The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Unless you knew what happened for real inside this place, you’d probably think that this nation, via its name on its own, is a bit like the democrazy that’s Switzerland (where Swiss citizens are given the microphone 4 times a year — as in the ballot — to determine on everything, from tax raises to asinine proposals to ban minarets). “The People’s Paradise”, as North Korea’s Shanghai World Expo pavillion claims itself to be, seems to be “The People’s Choice” this time ’round in the Chinese-language Twittersphere.

For apparently no surprise. “The People’s Korea”, as it makes reference to itself, has long had a political love-affair with the PRC. Within days after the communist leadership was installed in Beijing, Pyongyang gave it almost-instant recognition. Kim Il-Sung and Mao Zedong were seen together a lot, and the tradition has continued with Kim Jong-Il and the three successive “generations” of Chinese leadership, although as of late Kim Jong-Il has a new practice of coming into China in total secrecy to the extent that even his waste is transported back to Kimland. (It’s rumored Kim Jong-Il is gravely ill, and in 2009 pictures with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, Kim appeared downright awful.)

North Korea’s an unexpected love in the Chinese Twittersphere — and it’s less about the mutual communism than about the fact that people have no idea what the world’s remaining Communist dictatorship can do. Its goal against Brazil shocked the masses, although, unsurprisingly, Brazil outdid the North Koreans.

There’s another point of commonality between the DPRK and the PRC in the Chinese-language Twittersphere: it’s how they’re referred to. North Korea calls itself Chosun (朝鮮), unlike South Korea calling itself Hangeug (韓國). As it’s north of the 38th parallel, some call it North Chosun (北朝鮮). With the Chinese government closing more websites than conceivable, some are thinking if the PRC is in a love affair with the DPRK, rhetoric-wise. No surprise, then, that the two socialist comrades share the Chosun (朝鮮) moniker: as China’s west of the DPRK, tweeps sometimes give the PRC the nickname West Chosun (西朝鮮), poking fun at the Chinese Net censors.

Tomorrow, North Korea’s at it again. And of course, there’ll be a fair deal of tongue-in-cheek support for the DPRK. Including the thousands of Chinese dressed up to be North Korean cheerleaders in South Africa.

Last time this blog did a Wifi Around China post, Starbucks got hammered for what turned out to be sub-optimal wifi at the Beijing Capital Times Square outlet in Xidan. The wifi network there was without passwords. And from that moment on, we’ve learned to distrust or at least be very suspicious of Starbucks outlets with wifi networks without passwords. (Could be that folks next door are stealing the signal.)

Well, it looks like the Starbucks on the eastern side of town — on Ritan Road just east of Jianguomen — has no such fault.

The Starbucks on Ritan Road lies in the middle of Beijing’s more diplomatic-and-commercial territories (which doesn’t say a lot, we admit). It faces the international-esque International Club (pardon the pun if you will), which in the early 1980s was expat heaven. (Now expats are allowed in just about every last place in the Jing. How times have changed.)

In a config seen again at the Pinnacle Plaza in Shunyi and the Xuanwumen Junefield SOGO, this Starbucks is right next to a SUBWAY sandwich shop. (Why are these two “in love”? Please don’t give your tech blogger the Tuna Sandwich Connection as a reason — both offer you the delicacy, by the way.)

Wifi here is relatively fast and is VPN-friendly, and the best time to come is during evenings. Your blogger’s in here sometimes — and has been here on two Saturday evenings. It’s pretty quiet especially this time of the day, and the not-too-loud background music playing non-cliché pop/rock music makes it a somewhat pleasant environment to get some work done.

The only fault we could find was with the iPhone 3G checking into Gowalla (sans VPN) — it didn’t work that well over wifi. With wifi off on the iPhone, though, it was better. Also a note here for 3G people on China Unicom’s 3G service — you don’t get a full signal. (Then again, China Unicom was never known for an always-on full signal…)

Tested: 20:30, June 13, 2010 with a 15-inch MacBook Pro and iPhone 3G
Wifi: Free; no password needed
Signal: Good all-round
VPN support: Good support
Transit links: Subway Lines 1 or 2 to Jianguomen; exit B. Head left at the exit and continue straight for about 5 minutes or so, then turn left at traffic lights. Starbucks is to your right.

Starbucks Ritan Road
Ritan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

And you think: this is China. It’s supposed to be a place where we’re supposed to see more of this when it comes to URLs:

Yep, you’re supposedly right. Except for one thing. Not a lot of folks are doing Chinese URLs — especially those that involve Chinese ideograms. The sign you’re taking a good look at now is an exception.

