This week two articles published in BusinessWeek discuss Toodou.com. The first is an interview by Frederik Balfour with Gary Wang about the company, censorship and the future of Toodou.com. The second is an article by Bruce Einhorn about online self-censorship in China, in which he talks with Gary and with Jack Gu from Podlook. Too bad I won’t get the print version anymore, since BW decided to cancel its Asian edition two weeks ago.

On December 31 I missed out on fireworks in Shanghai, because the government had banned it. But it seems I will be more lucky this coming Saturday, when I will spend Chinese New Year in Beijing. The government has decided to lift the ban on fireworks in Beijing. The maximum is now 30 kilograms (!!!) per person, should be enough for me.

From the Shanghai Daily:

“BANG!”Firecrackers will explode once again in Beijing, frightening away evil spirits on the New Year — and this time the fireworks are legal.

After a 12-year ban because of safety concerns, the Chinese capital yesterday resumed the legal sale of traditional firecrackers before the lunar New Year and Spring Festival beginning January 29.

This year 177 out of China’s major 660 cities lifted the fireworks ban.

Over the weekend, 585 of the 2,116 Beijing stores that obtained licenses to sell firecrackers opened for business. Others will follow.

“To me, no fireworks, no New Year. So it’s a good thing for the government to lift the ban,” said Liu Jianguo, a Beijing resident.

Last September, Beijing lifted a 12-year ban on firecrackers in response to people’s love for a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation.

Despite the prohibition, illegal firecracker sales continued. But the public clamored for legalization of a tradition that has come down through the generations.

The Beijing government has organized the sale of 600,000 boxes of firecrackers valued at more than 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million).

Officials will monitor sales to ensure there is no shortage.

To enforce safety, people are forbidden to buy more than 30 kilograms of fireworks between January 22 and February 12.

Regulations specify that residents may set off firecrackers in areas within the Fifth Ring Road on lunar New Year’s Eve and all day of the first day of the new year.

They also can set off crackers from 7am to zero-hour every day from the second to the 15th day of the new year, a major festival and traditional time of family reunions.

This year, 177 Chinese cities, including Chongqing and Beijing, out of the country’s total of 660, have decided to lift the ban that has been practiced for years.

Beijing banned setting off fireworks in 1994 over fears of increasing accidents that endangered people’s safety.

Hundreds of people suffered eye injuries in setting off firecrackers since1982, said Song Weixian, an ophthalmologist at Tongren Hospital.

“We hope citizens pay great attention to their safety, especially to their eyes, while setting off firecrackers,” said Song.

Friday night Qi and I went to the first public performance ever of the Shanghai Jazz Orchestra, a big band in Shanghai’s 30’s and 40’s style, in the Shanghai Art Theatre. Since 1949 China did not have any big bands, so this was the first time in almost 60 years that a big jazz band played in Shanghai. In the 1940’s Shanghai was China’s New Orleans, and the best performances took place at the Paramount (still an entertainment venue, next to Jing’an Temple). The Shanghai Jazz Orchestra is trying to recreate the old atmosphere, by wearing the exact same white suits as their predecessors.

The performance was excellent. The evening started with a jazz combo that played several tunes, and after a short break the big band made its entree. Although some of the players seemed a bit nervous to play for a big audience, they did very well. Conductor/director Rolf Becker had a great performance, leading the band, announcing the songs, and playing himself as well. He was the only foreigner in the band, all others are Chinese.

The band played lots of famous songs from among others Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller (In The Mood!). Also there was a magnificent swing dance performance by two couples from Shanghai Swings. My wife was so inspired that she plans to sign up for courses! It was a great evening, and the best news is that they plan to do this once a month. So if you like jazz, big bands and swing you now have the opportunity to see top performances again in Shanghai.

Air China has announced that it will start offering wifi on its international flights starting tomorrow. Not for free, but USD 26.95 is not too bad if you can work for a couple of hours while flying to Europe, Australia or the US. KLM is still not offering it, the only thing they currently offer is sending emails and SMS through your personal video screen (for a few dollars per mail). Not being able to offer wifi soon might cost them potential business customers.

Several airlines flying from Shanghai to Europe are offering it now (among others Lufthansa and SAS), although I have to admit that I often hear stories that it does not work flawlessly. Furthermore it is annoying to hear your co-passengers constantly call their friends or family for free through Skype. Airlines need to find a solution for this soon before it gets out of hand.

The Non-Violent Resistance blog had a great post last week about Mercedes cabbies in Hangzhou. They were not allowed to raise taxi fares (just like Mercedes taxi’s in Shanghai), so they loose money. So what do you do then? Here is the story:

For the first time in a very long time I did not post anything for a week on this blog. The reason? I was very busy and just did not find some quiet time to write down some thoughts, even though I came accross several interesting articles (I might post some of them later).

Dutch newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ has an article about Toodou.com on page 4. I did the interview with foreign correspondent Hans Moleman before Christmas already, but did not know when it would be published. By coincidence it is printed on the day that I flew back to Hollland. I could not find the article online, but if you want to search for it the title is ‘Nieuwe Chinese hit: videopodcasting’.

I am writing this blog entry while on a KLM flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam. The flight is excellent: I booked economy class but got upgraded to business. So I am sitting on the upper deck enjoying the spacious seats. After becoming an entrepreneur I almost always fly economy, but I have to say that business class makes such long flights (almost 12 hours) much more enjoyable and much more productive. I slept for a couple of hours, read two Dutch newspapers and three magazines, plus prepared a presentation.

While working on my laptop I suddenly got a message that a wireless network was available. I was surprised, because I thought KLM was a bit behind other airlines in this respect. I connected to the network (I planned to give my parents a call over Skype), but was not able to get onto the internet. I suspected I might need a password, so I asked a stewardess. She told me there is no wifi on board, so I showed it to her. She looked at the screen, then at me and then immediately called the cockpit. She took my laptop to the flight deck (I was not allowed to go) and discussed it with the captain. He had no idea what it was, and said he had never seen this before. Well, I don’t know either, but the signal was quite strong, so there must be something on board. The stewardess asked me a couple of more questions (Were you trying to connect? Yes, of course. What else did you do? Nothing, just clicked on the available network), but then left it at that. The signal was still there when she left, but a few minutes later it was gone. Anybody any idea what might have caused this?