Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
In China, a country unfortunately famous for producing cheap wares and pirated or knock-off products, there is currently a huge furor directed at one high-end furniture store chain which has recently been accused of selling counterfeit copies of pricey European designer furnishings. The chain is called DaVinci, and it was founded inSingapore even though most of its shops are in China. DaVinci caters to wealthy people, the kind who can afford, say, $100 thousand for a bedroom set sporting names like Versace or Fendi Casa. And as the designer names suggest, much of the extravagance DaVinci sells is supposed to be made in Italy. But it recently turned out that some of it is not. It’s a huge scandal which uncovered, amongst other things: that designer cattle-hide sofas were actually made in a factory in Zhejiang Province; and that Chinese-made products were being routed through Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in order to legally change their status to foreign imported products. The wealthy Chinese folks who make up the bulk of DaVinci’s China customers are not happy about this, and have already started demanding refunds for the costly purchases they have had evaluated and found to be fake. The situation is ironic, to be sure. But keep in mind that wherever one goes in the world somebody is always trying to rip off the wealthy. (New York Times — Chinese Fake Furniture)
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China is telling Washington to not meet the Dalai Lama because he advocates using violence to free Tibet. If he did, it would be scary. The DL does come to the US to gather support from the A Listers (who are now B), and perhaps raise some funds, but for now, it seems like China is winning the war regardless of who he talks to in the US. (Reuters – Dalai Lama)
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It’s been 40 years since the legendary “match” between China and American ping pong players opened the door to diplomacy. (Remember the Forrest Gump ping pong scene?) The US team was in Japan and then was invited to go to China and guess what? They made friends. Imagine, in 1971, China was practically what North Korea is to us today. It was another place entirely, a country that was run by a dictator much like Kim Jong Il – but even larger: Mao Zedong. Just this week some of the team members got back together and played like old times. Nothing exciting about a 40 year reunion, but it’s just cool.
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FOLLOW-UP—It didn’t take long for the three floating officials of Huili County, China to become a very hot and very funny internet meme. At the time we posted the story about this PhotoShop disaster earlier today, it seemed as if the three Chinese men had only visited the moon and gone wading with dinosaurs. But as you’ll see at the link, they have been so much more active than that. Also at the link, you’ll be able to read a translation of the (China) Southern Metropolis Daily story about the original photo and the apology which was issued for it. It sounds like people got in some hot water for this, but we hope the memes we’ve seen and the ones to come have a humorous and non-damaging impact on the lives of the innocent guys in the original picture. (EastSouthWestNorth blog – Huili Officials’ World Tour)
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Let’s face it, this story is boring. Or at least it was supposed to be. What was supposed to happen was some Chinese government inspector guys were supposed to get photographed doing their inspector stuff on a newly-constructed road in the Sichuan Province county of Huili. And that photo was merely to be posted on the county’s website to show a nice little story about local pride and progress in this very rural part of China. But thanks to the miracle of PhotoShop, the picture of the government officials inspecting the road has turned into an embarrassment (literally) of riches in press coverage for Huili County. Above on the left, you can see for yourself the original picture source for two of the three men in the resulting image on the right. The road looks like a nice road, and the men look comfortable and pleasant enough. It’s just that they appear to be floating, which is pretty much what has the international press buzzing about the clumsily-manipulated image. And it is likely these three guys will become a popular internet meme. We’ve already seen them at the beach, and getting attacked by dinosaurs. (The Guardian UK – Floating Chinese Road Inspectors)
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