Last month, the Information Office of the State Council released a few signed articles (as mentioned on this blog here) accusing the Dalai Lama of betraying Buddhism and worshipping evil cults ahead of his rendez-vous with President Bush. The author of two of these articles was Shi Shan, who, after a curious polisher pressed for a clue to his identity, was described as “a research fellow in Tibetan Buddhism who used to work in Tibet for a long time” and actually accompanied the DL and the 10th Panchen Lama to Beijing during the 1950s.
Yesterday, the State Council appeared to abandon the approach of seeking credibility through the opinion of a sole expert. It released a signed article entitled “Has the Dalai Lama truly given up ‘Tibetan Independence’?”, distributed by Xinhua and planted on page ten of today’s China Daily. The author’s name was given as “Zang Yanping” which can be translated as “Peaceful Tibet”. You have to admire their sense of humour.
China Digital Times | 13-Nov-07 at 11:16 pm | Permalink
More Cheeky Pen Names From the State Council - Chris O’Brien…
From Beijing Newspeak blog: Yesterday, the State Council appeared to abandon the approach of seeking credibility through the opinion of a sole expert. It released a signed article entitled “Has the Dalai Lama truly given up ‘Tibetan Independence…
michael | 14-Nov-07 at 5:30 pm | Permalink
The pen names at China Daily are really lame. Le Tian (happy days?) Li Shi (history?) and Wen Zi (literature?).
I often thought of writing under an assumed name like Fang Pi or Gui Hua, maybe even Wang Badan. In the end I went for “expert” (Zhuan Jia).