regard.
"The authorities are just taking advantage of Soviet symbols and values to secure their own personal interests," Ostrovsky griped.
But the visceral attachment to the icons is also the consequence of a country that never quite shook off the shadow of the Soviet system. The world may regard Russia as a place utterly distinct from the Soviet Union, but here in Russia, where government buildings are still festooned with hammers and sickles, there is an abiding sense of continuum.
"The same doctors, teachers, builders and steelworkers continue to live and work in the same country, and everything in our midst was built by the hands of people in the Soviet Union," said Russian author Mikhail Veller. "The state changes, but the country remains the same."
The kebab house quarrel was one small battleground in a swelling war over identity. The unresolved question of how modern-day Russia ought to relate to its Soviet past continues to rattle through society, one culture clash at a time.
On Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took to his blog to decry the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens killed "as a result of terror and false accusations" -- and to lament the revisionism that seems to blanket contemporary Russia's remembrance of its past.
"It is still possible to hear that these many victims were justified by some higher state goal," Medvedev said.
The president cited with dismay a poll in which 90% of young Russians were unable to name a victim of Soviet purges and prison camps. Russia must remember its tragedies, he said.
It was a striking departure from the general drift of the country, which takes a nuanced, if not positive, view of longtime Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. But Medvedev, who has often provided a rhetorical softening to the ruling elite's hard-line stances, is regarded as politically weaker than Putin, and so far his more liberal statements have done little to change the Russian status quo.
Last month, a Moscow court heard a libel suit filed by Stalin's grandson, who claimed that a lawyer had besmirched Stalin's "honor and dignity" in newspaper columns that referred to him as a "bloodthirsty cannibal."
In the end, the court ruled against the Stalin family. But the finding was cold comfort to many in Russia, who were appalled that the case had even made it to trial.
The defendant, Anatoly Yablokov, said that even a decade ago, he couldn't have imagined being summoned to court for having written pejoratively about Stalin.
Today, however, he isn't particularly surprised.
"The main point of the lawsuit was political," he said. "They have decided it's time to start whitewashing Stalin again."
There's no question that Stalin is undergoing a sort of renaissance in Russia. Despite the many millions killed or sent to labor camps during his reign, many now view his rule with a sort of hazy nostalgia.
True, they say euphemistically, he made difficult decisions, but on the other hand, it was a time that called for tough measures. And at least in those days, they often add, Russia was powerful.
Others go further. "The personality of Stalin is covered with lies and slander. There is tremendous injustice done to this person," said Leonid Zhura, a former government bureaucrat who spearheaded the lawsuit against Yablokov.
Like other "Stalinists," Zhura regards the leadership of the Georgian-born dictator as a time of prosperity and power for the Russian people.
"The cynical position of the Stalinphobes is that only innocent people were kept in the gulag," he said. "Criminals who violated the law were kept in the gulag. And let the Western reader ask himself, should criminals be kept in spas or resort hotels?"
Meanwhile, Stalin's image and name, systematically bleached out as the waning Soviet empire began to grapple with its bloody past, are creeping back into Russian life. His name was restored this fall to a Moscow metro station. His unmistakable mustached face beams from the wall of Soviet Meatpies, a kitschy diner downtown.
"This place is popular among those who are driven by nostalgia," said manager Sergei Mogilo, 39. "And, of course, Soviet times were better."
And yet the trend isn't clear-cut. Even as Stalin's image is burnished, many Russians are reconsidering cultural icons who were shunned by the Soviets.
Anti-Bolshevik White forces commander Aleksandr Kolchak, for example, is the subject of a popular Russian biopic currently being serialized on prime time state television. Kolchak was reviled by the Soviet government, and attempts to rehabilitate him posthumously had been rebuffed repeatedly.
This fall, excerpts from "The Gulag Archipelago" were introduced into the curriculum of Russian schools. The masterwork by dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn had been banned during Soviet times, the author himself hounded out of the country. The book remains among the most scathing depictions of Soviet prison camps.
But Solzhenitsyn had come home to Russia, and in his old age emerged as an improbable supporter of Putin. When he died last summer, his body lay in state -- and the government changed the name of Big Communist Street in Moscow to Alexander Solzhenitsyn Street.
megan.stack@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Russian tycoon fatally shot in Moscow
Russian tycoon fatally shot in Moscow
Shabtai von Kalmanovic, who brought WNBA stars to Russia to play for his Spartak team during the American league's off-season, was in his car when assailants opened fire.
By Sergei L. Loiko
November 3, 2009
Reporting from Moscow
A Russian tycoon who organized a Michael Jackson concert in Moscow, was once jailed for spying in Israel and hired American female basketball stars to compete in his homeland was slain Monday by gunmen in the capital, television news reported.
Shabtai von Kalmanovic was killed near Moscow's Novodevichy monastery when a Lada sedan pulled up to his black Mercedes-Benz and the assailants opened fire. He died instantly; his driver was injured.
"Submachine guns and shotguns were used in the attack," Anatoly Bagmet, an investigator with the Moscow prosecutor's office, told Vesti television. "The car was in motion when shots were fired."
The attackers fired at least 20 rounds at the businessman's car, a police source told the RIA Novosti news agency.
Kalmanovic, 60, had invested millions in the Spartak, a women's professional basketball team that won the EuroLeague Women title the last three seasons. He hired stars of the Women's National Basketball Assn., including Tina Thompson, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, to play for his team during the American league's off-season, paying as much as 10 times their U.S. salaries.
New York Liberty center Janel McCarville, currently on the Spartak team, responded to the news on Twitter: " . . . This drama got me shook, hoping to go to bed, wake up n have it all be a dream..." During the 1990s, Kalmanovic organized tours in Russia of such artists as Jackson, Liza Minnelli and Jose Carreras, according to the Interfax news service.
Born in Lithuania during Soviet rule, Kalmanovic immigrated to Israel during the early 1970s. He was arrested in 1986, convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, and served nearly six years in an Israeli prison. He moved to Russia after his release and went into the construction business.
Igor Prelin, a former KGB colonel and spokesman, said Monday that he had always doubted that Kalmanovic was a full-fledged Soviet spy.
"He was 22 when he immigrated to Israel, so he couldn't by definition be a professional spy," Prelin said. "We did use the Jewish immigration at the time to plant some agents in Israel and in the West by compelling young people willing to leave for Israel to agree to help the KGB in the future," as a condition of being allowed to leave the Soviet Union.
"We didn't do anything to help Kalmanovic get an earlier release" from prison, he added. "That happened mostly thanks to a huge campaign of the Russian Jewish community at the time."
Adolf Shayevich, the chief rabbi of Russia and an acquaintance of Kalmanovic, said the tycoon "was a remarkable person and an active member of the Jewish community who attended all the Jewish holidays in our synagogue. He possessed an amazing collection of Judaica, definitely the biggest in Russia.
"This is all simply horrible," Shayevich said. "In the center of Moscow! Such things now happen all the time and the culprits are never found."
Bagmet said the slaying could be business-related or a case of "personal revenge."
Basketball, Kalmanovic said in a 2008 interview, was one of his greatest passions.
"You need, still, some crazy people to do some crazy things that are difficult for journalists and readers to understand," Kalmanovic said in explaining why he had poured millions of dollars into a sport that was not particularly popular in Russia.
"Misunderstanding is the price you pay," he said. "So what? So what if people think you're doing it to show off?"
Times staff writer Mark Medina in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Shabtai von Kalmanovic, who brought WNBA stars to Russia to play for his Spartak team during the American league's off-season, was in his car when assailants opened fire.
By Sergei L. Loiko
November 3, 2009
Reporting from Moscow
A Russian tycoon who organized a Michael Jackson concert in Moscow, was once jailed for spying in Israel and hired American female basketball stars to compete in his homeland was slain Monday by gunmen in the capital, television news reported.
Shabtai von Kalmanovic was killed near Moscow's Novodevichy monastery when a Lada sedan pulled up to his black Mercedes-Benz and the assailants opened fire. He died instantly; his driver was injured.
"Submachine guns and shotguns were used in the attack," Anatoly Bagmet, an investigator with the Moscow prosecutor's office, told Vesti television. "The car was in motion when shots were fired."
The attackers fired at least 20 rounds at the businessman's car, a police source told the RIA Novosti news agency.
Kalmanovic, 60, had invested millions in the Spartak, a women's professional basketball team that won the EuroLeague Women title the last three seasons. He hired stars of the Women's National Basketball Assn., including Tina Thompson, Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird, to play for his team during the American league's off-season, paying as much as 10 times their U.S. salaries.
New York Liberty center Janel McCarville, currently on the Spartak team, responded to the news on Twitter: " . . . This drama got me shook, hoping to go to bed, wake up n have it all be a dream..." During the 1990s, Kalmanovic organized tours in Russia of such artists as Jackson, Liza Minnelli and Jose Carreras, according to the Interfax news service.
Born in Lithuania during Soviet rule, Kalmanovic immigrated to Israel during the early 1970s. He was arrested in 1986, convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, and served nearly six years in an Israeli prison. He moved to Russia after his release and went into the construction business.