Instead, the Chinese are into hanyu pinyin addresses (those with Chinese romanization instead of the characters themselves), abbreviated addresses in pinyin (does stuff like bjjtgl.gov.cn make any sense to you?), and — if all else fails — plain English. They’re dumping their own language — and characters.

As a Mac user (and occasional Windows guy) who has to get about in two languages (at least) every day, it’s no surprise, speaking from personal experience. On both major systems, you have to switch between different input systems with a rather complex keystroke to type in characters or in ASCII characters. As long as there’s that barrier, it’s likely those characters will remain in rarely-used territory on the Web.

Personally speaking, though, it’s a good thing they’re enabled in the first place. Now if we can just get the different keyboard layouts (and language layouts) to work out great so that it’s easier to switch between the lingos…

If Lu Xun [ed: one of those great Chinese writers that, during the era of the Republic before 1949, challenged the norm] is still here today, first, his blog would get blocked (harmonized); next, he’d be called to the police office; and finally, he’d be imprisoned on grounds of subverting state authority.

These are not the most libre of all times. We thought that when YouTube was taken away from us in March 2009 that the worst would pass after a sensitive June anniversary three months down the road. Not only is it still invisible in China, but now, Twitter, Facebook and even the apparently-innocent foursquare has joined the queue. The censors have attacked Twitter like they’ve attacked a F@!un Gøng website, closing all API and third-party links as soon as they could find one. Meanwhile, noted blogger Han Han, who turned into a so-called “public intellectual”, is not only in public fights (with the typed word, not physically) with other “public intellectuals” so-called, but also with the censors, who have removed an increasing number of Han’s articles.

@jason5ng32 (who tweeted the Chinese tweet first, seeing it retweeted over about 50 times in all) has been particularly badly hit. He runs a Chinese-language blog Kenengba, and that has been toyed around with due to an apparently pro-Google stance. (Your tech blogger was initially pro-Google as well, but immediately changed sides once it was found out that apparently all Google was interested in was gaining publicity, fighting a proxy “Cold War 2.0″ and toying with the Chinese netizenry.)

We have to ask ourselves: has the chilling effect really gotten this bad as of late?

Another gift for World Expo City, Ala Nong Zanghae. (That’s Shanghainese in Pinyin for 阿拉侬上海, which is Shanghainese for “your and our Shanghai”.) Look for Sanlitun a la Shanghai — as in another Apple Store in the People’s Republic.

We quote AppleInsider:

Apple’s cylindrical glass tower entrance to the new underground retail megastore in Shanghai, China, set to open mid July, is now decked in red curtains, signaling close proximity to launch.

The new real property is one of the two new stores opening in Shanghai this summer and counts among the 25 new Apple Stores that the company’s chief operations executive Tim Cook said would open in China by the end of 2011.

The new store’s design is reminiscent of Apple’s iconic flagship New York City store on Fifth Avenue, which is similarly located entirely underground and features a dramatic giant glass cube entrance.

The Apple Store in Shanghai is located between the IFC Mall and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai’s Lujiazui biz district. Metro-wise, it’s around the Lujiazui station on Line 2, which will also be a future interchange with Line 14. (Both lines are “wide train” lines and major trunk routes underground in the city.) It’s in Pudong, which has been derided as “Pu Jersey” (this will bring up “ahs” for those in the Big Apple and New Jersey, as well as, interestingly, Australians), but which, being on the eastern side of the Huangpu River, is hosting the China Pavillion at the World Expo.

If you wanted in right now, though, good luck. The place is now in red curtains, guarded by ninjas who won’t allow photography. (China is cracking down, more and more, on photography as of late; we’ve heard them doing so in railway stations, Subway stops, and even taking a pic of the Beijing CBD has “aroused interest” from “relevant persons”.)

And why red? It’s got little to do with the politics (although the party and national flag are all in red, as well), and more to do with a Chinese tradition that dates back to imperial times. Red’s seen as a good color in China, so much so that weddings are all-red ceremonies. Obviously, when Apple opens the thing in Shanghai, it’s got to be in a festive mood, right?

We’ll either have live coverage on that day (when the Lujiazui store opens) or link to places providing live coverage.

