Why, it's just like old times.
There is a run on Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia (BEA). It started, apparently, on Tuesday night with the dissemination of anonymous text messages that suggested the bank was on the verge of collapse. The next day, thousands were queuing at branches all over the city to withdraw their money.
It should be said that the doughty BEA has a capital adequacy ratio nearly twice that required by law—meaning that its finances are sound. But at the same time, this is the post-Lehman world, and the average customer—in the deep reptilian recesses of the brain, behind those darting agitated eyes—does not really believe that everything is OK. The South China Morning Post quoted one depositor, a Mr Lam, as saying “I don't think the bank has a problem and I think the system is still healthy.” He nonetheless withdrew his thousands. Another depositor, the octogenarian Mr Wong, said that he did not know why people were queuing but “I just want my money.” Still another: “It's not normal what is happening in the world. Who knows if [official assurances] are true?”
Hong Kong hasn't had a good bank run for a while, and there's something vaguely comforting and nostalgic about seeing one again. It's a great Hong Kong sport—in fact the Post rightly calls Hong Kong “the spiritual home” of bank runs. You can read wonderful descriptions of them in James Clavell's Noble House or John Gordon Davis' Years of the Hungry Tiger.
In the 1980s, a total of eight banks collapsed. The early 1990s saw runs on the Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank. But the golden year of runs—and they are not just directed at banks—was 1997-8. That year, recounts Rowan Callick in Comrades and Capitalists, there was a run on the International Bank of Asia, apparently triggered by somebody standing on the street shouting warnings over a mobile phone. Next, branches of the St Honore bakery chain were thronged by mobs wanting to use the firm's gift certificates in advance of its rumored collapse. Finally, a run on Whimsy amusement arcade trinkets caused Whimsy shares to plummet by 20%.
Incidentally, the St. Honore run virtually replicated a run on the Maria's Bakery chain in 1984, and allows Hong Kong to claim the distinction of being the only city to have experienced two runs on patisserie chains. There is plainly some Ph.D. to be written on the correlation between the Hang Seng Index and cake. Budding doctoral candidates in search of background reading may care to start here.

Amidst all the depressing news surrounding us it is sometimes necessary to feature something, well, completely silly. I couldn't call this only in China (see the previous post on these lines here) as people all over the world do stupid stuff and put it on the internet. Here's a young Chinese guy who says he's just bought a bazillion volt personal protection stun gun thingy and then proceeds to demonstrate it on himself. The totally ridiculous video can be viewed here. Thanks to Kaiser Kuo over at Ogilvy China Digital Watch for tipping us off about this particular fellow, who apparently has achieved the web stardom he sought and followed up the shock stunt (he says he was knocked out for 6 hours, which puts the whole clip in doubt: if it was that strong a shock, he'd probably be dead) by spraying himself in the face with bug spray. I'll refrain from linking to that particular gem.

This is a spoof diary of a day in the life of an ordinary Chinese that has been circulating on the web recently (in Chinese here, for example). I have edited out large chunks as it gets pretty repetitive, though that of course is the point. The excellent translation is courtesy of Chris Hughes of the London School of Economics and Political Science to whom we extend our thanks for his permission to use it. (I have also dropped his footnotes that link the reference to specific chemicals mentioned to actual incidents in which they were found to have been used in China.) This sometimes stomach turning account is representative of a whole range of stuff that has been appearing on the web--spoof TV ads for the milk companies involved in the ongoing scandal over tainted milk powder (here for example, courtesy of danwei.com), doctored print adds featuring witty (and not so witty) jokes about milk powder and so on. Talk about black humor. (There's also an interesting swipe at super-nationalist/'my-country-right-or-wrong types at the end, by the way):

