China

This video was filmed on a bus in Hong Kong in May 2006. Since then, it has become an online hit in China, and the subject of various take-offs. The story starts when a teenage boy tells the man in front of him to speak more quietly on his mobile phone. The man- now known as Bus Uncle- begins explaining, furiously, that he wishes to remain undisturbed, that he's under pressure, and that he wants to sort out the dispute by shaking hands. The scene is absurd, mainly due to the outrageous behaviour of ‘bus uncle' himself. Why was this video so successful? Maybe because it shows a person on the verge of a nervous breakdown and exhausted from working, like many in Hong Kong. But also because it illustrates the clash between generations, in which the aggressor is not the one we would have at first assumed. Read more...

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Material from Zhang, our regional editor for China.

This video shows surging crowds at an employment fair organised by Nanchang University in southeast China. In 1999, China launched a scheme to increase university enrolments and to develop its tertiary - or service - sector. The endeavour seems to have worked: China has a growth rate of 9% per year and boasts unemployment levels of under 5%. But the vibrant Chinese labour market has nevertheless failed to absorb the huge influx of qualified workers being churned out by the country's universities. See below...

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Material compiled by Zhang, our regional editor for China.

The Olympic Games will open in Beijing Aug. 8, 2008. For the Chinese authorities and the public, this is more than just a sporting event. In 2001, when the International Olympic Committee selected China to host the games, it was greeted by genuine and overwhelming jubilation across the country. But six years later, there are subdued, but persistent rumblings of discontent. Beijing residents have faced evictions to make way for Olympic construction or by businesses intent on impressing foreigners. The city's Olympic face-lift has left a lot of people homeless. Bloggers are wondering whether the games are good for the people, or for the ‘People's Party,' as the Communist Party is called. Read more...

Post your questions to contributing bloggers: Wang Xiaofeng, Doubleleaf Chen and Zhebao Pavilion.

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Material compiled by Zhang, our editor for the Chinese region

This photo was taken by ‘Ah yuan’, who posted this comment on his blog: “We respect this old woman for her courage and resistance, but we're sad to see the lack of social security in our country.” The woman pictured, who could be in her 80s, has to continue working to stay alive. She’s been selling newspapers in the Haidan district of Beijing for the last ten years.

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By Team Observers

The 17th congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) opened on 12 October. During the congress the representatives of the people must, in theory, appoint the next leaders of the country. However, in reality, they do nothing but ratify the decisions of the President and the Standing Committee. All the same, the Chinese media are required to follow the event closely, giving special attention to all information provided by the office of propaganda. This is clear when looking at images from the event.

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Material compiled by Zhang, our editor for the Chinese region 

For hundreds of years the central authority in China has allowed citizens to file a petition if they feel a local official has wronged them. The citizen must go to Peking to ask for reparations related to expropriation, police brutality, and unjust verdicts, or to denounce corruption. Over the years, these thousands of dissatisfied people have formed a village in an area south of the capital, where they live sparsely, while waiting for their case to be heard by the petition office. Some of them have been waiting for over ten years.

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However, the day before the seventeenth congress of the Communist Party, the authorities decided to get rid of the petitioners. On 12 October, police forces entered the petitioner village and expelled all its inhabitants. Now, keeping in mind the ancestral tradition of petitions, some petitioners use the Internet to air their grievances. For example...

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