OK. This is just…where things are going. Ten minutes of nasty American pop music, teenage hormones, voyeurism, and sheer curiosity, raging in broken English. From an Internet cafe in China to a bedroom in some (I’m guessing) Eastern European country. "You make me vidio/I kill you" and "I have this photo in my home. You give me." They make plans to talk on 56.com. Where does the music come from? How do they know each other?
Author Archive for Lyn Jeffery
Jason posted on Citybar/City8.com last summer, and I thought I’d give a little update because I love it. City8 gives you a beautiful high res full-screen photo of the place you choose, which you can navigate for a 360 degree view, move closer and farther, annotate, and see others’ annotations as well. (Tip: click on the middle of the green nav tool. It will take you to full screen. Wait for it to resolve). The short video (in Chinese) on their homepage with "Little C" shows you what the site can do. You can follow it even if you don’t speak Chinese (there’s a City8 English tab at the very bottom of the page but it only allows you to search in Shanghai and Beijing, and it has much less functionality than the Chinese version).
At the home page you can click on the images of 8 different cities (Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Jinan and Wenzhou of all places) and just play with the locations they give you (places to eat, tourist spots, places to shop). The site is also searchable by street or keyword. You can also enter your own spot to see what’s there.
You can drop into, say, the Five Horses Mall in Wenzhou and get a pretty good feel for what street life looks like in Wenzhou on a nice day. Great stuff!
Mad that Youtube is BANNED in China Facebook group seems mostly to be expats, although not completely. It has over 700 members at present.
Advanced Chinese mobile phones are gaining an audience, but judging from the comments that are still piling up on this ChinaTech news item from May, there seems to be a growing need for a Chinese mobile phone hacking website — in English. Someone should do it!
UPDATE: Jeff writes, on Oct. 1, 2008: Hi there, you can find manuals and software for chinese phones easily: http://www.chinamanuals.com
Just check and ask for your specific model. They were very helpful to me (twice).
I checked the site and it looks good. END UPDATE
On May 21, 2007, ChinaTech posted a general news article/press release titled CECTs Mobile Handset Offers Fingerprint Recognition, which described the release of “the T100, a mobile phone featuring fingerprint recognition and streaming TV,” by Qiao Xing Mobile’s subsidiary CECT. A month later a reader named RUMELL posted the following:
I want to get CECT mobile phone software. please send this.
The comment has spawned a long scroll of desperate non-Chinese-speaking owners of CECT phones from all over the world, in search of help, hacks, software, CECT phones, and especially, manuals in English. People are exchanging emails. The article is the top Google hit for a search of “CECT mobile English.” Excerpted comments, including one exasperated reader who wonders why people buy phones they can’t operate, and even a Nigerian in search of business opportunities, below:
Arcia Says:
August 16th, 2007 at 6:49 am
I have the english manual for the CECT P186. e-mail me and I will send it
Tony Says:
August 21st, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Hi, I need copy of the P168 manual in english….
Thanks
Albert Says:
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:09 pm
can
any one help, I have got a Cect P168 but its arrived ni chinese, can
anyone tell me how to change it to english please, I am really stuck
Ralph Harris Says:
August 25th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Try this eBay listing: 270158049230
cenzurath Says:
August 29th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
hi
i need a CECT mobile phone software too 
my phone looks like nokia
n73… but it’s not .. and i think it’s a CECT … send me pls the phone
software :(( thnx
Abhay Says:
September 1st, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Hi, I am unable to play any videos in my CECT phone that i am transferring from other phones. errror message is “invalid video file”. PLease Help me on this.
jagawar Says:
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:48 am
vidoes for cect are supposed to be in 3gp or mp4 format.
jagawar Says:
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:50 am
i
need an english manual for cect n99. need to know if i can install
applications and games. also how to transfer phone contacts from
another phone. jagawar@yahoo.com
Madu Says:
September 5th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
can anyone e-mail me the official website for CECT
Indrajit Das Says:
September 9th, 2007 at 6:18 am
I
have purchased a CECT phone but not sure about which model.After a long
search i got to know that its a CECT mobile phone.can anyone send me a
CECT any model manual. can any one answer me some query regarding this phone.
1.What kind of OS is installed in CECT phone?
2. Can i installed additional software in this phone like i used to installed in Nokia N72
Symbian phone?? Thanks in advance.
Mail me at indrajit_dasin@yahoo.com
Richard Says:
September 10th, 2007 at 4:01 am
I have one CECT N95,which soft install for put java applications/games inside. I try with PC-Sync Manager but wont install JAVA app.
BABA BELLO Says:
September 11th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Please i need the instruction manual to enable me enjoy full usage of my set and software to install the set on my Laptop.