Igor Prelin, a former KGB colonel and spokesman, said Monday that he had always doubted that Kalmanovic was a full-fledged Soviet spy.
"He was 22 when he immigrated to Israel, so he couldn't by definition be a professional spy," Prelin said. "We did use the Jewish immigration at the time to plant some agents in Israel and in the West by compelling young people willing to leave for Israel to agree to help the KGB in the future," as a condition of being allowed to leave the Soviet Union.
"We didn't do anything to help Kalmanovic get an earlier release" from prison, he added. "That happened mostly thanks to a huge campaign of the Russian Jewish community at the time."
Adolf Shayevich, the chief rabbi of Russia and an acquaintance of Kalmanovic, said the tycoon "was a remarkable person and an active member of the Jewish community who attended all the Jewish holidays in our synagogue. He possessed an amazing collection of Judaica, definitely the biggest in Russia.
"This is all simply horrible," Shayevich said. "In the center of Moscow! Such things now happen all the time and the culprits are never found."
Bagmet said the slaying could be business-related or a case of "personal revenge."
Basketball, Kalmanovic said in a 2008 interview, was one of his greatest passions.
"You need, still, some crazy people to do some crazy things that are difficult for journalists and readers to understand," Kalmanovic said in explaining why he had poured millions of dollars into a sport that was not particularly popular in Russia.
"Misunderstanding is the price you pay," he said. "So what? So what if people think you're doing it to show off?"
Times staff writer Mark Medina in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Russians Comment on Ways to Curb the Use of Alcohol
November 3, 2009
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
MOSCOW — How hard will it be for the Russian government to reduce the country’s alcohol consumption? The New York Times asked readers of its Russian-language blog on livejournal.com for their thoughts.
Here are some of their responses, as translated by the Moscow bureau of The Times. CLIFFORD J. LEVY
“Russia is dying out because of drunkenness. No matter how much you criticize Gorbachev, his anti-alcohol campaign gave us 20 million births, a high figure. It’s just that the campaign was carried out incompetently, and they should not have banned everything at once. The best thing for Russia now would be to declare a ‘dry law,’ a strict one and for about 30 years, so that a new sober generation will grow. Nothing can be solved in Russia by half-measures. Such is our country.” Zusulrasha
“One can struggle against alcoholism with the help of books, good movies, good opportunities for spending free time, exhibitions, performances, music, high-quality and accessible education, sports, an increase in the social status of teachers and educators, even landscape gardening and bikeways. But it is useless to fight against drinking with laws and punishment.” Lepestriny
“For a Russian, alcohol is an extremely personal, and even intimate, thing. This is why no president or government can influence the relationship of ‘a Russian and his vodka.’ The joy of drinking has always existed in Russia, exists and will exist, irrespective of the size of the container, the time of the selling or any other stupid thing.” Alien_cat
“The main harm comes from vodka, especially fake vodka and other surrogates. If beer becomes less accessible, people will drink more low-quality alcohol and death rates will increase. On the contrary, it is necessary to make weak alcoholic drinks and high-quality wines accessible, and completely or almost completely ban strong drinks.” Beesay
“The problem exists, and it’s simply stupid to hide your head in the sand. For example, it’s hot, and you are thirsty: 0.5 liter of beer in a kiosk — 20 rubles; 1.5 liter — 40 rubles. Or juice: 0.25 liter — 30 rubles; 1 liter — 60 rubles. What will a student buy?” Numrik
“In the U.S.S.R., most of the population did not have any alternative to alcohol consumption, which is why attempts at restricting the addiction of Soviet citizens to alcohol had the same result. Now our country’s population is motivated to achieve higher living standards. The situation I see in my city shows a sharp drop in consumption of strong liquor among people between 18 and 45. I think there will come a time when Russians will reproach people in other Western countries — ‘You should drink less!’ ” Muaddib_2000
“Every 10 to 15 years another ‘struggle’ that never gives any results, and sometimes worsens the situation, has to be announced. The authorities have to shrug their shoulders, say routine phrases like ‘such are the people,’ quote three times made-up phrases from Prince Vladimir (‘The greatest fun in Russia is drinking’) etc. The reasons are obvious: it is easier to take wealth from a drunken people and sell it to the Chinese and to Europe.” Sssshhssss
“Only treatment can help an alcoholic, and no restrictions will stop him. In the worst case, he can drink denaturized alcohol, cologne, hawthorn-berry-infused alcohol or something else. At a store they can easily sell alcohol to a minnow, despite a ban (stores need revenues). There is a watering hall or a bar at every corner, in the parks there is a cafe every few steps.” Elen_mur
“A Russian drinks not because he lives in fat city. The only valid way that the state can influence alcohol consumption is to drastically improve the quality of life for ordinary citizens.” Photocorr
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
MOSCOW — How hard will it be for the Russian government to reduce the country’s alcohol consumption? The New York Times asked readers of its Russian-language blog on livejournal.com for their thoughts.
Here are some of their responses, as translated by the Moscow bureau of The Times. CLIFFORD J. LEVY
“Russia is dying out because of drunkenness. No matter how much you criticize Gorbachev, his anti-alcohol campaign gave us 20 million births, a high figure. It’s just that the campaign was carried out incompetently, and they should not have banned everything at once. The best thing for Russia now would be to declare a ‘dry law,’ a strict one and for about 30 years, so that a new sober generation will grow. Nothing can be solved in Russia by half-measures. Such is our country.” Zusulrasha
“One can struggle against alcoholism with the help of books, good movies, good opportunities for spending free time, exhibitions, performances, music, high-quality and accessible education, sports, an increase in the social status of teachers and educators, even landscape gardening and bikeways. But it is useless to fight against drinking with laws and punishment.” Lepestriny
“For a Russian, alcohol is an extremely personal, and even intimate, thing. This is why no president or government can influence the relationship of ‘a Russian and his vodka.’ The joy of drinking has always existed in Russia, exists and will exist, irrespective of the size of the container, the time of the selling or any other stupid thing.” Alien_cat
“The main harm comes from vodka, especially fake vodka and other surrogates. If beer becomes less accessible, people will drink more low-quality alcohol and death rates will increase. On the contrary, it is necessary to make weak alcoholic drinks and high-quality wines accessible, and completely or almost completely ban strong drinks.” Beesay
“The problem exists, and it’s simply stupid to hide your head in the sand. For example, it’s hot, and you are thirsty: 0.5 liter of beer in a kiosk — 20 rubles; 1.5 liter — 40 rubles. Or juice: 0.25 liter — 30 rubles; 1 liter — 60 rubles. What will a student buy?” Numrik
“In the U.S.S.R., most of the population did not have any alternative to alcohol consumption, which is why attempts at restricting the addiction of Soviet citizens to alcohol had the same result. Now our country’s population is motivated to achieve higher living standards. The situation I see in my city shows a sharp drop in consumption of strong liquor among people between 18 and 45. I think there will come a time when Russians will reproach people in other Western countries — ‘You should drink less!’ ” Muaddib_2000
“Every 10 to 15 years another ‘struggle’ that never gives any results, and sometimes worsens the situation, has to be announced. The authorities have to shrug their shoulders, say routine phrases like ‘such are the people,’ quote three times made-up phrases from Prince Vladimir (‘The greatest fun in Russia is drinking’) etc. The reasons are obvious: it is easier to take wealth from a drunken people and sell it to the Chinese and to Europe.” Sssshhssss
“Only treatment can help an alcoholic, and no restrictions will stop him. In the worst case, he can drink denaturized alcohol, cologne, hawthorn-berry-infused alcohol or something else. At a store they can easily sell alcohol to a minnow, despite a ban (stores need revenues). There is a watering hall or a bar at every corner, in the parks there is a cafe every few steps.” Elen_mur
“A Russian drinks not because he lives in fat city. The only valid way that the state can influence alcohol consumption is to drastically improve the quality of life for ordinary citizens.” Photocorr
China OKs Disney theme park plans
COMPANY TOWN
China OKs Disney theme park plans
Beijing's approval clears the way for the Burbank media giant and Shanghai to work out the details.
By Dawn C. Chmielewski and Hugo Martín
November 4, 2009
China, finally, is ready to build a house for Mickey Mouse.
Beijing has approved plans to build a Disney theme park in Shanghai, a major milestone in the more than decade-long effort by Walt Disney Co. to dramatically expand its reach into China.
Disney and the Shanghai municipal government jointly submitted plans in January to build a $3.59-billion park to open as early as 2014. It would be the entertainment giant's fourth theme park outside the U.S., after Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong -- and the first in mainland China, the fastest-growing mass market in the world.
The Chinese central government approved a broad agreement, outlining the legal and financial framework for the park. The decision clears the way for Disney and Shanghai to work out detailed plans for building and operating the park, addressing such issues as subway and road access to the park as well as finances.
"China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world, and this approval marks a very significant milestone for the Walt Disney Co. in mainland China," Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement.
The new Shanghai park would give Disney access to 300 million people who live within a day's travel of the city, a sprawling, affluent and modern metropolis of more than 16 million people.
