My friend Siok Siok Tan is the multi-lingual marvel who, during her tenure with Discovery Channel, racked up a dozen Asian TV Awards as a documentary film director, and producer.

Her latest work, done in concert with students from classes she taught at the Beijing film Academy, is a fascinating pastiche of people obliquely impacted by the economic, political and athletic rush for gold in the 2008 Games.

Siok Siok renders her perspective on the games by examining the lives of Beijingers, so far from the torch run, that neither the western or Chinese media would even bother to distort or propagandize them. But, the stories, some that will move you to tears and others to great amusement, are emblematic of how deeply the allegiance to the success of the Chinese Olympic movement has permeated the collective conscience of a country.

Boomtown Beijing has everything and nothing to tell you about why 200,000 netizens on Baidu and the CEO of Sohu.com, Zhang Chaoyang, are calling for a boycott of Carrefour (France’s Great Wallmart) in response to western reactions to the torch run: It is a less about nationalism than it is about a new-found sense of international belonging, national pride and individual dreams of being able to even a small difference in a fast changing China. It is not a political statement. It is an authentic, objective and heartfelt look at a Beijing ad its citizens that few foreigners will ever see. Tan is one of the few film makers with the cultural savvy to ine and polish these rare human gems.

Boomtown Beijing is showing in cities world-wide and the proceeds are being donated to the Library Project. The next screening is in Beijing. The details from the FacebookFacebook group here:

The Film:

TThe 2008 Olympics Games is China’s debutante ball on the world stage. “ Faster. Higher. Stronger” — the preparation for the Games has turned Beijing into a hot spot of frenzied growth. A 11 year old boy wants to beat the odds to become an Olympics torch-bearer. A road sweeper dreams of staging his own mass Olympics countdown performance. An aging blind athlete makes one last stab at a Paralympics medal before he retires from sports. Together, their stories and scenes of everyday life in the city give a snapshot of Beijing the summer before the big games come to town. Running Time: 70 minutes
Language: Chinese with English subtitles

The Director:

Tan Siok Siok has built a career as an executive producer of international documentaries focusing on the China region. Her executive producer credits include award-winning shows for Discovery Channel and Discovery Travel and Living. Boomtown Beijing is her first independent film. She directed the film with the assistance of her studets while she was a visiting lecturer at the Beijing Film Academy

Tickets:
Pre-Sale: RMB 85 (before Saturday April 19th) Contact: mark at dembitz.com
At the Door: RMB 100
Included in Pre-Sale (1) Beverage with Ticket

My friend Siok Siok Tan is the multi-lingual marvel who, during her tenure with Discovery Channel, racked up a dozen Asian TV Awards as a documentary film director, and producer.

Her latest work, done in concert with students from classes she taught at the Beijing film Academy, is a fascinating pastiche of people obliquely impacted by the economic, political and athletic rush for gold in the 2008 Games.

Siok Siok renders her perspective on the games by examining the lives of Beijingers, so far from the torch run, that neither the western or Chinese media would even bother to distort or propagandize them. But, the stories, some that will move you to tears and others to great amusement, are emblematic of how deeply the allegiance to the success of the Chinese Olympic movement has permeated the collective conscience of a country.

Boomtown Beijing has everything and nothing to tell you about why 200,000 netizens on Baidu and the CEO of Sohu.com, Zhang Chaoyang, are calling for a boycott of Carrefour (France’s Great Wallmart) in response to western reactions to the torch run: It is a less about nationalism than it is about a new-found sense of international belonging, national pride and individual dreams of being able to even a small difference in a fast changing China. It is not a political statement. It is an authentic, objective and heartfelt look at a Beijing ad its citizens that few foreigners will ever see. Tan is one of the few film makers with the cultural savvy to ine and polish these rare human gems.

Boomtown Beijing is showing in cities world-wide and the proceeds are being donated to the Library Project. The next screening is in Beijing. The details from the FacebookFacebook group here:

The Film:

TThe 2008 Olympics Games is China’s debutante ball on the world stage. “ Faster. Higher. Stronger” — the preparation for the Games has turned Beijing into a hot spot of frenzied growth. A 11 year old boy wants to beat the odds to become an Olympics torch-bearer. A road sweeper dreams of staging his own mass Olympics countdown performance. An aging blind athlete makes one last stab at a Paralympics medal before he retires from sports. Together, their stories and scenes of everyday life in the city give a snapshot of Beijing the summer before the big games come to town. Running Time: 70 minutes
Language: Chinese with English subtitles

The Director:

Tan Siok Siok has built a career as an executive producer of international documentaries focusing on the China region. Her executive producer credits include award-winning shows for Discovery Channel and Discovery Travel and Living. Boomtown Beijing is her first independent film. She directed the film with the assistance of her studets while she was a visiting lecturer at the Beijing Film Academy

Tickets:
Pre-Sale: RMB 85 (before Saturday April 19th) Contact: mark at dembitz.com
At the Door: RMB 100
Included in Pre-Sale (1) Beverage with Ticket

Reputation Management and Manipulation of the Internet

In addition to water-boarding it is apparent that government interpreters world-wide now learn social media, SEO and RSS management during their program of study. It is no secret that many blog comments on opinion-shaping sites are made by full-time surfers or “trolls” as some call them, with nationalist or agency mandated agendas; some get paid for their performance. The real weapons of mass destruction in a digital world are words and the technology is readily available even when we don’t send fuses to Taiwan.

