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China: Freethinking young writer takes on the cultural establishment

With the majority of China's artists and intellectuals having been silenced or executed earlier this century, what does that say about that generation's thinkers who are still around today? Han Han (韩寒), perhaps the one post-eighties writer most read by those under thirty, gave birth to a huge controversy earlier this month when he published a post on his blog which took aim at and showed no mercy to three prominent middle-aged contemporary artists: painter Chen Yifei (陈逸飞), film-maker Chen Kaige (陈凯歌) and fellow blogger-writer Yu Qiuyu (余秋雨), with Yu known to many for having been part of an eleven-member team of writers commissioned by the Gang of Four during the Cultural Revolution.

Han Han (é?©å¯?)

Was this an attack borne out of contempt for past crimes colluded with? Grumblings a young non-comformist and anti-traditional writer coming into his own? Or just the way some youth talk to elders in pseudo-Confucius modern China?

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To have GCE O'Level English, or not to have? What is the Question?

Maurina H · 10:48 · East Asia

The last week, a letter on the Borneo Bulletin, the nation's sole English newspaper published a letter in its Opinion page which calls upon the Bruneian Government to scrap off the currently existing GCE O' Level English Language to be replaced with a "locally designed" exam paper instead. The writer, under the pseudonym Liguist, had argued that every year a lot of students fail to pass the GCE O' Level English exams, which is a requirement to get to UBD and most Governmental posts because of the following:

"The O Level English exam seems to have been designed for academic, native speakers of English, not for Brunei students, who start learning English in primary school and whose use of the language outside the classroom is limited."

Liguist had termed the GCE O'Level English exams as "a relic of colonial times" and should be replaced with something "with an attainable goal which our students will enjoy reaching for".

The issue of the low passing rates of English O' Levels in Brunei is an extremely much debated about issue within the Ministry of Education. Pehin Dato Haji Awang Abdul Rahman, the Minister of Education has voiced out his concerns in a speech he delivered at the National English Language Teaching Conference saying that so called improvements in English language competence in the country are "not reflected in GCE `O' level results" (Borneo Bulletin: August 2005).

LSM, responded to Liguist in his blog OurLocalStyle by saying that, "accusing teachers of designing examinations solely to encourage students into an academic career is a claim that needs to be taken seriously". He agreed that the O'Level examination is indeed "a holdover from colonial times" and pointed out the fact that Britain, the originator of the exam has "moved to the GCSE". However, he spews his concerns that by "locally designing" the O'Level exam, might "set the bar lower" for Brunei students.

"An easier O-Level English paper is not going to do students any favours."

Turquoise and Roses had also responded by saying that the O'Levels is an "old-fashioned way to test language competence" and "its replacement to something more suitable and logical is long overdue" and asserted that it is designed to "encourage an academic career". She echoes Liguist's sentiments that it is a paper for first language speakers of English and Bruneians are by right speakers of English as a second language who "start being formally introduced to a limited amount of English at Primary Four and who do not have any absolute reason or obligation to speak the language outside of the school environment.

LSM's reply was that,

"If there is a need to re-tool the current O’Level exams then by all means. But if re-tooling means making it easier then I hope it is because the current standard of English assessed by the O’Levels is too high."

He again voices out his scepticism that it might "dumb down" the examination yet he is not against the idea of reformatting the exam.

Justin on the other hand does not believe in scraping of the O' Levels. He argues that "the whole point of the English-medium system of education in Brunei to require students to be able to speak, read and write both Malay and English as a well as a first language speaker of both those languages". He had said:

"Surely to dumb down - and don’t doubt this, a locally designed English language paper would be dumbed down - is to defeat this purpose."

He draws examples from Singapore, a country also using the GCE O' Levels, to illustrate his point. His views are agreed with in another comment by nottoshabby.

However, it must be remembered that Singapore and Brunei have vastly different educational system where English is technically a first language in Singapore, in Brunei it is very much a second and inferior language to the very dominant Malay and drawing comparisons on the two countries will prove to be unfair and one sided.

What will eventually happen to the GCE O' Levels? Should this examination, introduced in 1951, still be utilised in this day and age?

"Policies are made by politicians. Not academicians."

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China: Google's China Problem

Frank Dai · 08:54 · East Asia

Google, the largest searching engine service in the world, has become under fire for its incompetence for providing unstable services to Chinese customers, due to the intensified online censorship, or Great Firewall of China, around the 17th anniversary of Tiananmen Massacre.

Today, as Julien Pain, Chief of Reporters Without Borders, or RSF Internet Freedom desk pointed out that Google,after two weeks of accessing difficulty, has been back to normal. However it's inaccurate to call it a blockade, since Internet users in China retrieving Google's US-Hosted Chinese version will get different results at different time and area. Rather it can be called as “disrupted connection“, as Financial Times called.

Google has offered its censored version at Google.cn, a China-hosted service registered at the Chinese government, which received much criticism from human right groups and blogosphere when launched in January. At the same time it provides option of uncensored version, to which it would redirect when typing url “www.google.com” in China. Google.cn has been available for past two weeks. However, it was estimated that only 1% of users in China applied Google.cn as their searching choice for Google service.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that they might compromise their principle, the famous “Don't Be Evil” slogan, for entering the Chinese market. Google has been evaluating whether their arrangement is identical with its company's policy and principles, while considering the possibility of retreating from China. However Reuters has reported that Google is staying in China.

On June 8th, spokesman for Foreign Ministry of China Liu Jianchao said on a routine press conference:”Chinese government welcomes companies like Google who want to operate in China's information area, but all trade and business should be conducted in comply with laws and regulations. We hope that these companies would obey Chinese law when developing business in China”. Keso, one of leading Chinese IT evangelist blogger said on his blog:

[In translation]
Indeed Liu Jianchao admitted that “it was us(Chinese government) who block Google because they did not obey the law”. But the spokesman will never told the foreigners that which law that Google has violated and which law the blockade is performed according to. The foreigners want explicit clauses in the law for them to do business, but here in China, many things are unspeakable like Zen.

Andrew Lih explained Google's position from his view. He also notices some incoherent media reports explainning Sergey Brin's position. He thought that the reason that Google's much criticized because they hold high moral standard for their business conduct.

Some Chinese blogger even resort to virtual voodoo, for they fail to access Google. keepwalking have made such one (tipped by Rebecca). Herock Xia blamed that Google Chinese official blog's failure to discuss this topic.

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The Global Voices Show #2

Georgia Popplewell · 01:57 · Middle East & North Africa , Sub-Saharan Africa

Episode #2 of the Global Voices Show has landed! In this edition we feature excerpts from the following podcasts:

XiaoQiao (Singapore)
Africa Files: The Pulse (Canada/South Africa)
BahasaPod (Indonesia)
Kazakhstan Stories (Kazakhstan)
Free Talk with Oon Yeoh (Malaysia)
JameedKast (Jordan)
The Kamla Bhatt Show (India)
Radio Open Source (USA/Serbia & Montenegro/Trinidad & Tobago)

This episode of The Global Voices Show is available in the following formats:
- MP3 (23:48 min; 16:4MB)
- Enhanced AAC (23:48 min; 11:4MB) - with embedded images and links. For iTunes and owners of later model iPods.

You can play all of these directly from this page by clicking on the “Audio MP3″ and “Audio M4A” buttons at the end of this post.

Or subscribe using any of the following links:

Also featured on this show are two music tracks from Magnatune - “Mystery Box House” and “Senegambia”, both by Daniel Berkman from the CD Calabashmoon; and “Oslodum” by Gilberto Gil, from The Wired CD.