And it’s not that the plan sucks. It doesn’t. Hu Jintao and Co should be saluted and respected for bringing as much talent as possible to China, and with coming out with the plan. The Chinese Central Government’s plans for 2010-2020 in terms of HR have a lot of what it takes to make China an HR powerhouse.

That’s how it’s supposed to work on paper, anyway. In reality, things are much different, as a Chinese language post on Sina from a Hong Konger notes. China’s biggest problem, it notes, is not just with political fragility, but with family power and the uncountable “hidden rules” (潜规则). In China, if your family has solid political bonds or is in government itself, your sons and daughters are “safe”; they aren’t likely to go hungry. Add the fact that the “capitalists”, long detested by the communist revolutionaries, are in fact the very same folks as those in power, and you see why there’s contempt from the masses at the bottom of this “food chain”, so to speak.

More disturbing is the fact that overseas Chinese who have decided to come back to the place that’s theirs find instead a People’s Republic mixed up in complex social relationships, more hidden rules than one can shake a stick at, and an impossible climate to get an education. So how do they survive? They don’t. They just simply — jump off buildings.

Do you become an HR powerhouse that way?

Most disturbing is the fact that the Chinese, fully aware of excesses in internal corruption, know that the PRC might not be their best bet. If you’re in Canada, you might soon have to come to terms with more Chinese-speaking folks than you think you could; that nation is a hot favorite amongst Chinese seeking out places where the grass is apparently greener.

And it’s not that Beijing is turning a blind eye to this. A 2007 report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences already had red lights going off: China has taken the lead in both the nation with the most emigrants and the nation losing the most talent. 2008-2009 figures for the US show that around 70% of the immigrants are from China.

Sometimes when you see things this way, China can be a scary place. And it’s not the arrogant coal mine boss (who must have gotten rich overnight) with awful mannerisms in First Class that’s scary…

I dunno who came up with Them Retweets, but it was a cool invention. Suddenly, your tweet spread like wildfire. Get folks with a million followers to retweet you, and boom, you’ve just made it big.

Twitter’s had two things “crowd-invented”: the @s (as in @user), and the retweets. Twitter knew that it somehow couldn’t dodge the retweets, so for me, it was just a case of them embracing this — earlier or later. Then @wolfgroupasia came out with the idea to “translate retweets” using the TT @user twlexicon — something your tech blogger loves.

Here’s the thing, set out straight: beginning today, I’m retweeting nearly everything using the official Twitter retweet, except for those that need a comment inserted. Retweets make up a fair deal of what I tweet, so if you really hate them, just go to my profile page and turn ‘em off. (It’s a free planet.)

Here’s why I’ve decided to retweet the Twitter way:

1. It’s an official feature. People are using it already. Why am I missing the boat or being like one of those conservatives in the land of the Alps? (No offence to the Swiss. But in this day and age, those who move on will ultimately win.)

2. It allows you to keep track of who’s retweeting the message in an easy way.

3. More and more third party clients are doing this — as in the new Retweet feature. In TwitBird, for example, a “retweet” will only do the Twitter retweet. For the “old”, organic retweet, that’s now just a “quote”.

So here goes. Retweet away. Please get ready for your arrival.

David Feng
Beijing, June 15, 2010

“Controlling content in Sina microblogs is a problem which is a very big headache.”

There — we’ve tried our best at verbatim translation. On, of course, Chen Tong (陈彤), the head editor at Sina. It’s no surprise that, given the fact that Sina is one of the largest portals in China, that the Chinese government is keeping a good eye on this thing. (The government keeps a good eye on everything: this blog included, dare we contend.) Basically, what Chen’s remarks are telling of is the fact that — surprise — censoring tweets on Sina Microblogs is a pain in the #ExpletiveDeleted.

Oh, and by the way, you weren’t supposed to know that. This article first found its way via Jingchu Web (荆楚网) and was posted onto Sina.com.cn at 12:38 on June 13, 2010. Within the same day, it got nixed (aka “harmonized”). No probs: the Twittersphere (especially in the uncensored “outer Twittersphere”) found a cached copy (thanks @wenyunchao for the tweet).

The article goes on by saying that in the recent case involving a Japanese porn star who wanted to apologize for Japanese invasion in China during World War II, that she’s doing what men and women in s_x__l relationships want to do — for free. (The offer’s good if you’re a Chinese student in Japan.) The message got retweeted about 5,000 times — snap, just like that. (Later “research” by Sina showed that nothing of the sort actually happened. Huh?)