Several recent comments, meant to manipulate media have come back to deservedly sound-bite the perpetrators in their virtual asses.

John McCain campaign aide, Soren Dayton was suspended from the campaign because he Twittered a link to a YouTube video blasting Barack Obama’s minister. And the Chinese government was a bit slow on the draw when they led reporters into the lama’s den in Lhasa last week.

Multi-national companies now hire ethical as well dubious administrators of propaganda to sow seeds of content across the blogsphere when a ruthless competitor, frustrated consumer or PR gaff has sent a brand or image into the cyber-stool. Internet Word of Mouth is an ICBM with a guidance system that can be more unpredictable than a cold war space laser.

I read a news release today written by the folks at 5fad.com. 5fad.com is suing Baidu.com for copyright infringement and then speculating, during trial, about the outcome and impact of the verdict.

Written in something akin to English and suspiciously fed out of a UK media outlet, the release contains suppositions meant to influence public opinion in advance of a judicial ruling.

Some highlights: “The MP3 search engine is of crucial importance for Baidu.com to gain an advantageous position in its competition with its business rival, Google.com. Once the MP3 search engine service is ruled unlawful, Baidu.com’s leading position in the search engine market may topple” Remember that this news release was written by the Plaintiff!

The take a break from legal commentary to do an infomercial about 5Fad: “5fad.com, ranking among 2007 Red Herring Asia Top 100, was founded in 2003. Though headquartered in Hangzhou, it has branch offices in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and New York…5fad.com is the leading digital entertainment and culture company in China. Its service network covers a total population of 300 million.” With a Google Page Rank of 4 and a purported audience more than twice the size of the China Internet user base the claim is dubious at best.

I have become so jaundiced that when JWT’s Tom Doctoroff, a man I have long respected as an authority on China, makes statements concerning Tibet like:”…I instinctively empathize with the impulses of the protesters” I wonder if he is just careless and failing to weigh the consequences of the potential spin of his comments as sympathy for murder or arson? Or I question whether or not the soon-to-be Olympic torch bearer has intentionally inserted psycho-linguistically charged language about Tibet, in an article written against calls for an Olympic boycott, in order to draw in more readers for the Huffington Post?

I am a poet and the keeper of an online diary. I am not a journalist or political pundit in blogger’s clothes. I love and cherish the written word–despite my occasional acts of grammatical or stylistic annihilation. And because I am a creative writer I attempt to ferret out the real meanings of a work and the reasons for the choice of diction.

I am becoming less cavalier about reading or writing. I now am casting a cold eye on much of what comes to me via RSS or social networks and so it seems should we all….

Update: Head over to ESNW for an important addendum to the newest China Photogate…

The American iconoclastic lawyer Clarence Darrow resigned himself to history’s repetitive nature, but never stopped challenging the powers to which most of us abandon control.

The British Olympic Team at The 1936 Berlin Olympics

Athletes have long been surrogates for our personal, school, community, and national wishes lies and dreams. We foist on them the responsibility of atoning for our own failures as sportsmen, parents and citizens. And visited on some are the the sins of governments who draft them as unwitting soldiers in wars of propaganda and ideology.

Section 51 of the International Olympic Committee charter, “provides for no kind of demonstration, or political, religious or racial propaganda in the Olympic sites, venues or other area.” That does not stop dozens of groups from calling on he most physically gifted and dedicated among us to end the bloodshed in Africa, restore the Dali Lama to sovereignty, or enforce Chinese intervention in Burma amid a long list of religious, humanitarian and political causes.

Many organizations are calling for a boycott of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing to further their agendas. Many decry China’s denial of human rights while remaining silent as, paradoxically, some governments, namely New Zealand, Belgium and Great Britain are forbidding their team members to speak their minds before, or during the contest, or face immediate expulsion from the games. It is the western pot calling the tea kettle black.

As a former athlete and coach I might bow to tradtion and refuse to dip the flag for the Olympic reviewing stand, but I could never in good conscience sign any document that demanded surrender of a basic human right.

The web’s most articulate journalist-blogger, Rebecca McKinnon, writes with moving precision about the house arrest of Chinese human rights blogger Hu Jia , his wife Zeng Jinyang and the world’s “youngest political prisoner” their 2-month old daughter Hu Qianci. In the article, Rebecca clearly articulates Beijing’s poorly staged suppression of dissent during the dress rehearsal phase of its first leading role on the world stage. It is exactly this kind of scrutiny of the aging, fumbling power-elite that we might lose by disengagement.

To boycott the Olympics, an arguable failure of policy in Moscow and Los Angeles, moves the spotlight off China, punishes athletes in lieu of policies and leaves the average Chinese citizen, denied full access to information, angered and dazed by a seemingly xenophobic west. To even call for a boycott of the Olympics is to give spin doctors an award- winning script full of perfect, indignant replies to what we can only imagine to be true. Engagement in lieu of boycott will enlighten and inform us all. As the chinese proverb states, 拔苗助长 , you cannot help sprouts to grow by pulling them up.

I am hoping that history repeats only by way of expose made possible by athletic achievements–think Jesse Owens in Berlin– and not because of “free world” demands for the conscription of players into a silent Nazi salute to the abolition of free speech.