Christian Göbel | Lightnews

Sense Hofstede @sensehofstede.nl · 3d

Independent Chinese-language film festival in US canceled after pressure campaign – Nikkei Asia: ‘said that he did not feel he was in physical danger but that the relentless messages forced him to shut down the event.’

Indie Chinese film festival in US canceled after pressure campaign

Organizer's reports of harassment echo other allegations of transnational repression

asia.nikkei.com

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · 4d

Tang Dynasty

Lev Nachman @lnachman32.bsky.social · 5d

In case you missed it, Kerry Brown wrote a book that plagiarized Shelley Rigger’s classic book title.

I, along with others who were asked to review Kerry’s manuscript, said verbatim to change the title.

In the most tacky and unprofessional fashion, he stole her title anyway.

China Digital Times @chinadigitaltimes.net · 6d

Beijing Banner Protester: "Establish a New China That is Free, Humane, and Governed by Rule of Law"

"CDT Chinese editors noted censorship of the following combinations: 'Sanlitun + lift ban on political parties', 'Sanlitun + protest', 'Sanlitun + warrior', 'Sitong Bridge + Sanlitun' …"

Beijing Banner Protester: "Establish a New China That is Free, Humane, and Governed by Rule of Law"

The image above shows a one-man protest that reportedly took place at the high-end Taikoo Li Sanlitun mall (formerly Sanlitun Village) in Beijing on October 25, shortly after the end of the Party’s Fo...

chinadigitaltimes.net

Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 7d

"a decision by the university not to publish a final phase of the research... was communicated to the National Security Service..." "China is not believed to have an organisation named National Security Service, so it is not clear who the individuals were".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

China academic intimidation claim referred to counter-terrorism police

Sensitive research into alleged human rights abuses is alleged to have been shut down by Chinese agents.

www.bbc.co.uk

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · 7d

Local LLM just translated 王文涛 as "Wang Textao" 😂

Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham.bsky.social · 8d

A British university complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project being dropped, the Guardian can reveal.

UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China

Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities

www.theguardian.com

con questi nuovi ritmi americani (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸🏳 @racheledini.bsky.social · 10d

I'm excited to share my piece in Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, which examines OpenAI's claims about ChatGPT's creative writing skills, Big Tech's weaponisation of grief and nostalgia, and the collapse of the academic humanities. lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...

Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities | Los Angeles Review of Books

Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.

lareviewofbooks.org

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Oct 4

I really liked Huntington-Klein, The Effect.

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Oct 2

Very solid and entertaining introduction to Labubu mania. Wondered why my visitors from China went into the Vienna Labubu store and straight out again last summer. Now I have an explanation. The Labubu store probably had no Labubus.

Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · Oct 1

In college, I'd always walk past an unremarkable store in Beijing that sold a variety of trendy, but tacky, toys. That store has turned into Pop Mart, the $45-billion Chinese toy empire behind Labubu, the biggest global fad of 2025.

This is my big story/pilgrimage trip to explain how they got here

A Journey Into the Heart of Labubu

I made an epic trek across four countries to answer one question: Why is the world going mad for a plushie monster?

www.wired.com

Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · Oct 1

In college, I'd always walk past an unremarkable store in Beijing that sold a variety of trendy, but tacky, toys. That store has turned into Pop Mart, the $45-billion Chinese toy empire behind Labubu, the biggest global fad of 2025.

This is my big story/pilgrimage trip to explain how they got here

A Journey Into the Heart of Labubu

I made an epic trek across four countries to answer one question: Why is the world going mad for a plushie monster?

www.wired.com

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Sep 30

Genuinely delighted to have received a postcard from @polbehavior.bsky.social today. This is a very nice gesture that truly made my day.

Back of the postcard. "Thank you so much for your recent review for Political Behavior! Your work as a reviewer is invaluable to us as we make decisions and try to provide constructive feedback for the authors. We are glad you are a part of the Political Behavior research community and hope to have more opportunities to work together in the future.
Chris Karpowitz and Jessica Preece
Co-Editors-in-Chief, Political Behavior"

Front of the postcard. A drawing with snowy mountains in the background, a bell tower in the foreground and a yellow sun in the top right corner. In the bottom right corner, it says "Political Behavior".

Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · Sep 4

Here's my epic failure against Trump's tariffs: I placed an order from a Ukrainian woodworking shop on Aug 17, but it's still stuck at the customs. It turns out, big platforms like Temu ends up getting an advantage over indie sellers because they can better handle the post-de minimis tariff regime.

The Unexpected Winners of Trump’s Trade War

Americans are now hit with tariffs when they shop from overseas sellers on eBay and Etsy. Shein and Temu had months to get ahead of the curve.

www.wired.com

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Sep 4

A very moving and informative essay with insights on how and why individuals (in China) consult LLMs for medical advice, and how Chinese companies employ LLMs in healthcare already now.

Viola Zhou @violazhou.bsky.social · Sep 2

Not long after DeepSeek R1 launched, I discovered that my mother had started using the chatbot as her virtual doctor.

I worried about her reliance on AI. But over time, I realized Dr. DeepSeek was offering something no human in her life could.

restofworld.org/2025/ai-chat...

My mom and Dr. DeepSeek

In China and around the world, the sick and lonely turn to AI.

restofworld.org

Viola Zhou @violazhou.bsky.social · Sep 2

Not long after DeepSeek R1 launched, I discovered that my mother had started using the chatbot as her virtual doctor.

I worried about her reliance on AI. But over time, I realized Dr. DeepSeek was offering something no human in her life could.

restofworld.org/2025/ai-chat...