Perhaps more important, however, it would secure a beachhead for Disney to sell its products and wield its brand in a market that has tightly controlled the inflow of American entertainment through restrictions on the number of movies allowed in mainland theaters and programs beamed through television channels.
Disney announced the approval in a carefully worded statement Tuesday afternoon. Government-controlled China National Radio speculated that the timing of the announcement, coming in advance of President Obama's visit to Shanghai this month, amounted to a "gift."
The Burbank-based entertainment giant has been in on-again, off-again discussions about the park since 1995, when the Shanghai government initially contacted the company about building a Disney World-like tourist mecca. Talks ebbed and flowed, with discussions resuming in earnest about two years ago, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of negotiations.
In the meantime, Disney turned its attention to Hong Kong, where it built the 320-acre Disneyland resort that opened in 2005. The company and the Hong Kong government announced a major expansion in July, in hopes of boosting attendance by increasing the number of theme areas to seven from four over the next five years, tackling criticism that the world's smallest Disneyland didn't offer enough attractions.
James H. Higashi, a principal of Management Resources in Tustin, a consultant to the theme park industry, noted that Shanghai was one of the most populated regions in the world, offering Disney a prime location not only to draw visitors but also to market other Disney products such as movies and consumer products to a huge portion of China.
"From a strategic standpoint, it's one of the best markets in the world," Higashi said.
He said Disney theme parks have had trouble adjusting to the foreign markets -- the Paris operation is saddled with huge debt and the Hong Kong location has operated at a loss -- but he expects the company to do well in the long run, given Shanghai's rising reputation as one of the world's premier cities, both in culture and business.
Disney would take a 43% equity stake in Shanghai Disneyland, while a joint-venture holding company owned by the local government would own the remaining 57%.
The first phase, to be built on about one square mile in what is now a mostly agricultural area between an airport and the Pudong business district, would include a theme park, hotel and shopping district.
The Shanghai park is envisioned as a classic Magic Kingdom model, with a castle at the center, but with Chinese accents. As with Disney's other international parks, it will give a nod to local tastes and cultures. At the Disneyland Resort in Paris, wine is served. In Hong Kong, the Golden Mickey Show is performed in three languages -- Cantonese, the language of Hong Kong, Mandarin, which is spoken on the mainland, and English. The Shanghai park would similarly reflect mainland sensibilities, people familiar with the plans said.
Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services Inc., a consultant to theme park developers, said the latest venture was a smart move by Disney to stake a claim in Shanghai even though a theme park wouldn't be developed for six to eight years.
Speigel said Disney has had some problems adjusting its product to foreign audiences. For example, he said Mickey Mouse didn't appeal much to Disney guests at the Hong Kong park until the company researched Chinese media and mainstream culture and found he would be more appealing without a mouth.
He also said Disney has realized that the Hong Kong Disneyland is too small and confining and has been upstaged by a nearby marine-themed park called Ocean Park Hong Kong.
Still, Speigel said that by winning approval from the Chinese government now, Disney will be in a position to thrive in Shanghai "when they are ready and the time is appropriate."
Gene Jeffers, executive director of Themed Entertainment Assn., a trade group of designers and builders of theme parks and special events, said he was optimistic that Disney could succeed in Shanghai.
"Something like this is good for our industry," he said.
dawn.chmielewski@
latimes.com
hugo.martin@latimes.com
Nicole Liu of The Times' Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
China OKs Disney theme park plans
Beijing's approval clears the way for the Burbank media giant and Shanghai to work out the details.
By Dawn C. Chmielewski and Hugo Martín
November 4, 2009
China, finally, is ready to build a house for Mickey Mouse.
Beijing has approved plans to build a Disney theme park in Shanghai, a major milestone in the more than decade-long effort by Walt Disney Co. to dramatically expand its reach into China.
Disney and the Shanghai municipal government jointly submitted plans in January to build a $3.59-billion park to open as early as 2014. It would be the entertainment giant's fourth theme park outside the U.S., after Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong -- and the first in mainland China, the fastest-growing mass market in the world.
The Chinese central government approved a broad agreement, outlining the legal and financial framework for the park. The decision clears the way for Disney and Shanghai to work out detailed plans for building and operating the park, addressing such issues as subway and road access to the park as well as finances.
"China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world, and this approval marks a very significant milestone for the Walt Disney Co. in mainland China," Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement.
The new Shanghai park would give Disney access to 300 million people who live within a day's travel of the city, a sprawling, affluent and modern metropolis of more than 16 million people.
Perhaps more important, however, it would secure a beachhead for Disney to sell its products and wield its brand in a market that has tightly controlled the inflow of American entertainment through restrictions on the number of movies allowed in mainland theaters and programs beamed through television channels.
Disney announced the approval in a carefully worded statement Tuesday afternoon. Government-controlled China National Radio speculated that the timing of the announcement, coming in advance of President Obama's visit to Shanghai this month, amounted to a "gift."
The Burbank-based entertainment giant has been in on-again, off-again discussions about the park since 1995, when the Shanghai government initially contacted the company about building a Disney World-like tourist mecca. Talks ebbed and flowed, with discussions resuming in earnest about two years ago, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of negotiations.
In the meantime, Disney turned its attention to Hong Kong, where it built the 320-acre Disneyland resort that opened in 2005. The company and the Hong Kong government announced a major expansion in July, in hopes of boosting attendance by increasing the number of theme areas to seven from four over the next five years, tackling criticism that the world's smallest Disneyland didn't offer enough attractions.
James H. Higashi, a principal of Management Resources in Tustin, a consultant to the theme park industry, noted that Shanghai was one of the most populated regions in the world, offering Disney a prime location not only to draw visitors but also to market other Disney products such as movies and consumer products to a huge portion of China.
"From a strategic standpoint, it's one of the best markets in the world," Higashi said.
He said Disney theme parks have had trouble adjusting to the foreign markets -- the Paris operation is saddled with huge debt and the Hong Kong location has operated at a loss -- but he expects the company to do well in the long run, given Shanghai's rising reputation as one of the world's premier cities, both in culture and business.
Disney would take a 43% equity stake in Shanghai Disneyland, while a joint-venture holding company owned by the local government would own the remaining 57%.
The first phase, to be built on about one square mile in what is now a mostly agricultural area between an airport and the Pudong business district, would include a theme park, hotel and shopping district.
The Shanghai park is envisioned as a classic Magic Kingdom model, with a castle at the center, but with Chinese accents. As with Disney's other international parks, it will give a nod to local tastes and cultures. At the Disneyland Resort in Paris, wine is served. In Hong Kong, the Golden Mickey Show is performed in three languages -- Cantonese, the language of Hong Kong, Mandarin, which is spoken on the mainland, and English. The Shanghai park would similarly reflect mainland sensibilities, people familiar with the plans said.
Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services Inc., a consultant to theme park developers, said the latest venture was a smart move by Disney to stake a claim in Shanghai even though a theme park wouldn't be developed for six to eight years.
Speigel said Disney has had some problems adjusting its product to foreign audiences. For example, he said Mickey Mouse didn't appeal much to Disney guests at the Hong Kong park until the company researched Chinese media and mainstream culture and found he would be more appealing without a mouth.
He also said Disney has realized that the Hong Kong Disneyland is too small and confining and has been upstaged by a nearby marine-themed park called Ocean Park Hong Kong.
Still, Speigel said that by winning approval from the Chinese government now, Disney will be in a position to thrive in Shanghai "when they are ready and the time is appropriate."
Gene Jeffers, executive director of Themed Entertainment Assn., a trade group of designers and builders of theme parks and special events, said he was optimistic that Disney could succeed in Shanghai.
"Something like this is good for our industry," he said.
dawn.chmielewski@
latimes.com
hugo.martin@latimes.com
Nicole Liu of The Times' Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
In Taiwan, an effort to bring back witches
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
In Taiwan, an effort to bring back witches
The government is funding a program to help indigenous tribes preserve traditional practices. For the Paiwan tribe, that includes training women as witches, or spirit mediums.
By Cindy Sui
November 7, 2009
Reporting from Taiwan
When Djupelang Qrudu was growing up in her tribal village, her grandmothers saw something special in her and recommended an alternative to attending high school: becoming a witch.
Djupelang, a member of the Paiwan indigenous tribe in southern Taiwan's Pingtung County, respectfully declined and became a nurse instead. But now the 51-year-old, her three children grown, is enrolled in a special class offered by the tribe to train people in the traditional skills of communicating with spirits.
Once highly respected in the community, Paiwan witches, or spirit mediums, treated illnesses, led the community in important ceremonies and protected their villages from evil. They also provided comfort in times of trouble.
"It's like being a psychiatrist," says Djupelang, a cheerful woman who left her nursing career after being diagnosed with uterine cancer.
But in the last 50 years, the number of mediums in the Paiwan tribe -- at 86,000 members, Taiwan's third largest -- has dropped to fewer than 20 from more than 100. The introduction of Christianity, as well as modernization and assimilation into mainstream culture, has led to a near disappearance of the tradition.
"The missionaries told us mediums were like devils," Djupelang said. "They said we were Satan's family because we had mediums in our family. I felt so ashamed."