Murphy Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:21 am
I
am a propectus business man in Nigeria. Due to the current trend by
internals on Nigeria(we are regarded as fraudstars) i will like to get
to know more about the tv phones and how i can enter into a fraudulent
FREE transactions. I reside in okokomaiko Lagos State and own a mobile
phone shop in CC234,Alaba Int’l Market. Pls reply urgently(anyone with
a good bargain)
711 Says:
September 26th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Why don’t you contact CECT and have them send you a bloody manual? Their web-site is located at www.cectelecom.com
Jacky Says:
September 26th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Hi,
Im a proud owner of CECT T888 and i wish they could add features like
bluetooth and pc sync.It sucks having to download almost everythin via
USB.But the fon is so cool!
wayne Says:
September 27th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Hi, i would like to buy 1 and possibly more CECT mobiles. Who is the cheapest seller of these that can post to australia?
thank you
armstrong Says:
October 5th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Why
do all of you idiots need these manuals for CECT mobile phones? Why
didn’t you think of that when you bought those Chinese phones?
Obviously since so many don’t have a manual, they are difficult to
find, and therefore they probably are not available. Are there this
many stupid consumers on planet earth that still buy dumb Chinese
products?
PERKNOT Says:
October 5th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
HI
guys, i have a cect HLF-K808 phone - it has a chinese manual. i wonder
if some of you have an english maual for that and if do so can you
kindly send it to my emaol - r_flordeliz@yahoo.com
- another question - are cect phone capable of having other softwares
like java, or ebooks, is it instalble. what os is being use in it.
thank you for your help!
dmerrilldnd Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I have the user’s manual for setting up the SMS, MMS and the internet settings. Just email me. I’ll send it to you.
And the most recent comment, from ana, today, continuing the call for help:
Hi I need copy of the a380 fingerprint ecryption manual in english….Thanks
The folks at AsianOffbeat must have a really good network for scouring Chinese websites for the bizarre and wonderful! "3 Nanjing Youths Build 4.5 Meter Transformer" appeared on QQ.com news on Oct. 9, and AsianOffbeat posted it the same day. Even with a time difference, that’s pretty fast. 
The three fans, who grew up watching the Transformers cartoons and comics, started with parts from a Citroen C2, and sculpted, built, welded, and screwed together by hand someone they call "X2" who is based on the Bumblebee and Jazz characters from the popular movie. It’s got a Chinese flavor, according to the makers, which can be seen in its more square head, based on ancient Chinese headgear designs. During the 3 months that they were building X2, the makers say: "Every time we saw X2 we felt like he was full of life, you could talk to him, and you felt that at any moment he’d start moving." The three spent 50-60,000 RMB (~ US $8,000) to build him. X2 weighs more than 600 kg and uses original Citreon C2 lights and tires; the rest is hand-sculpted synthetic resin, glass, and metal.
They’re planning on making more.
The first Chinese "wiki book," written by an online collective (see this WSJ article on wikibooks), is garnering attention in virtual China. Named “IBM Mafia” (The Memoir of former IBM PCD employees) IBM个人电脑事业部员工回忆录, the wiki book was written on Chinese wiki site hoodong.com’s open source wiki software, HDWiki. It is getting hot on the most popular portals: SINA, QQ.com and Sohu. The book looks to be a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the development of Chinese IT elites, their attitudes toward work, career, and global IT brands, and Chinese global technological ambition from the inside. Rather than a group-edited piece, it’s more like an anthology of former IBM PC Division employees’ experiences.
Imagine if the site grows as an archive and we see hundreds of people’s stories being recorded? I think it will. Many Chinese people are
willing to participate in organized group events, and there’s such a
need for a place to reflect on the social changes of the past 20 years.
This could be a model for other organizational archives: how about a首钢
Capital Iron and Steel wiki book? Or a Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences (CASS) wiki book, with entries from all over the world?
Here’s how the book is described on its homepage:
The Memoir of Former IBM PC Division Employees was written and edited online by over 100 former IBM employees, using the HDWiki system. They were all IT elites from IBM, and the majority were from IBM’s Personal Computer Division. The memoir realistically represents work life at IBM. The work is divided into six sections: Section One, The Old Me, records the studies, work, and daily lives of the employees before they began work at IBM. Section Two, In the Proximity of Giants, introduces how employees entered IBM, what the interview process was like, and how they were trained. Section Three, Personal Transformation, describes how these IBM employees continued to study and grow, changing from green youths to seasoned salespeople, managers, and technicians. Section Four, Work: Bits and Pieces, records scenes and events from each person’s different work experience. Section Five, Acquisition of the Century, records each person’s experience of the acquisition of the century. Section Six, The Road Ahead, describes everyone’s work and life after the acquisition. This book is the first time that nearly 100 IBM PC Division workers have gathered together; this true record, and set of lessons they’ve drawn from their experiences, is vivid learning material that will be hard for young people to find in their careers. The entire division used hoodong’s wiki platform to write together online; 100 IBM employees from around the world used Web 2.0 methods to record their youth.
A new introductory section has been added after the above intro was written, which makes all the others one chapter later in the book. Hopefully the project will develop with time and media attention. There may have been something like 100 IBMers working on it, but some of the sections are pretty light at present. For instance, "The Old Me" section has three entries: two stories ("The Distance from Baoshan to Pudong," "Goodbye Botwave") and an essay ("An IBMer’s Early Life"), each of which look readable and interesting.
