Today several Dutch journalists came to Toodou’s office to learn more about our company and website (from newspapers Trouw, De Volkskrant and Financieel Dagblad). I gave them a presentation about the companies’ background, how it developed until now, and what we expect from the future. Of course also here the question of censorship came up, but this time only how Toodou makes sure that no ‘prohibited’ films end up on the site.

Then Vega then gave an run-through of the site, showing some of the highest-rated and most-viewed films. And of course he also showed his own latest film, a short one about his dog that he shot yesterday with his mobile phone (nice film by the way, Vega).

Because of the bad weather Shanghai’s traffic was a nightmare today, so the meeting started about an hour late. Because of that we had to cut the interview short: I had to run to another meeting and they had to get ready for a flight to Guangzhou. They were a bit worried that their flight would be cancelled or delayed. The reason: there is a pretty big typhoon hitting China’s East coast and it’s approaching Shanghai (I can already hear the wind howl around my 28th floor apartment).

On Tiananmen Square one of the eyecatchers is Mao’s portrait on the Tainanmen Gate on the north side of the square. According to the Shanghai Daily the original painting is now put up for sale by a Beijing auction house. It seems that this portrait hang on the gate in the 1950’s and 60’s, but was subsequently replaced by copies. The auction price is expected to be around USD 150,000.

One thing is a bit strange though. The paper mentions that the size of the picture is 91 cm by 68 cm. I cannot imagine that originally such a small picture would have been hanging on Tiananmen Square, because the current one is at least several meters tall. Is this is a mistake by the newspaper? Or, because so many products are fake in China, is this maybe a fake as well 🙂 ?

This morning a team from Dutch broadcaster VPRO came to the Toodou office to make a program about the company. A journalist from Dutch magazine “De Groene Amsterdammer” also joined them. They did an interview with Gary about the company, and they talked with me about the contents of the site and my experiences in China in general. After having lunch with them in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant (lunch for 5 for RMB 25, about USD 3), they went to the house of one of our most famous podcasters for an interview. I did not join them there, but understood that went very well.

As usual when talking to foreign journalists the topic of censorship came up. This is such a big issue outside China, but for most Chinese (and for us) it’s really not a big thing. That always seems to be a surprise to the people we tell this to. And of course if you want to do business in a country, you have to play by the local rules; so if you don’t like it don’t do business there. That’s the same in every country, not only in China. And every country has some sort of censorship, even the ‘free’ US.

I told them on camera that I feel foreign media show China in a very negative way, and that because of that most people have a totally wrong perception of what’s happening here. Chinese people are just as happy (or probably happier) than the average Dutch person. It’s a pity that most media always seem to focus on negative issues. And because of that much of the Western world still underestimates this country. Just wait 15-20 years, and see who will be the world’s leading super power. It could very well be China.

The program will air in Holland on June 11. Not sure when the article in De Groene Amsterdammer will be published.

More and more artists are coming over to Shanghai to perform, it seems also for them China is opening up. In April the Rolling Stones played here, and last night I went to a concert of the Bee Gees (also in the Shanghai Grand Stage next door to my apartment). Actually it was only Robin Gibb, but he sang all famous Bee Gees songs, so it was not that much different.

Because Qi suddenly had to go to Beijing for a meeting she could not join me, but Thijs Bosma was a willing taker for the ticket. We first had a quick dinner and some beers, and entered the stadium 5 minutes before the start of the concert. It was obvious that the show was not sold out, because there were still many empty seats. Strangely all the most expensive seats were all taken, and we assumed they were all given away for free. But the cheapest ones (that are normally fully booked in China) remained largely empty.

The show started on time, although Robin missed the first two words because he arrived at the microphone too late. I recorded it on my camera, so I have proof! The quality of the video shot with my photo camera (Sony T-7) was amazingly good by the way, and even the sound was much better than expected. The first song (Emotions) was not the best of the whole set, I actually was a bit disappointed. It seemed like Robin did not do a ‘warming up’, because it took him a few songs to really get into the show.

All songs he sang were famous ones, from Massachusetts to Nights on Broadway, and from How Deep is Your Love to You Should be Dancing. The audience went wild, even the (many) Chinese loved it. People were dancing on their seats and even in front of the stage! When the show was over the audience clapped Robin Gibb back to the stage for an encore in which he performed Stayin’ Alive followed by Tragedy. Then the lights went on and people started to leave. But after lots of clapping he came back again, and did Stayin’ Alive one more time.

A great show with great songs. Completely different from the Rolling Stones, but just as entertaining. I loved it!

Toodou.com just closed its second round of funding. Granite, Jafco Asia and IDG will invest a total of 8.5 million USD in the company. We are of course very happy with this investment, that allows the company to keep on growing fast!

The Chinese press release can be found here, an English release will be issued tonight.

As mentioned several times on this blog in the past, China Eastern is not my favourite Chinese airline. Their aircrafts seem to be the least welll maintained, and their service (especially on international flights) is quite bad. The last plane crash in China was a China Eastern plane, and it seemed they almost had another one yesterday.

On a flight from Seoul to Shanghai, an Airbus 340 burst 12 (!) of its tires upon landing at Pudong airport. The crew managed to safely stop the aircraft on the runway, but I am glad I was not on board! According to the Shanghai Daily “the accident was still under investigation”. I don’t know much about flying, but it seems to me that if you manage to burst 12 tires something is seriously wrong.

“Some expats do not qualify to teach English” is the headline of the Shanghai Daily today. Is that really news? Almost every foreigner that wants to live in China and cannot find another job eventually ends up teaching, so surely there are (many) unqualified teachers among them. The problem is, as the article also mentions, that many schools assume that if someone has blond hair and blue eyes he/she will automatically be a good English teacher.

Many people abuse this, because the schools have no clue anyway what their English skills are. They simply have nobody who speaks English well enough to judge the knowledge level of applicant teachers. While living in Beijing I befriended some African guys in a bar. I had difficulties communicating with them, and I wondered what they were doing in China. The answer: “We teach English!”

On the other hand, Chinese schools often do not treat their foreign teachers correctly either (problems with not offering the right working visa or not paying the full salary are common), so it probably works both ways.

And what’s the alternative? Native Chinese English teachers are certainly not much better. They may have a large vocabulary, but their speaking ability (especially pronounciation) is often terrible. But at least they know how to teach, and they are probably aware of their lack of oral skills.

Over the past days Flickr was (once again) amazingly slow in China. Am I the only one here who is experiencing this? It takes up to 15 minutes to upload one picture, and some pictures just seem to ‘hang’ and don’t get uploaded at all. During my vacation I took hundreds of pictures, and I wanted to upload about 150 for Tuscany and about 30 for Monaco. But at that speed it takes days – which was indeed the case for me. One of my computers has been uploading day and night for a few days, but now finally all pictures on there.

Making sets of the pictures is equally time-consuming: sometimes pictures are not loaded into the overview screen, and just deleting a picture takes between 10-20 seconds. Flickr used to be my favourite picture site, but because of a total lack of innovation and incredibly slow speeds I might consider switching to a new service. Only problem is then that I need to upload all my pictures to a new site. Not sure if that’s worth it. For now I don’t have time to do it anyway, so hopefully Flickr will get better in the near future.

And if you want to see some of the pictures, you can find all thumbnails of the pictures here:
Tuscany (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chijs/sets/72057594134376736/)
Monaco (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chijs/sets/72057594134318025/)