Taiwan's indigenous people number about 490,000 -- 2% of the population. They have lived on the island for thousands of years, long before the majority Han Chinese arrived.
In the old days, witchcraft was an important part of village life for the Paiwan, who lived mainly in southern Taiwan, near Dawu Mountain. Mediums, who were mostly women, would communicate with spirits. During ceremonies, the mediums called on the spirits to help the village.
"Our type of witchcraft is not wild like the media have imagined it to be. It's based on life," Djupelang said. "For instance, if we are about to plant seedlings, the mediums conduct a prayer chant for planting. Before a harvest, we have a chant to pray for a good harvest. During funerals, we have a chant for mourning."
No instruments, drugs or dance are used, just mesmerizing chants and songs. There are different chants or songs, depending on the occasion.
Nowadays, only villages that have a medium hold the traditional ceremonies. Most of the Paiwan are Christians, and many young people have moved to the cities for work.
Since the Paiwan lack a written language, community leader Weng Yu-hua and others believe it is especially important to pass the witches' skills to the next generation.
"Elder witches learned the chants by memorization, but we are now trying to record them," said Weng, who organized the class after obtaining funding from the Council of Indigenous Peoples within Taiwan's central government.
Last year, the tribe began creating a writing system based on Romanization. Previous government efforts to record the tribe's culture failed because they used a bidding system, which brought in scholars. Tribal members were reluctant to pass their traditions to outsiders, Weng said.
The women attend the classes, which cost $18 for 36 hours of lessons, with the understanding that teachers cannot instill psychic power in the students, but simply help them try to discover it within themselves. Students also must have witches or shamans in their bloodline or be the offspring of village chiefs.
Djupelang said her grandmothers were witches who noticed she was special from the moment she was born. She seemed a lucky charm; everywhere they took her, people helped, good things happened.
For Djupelang, it took years of setbacks and frustration for her to recognize her true calling. She sought guidance from a medium in her village after experiencing personal problems, including a divorce and the cancer, which she beat.
"The medium told me I should've been a witch," she said.
Djupelang said that in the aftermath of the recent Typhoon Morakot, which brought severe flooding and mudslides, killing more than 600 people, she and a witch from her village used traditional chants to comfort villagers whose homes had been washed away.
The compensation for her efforts, she said, is not expected to amount to much as it will depend on what people can afford. But Djupelang, who also makes and embroiders traditional Paiwan clothes and subsists mainly on a traditional diet of taro, yams and millet, remains devoted to maintaining cultural traditions.
"I'm very happy to be learning this," she said. "If my ancestors knew, they would be very happy too."
Sui is a special correspondent.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
In Taiwan, an effort to bring back witches
The government is funding a program to help indigenous tribes preserve traditional practices. For the Paiwan tribe, that includes training women as witches, or spirit mediums.
By Cindy Sui
November 7, 2009
Reporting from Taiwan
When Djupelang Qrudu was growing up in her tribal village, her grandmothers saw something special in her and recommended an alternative to attending high school: becoming a witch.
Djupelang, a member of the Paiwan indigenous tribe in southern Taiwan's Pingtung County, respectfully declined and became a nurse instead. But now the 51-year-old, her three children grown, is enrolled in a special class offered by the tribe to train people in the traditional skills of communicating with spirits.
Once highly respected in the community, Paiwan witches, or spirit mediums, treated illnesses, led the community in important ceremonies and protected their villages from evil. They also provided comfort in times of trouble.
"It's like being a psychiatrist," says Djupelang, a cheerful woman who left her nursing career after being diagnosed with uterine cancer.
But in the last 50 years, the number of mediums in the Paiwan tribe -- at 86,000 members, Taiwan's third largest -- has dropped to fewer than 20 from more than 100. The introduction of Christianity, as well as modernization and assimilation into mainstream culture, has led to a near disappearance of the tradition.
"The missionaries told us mediums were like devils," Djupelang said. "They said we were Satan's family because we had mediums in our family. I felt so ashamed."
Taiwan's indigenous people number about 490,000 -- 2% of the population. They have lived on the island for thousands of years, long before the majority Han Chinese arrived.
In the old days, witchcraft was an important part of village life for the Paiwan, who lived mainly in southern Taiwan, near Dawu Mountain. Mediums, who were mostly women, would communicate with spirits. During ceremonies, the mediums called on the spirits to help the village.
"Our type of witchcraft is not wild like the media have imagined it to be. It's based on life," Djupelang said. "For instance, if we are about to plant seedlings, the mediums conduct a prayer chant for planting. Before a harvest, we have a chant to pray for a good harvest. During funerals, we have a chant for mourning."
No instruments, drugs or dance are used, just mesmerizing chants and songs. There are different chants or songs, depending on the occasion.
Nowadays, only villages that have a medium hold the traditional ceremonies. Most of the Paiwan are Christians, and many young people have moved to the cities for work.
Since the Paiwan lack a written language, community leader Weng Yu-hua and others believe it is especially important to pass the witches' skills to the next generation.
"Elder witches learned the chants by memorization, but we are now trying to record them," said Weng, who organized the class after obtaining funding from the Council of Indigenous Peoples within Taiwan's central government.
Last year, the tribe began creating a writing system based on Romanization. Previous government efforts to record the tribe's culture failed because they used a bidding system, which brought in scholars. Tribal members were reluctant to pass their traditions to outsiders, Weng said.
The women attend the classes, which cost $18 for 36 hours of lessons, with the understanding that teachers cannot instill psychic power in the students, but simply help them try to discover it within themselves. Students also must have witches or shamans in their bloodline or be the offspring of village chiefs.
Djupelang said her grandmothers were witches who noticed she was special from the moment she was born. She seemed a lucky charm; everywhere they took her, people helped, good things happened.
For Djupelang, it took years of setbacks and frustration for her to recognize her true calling. She sought guidance from a medium in her village after experiencing personal problems, including a divorce and the cancer, which she beat.
"The medium told me I should've been a witch," she said.
Djupelang said that in the aftermath of the recent Typhoon Morakot, which brought severe flooding and mudslides, killing more than 600 people, she and a witch from her village used traditional chants to comfort villagers whose homes had been washed away.
The compensation for her efforts, she said, is not expected to amount to much as it will depend on what people can afford. But Djupelang, who also makes and embroiders traditional Paiwan clothes and subsists mainly on a traditional diet of taro, yams and millet, remains devoted to maintaining cultural traditions.
"I'm very happy to be learning this," she said. "If my ancestors knew, they would be very happy too."
Sui is a special correspondent.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
The Bund
The Bund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents
1 Name
2 History
3 Layout
4 Architecture and buildings
5 Transport
6 Cultural references
7 See also
8 Some views from the Bund
9 External links
Name
The word "bund" means an embankment or an embanked quay, and comes from the Urdu word band, meaning an embankment, levee or dam (a cognate of English terms, bind and band, German term, bund, etc.). "Bund" is pronounced to rhyme with "fund". The term was brought to India (where it came to be pronounced as "bund") by either the Mughals in at the beginning of the 16th century, or possibly, by the Baghdadi Jews like the family of David Sassoon, and thence to Shanghai by the family of Victor Sassoon. There are many "bands" to be found in Baghdad, even today. There are numerous sites in India, China, and Japan which are called "bunds". However, "The Bund" as a proper noun almost invariably refers to this stretch of embanked riverfront in Shanghai.
History
The Shanghai Bund has dozens of historical buildings, lining the Huangpu River, that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from Britain, France, the U.S., Russia, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. The Bund lies north of the old, walled city of Shanghai. This was initially a British settlement; later the British and American settlements were combined in the International Settlement. A building boom at the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century led to the Bund becoming a major financial hub of East Asia. The former French Bund, east of the walled city was formerly more a working harbourside.
By the 1940s the Bund housed the headquarters of many, if not most, of the major financial institutions operating in China, including the "big four" national banks in the Republic of China era. However, with the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war, many of the financial institutions were moved out gradually in the 1950s, and the hotels and clubs closed or converted to other uses. The statues of colonial figures and foreign worthies which had dotted the riverside were also removed.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the thawing of economic policy in the People's Republic of China, buildings on the Bund were gradually returned to their former uses. Government institutions were moved out in favour of financial institutions, while hotels resumed trading as such. Also during this period, a series of floods caused by typhoons motivated the municipal government to construct a tall levee along the riverfront, with the result that the embankment now stands some 10 metres higher than street level. This has dramatically changed the streetscape of the Bund. In the 1990s, Zhongshan Road (named after Sun Yat-sen), the road on which the Bund is centred, was widened to ten lanes. As a result, most of the parkland which had existed along the road disappeared. Also in this period, the ferry wharves connecting the Bund and Pudong, which had served the area's original purpose, were removed. A number of pleasure cruises still operate from some nearby wharves.
In the 1990s the Shanghai government attempted to promote an extended concept of the Bund to boost tourism and land value in nearby values, as well as to reconcile the promotion of "colonial relics" with the Socialist ideology. In its expanded form, the term "Bund" (as "New Bund" or "Northern Bund") was used to refer to areas south of the Yan'an Road, and a stretch of riverfront north of the Suzhou River (Zhabei). Such use of the term, however, remains rare outside of the tourism literature.