My mom and Dr. DeepSeek

In China and around the world, the sick and lonely turn to AI.

restofworld.org

Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · Jan 31

NEW: Yes, everyone knows DeepSeek is heavily censored. But we investigated how the censorship actually works on the application level & the post-training level. Understanding that can lead us to ways of "uncensoring" Chinese open-source AIs and making them more useful.

www.wired.com/story/deepse...

Here’s How DeepSeek Censorship Actually Works—and How to Get Around It

A WIRED investigation shows that the popular Chinese AI model is censored on both the application and training level.

www.wired.com

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Feb 1

In his theory of autocratic regimes, Juan Linz argues that authoritarian regimes rely on mass apathy and the depolitization of society. They achieve this by repression and creating/nurturing the perception that resistance is futile. Which it often isn’t.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Feb 1

I don’t know what we do. I don’t know if there’s anything to do without leaders. Maybe we all just ride this plane into the ground. Maybe this is so common a feeling in authoritarian countries it’s almost insulting to feel like I’m experiencing something extraordinary.

Rie @rie-c.bsky.social · Feb 1

I think it's so important that everyone knows that Web Archive web.archive.org backs up and mirrors many US government websites.

Wayback MachineHamburger iconInternet Archive logoWeb iconTexts iconVideo iconAudio iconSoftware iconImages iconDonate iconEllipses iconDonate iconUser iconUpload iconSearch iconSearch iconSearch icon...

web.archive.org

David Roberts @volts.wtf · Feb 2

I want some linguist or sociologist or something to do a study on the lifecycle of terminology on the right. I've seen the same cycle repeat itself dozens, hundreds of times over the years.

It goes like this: 🧵

NULL @codemunkee.bsky.social · Feb 4

Sorry to the Data Scientists

Maximilian Mayer @maximilianiras.bsky.social · Feb 10

„Die Erosion scheinbar stabiler Demokratien, wie sie geradezu lehrbuchhaft in Österreich zu beobachten ist, ist darum eher eine Kapitulation im demokratischen Spektrum als ein Sieg der Rechtsextremen – und zwar vor allem im bürgerlichen Lager.“

Das geht auch an die Adresse deutscher Politiker:innen

Österreich: Die Banalität des letzten Tabubruchs

Er habe ein „ganz einfaches Ziel“, sagt Herbert Kickl: „Österreich ehrlich regieren.“ Wer dazu nicht bereit sei, könne für die FPÖ kein Verhandlungspartner sein: „Wir brauchen einen, dem man glauben u...

www.blaetter.de

Cindy Wan @cindywan.bsky.social · Feb 12

This is very sad.
David Webb’s collection of data has been a treasure trove for journalists and HongKongers alike.
Thank you, Mr Webb, for all your hard work.
Godspeed!

webb-site.com/articles/shu...?

Webb-site Reports

webb-site.com

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Jun 16

A great service to anyone who will want to work with this data down the road. A big thank-you to whoever did this.

Gewei Cao @karlcao.bsky.social · Jun 13

Backup data for the China Labour Bulletin（中国劳工通讯）.

Go to “Files” and you will find downloadable datasets and the data description.

osf.io/ajw37/?view_...

China Labour Bulletin just dissolved on 12th June 2025. It’s an NGO based in Hong Kong.

#CLB #中国劳工通讯

Labour Exploitation study: Data and Report Backup for China Labour Bulletin

On the 12th June of 2025, an NGO in Hong Kong stopped its operation. This organization focuses on the labor rights in China. This project aims to preserve its data and reports, for my further study. ...

osf.io

Louise Matsakis @lmatsakis.bsky.social · Jul 23

One of the highlights of my career has been reporting on China & working closely with @zeyiyang.bsky.social. So I’m really excited to share that we’re launching a new newsletter together for @wired.com. It's called "Made in China."

You can sign up for it here: www.wired.com/newsletter/e...

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Jul 23

This will be one of the few things I’m looking forward to having in my inbox. Wired’s (China) reporting has been stellar, so I’m looking forward to more of it. I just signed up.

Louise Matsakis @lmatsakis.bsky.social · Jul 23

One of the highlights of my career has been reporting on China & working closely with @zeyiyang.bsky.social. So I’m really excited to share that we’re launching a new newsletter together for @wired.com. It's called "Made in China."

You can sign up for it here: www.wired.com/newsletter/e...

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Jul 23

Oh, wow. I just know this will be good.

Louise Matsakis @lmatsakis.bsky.social · Jul 23

One of the highlights of my career has been reporting on China & working closely with @zeyiyang.bsky.social. So I’m really excited to share that we’re launching a new newsletter together for @wired.com. It's called "Made in China."

You can sign up for it here: www.wired.com/newsletter/e...

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Jul 9

Instinctively understand it. A brain fast enough to do two translations while formulating an answer in conversation speed would be awesome.

Sense Hofstede @sensehofstede.nl · Jul 9

‘Containing Xi’, or refining party rule? – Holly Snape for Observing China: ‘These planned regulations are part of Xi’s longstanding pet project to govern the CCP and the PRC by rules’
‘Xi has used rules not only to maximise his concentration of power, but also to facilitate its use.’

‘Containing Xi’, or refining party rule?

What does the latest politburo meeting reveal about Chinese politics?

www.observingchina.org.uk

Christian Göbel @christiangoebel.bsky.social · Jul 7

If anyone uses bsky data to research the impact of the New York Times #NYT recent reporting on #Mamdani, here is a data point: I'm not invested in US domestic politics, but cancelled my subscription because of what I perceive of as an inexcusable lack of journalistic and editorial standards.

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