3.12.2012 - News [Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver] (飲水思源)

CF: "Marrying Mr Perfect" To Hit Screens On March 16
(aka Marry a Perfect Man)
Ronald Cheng, a "despicable" billionaire who swaps position with his chauffeur To, falls in love with Gigi Leung in the time they spend together. Cheng tries his best to pursue his true love.

CF: 'Sophie's Revenge 2' on Actress Zhang Ziyi's Schedule
Zhang will go for Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, to shoot some pickups for Wong Kar-wai's "The Grand Master". After that, she will devote herself to "Sophie's Revenge 2".

CF: Wang Xiaoshuai Promotes "11 Flowers"

CF: "Love is Not Blind" Hits Hong Kong and Taiwan

CF: "Nightfall" Premieres in Hong Kong 

Janice Man, Nick Cheung

Nick Cheung, Michael Wong

(Sina-gallery), (Sina-slideshow)

FBA: China's video leaders to merge

Youku and Tudou, two of China's leading online video companies, are to merge. They expect to create the largest video outfit in China,
Youku.com, led by founder and chairman Victor Koo, has agreed to acquire second-ranked Tudou in a deal valued at more than $1 billion. (THR)

First of a series of posters for Ning Hao's "Guns N'Roses" ("Guns and Roses")  to be released. The film's producer, director Zhang Yibai created the posters. (Sina)

Shu Qi and Shawn Yue promote "The Second Woman" in Hong Kong

Shu Qi, Shawn Yue

(Sina)

A1: China's copycat movie posters

Pure coincidence or blatant copying? China is known for its counterfeit products, shops, and now it seems like the counterfeit culture has infiltrated the movie industry.

MSN: Michelle Reis refuses to confirm rumours of second pregnancy

(Sina)

A1: Malaysia ready to accept HK star Andy Lau if he applies for Permanent Resident status

CNET: Could Samsung beat Apple with 'Made in the USA'?
Excellent foreign cars are made in the United States. So how would U.S. consumers react if Samsung announced that all of its tablets would be manufactured in the U.S.?

Interview with a factory worker for the new iPad: much easier than making iPhone 4S (ChinaHush)

2.8.2012 - News [Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver] (飲水思源)

Variety: Flying Swords of Dragon Gate review
The 3D is terrific in "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate," but helmer Tsui Hark's costume actioner -- the first Chinese-lingo movie shown in the stereoscopic Imax format -- is let down by two-dimensional characters.

CF: Video Clip of Remastered "New Dragon Inn" Released

CF: "Let the Bullets Fly" Gets North America Release

Shu Qi, Shawn Yue star in Carol Lai's "The Second Woman"

Shu Qi plays duo roles as twin sisters in the romance-horror.

(Sina), 2

Final poster for "Romancing in Thin Air"  (Sina)

Lau Ching-Wan and Nicholas Tse attended the announcement of the HKFA nominations

(Sina)

'Let the Bullets Fly' and 'Dragon Gate' top HKFA's shortlist

MSN: Nicholas Tse’s eldest son Lucas hospitalised for high fever
MSN: Choi Min-Sik afraid of Cecilia Cheung
The actress made news in South Korea recently when veteran actor Choi Min-Sik revealed an unhappy working experience with the former 11 years ago on the movie Falian.

Cecilia's father, Zhang Ren Yong, was said to have powerful connections to the triads and stirred much fear within the production team of movie Falian.

Ceclia Cheung and father (Sina)

  MSN: Did Denise Ho and Joey Yung “break up”?
A1: Lollipop F's Owodog avoids tweeting Gillian Chung
Rumours started flying last September when the two were seen tweeting each other on Weibo frequently.
Gillian was also seen attending a gathering at Owodog's home, and catching You Are The Apple of My Eye with him in Taipei.

CNet: Ethical iPhone 5 petitions to be delivered to Apple stores
In a statement today, watchdog group SumOfUs said that it plans to deliver its own petition, along with one from Change.org, to a number of Apple's retail stores around the world. That includes New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, London, Sydney, and Bangalore.

Angry iPhone Users To March On Apple Tomorrow 

Audio: Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory

Mike Daisey was a self-described "worshipper in the cult of Mac." Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out. 

Danwei: The first Chinese Internet meme of the Year of the Dragon has emerged:
"Vacation style medical treatment"

2.7.2012 - News [Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver] (飲水思源)

FBA: The Viral Factor review
Splashy but routine action thriller, with nothing between the shootouts and explosions.