From 2008, a major reconfiguration of traffic flow along the Bund was be carried out. The first stage of the plan involved the southern end of the Bund, and saw the demolition of a section of the Yan'an Road elevated expressway, which will remove the large elevated expressway exit structure which formerly dominated the confluence of Yan'an Road and the Bund. The second stage, begun on 1 March 2008, involves the complete restoration of the century-old Waibaidu Bridge at the northern end of the Bund. The restoration is expected to be completed by early 2009. The next stage of the plan involves a reconstruction of the Bund roadway. The current 8-lane roadway will be rebuilt as in two levels, with four lanes on each level. This will allow part of the Bund road space to be restored to its former use as parkland and marginal lawns. The new concrete bridge that was built in 1991 to relieve traffic on Waibaidu Bridge will also be rendered obsolete by the new double-levelled roadway, and will be demolished.
Layout
The China Merchant BankThe Bund stretches one mile along the bank of the Huangpu River. Traditionally, the Bund begins at Yan'an Road (formerly Edward VII Avenue) in the south and ends at Waibaidu Bridge (formerly Garden Bridge) in the north, which crosses Suzhou Creek.
The Bund centres on a stretch of the Zhongshan Road, named after Sun Yat-sen. Zhongshan Road is a largely circular road which formed the traditional conceptual boundary of Shanghai city "proper". To the west of this stretch of the road stands some 52 buildings of various Western classical and modern styles which is the main feature of the Bund (see Architecture and buildings below). To the east of the road was formerly a stretch of parkland culminating at Huangpu Park. (This park is the site of the infamous sign reported to have proclaimed "no dogs or Chinese", although this exact wording never existed. Further information, including an image of the sign, can be found at the article on Huangpu Park.) This area is now much reduced due to the expansion of Zhongshan Road. Further east is a tall levee, constructed in the 1990s to ward off flood waters. The construction of this high wall has dramatically changed the appearance of the Bund.
Near the Nanjing Road intersection stands what is currently the only bronze statue along the Bund. It is a statue of Chen Yi, the first Communist mayor of Shanghai. At the northern end of The Bund, along the riverfront, is Huangpu Park, in which is situated the Monument to the People's Heroes - a tall, abstract concrete tower which is a memorial for the those who died during the revolutionary struggle of Shanghai dating back to the Opium Wars.
Architecture and buildings
The Bund houses 52 buildings of various architectural styles such as Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco (Shanghai has one of the richest collections of Art Deco architectures in the world). From the south, the main buildings are:
Asia Building (No. 1, The Bund), originally the McBain Building, housed the Shanghai offices of Royal Dutch Shell and Asiatic Petroleum Company.
Shanghai Club (No. 2, The Bund), which was the principal social club for British nationals in Shanghai.
Union Building (No. 3, The Bund), housed a number of insurance companies.
The Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China building (No. 4, The Bund), housed the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, built between 1916-1918.
Nissin Building (No. 5, The Bund), housed a Japanese shipping company.
Russel & Co. Building (No. 6, The Bund), now houses the China Shipping Merchant Company.
The Great Northern Telegraph Corporation Building (No. 7, The Bund), housed the The Great Northern Telegraph Company. Site of the first telephone switch in Shanghai in 1882.
China Merchants Bank Building (No. 9, The Bund), housed the first Chinese-owned bank in China.
The HSBC Building (No. 12, The Bund), now used by the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, was once the Shanghai headquarters of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which failed to reach a deal with the Shanghai government to buy the building again in the 1990s, when the Shanghai government moved out of the building that they had used since the 1950s. The present building was completed in 1923. At the time, it was called "the most luxurious building between the Suez Canal and the Bering Strait". Its famous ceiling mosaics have been fully restored, and can be viewed inside the entrance hall.
The Customs House (No. 13, The Bund), was built in 1927 on the site of an earlier, traditional Chinese-style customs house. The clock and bell was built in England and in imitation of Big Ben.
China Bank of Communications Building (No. 14, The Bund), was the last building to be built on the Bund. It now houses the Shanghai Council of Trade Unions.
Russo-Chinese Bank Building (No. 15, The Bund) is now the Shanghai Foreign Exchange.
Bank of Taiwan Building (No. 16, The Bund) is now the China Merchants Bank.
North China Daily News Building (No. 17, The Bund) housed the most influential English-language newspaper in Shanghai at the time. Today it houses AIA Insurance.
Chartered Bank Building (No. 18, The Bund) housed the Shanghai headquarters of the Standard Chartered Bank.
Palace Hotel (No. 19, The Bund), today forms part of the Peace Hotel.
Sassoon House (No. 20, The Bund), with the attached Cathay Hotel, was built by Sir Victor Sassoon. It was, and still is today, famous for its jazz band in its cafe. The top floor originally housed Sassoon's private apartment. Today, it forms the other part of the Peace Hotel.
Bank of China Building (No. 23, The Bund) housed the headquarters of the Bank of China. The stunted appearance of the building is attributed to Sassoon's insistence that no other building on the Bund could rise higher than his.
Yokohama Specie Bank Building (No. 24, The Bund) housed the Japanese Yokohama Specie Bank.
'Yangtsze Insurance Association Building (No. 26, The Bund) Today houses the a Shanghai branch of the Agricultural Bank of China.
Jardine Matheson Building (No. 27, The Bund) housed the then-powerful Jardine Matheson company.
Glen Line Building (No. 2 Beijing Road) today houses the Shanghai Broadcasting Board.
Banque de l'Indochine Building (No. 29, The Bund) housed the French bank, Banque de l'Indochine.
Consulate-General of the United Kingdom (No. 33, The Bund) housed the Consulate-General of the United Kingdom. The building is under renovation to be opened as the Peninsula Hotel, Shanghai.
The Bund
[edit] Transport
Light effects in the pedestrian transit tunnel.While Shanghai Metro Line 2 crosses the Bund, there are no plans to build a station on the Bund. The closest station is East Nanjing Road, about a five minute walk up Nanjing Road. East-1 Zhongshan Road is a major bus route.
There were previously frequent ferry services operating from wharves on and near the Bund. These have been discontinued in the last decade, although pleasure cruises continue to operate from these wharves.
A pedestrian transit tunnel crosses the Huangpu River from the Bund. Passengers board slow-moving powered vehicles which travel along the tunnel, with light effects projected onto the walls of the tunnel. These effects are marketed as a tourist attraction.
[edit] Cultural references
The Bund at night
The Bund was famously featured in the novel Empire of the Sun by British author J.G. Ballard, based on his experiences as a boy during the Japanese invasion and occupation. The book was later made into a film by Steven Spielberg.
The opening pages of the novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson are set on the Bund in November 1941, as civil order collapses under the threat of Japanese invasion.
The Bund is a setting (and namesake) of the Hong Kong television series The Bund (1980) and film Shanghai Grand (1996). The story of both involve pre-World War II era gangsters competing for control of the Bund.
[edit] See also
List of historic buildings in Shanghai
[edit] Some views from the Bund
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building and the Shanghai Custom House building
From left to right: The Peace Hotel, Bank of China building, and former Yokohama Species Bank.
The Bund viewed from Oriental Pearl Tower in Pudong
The Shanghai Custom House Building, and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank during the day
Pudong seen from The Bund
Kite sellers along the Bund riverwalk
[hide]v • d • eThe Bund, Shanghai
Asia Building | Shanghai Club | Union Building | Nissin Building | China Merchants Bank Building
Telegraph Building | Russel & Co. Building | HSBC Building | Shanghai Customs House | China Bank of Communications
Russo-Chinese Bank Building | Bank of Taiwan Building | North China Daily News Building | Chartered Bank Building | Palace Hotel
Sassoon House | Bank of China Building | Yokohama Specie Bank Building | Yangtze Building | Jardine Matheson Building
Glen Line Building | Banque de l'Indochine Building | Consulate-General of the United Kingdom | Broadway Mansions | Bund Observatory
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Bund
Coordinates: 31°14′19.88″N 121°29′13.79″E / 31.2388556°N 121.4871639°E / 31.2388556; 121.4871639
Buildings of the Bund
Pictures of the Bund taken in 1994
Detailed list of buildings along the Bund
Flickr photos tagged "The Bund"
Key to Buildings with history
The Bund Photos
Touring around The Bund
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bund"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents
1 Name
2 History
3 Layout
4 Architecture and buildings
5 Transport
6 Cultural references
7 See also
8 Some views from the Bund
9 External links
Name
The word "bund" means an embankment or an embanked quay, and comes from the Urdu word band, meaning an embankment, levee or dam (a cognate of English terms, bind and band, German term, bund, etc.). "Bund" is pronounced to rhyme with "fund". The term was brought to India (where it came to be pronounced as "bund") by either the Mughals in at the beginning of the 16th century, or possibly, by the Baghdadi Jews like the family of David Sassoon, and thence to Shanghai by the family of Victor Sassoon. There are many "bands" to be found in Baghdad, even today. There are numerous sites in India, China, and Japan which are called "bunds". However, "The Bund" as a proper noun almost invariably refers to this stretch of embanked riverfront in Shanghai.
