Occam is shaving himself in his grave.
When Chinese state media ran a story about their air force, the aired footage of…Top Gun. Top Gun! Staged interviews are common. After the Sichuan earthquake someone uploaded footage of faked donations. The CCCP’s bad photoshop skills are legendary (admittedly, this one ended up being pretty innocent.) And we all know and love the 50 cent army.
Taking the news at face value in China is just dumb. The ratio of real news to faked and staged stuff just isn’t that great. That said, enough western news outlets have reported on it that I’m willing to believe it’s true.
They are inscrutable, apparently.
That’s creepy. I wonder if anyone monitors the Dope?
Because they “probably bred” Yao Ming? Something is inscrutable…
I would love someone that understands video well to take a look and give some thoughts on veracity of this one.
Rogerbox, at least some of us that know China, are saying that this whole story raises obvious red flags that jump out like a neon sign. We are not saying that maybe just maybe in an alternative universe this might possibly be in the realm of something that could be believed. The most obvious being that a kid of little money and zero connections somehow could go straight into one of the best ICU’s in a military hospital in China. We are not saying that is categorically impossible, but the likihood is on the slim side of none.
From some Chinese blog sites, something like RMB270,000 has been raised or about USD40k has been raised from netizens. I’m not exactly knocking myself out, but haven’t seen any clarifying news reports on the “facts” of the case.
China Guy, are you a 50 Cent Party “Internet Commentator”?
The basic story is that Yao Ming’s parents, both professional basketball players, were “strongly encouraged” to marry and produce tall future basketball players for the glory of China- a place with a national obsession with height, a particular complex about basketball, and a desire to win international sports competitions. Once born and deemed genetically fit, Yao Ming was set to be a basketball player, whether he wanted to be one or not.
This much is pretty certain. At the time of his birth, politically arranged marriages were common and even the norm among well-connected people. Even today, scouts scour even remote villages for young children who show the potential to be top athletes, and these children are spirited away to government boarding schools that focus on full-time sports training. There isn’t a ton of choice involved. The bigger story is that Yao Ming’s parents were a part of the same sort of program, and that he is the result of government-directed selective breeding over a few generations.
Soviets did this as well, to an extent. All my books are at home, but I can dig up cites if requested in a day or two.
Having spent some time in China I’m not naive enough to believe everything that the media spoon-feeds. But…
Ask yourself which is more likely:
propagandists come up with a faked video, at least four actors acting out a horrible tragedy over a week in full glare of the spotlight of international media (I have seen a number of photos and interviews with the rag collector and photos of the parents in non-PRC publications and Martin Patience from the BBC has at least visited the scene in Foshan and interviewed people nearby), and fakes up a death and two arrests, all of which causes online dissent within the country and casts China in an appallingly negative light internationally,
or
someone with clout saw the story developing and pulled the strings to move a seriously injured little girl to a military hospital.
I suspect I know which version of events William of Ockham would favour.
Wow, never heard of that before. I’m not sure that it qualifies as an example of slight of hand or illusion, but it definitely has a creep factor to it. Thanks for the link.
Sorry, I have to. It’s sleight of hand.
I’m stealing that for future use, if you don’t mind 
I didn’t know that!
There is definately a State sponsored sports program in China. Oddly enough, when asked why they didn’t have a second kid, Yao Ming’s parents talk about how they struggled to feed Yao Ming growing up. They couldn’t imagine how they could have afforded a second child.
Both Yao Ming and his parents are Shanghaiese. The parents are known around town, have been in the media, we know people that know them. My oldest daughter would have gone to the same elementary school as Yao Ming attended if we had lived on the opposite side of the street.
Hardly. I lived in China for about 15 years and another 8 in Taiwan and Hong kong. My wife’s family lost their small business in the revolution, several uncles got sent to the countryside during the cultural revolution (one is still there), one did “reform through labor” in the laogai system, my wife had her own challenges that I’ll never share on these boards. That said, I also really liked most of my years in China and feel fortunate to have seen first hand much of the transformation from 1985 to now.
There’s plenty to criticize China over, and I would prefer those criticisms to be factually correct or at least in context.
Yeah, I was thinking that “slight” felt wrong when I typed it, but looked back at the previous post and that’s how it was there, so didn’t bother to double check.
I think if it is true (and I believe it is until proven not) it’s totally out of character for no-one to help her, and there are other circumstances afoot.
Maybe her mother is trying to start up a Workers’ Union, or maybe she’s part of a rival company, and those goons in the truck were hired to close off all traffic and get the little girl in the street, while her mother was distracted. Maybe there’s some other reason but running the child over twice must be sending some sort of message to someone. Or maybe they openly attended church - I worked with a couple people who did but very quietly. They said rival churches were attacking each other but I think that’s a clever smokescreen by the PRC.:mad:
I’m speculating of course, although when I was in Hong Kong I was attacked by someone’s dog (in the open boot of the owner’s car) and no crowd gathered. Imagine, a big-nosed laowai fending off a mutt in a trunk and no one stopped and stared.
Luckily it’s teeth didn’t draw blood.
I managed to visit four hospitals in China. The first for the usual blood tests was a small place without any in patients. Then I had the misfortune to fall and break some ribs late at night, and was dashed to the nearest place; they had to turn the lights on in the x-ray ward and wheel my trolley over a field to get there. They sent me home with bandaging but no pain killers. The next morning I could barely breathe and my boss took me to the city’s main place for more x-rays and blood tests. They found I had internal bleeding and other complications, but as it was full I was going to have to stay in the corridor on a trolley.:eek:
I didn’t really like the idea of sharing the corridor with the smoking and hacking walkers by, and managed to convince my boss to call her boss, and that I would be flying home or anywhere than stay in that place.
They put me in the Senior Communist Party Member’s Hospital, in a room sharing a tv, en suite, fridge freezer, views of the park etc with a guy who had had surgery:cool:. He didn’t like sharing his room with obviously not a Senior Communist Party member, but spoke no English so could only grimace at me. The pretty nurses came round with a menu every day for food, but I still didn’t get painkillers (‘they poison your body’ was the explanation) but my girlfriend smuggled some in.
I’d imagine this happening to the little girl once the video went viral.
It’s really tragic how these people are treated, but there’s so many of them I can see how accountants will see them as just another cheap resource. FWIW I never encountered hostility from my Chinese colleagues or from people in the street; but quite a lot of staring and pointing from old and young alike.
According to the New York Times, the story is real. And the little girl died yesterday.
still think it’s fake, “China Guy?”