CF: "The Viral Factor" Celebrates it BO Success

CRI: "I Do" Premieres in Beijing

Sun Honglei, Li Bingbing, Duan Yihong - Beijing (Sina)

Li Bingbing answers question at the Shanghai premiere (Sina), 2

CF: Stanley Kwan Plans to Invite Vicki Zhao and Joan Chen to Star in New Project
CRI: Tian Zhuangzhuang and Ang Lee Bag Cameo Roles in "Night Fall"
CF: Vicious Kara Hui in "Blood Stained Shoes"
A bunch of still photos, featuring Kara Hui, have been released for the very first time.

(Sina)

CF: New Posters out for "The Sword Identity"
CF: "Love" Brings Forward its Release Date

A batch of new still photos featuring the famous actress Shu Qi in the romance "Love" was released. The movie was slated for release on February 14th. Receiving enthusiastic responses during previous screening events, the movie's producer Wang Zhonglei decided to bring forward its date to February 13th.

(Feb.6) Taipei premiere of "Love"

Doze Niu, Shu Qi, Mark Chao

Shu Qi

Amber Kuo (Sina)

Wong Jing's "Mr. and Mrs. Gambler" opens Feb. 16

Stars Fiona Sit and Chapman To

(Sina)

MSN: Maggie Cheung to make showbiz comeback?

It is said that the movie star has been receiving numerous high paying film offers ever since her return to Hong Kong, one of which is Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's period film,The Assassin.
A blockbuster film which boast of a US$10,000,000 (approximately S$12,480,000) production cost, the star studded lineup includes Shu Qi, Chang Chen and Tetsuya Komuro. Maggie Cheung is said to be portraying the role of a heroine, Nie Yin Niang.
MSN: Maggie Cheung calls comedies she acted in “rubbish”
Maggie also revealed that her initial image was "the girl with the bunny tooth". To be taken more seriously, she decided to correct her teeth with braces, and that paved the way for more serious roles and acting projects.

CF: A Brand New Gao Yuanyuan on Esquire Magazine
Different from her former pure image, she portrays a sexy tango dancer in the pictures.

CF: Liu Ye Graces Two Magazines

Liu Ye recently poses for two magazines "Comfort" and "His Life", showcasing his different sides.

CF: Bai Baihe: Magazine Favorite
In 2011, a small-budget romantic film "Love is Not Blind" made a little-known actress Bai Baihe rise to fame almost overnight.

(Sina-slideshow)

MSN: Nicholas Tse’s eldest son wants his parents to reconcile
CNA: Edison Chen feels victimised by Hong Kong tabloids over charity marathon
"I only want to do charity work; do I need to clean up my past?" said Chen.
MSN: Edison Chen runs for charity
Yesterday morning, the singer wore a long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of shorts, arriving at the Standard Chartered Marathon in Hong Kong, 45 minutes before it began, to warm up. Edison let on that during his pre-marathon runs, he could not complete the entire 42km run, and added that he was nervous and had difficulty sleeping the previous night.

A1: No more secret marriage for Charlene Choi

Choi remained vague when she was told that fortune tellers in Hong Kong predicted that she will get married for the second time in the year of the Dragon. Asked whether she will secretly marry her lover in the future, she replied: "I've already done it before."

CNN: Apple manufacturing plant workers complain of long hours, militant culture
Miss Chen stares curiously at the iPad. Even though she works overtime in a factory in southwestern China that manufactures them, she's never seen the finished product.

CNN: Inside story of Foxconn shrouded in secrecy

On the day we filmed there, we were followed by a mysterious white car. Wherever we went, it went. Then it was joined by another. We approached to ask why, but the driver refused to acknowledge us.

Corporations Are People, Or Maybe Animals [Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver] (飲水思源)

As Mitt Romney would say, Corporations are people [albeit, overseas people.].

NYTimes: How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work
One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

A production line in Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China. The iPhone is assembled in this vast facility, which has 230,000 employees, many at the plant up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

CNet: A tale of Apple, the iPhone, and overseas manufacturing

The piece uses Apple and its recent history to look at why the success of some U.S. firms hasn't led to more U.S. jobs--and to examine issues regarding the relationship between corporate America and Americans (as well as people overseas). One of the questions it asks is: Why isn't more manufacturing taking place in the U.S.? And Apple's answer--and the answer one might get from many U.S. companies--appears to be that it's simply no longer possible to compete by relying on domestic factories and the ecosystem that surrounds them.