I wake up in the morning and... I turn on the renovated TV ... The TV weather forecast says the air condition will be good. I look at the sky for a while – Oh! A very yellow sun! I will not need to wear my acid rain proof raincoat today. After I get out of bed and put on my carcinogenic ‘amine scented' Walmart clothes, and my suit that has been dry cleaned with carcinogenic acetylene tetrachloride, I feel that there is a slight odour on my body and burning in my eyes. Luckily I can freely use my scent for non-pregnant men and the sparkle immediately returns to my eyes. I pick up the toothpaste with its slight traces of the chemical Triclosan and let it react in my mouth with the chlorinated tap water to produce carcinogenic Trichloromethane. I always eat well in the morning and after using the carcinogenic toothpaste I wipe my face with the Benzidine contami nated towel, have a cup of Melamine polluted milk, eat some fried bread sticks (youtiao) cooked in diesel, dipped in some chile source died with Sudan Red, added to a bowl of duck egg gruel with poison rice and egg with large amounts of Lead Oxide, not forgetting of course do add some condiments made with chemical ingredients. After a belch, I put on the helmet I bought for 10 renminbi to keep away the traffic cops and go out. I get on the motorbike which has just had its cut price famous brand brake pads changed and carefully go off to work.

Our hero continues to ingest horrific amounts of chemicals, including when his boss treats him to a fancy dinner:

The boss is very happy when he hears the report and of course offers to entertain everyone for dinner. Before dinner we all drank a cup of Biluochun tea died with lead and chrome, and have some pine nuts roasted in caustic soda and Sodium metabisulfite along with some pumpkin seeds in talcum powder and paraffin wax. The dinner itself is of course more sumptuous, with DDVP soaked Jinhua ham and chicken feet soup, boiled beef with spicy source washed and filtered by thousands of people, beef injected with water [6]and contraceptive fattened eel slices with red pepper, soy-cooked squid rolls puffed with caustic soda and preserved in formaldehyde, dyed Carmine pork, steamed crab raised on several types of Western medicine and dead cats, dogs and ducks, garlic shrimps baptised in human urine. He also orders a plate of seasonal green vegetables with excess pesticides cooked in hogwash oil. There are some bottles of ‘15-Year-Old Maotai' spirit ‘filtered' through women's stockings and a couple of boxes of artificial sweeteners and red wine with excess colouring. The filler is steamed bread buns bleached with Benzoyl peroxide . Finally there is a plate of fruit with strawberries, peaches, apples and water melons grown large and ripe with hormones.

Not surprisingly, our boy doesn't feel so good when he gets home:

I feel very tired when I get home. My head is dizzy and I can't sleep. I take some sleeping pills made with glutinous rice, but it is no use. Because I have caught a cold I ask the company for some time off when I get up in the morning. I take some carcinogenic diethylene glycol glycerine that has been passed off as cough medicine, but I do not take a turn for the better all day. After passing a few days like this, my headache gets even worse, I became nauseous, lack energy, sweat, vomit, and have diarrhea. So I have to go to hospital. The instant intravenous revival is no use, so the doctor can only give me false medicine produced by Shangqi,[ but it still isn't any use! Finally the doctor consults and recommends that I go to the US for a complete examination and ask an expert from the FDA there to find the real cause.

As soon as I hear I have to leave the country, I suddenly become excited: I resolutely will not go! I was born a Chinese person, and will die a Chinese spirit. I want to be a pure Chinese person!

Here's our story on China's upcoming Shenzhou VII mission and plans for the country's first spacewalk.

Jailed Chinese activist Hu Jia and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, have made the early list of favorites for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. From the Associated Press:

(OSLO, Norway) — The annual guessing game about who will get the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize focused this year on a possible human rights rebuke for China.

Experts said the coveted prize could also be used to chastise Russia or Vietnam when it is announced Oct. 10.

"I think there is a big chance for it be a human rights prize," said peace researcher Stein Toennesson, who sent out his list of possible winners Wednesday.

He thought the prize could go to Chinese activist Hu Jia, possibly together with his wife Zeng Jinyan, and if not, then to Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Do or to Russian human rights lawyer Lidia Yusupova.

It's worth noting that the early Nobel speculation is frequently off. But this does say something about attitudes towards China. If Hu and Zeng were to win, it would be more a statement about China's policies than about what the young couple has been able to accomplish. And after a largely successful Olympics, it would be a very public denunciation of Beijing's attitude toward dissent and free speech. Maybe it's time to re-open the protest zones.