However, that was a lesson as to how fast stuff can spread — through microblogs. We’re looking at a potential audience in the six figures who can get the inside skinny within a matter of minutes. With the world-renowned censors of the People’s Republic never far away (anywhere), this is the kind of stuff that keeps these people up at 3:30 AM (and a bit later than that as well).

Chen was also quoted as saying that although “controlling content” (that’s Chinglish 2.0 for “censorship”) is a real headache, Sina’s able to “do this work the right way” and that it’s confident it can get this sorted. Here’s the scary bit: some of the censors at Sina have been censors for 12 full years. (Poor them. This blogger wonders if they’re married or not; poor their spouses if they are.)

(But we digress.) The censorship goes on, day and night, taking no weekends, and is without interruption. Both the censors and the editors are at work, summarizing via email every hour, and holding censorship meetings (uh, yep, this is surreal) every day. This way, editors make sure their duty at filtering out controversial content is always met.

As for those who post controversial, censor-bait content (mainly “politically reactionary” content as well as (of course) porn), it’s just a case of communicating offline with the users or taking the “please stop tweeting this kind of content” notice public. If that’s not working, the offending content is removed, and if that’s not working, the user is automatically deleted. Chen also recommends users who find “unhealthy” content to fully make use of the “Report Inappropriate Content” link on every page.

(That sure sounds Gestapo-ish. Imagine censoring your girlfriend’s tweets.)

The year 2009 was the year the innocent Chinese populace were forced into all kinds of things — the year when the average soul in a nation of 1.3 billion were coerced into doing one thing or the other that they probably wouldn’t have done if left to their own devices. The biggest news of the year: someone being forced into employment (被就业 in Chinese; in essence, being forced into a job with the paperwork done in secret, behind the backs of the victim without him or her ever knowing about this); the next biggest bit of “bad news” was the Railways Ministry, always a synonym here for poor service and bureaucratic arrogance, forcing people to high speed trains by cancelling regular service on railway lines where high speed lines already ran. (The few that were left in service — as in the regular lines — obviously weren’t enough to satisfy demand, rhetoric would have it.)

Those were cases of brutal leaders “up above”, but it seems like, with the action happening in South Africa, the average next-door (or next-bunk; read on) comrade seems to have just gone into “Force Others” mode as well. Twelve years ago, the France ‘98 theme song was a mere question — Do You Mind If I Play? Today, in China, it’s a command — as in there are now reports that university students have turned on the TV volume so much that others who prefer to sleep and not watch have no choice but to tune in to the action — like it or not. The new hot-button word: “forced into watching football” (被看球).

While not exactly the latest cutting-edge bit of Web 2.0 news here, your tech blogger just wanted to let you in on a bit of the Bei (被) or by-force world here in China — remember, the Bei biz was coined by a buzzword on the Chinese-language interwebs.

The Starbucks inside Capital Times Square is minimalist, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Just inside the back entrance of the Beijing Capital Times Square is this Starbucks, which apparently manages to place itself in harmony with this huge escalator that nearly splits the thing into two.

Were it not for the fact that the back entrance (closer by a hutong instead of the massive Chang’an Avenue) were not a semi-indoors thing, you can actually come real close to nature. Its massive windows are a delight — your tech blogger actually spent close to a year working at a city museum where the amount of light in the museum offices was close to jailhouse standards. No surprise, then, that this Starbucks wins in terms of prime position and in terms of a good aura.

Sadly, this Starbucks is a mere flower vase, wifi-wise. There’s no password to get you online, but that means that others encroach on the freedom as well. Getting a VPN to work on the network is impossible (you have to help yourself to other wifi hotspots nearby — offer good only as long as it’s valid!) or you have to get yourself a China Netcom card, which can easily suck out a whole day’s work for just an hour online. (Talk about “serving the people”!) Even without resorting to reading “reactionary propaganda” in officialspeak (by using a VPN, for instance), getting online and getting some real work done is an exercise in futility.

Tested: 19:45, June 13, 2010 with a 15-inch MacBook Pro
Wifi: Free; no password needed
Signal: Good signal; poor Internet access
VPN support: Poor
Transit links: Subway Lines 1 or 4 to Xidan; exit at Line 1 exit E or Line 4 exit G closest. Line 1 riders can head straight into the Capital Times Square using an all-underground passageway; Line 4 users must first interchange to Line 1.

Starbucks Capital Times Square
Ground (1st) floor
Off Chang’an Avenue and Xuanwumen Inner Street; Xicheng, Beijing, China