Foxconn Clarifies, Apologizes for CEO's Comparison of Workers to 'Animals'

Dear Apple: Do Something About Chinese Working Conditions (CNet)
Bloomberg: Apple Won’t Turn ‘Blind Eye’ to Supply-Chain Problems, Cook Says

NYTimes: In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad

• Apple typically asks suppliers to specify how much every part costs, how many workers are needed and the size of their salaries. Executives want to know every financial detail. Afterward, Apple calculates how much it will pay for a part. Most suppliers are allowed only the slimmest of profits.
• “The only way you make money working for Apple is figuring out how to do things more efficiently or cheaper,” said an executive at one company that helped bring the iPad to market. “And then they’ll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut.”
• “You can set all the rules you want, but they’re meaningless if you don’t give suppliers enough profit to treat workers well,” said one former Apple executive with firsthand knowledge of the supplier responsibility group. “If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.”

NYTimes: Chinese Readers On The 'IEconomy'
The New York Times partnered with Caixin, a Chinese business magazine, to publish the article in Chinese. The goal was twofold: to share the content of the article with readers in China, and to solicit Chinese comments for translation into English that might prove illuminating for readers of the English-language article on NYTimes.com.

Voices of Chinese Workers in the ‘iEconomy’
In much of the debate surrounding these issues, one group’s voice is notably quiet: the factory workers themselves. Many of them are young migrants, attracted by the prospect of steady work and chances for advancement.

  Dreamwork China - a documentary

• Portraits of Shenzhen factory workers

Chengdu has developed faster than other cities in Sichuan. In recent years it has become home to the regional headquarters of international high-tech companies such as Dell, Lenovo, Foxconn and TCL.

Some 50 percent of all laptop computer chips in the world are tested in Chengdu and 20 percent of all computers worldwide -- including 70 percent of Apple's iPads -- will soon be made in the city. (ChinaWatch)

China’s computer makers march inland

SCMP: Fans, protesters greet HK's first Apple Store [Roast Pork Sliced From A Rusty Cleaver] (飲水思源) by dleedlee

[Retrieved from the old Draft bin. More Spring cleaning!]

Jennifer Cheng
Sep 25, 2011

Security guards scuffled briefly with protesters in the IFC Mall yesterday at the opening of Hong Kong's first Apple Store. But the incident failed to dampen a festive mood among fans of the iconic gadgetry.

Angered by what they see as violations of workers' rights by the company that makes iPhones and iPads for Apple, about 20 protesters unfurled a banner at the new shop reading: "No More iSlave".

The protesters, however, were outnumbered by about 500 people who had queued outside the shop, some overnight.

Spirits were high ahead of the opening as youthful Apple staff in blue shirts cheered and ran along the queue, giving high fives to fans with cult-like fervour, yelling, "See you on the other side!" and repeatedly chanting "IFC!" and "Apple!"

Jenny Zhang Yiyao, a master's student from Los Angeles studying at the University of Hong Kong, said she had joined the queue at 3am with a friend. "It's a historic moment," she said. "The store has an Apple vibe: simple and classy. The view is beautiful. It could even become a tourist attraction."

Joe Chan Cho-yan said he had waited since 7am with two friends. "The Genius Bar is the best thing about the store," he said, referring to the team of staff offering personal technical support for those who make an online appointment.

"Before this, I'd have to consult an online forum, but now I can speak to a real person."

Another fan said: "I won't be buying from resellers any more because I know Apple will take better care of its products. You never know if resellers have dropped the product on the floor beforehand."

At about 11am, 20 or so protesters from the non-profit advocacy group Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour held a prearranged demonstration on the second floor of the mall, where the upper floor of the Apple Store is, unfurling their banner from a balcony.

The group was protesting against the labour practices of Foxconn Technology, the Taiwanese-owned company that makes Apple products at factories on the mainland.

There was a commotion as security officers tried to pull the banner back from the balcony. The tussle lasted five minutes, then the guards walked away. The banner was removed 90 minutes later.

"We just wanted to protest peacefully," said one of the demonstrators, whose allegations include unsafe working conditions and low wages. (SCMP)

CNNGo:Hong Kong gets its first Apple Store

[Moved from an earlier post]

Apple supplier Pegatron hit by China plant blast 

Apple Inc supplier Pegatron Corp's plant in Shanghai was rocked by an explosion over the weekend, the latest in a series of incidents that spotlights safety concerns at factories in China.


