China news: Prostitues, parks, poetry and changing Chinese society.

• Public shaming of prostitutes misfires in Shenzhen.

  It’s nice to have supporters, I guess.

  after raiding the karaoke bars, saunas and barbershops where prostitutes often ply their trade, police officers in the southern Chinese boomtown paraded about 100 women and their alleged johns in the street, using loudspeakers to read out their names and the misdeeds they were accused of committing. News photographers snapped away while thousands of residents lined up to take in the show.

  Instead of being praised for cracking down on vice, the Futian police came under a hail of criticism for violating the right to privacy of those who were paraded about in public.
  

  

  

  The swift outcry, in newspaper interviews and on the Internet, provided a dramatic illustration of the distance this vast country has traveled since the Cultural Revolution, when many people embraced such tactics and even those who opposed them were afraid to speak up for fear of retribution.

  But many Chinese citizens thought the police went too far this time. Over the past week, they have spoken out — with relative anonymity — on the Internet. A few upheld the tactic as effective dissuasion and noted that the prisoners wore surgical masks to shield their identities. But most agreed with Yao.
  “Even while carrying out the law, police should well respect human rights,” one commentator said. “Is there any article in Chinese law saying that police can parade people in front of the public? If there isn’t, then who empowered you to do that?”
  Another upset writer accused the Futian police of going back to the bad old days. “Public exposure? That was the kind of thing that happened during the Cultural Revolution,” he said. “Those who made prostitutes parade in the street lost face just as much as those who were put on parade.”

  Interesting how rapidly the society seems to be changing — although I doubt there’d be this kind of outcry in one of the big cities further west, where things aren’t quite so industrialized & cosmopolitan.

• It doesn’t even pay to be related to the emperor any more.
  

  BEIJING – The 88-year-old brother of China’s last emperor, Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, has lost a lawsuit claiming the copyright on the late ruler’s image, a news report said Monday.
  Jin Youzhi, who was born Aisingyoro Puren, filed suit in November after the former imperial palace in Beijing held an exhibition of his brother’s life, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

  Of course, Emperor Puyi was kicked out in 1911 (more or less), so, well, 95 years is a looong time. More on him here, if you want to know what “more or less” means.

• Don’t get dizzy! And try to keep up!
• And in honor of America’s “New Way Forward” (and I swear I’m not making that name up), here’s some stirring poetry from the architect of the Great Leap Forward, Chairman Mao Zedong. Perhaps the next plan for Iraq is to shut down all the farms, have the citizens build iron smelting furnaces in their backyards and plow under the rice fields, leading to the largest famine in history. Or maybe it’s just an unfortunate choice of words.
  Anyway, I’m quite fond of the poem “Loushan Pass.”

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