History
The Shanghai Bund has dozens of historical buildings, lining the Huangpu River, that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from Britain, France, the U.S., Russia, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. The Bund lies north of the old, walled city of Shanghai. This was initially a British settlement; later the British and American settlements were combined in the International Settlement. A building boom at the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century led to the Bund becoming a major financial hub of East Asia. The former French Bund, east of the walled city was formerly more a working harbourside.
By the 1940s the Bund housed the headquarters of many, if not most, of the major financial institutions operating in China, including the "big four" national banks in the Republic of China era. However, with the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war, many of the financial institutions were moved out gradually in the 1950s, and the hotels and clubs closed or converted to other uses. The statues of colonial figures and foreign worthies which had dotted the riverside were also removed.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the thawing of economic policy in the People's Republic of China, buildings on the Bund were gradually returned to their former uses. Government institutions were moved out in favour of financial institutions, while hotels resumed trading as such. Also during this period, a series of floods caused by typhoons motivated the municipal government to construct a tall levee along the riverfront, with the result that the embankment now stands some 10 metres higher than street level. This has dramatically changed the streetscape of the Bund. In the 1990s, Zhongshan Road (named after Sun Yat-sen), the road on which the Bund is centred, was widened to ten lanes. As a result, most of the parkland which had existed along the road disappeared. Also in this period, the ferry wharves connecting the Bund and Pudong, which had served the area's original purpose, were removed. A number of pleasure cruises still operate from some nearby wharves.
In the 1990s the Shanghai government attempted to promote an extended concept of the Bund to boost tourism and land value in nearby values, as well as to reconcile the promotion of "colonial relics" with the Socialist ideology. In its expanded form, the term "Bund" (as "New Bund" or "Northern Bund") was used to refer to areas south of the Yan'an Road, and a stretch of riverfront north of the Suzhou River (Zhabei). Such use of the term, however, remains rare outside of the tourism literature.
From 2008, a major reconfiguration of traffic flow along the Bund was be carried out. The first stage of the plan involved the southern end of the Bund, and saw the demolition of a section of the Yan'an Road elevated expressway, which will remove the large elevated expressway exit structure which formerly dominated the confluence of Yan'an Road and the Bund. The second stage, begun on 1 March 2008, involves the complete restoration of the century-old Waibaidu Bridge at the northern end of the Bund. The restoration is expected to be completed by early 2009. The next stage of the plan involves a reconstruction of the Bund roadway. The current 8-lane roadway will be rebuilt as in two levels, with four lanes on each level. This will allow part of the Bund road space to be restored to its former use as parkland and marginal lawns. The new concrete bridge that was built in 1991 to relieve traffic on Waibaidu Bridge will also be rendered obsolete by the new double-levelled roadway, and will be demolished.
Layout
The China Merchant BankThe Bund stretches one mile along the bank of the Huangpu River. Traditionally, the Bund begins at Yan'an Road (formerly Edward VII Avenue) in the south and ends at Waibaidu Bridge (formerly Garden Bridge) in the north, which crosses Suzhou Creek.
The Bund centres on a stretch of the Zhongshan Road, named after Sun Yat-sen. Zhongshan Road is a largely circular road which formed the traditional conceptual boundary of Shanghai city "proper". To the west of this stretch of the road stands some 52 buildings of various Western classical and modern styles which is the main feature of the Bund (see Architecture and buildings below). To the east of the road was formerly a stretch of parkland culminating at Huangpu Park. (This park is the site of the infamous sign reported to have proclaimed "no dogs or Chinese", although this exact wording never existed. Further information, including an image of the sign, can be found at the article on Huangpu Park.) This area is now much reduced due to the expansion of Zhongshan Road. Further east is a tall levee, constructed in the 1990s to ward off flood waters. The construction of this high wall has dramatically changed the appearance of the Bund.
Near the Nanjing Road intersection stands what is currently the only bronze statue along the Bund. It is a statue of Chen Yi, the first Communist mayor of Shanghai. At the northern end of The Bund, along the riverfront, is Huangpu Park, in which is situated the Monument to the People's Heroes - a tall, abstract concrete tower which is a memorial for the those who died during the revolutionary struggle of Shanghai dating back to the Opium Wars.
Architecture and buildings
The Bund houses 52 buildings of various architectural styles such as Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco (Shanghai has one of the richest collections of Art Deco architectures in the world). From the south, the main buildings are:
Asia Building (No. 1, The Bund), originally the McBain Building, housed the Shanghai offices of Royal Dutch Shell and Asiatic Petroleum Company.
Shanghai Club (No. 2, The Bund), which was the principal social club for British nationals in Shanghai.
Union Building (No. 3, The Bund), housed a number of insurance companies.
The Mercantile Bank of India, London, and China building (No. 4, The Bund), housed the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, built between 1916-1918.
Nissin Building (No. 5, The Bund), housed a Japanese shipping company.
Russel & Co. Building (No. 6, The Bund), now houses the China Shipping Merchant Company.
The Great Northern Telegraph Corporation Building (No. 7, The Bund), housed the The Great Northern Telegraph Company. Site of the first telephone switch in Shanghai in 1882.
China Merchants Bank Building (No. 9, The Bund), housed the first Chinese-owned bank in China.
The HSBC Building (No. 12, The Bund), now used by the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, was once the Shanghai headquarters of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, which failed to reach a deal with the Shanghai government to buy the building again in the 1990s, when the Shanghai government moved out of the building that they had used since the 1950s. The present building was completed in 1923. At the time, it was called "the most luxurious building between the Suez Canal and the Bering Strait". Its famous ceiling mosaics have been fully restored, and can be viewed inside the entrance hall.
The Customs House (No. 13, The Bund), was built in 1927 on the site of an earlier, traditional Chinese-style customs house. The clock and bell was built in England and in imitation of Big Ben.
China Bank of Communications Building (No. 14, The Bund), was the last building to be built on the Bund. It now houses the Shanghai Council of Trade Unions.
Russo-Chinese Bank Building (No. 15, The Bund) is now the Shanghai Foreign Exchange.
Bank of Taiwan Building (No. 16, The Bund) is now the China Merchants Bank.
North China Daily News Building (No. 17, The Bund) housed the most influential English-language newspaper in Shanghai at the time. Today it houses AIA Insurance.
Chartered Bank Building (No. 18, The Bund) housed the Shanghai headquarters of the Standard Chartered Bank.
Palace Hotel (No. 19, The Bund), today forms part of the Peace Hotel.
Sassoon House (No. 20, The Bund), with the attached Cathay Hotel, was built by Sir Victor Sassoon. It was, and still is today, famous for its jazz band in its cafe. The top floor originally housed Sassoon's private apartment. Today, it forms the other part of the Peace Hotel.
Bank of China Building (No. 23, The Bund) housed the headquarters of the Bank of China. The stunted appearance of the building is attributed to Sassoon's insistence that no other building on the Bund could rise higher than his.
Yokohama Specie Bank Building (No. 24, The Bund) housed the Japanese Yokohama Specie Bank.
'Yangtsze Insurance Association Building (No. 26, The Bund) Today houses the a Shanghai branch of the Agricultural Bank of China.
Jardine Matheson Building (No. 27, The Bund) housed the then-powerful Jardine Matheson company.
Glen Line Building (No. 2 Beijing Road) today houses the Shanghai Broadcasting Board.
Banque de l'Indochine Building (No. 29, The Bund) housed the French bank, Banque de l'Indochine.
Consulate-General of the United Kingdom (No. 33, The Bund) housed the Consulate-General of the United Kingdom. The building is under renovation to be opened as the Peninsula Hotel, Shanghai.
The Bund
[edit] Transport
Light effects in the pedestrian transit tunnel.While Shanghai Metro Line 2 crosses the Bund, there are no plans to build a station on the Bund. The closest station is East Nanjing Road, about a five minute walk up Nanjing Road. East-1 Zhongshan Road is a major bus route.
There were previously frequent ferry services operating from wharves on and near the Bund. These have been discontinued in the last decade, although pleasure cruises continue to operate from these wharves.
A pedestrian transit tunnel crosses the Huangpu River from the Bund. Passengers board slow-moving powered vehicles which travel along the tunnel, with light effects projected onto the walls of the tunnel. These effects are marketed as a tourist attraction.
[edit] Cultural references
The Bund at night
The Bund was famously featured in the novel Empire of the Sun by British author J.G. Ballard, based on his experiences as a boy during the Japanese invasion and occupation. The book was later made into a film by Steven Spielberg.
The opening pages of the novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson are set on the Bund in November 1941, as civil order collapses under the threat of Japanese invasion.
The Bund is a setting (and namesake) of the Hong Kong television series The Bund (1980) and film Shanghai Grand (1996). The story of both involve pre-World War II era gangsters competing for control of the Bund.
[edit] See also
List of historic buildings in Shanghai
[edit] Some views from the Bund
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building and the Shanghai Custom House building
From left to right: The Peace Hotel, Bank of China building, and former Yokohama Species Bank.
