Pandapassport - China Blog

Bus 44

Rick — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:26:30 +0000

Bus 44 is an amazing short film (it’s only 10 minutes long) that I hadn’t seen before I stumbled onto it over at China Smack. It wsa actually made back in 2001, but seems to be getting a bit of recent attention after making the rounds on Chinese video sites.

Here it is on 6.cn, which should be fine to view in China as well as here in Japan where I am (strangely “youku is not available in my region”). I’ve provided more links below the video player.

Bus 44 Youtube (or try via proxy)
on youku
on 6.cn
on sina

On SARS Technica in April

Rick — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:05:55 +0000

Here’s a quick summary of my posts for April over on Inventorspot.com:

The Amazing Anime Makeover post was a pleasant surprise, as the video slideshow that I put together using BBS photos ended up getting over 100 000 views in the span of a week on youtube.

If you want to stay up to date with my posts on Inventorspot, you can follow the RSS feed here.

Weirdest Captcha I’ve ever seen first hand

Rick — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:05:40 +0000

So I’m sending a message via facebook to a couple of friends of mine, and here is the captcha that pops up:

I’m sure someone out there has seen one worse than that.
Can anyone top my toad buttocks?

Symantec Video: Ghostnet Demonstration

Rick — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:00:55 +0000

Symantec has whipped up a pretty enlightening video showing how the now infamous Ghostnet Chinese malware that made news last month actually works. (For more background on that story, check out Ryan’s CNet post)

This video is pretty amazing, and towards the end you can see some footage that they have of the malware doing it’s thing, opening the webcams of many Chinese users and actually looking at them as they sit at their computers.

via nartv.org

US-China take Naval Warfare onto Youtube

Rick — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:01:17 +0000

I was just reading that youtube is blocked again in China. Someone on Shanghaiist pointed to a commenter on Danwei who pointed to recently posted videos of the US-China Navy confrontation on youtube. Here’s a playlist of those videos, for anyone who wants to check them out. If you’re in China, you can try this link.

playlist permalink

New on SARS Technica: 7 Chinese Farmer Inventions and Mods

Rick — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:25:21 +0000

Yeah, you read that right. SARS Technica. For anyone not familiar with the well-known tech blog Ars Technica, the joke might very well be lost on you. But when I had to come up with a name for my new China Tech blog on inventorspot.com, SARS Technica seemed like a fun choice.

Plus I really liked the idea of making something original by adding a letter to an already famous brand. Where did I learn that, I wonder? Anyway, my latest post is “7 Amazing Chinese Farmers Inventions and Mods.” Do check it out, and let me know what you think. The RSS feed is for SARS Technica is here.

By the way, some of you may have noticed that I’ve closed the comments on this blog. I have too many blogs springing up these days, and I thought it would be wise if I had one less set of comments to moderate. But feel free to drop me a comment or two at my new online home 1rick.com/blog.

Sony PSP: Worst Mod Ever!

Rick — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:26:01 +0000

Speaking of Shanzhai (as I was yesterday), here’s a wacky Sony PSP mod that I came across on a Chinese website. Or maybe it’s just a skin… Well, to be honest, I don’t want to spend too much time trying to figure out what the hell this is.

Lets just call it the worst bloody PSP mod ever, and leave it at that.

Source

Shanzhai Lamborghini-Ferrari Mashup

Rick — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:18:13 +0000

Thanks to peijinc on twitter (see his blog here) for pointing out this story. It seems that Shanzhai is spreading outside China’s borders these days. Some inventive car enthusiast has taken aspects of 4 different cars, and mashed them into 1 way awesomer super-car. Judging by the license plate in one of the photos, I can only guess that this was built in California. You but gotta admit that whoever built this has some Chinese/Shanzhai spirit in ‘em for sure.

Now lets have a look at where some of the inspiration came from. The smaller thumbnail photos are of the original car parts.

Hood: Ferrari Enzo

Headlights: Lamborghini Revention

Rear lights: Nissan Infiniti G35

Seats (Three of them!): McLaren F1

Source

Cantonese in 1 minute

Rick — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 03:02:08 +0000

Here’s an interesting video I just came across on youtube. It’s some dude in Hong Kong who has produced (with no insignificant effort) short videos of Cantonese language tips. He’s even got his own green screen and everything!

I feel like I should be making fun of him somehow… But it’s actually pretty good. Well done, PFM!

20 Yrs later: Tiananmen Victim’s Mothers want leaders to Investigate Deaths

Rick — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:19:19 +0000

With the 20th anniversary of Tian’anmen approaching, I anticipate we’re going to see more and more stuff like this in the news:

A group of mothers of those killed in the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square has urged China’s leaders to fully investigate the deaths. Their call was issued as the 20th anniversary of the massacre approaches, and days ahead of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.

The Tiananmen Mothers want the government to name the dead, compensate families and punish those responsible. In an open letter, Chinese leaders were also urged to “break the taboo”. BBC News

Speaking of important anniversaries, I wrote a little about this over on Inventorspot.com. I encourage you guys to add my new Inventorspot China Tech blog (RSS) to your blogrolls and feed readers if you’d like to follow my occasional China-related thoughts and ramblings. As it’s a paid blogging position, I’ll be putting significantly more effort and thought into those articles, so you’ll likely find them far more ~~insightful~~ lengthy than past PandaPassport posts.