My colleague Jason Tester found this on CoolHunting.com: it’s called Rack Magazine. It appears to be going for a young male audience and has a half-dressed woman kneeling down and…looking into an open oven (an oven! very "chinese street")…on the homepage. Ａdidas is a prominent advertiser, but aside from that there’s no sign of who’s behind it. Clearly I’m not the demographic they’re aiming for, but what’s with the different English opening pitch and the Chinese opening pitch? Here’s the English:
WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S COOKING IN ASIA?/THEN OPEN YOUR EYES AND FEAST ON RACK/ FOR THE LATEST IN STREET CULTURE, FASHION,/ CULTURE, DESIGN, MUSIC, GRAFFITI, AND GENERAL MAYHEM/BILINGUAL/HOT/FITS RIGHT INTO YOUR BACK POCKET SO YOU CAN/EASILY TAKE IT HOME AND STARE AT IT FOR AS/LONG AS YOU WANT…/EVERYTHING A RACK SHOULD BE…/ASIA.THE WORLD.THE RACK
And here’s the Chinese, translated:
RACK IS A CHINESE-ENGLISH BILINGUAL MAGAZINE COVERING GLOBAL STREET CULTURE, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON ASIAN-INFLUENCED YOUTH CULTURE. RACK IS THE ONLY MAGAZINE THAT CAN FIT IN YOUR JEANS’ BACK POCKET OR IN AN LV BAG. SURVEYS HAVE SHOWN THAT ANY OBJECT THAT FITS IN A POCKET IS A GOOD THING. CHINESE BROTHERS SHOULD PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION, YOUR HANDS ARE TO BE USED FOR CARRYING YOUR GIRLFRIEND’S LV BAG.
huh? If it’s all about chinese men, what’s with the focus on the LV bag?
The first issue features a piece on a new kind of street funk from the Brazilian favelas (it will be interesting to see what the "asian influence" is); an interview with fashion photographer Klaus Thymann; an article on V-Nutz, a Shanghai hiphop producer; and the guy below, a TCM doctor who walks around all day with pearl-decorated needles in his face.
My IFTF colleague David Pescovitz, one of the editors of BoingBoing, one of the world’s most popular blogs, pointed out that BB is being selectively translated into Chinese on Little Waves / 小波波 blog. This all works with BoingBoing’s Creative Commons license. Nice!
I’ve always wondered when this would start–this is the worldwide web after all. TV Links, a website in the UK, works as a linkfinder for streaming movies, TV shows, anime, cartoons, and documentaries. While some of the links are to sites like Veoh, Stage 6 (especially for material before 1990) and occasionally Google Video, for its current movies TV Links takes advantage of widespread free English-language content hosted on Chinese sites like Tudou, Youku, 56.com, and Ouou. No need to visit these sites directly and do a search; TV Links has about 2000 movies all there for you. And TVL has a big group of volunteers who scour the web for additional links. Eventually this model might also work for MP3s, but mainstream musical tastes are different enough in mainland, US, and Europe that there’s just not enough musical overlap yet.
According to Alexa, TV Links has a traffic rank of 214 and nearly 40% of users are from the U.S.
The Asian Studies WWW Monitor points toward this analysis of unofficial cross border trade between India and China. It gives the geographic details of routes between Arunachal, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Tibet and Xinjiang. These routes have been in operation for centuries if not longer, and despite official customs efforts, apparently there’s a lot going on. Excerpts:
Despite our bureaucracy’s whimsical reluctance to acknowledge it
Indian goods are going to China and Chinese goods are being brought in
large quantities all along the border, and China monitors this trade
quite closely.
…coarse wool,
pashm wool, tiger eye & other precious and semi precious stones, gold
pellets, daggers, boots, hats, blankets, quilts, jeans, jackets, fur
caps, felt hats, inverters, electronic equipment, cycles, foot wear,
confectionery, crockery, thermos flasks, raw meat (during winter in
Ladakh), saddles, yaks, and horses come into India and liquor esp.
rum, medicines (large quantity of Indian medicines go through
Kyrghystan and Kazakhstan to Sinkiang), woollen carpets, tea,
utensils, petrol and diesel, car parts, tool kits, solar panels,
shawls, bicycles & sometimes even cement bags go from India.
The goods that are now in demand are no longer traditional, and demand
for traditional goods like wool is now on a commercial scale. No
longer is it only for local use by cross border communities. The
routes and methods of carrying these goods is however still largely
traditional. Earlier needs were few and localized thus salt e.g. used
to be a very important item to be brought in. Now as can be seen from
the list above preferences have outstripped basic needs.
In Ladakh the Chinese indirectly finance dumping of their goods by
giving long-term interest free credit. They demand payment only after
the goods have been sold by their Indian customers. For Indian goods
they pay in Rupees immediately on delivery. In Leh’s Moti Market,
across the road from the spacious campus of the Intelligence Bureau
about 50 shops sell largely Chinese goods. Amongst their faithful
buyers are uniformed personnel too.
It’s not only for Lhasa that the Chinese could be interested in
opening up trade routes with India. They want traditional trade routes
connecting each part of Tibet that has filial and old trade links with
India to be resumed. This way they can ensure cheaper supplies.
Providing these from mainland China takes time and is expensive. This
situation will not be affected much even when the Sikang – Lhasa rail
link is opened.
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