The Bund viewed from Oriental Pearl Tower in Pudong
The Shanghai Custom House Building, and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank during the day
Pudong seen from The Bund
Kite sellers along the Bund riverwalk
[hide]v • d • eThe Bund, Shanghai
Asia Building | Shanghai Club | Union Building | Nissin Building | China Merchants Bank Building
Telegraph Building | Russel & Co. Building | HSBC Building | Shanghai Customs House | China Bank of Communications
Russo-Chinese Bank Building | Bank of Taiwan Building | North China Daily News Building | Chartered Bank Building | Palace Hotel
Sassoon House | Bank of China Building | Yokohama Specie Bank Building | Yangtze Building | Jardine Matheson Building
Glen Line Building | Banque de l'Indochine Building | Consulate-General of the United Kingdom | Broadway Mansions | Bund Observatory
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Bund
Coordinates: 31°14′19.88″N 121°29′13.79″E / 31.2388556°N 121.4871639°E / 31.2388556; 121.4871639
Buildings of the Bund
Pictures of the Bund taken in 1994
Detailed list of buildings along the Bund
Flickr photos tagged "The Bund"
Key to Buildings with history
The Bund Photos
Touring around The Bund
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bund"
Tea ceremony making comeback among men
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009
Tea ceremony making comeback among men
By YASUYUKI SAITO
Kyodo News
The tea ceremony, long a key component in premarriage training for women, is gradually drawing interest among men in search of healing after a hard day's work, bringing yet another weapon into the Japanese war on stress.
One Monday evening in Tokyo in September, more than a dozen men of various ages gathered in a spacious Japanese-style room at a house in Shinjuku Ward for a tea ceremony. Compared with other weekdays, men outnumbered women conspicuously.
"Men are probably coming on Mondays because that's when other men are likely to come, said Sowa Akiyama, 64, a teacher at Urasenke tea school. "People regardless of gender are trying to calm down emotionally through the tea ceremony."
One of the male students said the tea school makes him feel like he's on another planet.
"The classroom is a totally different world after a hard day's work. It is a precious time for me to feel at peace," he said.
Pen, a design magazine for men, issued a special edition focusing on tea ceremonies in February. The magazine Sarai did the same in April. Both editions quickly sold out.
Akira Ozaki, 42, deputy editor of Pen, said the image of the traditional rite is changing.
"Tea ceremonies are shaking off a traditional image of a culture lesson and strictly observing the rules of etiquette," he said.
Tea ceremony making comeback among men
By YASUYUKI SAITO
Kyodo News
The tea ceremony, long a key component in premarriage training for women, is gradually drawing interest among men in search of healing after a hard day's work, bringing yet another weapon into the Japanese war on stress.
One Monday evening in Tokyo in September, more than a dozen men of various ages gathered in a spacious Japanese-style room at a house in Shinjuku Ward for a tea ceremony. Compared with other weekdays, men outnumbered women conspicuously.
"Men are probably coming on Mondays because that's when other men are likely to come, said Sowa Akiyama, 64, a teacher at Urasenke tea school. "People regardless of gender are trying to calm down emotionally through the tea ceremony."
One of the male students said the tea school makes him feel like he's on another planet.
"The classroom is a totally different world after a hard day's work. It is a precious time for me to feel at peace," he said.
Pen, a design magazine for men, issued a special edition focusing on tea ceremonies in February. The magazine Sarai did the same in April. Both editions quickly sold out.
Akira Ozaki, 42, deputy editor of Pen, said the image of the traditional rite is changing.
"Tea ceremonies are shaking off a traditional image of a culture lesson and strictly observing the rules of etiquette," he said.
Editor Departs China Magazine After High-Profile Tussle
November 10, 2009
Editor Departs China Magazine After High-Profile Tussle
By JONATHAN ANSFIELD
BEIJING — The pioneering editor of the top Chinese business magazine has left her post with plans to start anew, after a tussle for control involving much the same mix of political and financial intrigue that she made her mark uncovering.
Hu Shuli, 56, resigned Monday from Caijing, the magazine she built into a thriving print and Web outlet that specialized in investigating government corruption and corporate fraud, said a Caijing spokeswoman, Zhang Lihui. Senior editors and most of Caijing’s journalists either had already resigned or were preparing to as well, magazine employees said.
For months, Ms. Hu, the editor in chief, and the business managers of the magazine had been locked in a stalemate with the owners of Caijing over the breadth of the magazine’s coverage and the budgeting of its operations, said former employees and current staff members who asked not to be identified because they feared losing their jobs.
The owners of the magazine had come under pressure from Communist Party officials to rein in Caijing’s aggressive journalism, people at the magazine have said.
Managers at Caijing told staff members that they had been fighting to maintain the magazine’s editorial integrity.
The managers and editors had been seeking to create a more independent publication by changing the magazine’s shareholding structure, courting outside investors and pressing the owners to allow more employees to own a stake in the magazine.
In a well-publicized exodus earlier this autumn, nearly 70 business employees resigned. Ms. Hu held on until Monday.
She has now accepted a new post as the dean of the journalism school at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, a job she had been offered before it became clear that she would leave Caijing.
At the same time, she, along with a large contingent of editors and executives departing Caijing, was working to secure new licenses and open a new venture, said the employees, who had knowledge of the plans but were not authorized to speak publicly about them.
Caijing’s parent company, the Stock Exchange Executive Council, or S.E.E.C., had already recruited a new team of editors from another progressive publication, The Economic Observer in Beijing, they said.
In 11 years at Caijing, editorials by Ms. Hu pinpointed interest groups and bottlenecks that she said blocked economic overhauls. And exclusives by Caijing hastened the demise of some of the more notorious felons in China.
But the magazine’s own troubles have involved just the sort of topic that Ms. Hu and Caijing relished covering.
The political price of success grew in recent years. Ms. Hu found herself increasingly at odds with S.E.E.C. bosses and their Communist Party guardians, according to employees and other colleagues during interviews in recent months.
After a run-in with a Caijing reporter covering the ethnic riots in the western region of Xinjiang in July, officials leaned harder on Ms. Hu’s superiors to curb her coverage, the employees said.
At one point, the S.E.E.C. was ordered to fire Ms. Hu, they said. The pressures brought the infighting over editorial and financial control of Caijing to a boil.
Ms. Hu did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Known for enforcing a rigid code of conduct, she has been characteristically guarded during the crisis.
“I am still working on a good result,” she wrote in an e-mail message to The New York Times late last month.
Under her current plan, her new publishing sponsor would be the province-level Zhejiang Daily Press, said the Caijing employees and a Zhejiang Daily editor.
She has been talking with well-known Chinese investors. Her proposed new publication’s title has a familiar ring: “Caixin,” short for “Caijing Newsweek.”
The split reflects the divergence of interests in a media market still governed by party cadres, said Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at Beijing Foreign Languages University.
“Some people still stick to their ideals,” he said. “But management has become increasingly concerned with profits, and increasingly conservative.”
Moreover, as the central authorities lavish official Chinese media giants with support to grow and compete globally, they also have made moves to tighten their chain of command over muckrakers like Ms. Hu.
Not that Ms. Hu is like any other. She has become an unrivaled celebrity, and counts senior economic officials friends from her reporting days at state-owned newspapers.
At S.E.E.C., she was uniquely insulated. The chairman of the S.E.E.C., Wang Boming, a former New York Stock Exchange economist, is the son of a former deputy foreign minister.
When Mr. Wang and Ms. Hu started Caijing, in 1998, he met her demands to finance the newsroom and not interfere.
But their ambitions clashed as the influence of Caijing grew. Caijing now generates about half of the group’s revenue, but the S.E.E.C. has reinvested a considerably smaller percentage.
Mr. Wang has diversified into less daring titles, most of which have struggled.
Members of Ms. Hu’s team, in turn, went their own way, expanding Caijing online. They also tapped outside partners, like the Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li, with whom Ms. Hu has been developing a financial news service.
Behind the scenes, a conservative official named Quan Zhezhu had taken over Communist Party affairs at the organization that sponsors Caijing’s publishing license, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, in 2007, replacing the son of a liberal ex-party leader. The Federation ramped up pressure on Mr. Wang to curb coverage by Ms. Hu.
“They say she’s ungrateful, that without them the magazine would have been closed a long time ago,” a friend of Mr. Wang’s said.
An S.E.E.C. executive did not answer requests for comment in recent days.
Ms. Hu was able to elude serious trouble through the spring. After Caijing revealed a corruption investigation into China Central Television earlier this year, government media officials demanded that the story be recalled, the employees said.
But within a couple days, Caijing reposted the piece online and handed out hundreds of undistributed magazines to delegates at the annual legislative sessions.
When the ethnic riots broke out in July, Ms. Hu promptly dispatched three journalists to Urumqi. But not all of them were able to obtain a permit to be there.
One day, at the official press center, a veteran reporter named Yang Binbin was caught carrying a credential borrowed from a former coworker. When an official tried to search his laptop, he resisted, and he and a guard scuffled. The police carted off the reporter for questioning, then sent him back to Beijing.