The Deadly Labor Behind Our Phones, Laptops and Consumer Gadgets 
ChinaHush: Why do Foxconn employees keep jumping off buildings?
ChinaHush: Cleaning iPhone screens, 62 Chinese workers poisoned

8.4.2010 - News

THR: Celebrities film ads to boost China's global image
Ads due on BBC, CNN in September

Basketball star Yao Ming, movie director John Woo and piano prodigy Lang Lang are among dozens of celebrities who will appear in television commercials later this year in a bid by China to boost its image abroad.

CRI: Ah Niu Promotes Directorial Debut in Taipei

The cast of "Ice Kacang Puppy Love" including Angelica Lee, Fish Leong, Victor Wong and Gary Cao attended the press conference. They are all well-known entertainers among the Chinese-speaking community.

AP: Donnie Yen emerges from shadow of Chan, Li
For years, Donnie Yen worked in the shadow of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Having fought both on-screen, the 47-year-old actor was considered a worthy opponent but not necessarily a leading man in his own right.

Stills from What Women Want shooting in Beijing

Andy Lau

Andy Lau, Gong Li

At the movies

(Sina), 2

CRI: Chinese Film 'What Women Want' in Production

CRI: Movie Guide: 'City under Siege'

A circus clown named Sunny (Aaron Kwok) goes on a hiking trip with a few colleagues to explore the mountains of Malaysia. The group finds a cave where they accidentally inhale a type of gas which turns out to be a biological weapon leftover by the Japanese from World War II.

The new actress selected for Jay Chou's sequel to The Secret is Man Qi. Man Qi is an actress-model previously known as 'little Lin Chi-Ling'. The film will employ 3D to create a Hollywood-style musical love story. The Chinese title is Beyond Time and Space.

(Sina), 2

Hong Kong Arts Development Council's "Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival 2010"

Johnnie To, Gao Yuanyuan

Lau Ching-Wan

Gao Yuanyuan

Alan Mak, Felix Chong, Herman Yau, Dante Lam, Soi Cheong Pou-Soi also attended. (Aug.3)

(Xinhua)

More photos of Fan Bingbing bedding advert.

(Sina-slide show)

Miriam Yeung announced a series of Hong Kong concerts to be held in October at the Coliseum, also her official wedding banquet will be held December 20.

Miriam Yeung

 

(Sina)

Gigi Leung attended an event promoting ceramics making for the mentally disabled.

Gigi Leung

(Sina)

Zhou Xun in Shanghai to endorse orange juice brand Tropicana

Zhou Xun

(Sina), (Xinhua)

Cecilia Cheung, in 20 years?

A US website, http://in20years.com/, allows users to upload their photo and see what they look like in 20, 30 years. Recently, fans uploaded pictures of popular Chinese stars. You can see the results for Zhang Ziyi, Fan Bingbing, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhao Wei, Jay Chou and Liu Yifei. The site also offers a drug addict parameter, but mostly it Westernizes the Chinese faces. (Xinhua)

Cherie Chung in France

Hong Kong's East Week found Cherie Chung in France recently living a leisurely life in a series of spy photos. (Xinhua)

CRI: Wang Luodan Poses for Photo Shoot

The actress received a career boost playing the popular Du Lala in a TV adaptation of the hit novel "Du Lala's Promotion"
She and her on-screen lover in "Du Lala", Li Guangjie, have been approached to continue their romance in the upcoming TV adaptation of Zhang Yimou's film, "The Love of the Hawthorn Tree".
Wang also appeared as a lovesick mute girl in Zhang Yang's urban drama film "Driverless".
SG: Andy Hui splits from girlfriend of three years
SG: Gigi Lai: I am now an ordinary mother
Faye turns on the charm, (China Daily)

HKStandard: Avid toy buff grabs more than his fair share
The 12th Animation Comic-Game Hong Kong fair ended last night much to the disappointment of toy buff Lee Chi-wah, who was present every single day and spent HK$60,000 snapping up models and games.

Foxconn Group Installs Anti-Jump Nets at Hebei Facility, Xinhua Reports
Foxconn, which makes Apple Inc. iPads and Sony Corp. games machines, began putting up nets after at least 10 workers committed suicide this year...Foxconn Group employs more than 400,000 workers in Shenzhen, southern China, and has around 800,000 employees in the country.

Foxconn's New China Plant to Produce 200k Phones/Day, Mostly iPhones