To make matters worse, the altercation unfolded in front of a division chief from the party’s central propaganda department.
“Our pressures and conflicts had accumulated over a long time, but this incident was the fuse,” said a Caijing colleague of Mr. Yang, who himself declined to comment.
By mid-July, journalists said, the party’s powerful Central Commission on Politics and Law discussed the need to “rectify” Caijing. Propaganda authorities have reprimanded the magazine for at least eight articles this year, including the China Central Television inquiry, and directed it to “return to positive reporting on finance and economics.”
Under orders from the All-China Federation, the S.E.E.C. demanded the right to prescreen the magazine before it went to print.
Ms. Hu resisted the order. But the magazine was still required to cut at least three investigative features, including one from Urumqi, and the Web site scrapped two new columns and left the “Politics and Law” section without new posts for three days in September, to avoid riling officials.
At a gathering with Mr. Wang in August, according to a friend of his in attendance, Mr. Wang said that officials had pressured him to fire Ms. Hu. Mr. Wang said that he would not go so far as to dismiss the acclaimed newswoman and that, he told friends, the move would cause an international scandal.
But his perceived failure to stand up to editorial pressures exacerbated the financial infighting about ownership shares and budgets, to the point that Ms. Hu and Mr. Wang, as another journalist put it, “couldn’t stand each other.”
In late September, Caijing’s general manager and other executives led a walkout of more than 60 business staff members. As of last month, dozens of those who resigned had already started working at what several said were Caixin’s new offices.
For weeks, many journalists have been planning to follow Ms. Hu to the new venture. But Ms. Hu could have to wait months for new publishing licenses, if the authorities approve them, the journalist and others said.
“She hopes that having this new academic position will make it easier for her to negotiate” to start the new outlet, said the journalist, who was among those preparing to rejoin Ms. Hu.
Copyright 2009
Editor Departs China Magazine After High-Profile Tussle
By JONATHAN ANSFIELD
BEIJING — The pioneering editor of the top Chinese business magazine has left her post with plans to start anew, after a tussle for control involving much the same mix of political and financial intrigue that she made her mark uncovering.
Hu Shuli, 56, resigned Monday from Caijing, the magazine she built into a thriving print and Web outlet that specialized in investigating government corruption and corporate fraud, said a Caijing spokeswoman, Zhang Lihui. Senior editors and most of Caijing’s journalists either had already resigned or were preparing to as well, magazine employees said.
For months, Ms. Hu, the editor in chief, and the business managers of the magazine had been locked in a stalemate with the owners of Caijing over the breadth of the magazine’s coverage and the budgeting of its operations, said former employees and current staff members who asked not to be identified because they feared losing their jobs.
The owners of the magazine had come under pressure from Communist Party officials to rein in Caijing’s aggressive journalism, people at the magazine have said.
Managers at Caijing told staff members that they had been fighting to maintain the magazine’s editorial integrity.
The managers and editors had been seeking to create a more independent publication by changing the magazine’s shareholding structure, courting outside investors and pressing the owners to allow more employees to own a stake in the magazine.
In a well-publicized exodus earlier this autumn, nearly 70 business employees resigned. Ms. Hu held on until Monday.
She has now accepted a new post as the dean of the journalism school at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, a job she had been offered before it became clear that she would leave Caijing.
At the same time, she, along with a large contingent of editors and executives departing Caijing, was working to secure new licenses and open a new venture, said the employees, who had knowledge of the plans but were not authorized to speak publicly about them.
Caijing’s parent company, the Stock Exchange Executive Council, or S.E.E.C., had already recruited a new team of editors from another progressive publication, The Economic Observer in Beijing, they said.
In 11 years at Caijing, editorials by Ms. Hu pinpointed interest groups and bottlenecks that she said blocked economic overhauls. And exclusives by Caijing hastened the demise of some of the more notorious felons in China.
But the magazine’s own troubles have involved just the sort of topic that Ms. Hu and Caijing relished covering.
The political price of success grew in recent years. Ms. Hu found herself increasingly at odds with S.E.E.C. bosses and their Communist Party guardians, according to employees and other colleagues during interviews in recent months.
After a run-in with a Caijing reporter covering the ethnic riots in the western region of Xinjiang in July, officials leaned harder on Ms. Hu’s superiors to curb her coverage, the employees said.
At one point, the S.E.E.C. was ordered to fire Ms. Hu, they said. The pressures brought the infighting over editorial and financial control of Caijing to a boil.
Ms. Hu did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Known for enforcing a rigid code of conduct, she has been characteristically guarded during the crisis.
“I am still working on a good result,” she wrote in an e-mail message to The New York Times late last month.
Under her current plan, her new publishing sponsor would be the province-level Zhejiang Daily Press, said the Caijing employees and a Zhejiang Daily editor.
She has been talking with well-known Chinese investors. Her proposed new publication’s title has a familiar ring: “Caixin,” short for “Caijing Newsweek.”
The split reflects the divergence of interests in a media market still governed by party cadres, said Zhan Jiang, a journalism professor at Beijing Foreign Languages University.
“Some people still stick to their ideals,” he said. “But management has become increasingly concerned with profits, and increasingly conservative.”
Moreover, as the central authorities lavish official Chinese media giants with support to grow and compete globally, they also have made moves to tighten their chain of command over muckrakers like Ms. Hu.
Not that Ms. Hu is like any other. She has become an unrivaled celebrity, and counts senior economic officials friends from her reporting days at state-owned newspapers.
At S.E.E.C., she was uniquely insulated. The chairman of the S.E.E.C., Wang Boming, a former New York Stock Exchange economist, is the son of a former deputy foreign minister.
When Mr. Wang and Ms. Hu started Caijing, in 1998, he met her demands to finance the newsroom and not interfere.
But their ambitions clashed as the influence of Caijing grew. Caijing now generates about half of the group’s revenue, but the S.E.E.C. has reinvested a considerably smaller percentage.
Mr. Wang has diversified into less daring titles, most of which have struggled.
Members of Ms. Hu’s team, in turn, went their own way, expanding Caijing online. They also tapped outside partners, like the Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li, with whom Ms. Hu has been developing a financial news service.
Behind the scenes, a conservative official named Quan Zhezhu had taken over Communist Party affairs at the organization that sponsors Caijing’s publishing license, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, in 2007, replacing the son of a liberal ex-party leader. The Federation ramped up pressure on Mr. Wang to curb coverage by Ms. Hu.
“They say she’s ungrateful, that without them the magazine would have been closed a long time ago,” a friend of Mr. Wang’s said.
An S.E.E.C. executive did not answer requests for comment in recent days.
Ms. Hu was able to elude serious trouble through the spring. After Caijing revealed a corruption investigation into China Central Television earlier this year, government media officials demanded that the story be recalled, the employees said.
But within a couple days, Caijing reposted the piece online and handed out hundreds of undistributed magazines to delegates at the annual legislative sessions.
When the ethnic riots broke out in July, Ms. Hu promptly dispatched three journalists to Urumqi. But not all of them were able to obtain a permit to be there.
One day, at the official press center, a veteran reporter named Yang Binbin was caught carrying a credential borrowed from a former coworker. When an official tried to search his laptop, he resisted, and he and a guard scuffled. The police carted off the reporter for questioning, then sent him back to Beijing.
To make matters worse, the altercation unfolded in front of a division chief from the party’s central propaganda department.
“Our pressures and conflicts had accumulated over a long time, but this incident was the fuse,” said a Caijing colleague of Mr. Yang, who himself declined to comment.
By mid-July, journalists said, the party’s powerful Central Commission on Politics and Law discussed the need to “rectify” Caijing. Propaganda authorities have reprimanded the magazine for at least eight articles this year, including the China Central Television inquiry, and directed it to “return to positive reporting on finance and economics.”
Under orders from the All-China Federation, the S.E.E.C. demanded the right to prescreen the magazine before it went to print.
Ms. Hu resisted the order. But the magazine was still required to cut at least three investigative features, including one from Urumqi, and the Web site scrapped two new columns and left the “Politics and Law” section without new posts for three days in September, to avoid riling officials.
At a gathering with Mr. Wang in August, according to a friend of his in attendance, Mr. Wang said that officials had pressured him to fire Ms. Hu. Mr. Wang said that he would not go so far as to dismiss the acclaimed newswoman and that, he told friends, the move would cause an international scandal.
But his perceived failure to stand up to editorial pressures exacerbated the financial infighting about ownership shares and budgets, to the point that Ms. Hu and Mr. Wang, as another journalist put it, “couldn’t stand each other.”
In late September, Caijing’s general manager and other executives led a walkout of more than 60 business staff members. As of last month, dozens of those who resigned had already started working at what several said were Caixin’s new offices.
For weeks, many journalists have been planning to follow Ms. Hu to the new venture. But Ms. Hu could have to wait months for new publishing licenses, if the authorities approve them, the journalist and others said.
“She hopes that having this new academic position will make it easier for her to negotiate” to start the new outlet, said the journalist, who was among those preparing to rejoin Ms. Hu.
Copyright 2009
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