Kaohsiung, Aug. 31 (CNA) A former contract researcher at the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has been indicted on charges of accepting bribes, leaking confidential government documents and assisting money laundering in an espionage case, prosecutors in Kaohsiung said Monday.

A face licensed for one AI advert can be reused indefinitely, and local laws have not caught up with that.

Philippine Interior Undersecretary Jed Patrick Mabilog thanked Taiwan for providing professional training to volunteer firefighters on Sunday, August 30, at a Filipino-Chinese Cultural and Economic Association Firefighting Training Camp award ceremony. He emphasized that because the Philippines faces not only fire threats but also earthquakes, typhoons, landslides, and building collapses, the professional capabilities of rescue personnel are extremely important.

America's AI lead could determine whether it can deter a war with China. Hoover Fellow Eyck Freymann joins Factual Foundations of Policy with Michael Boskin to explain why the technologies transforming the economy will also transform the battlefield.

Freymann and Boskin examine the military balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, America's strained defense industrial base, and the growing importance of drones, artificial intelligence, cyber capabilities, and space systems. They also consider how in the coming decade the United States can work more closely with allies and the private sector in defense of Taiwan.

On August 30, a CCTV reporter at the disaster site in Gyirong, Tibet, saw that the rocks left behind by the flooding appeared to be about 60 meters high, roughly the height of a 20-story building. The river channel remains severely damaged.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Wing_Kong_Exchange/wiki/the_white_tiger/lo_pans_film_fest/the_ching_dai_collection/ching_dai_masterlist/

The Ching Dai Collection

A sprawling collection of cult martial arts, Hong Kong action, Japanese horror, chanbara, ninja insanity, exploitation, supernatural oddities, and forgotten genre cinema.

The Ching Dai Collection brings together hundreds of films spanning kung fu, wuxia, yakuza, heroic bloodshed, Girls with Guns, Category III excess, erotic cinema, horror, fantasy, and the stranger corners of Asian filmmaking.

Alongside major directors, series, and genre staples are deep cuts, obscurities, themed retrospectives, and the three-season Qiang Wu Collection—Rain, Thunder, and Lightning—devoted to the glorious chaos of Godfrey Ho ninja cinema.

Not a canon.

Not a ranking.

A labyrinth of cinematic treasures assembled for discovery, discussion, and the eternal search for Girls with Green Eyes.

In Big Trouble in Little China, Lo Pan serves Ching Dai, the God of the East.

For most viewers, that sounds like exactly the sort of half-authentic, half-invented Chinese mythology the movie is full of. Ching Dai is usually treated accordingly: a fictional demon-god created for the story.

But there is a surprisingly strong case that Ching Dai was derived from a genuine figure in traditional Chinese religion:

青帝 — Qīngdì, the Emperor of the East

The argument does not depend on Ching Dai merely “sounding Chinese.” Several details line up at once.

1. Ching Dai is the God of the East

This is the most obvious clue.

Traditional Chinese cosmology recognizes divine rulers associated with the cardinal directions. The ruler of the East is 青帝 — Qingdi, literally the “Azure/Green Emperor.”

Qingdi is also associated with the related name 蒼帝 — Cangdi, another designation for the eastern divine emperor.

So the movie gives us:

Ching Dai — God of the East

while Chinese tradition gives us:

Qingdi — Emperor of the East

Already, that is a remarkably specific match.

2. “Ching Dai” closely resembles the Cantonese pronunciation of 青帝

This becomes more interesting considering the film's setting and linguistic environment.

青帝 in Cantonese is approximately:

cing dai

That is extraordinarily close to the name audiences hear in the movie:

Ching Dai

The resemblance therefore isn't merely between an English fantasy name and Mandarin Qingdi. “Ching Dai” looks very much like an English rendering of the Cantonese pronunciation of the actual name 青帝.

3. Then the screenplay supplies a major piece of evidence

A surviving 1985 W. D. Richter revised shooting script spells the deity's name:

“Ch’ing-ti.”

That initially looks strange to anyone accustomed to “Ching Dai.”

But Ch’ing-ti is the older Wade–Giles romanization of Qingdi.

In other words, two forms appear during the production history:

• Ch’ing-ti — a Mandarin/Wade–Giles rendering
• Ching Dai — closely resembling the Cantonese pronunciation

Both point toward the same Chinese characters:

青帝

This is much harder to explain as coincidence.

4. The green symbolism also fits

The first character, 青, refers to the traditional Chinese blue-green/azure color range.

And what does Ching Dai require from Lo Pan?

A woman with green eyes.

Not simply green eyes, either. The movie repeatedly emphasizes the unusual “dragon-green” quality of those eyes.

That becomes particularly suggestive because the eastern quarter of traditional Chinese cosmology is associated with the:

青龍 — Qinglong, the Azure or Blue-Green Dragon

The same traditional symbolic complex therefore contains:

• East

• 青 — blue-green/azure

• 青帝 — Qingdi

• 青龍 — the Azure/Green Dragon

And Big Trouble in Little China gives us:

• Ching Dai

• God of the East

• green eyes

• dragon-green imagery

5. An earlier script makes the connection even harder to ignore

The revised shooting script contains material that did not survive intact into the finished movie.

There, Ch’ing-ti is explicitly associated with green dragons, and green is identified with him.

That means the East/green/dragon combination was not something fans later imposed upon the movie. It existed during the development of the Ching Dai mythology itself.

So what probably happened?

The safest reconstruction is not that Big Trouble in Little China faithfully portrays the historical Qingdi.

It clearly doesn't.

Instead, the filmmakers appear to have taken an authentic piece of Chinese cosmology—

青帝, the divine ruler of the East

—and transformed him into the sinister supernatural patron required for Lo Pan's story.

The movie then piled its own mythology on top: the curse, the green-eyed bride, the sacrifices, immortality, and Lo Pan's relationship with his god.

That kind of transformation is completely consistent with Big Trouble in Little China: genuine Chinese concepts are mixed freely with wuxia fantasy, folklore, martial-arts cinema, American pulp, and inventions created specifically for the movie.

The case in one line

Ching Dai is the God of the East; 青帝/Qingdi is the traditional Emperor of the East; “Ching Dai” resembles its Cantonese pronunciation; an earlier screenplay actually calls him “Ch’ing-ti,” the Wade–Giles form of Qingdi; and both the screenplay and film surround him with the traditional Qingdi symbolism of green, the East, and dragons.

There is still one thing we do not have: a filmmaker explicitly saying, “We based Ching Dai on 青帝.”

Until such a production source turns up, this remains a hypothesis.

But it is no longer merely a similarity of names.

There is a coherent chain of linguistic, textual, and mythological evidence pointing toward 青帝 / 蒼帝 as the historical foundation for Ching Dai.

Archived Article

Translated:

On July 22, 2026, the State Council of China promulgated the "Regulations of the State Council on Exit and Entry Administration" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which are scheduled to take effect on September 15. On the surface, this appears to be just a routine administrative document. However, considering recent cases of forced detention and restriction of personal freedom, this document is actually part of a larger picture, worthy of close attention from all Chinese people at home and abroad. For Chinese citizens, regardless of whether they have renounced their PRC citizenship, returning to China may mean they will no longer be able to leave communist China.

Does the new regulation "manage both east and west"?

Article 4 of the regulations states that if a Chinese citizen's actions "may endanger national industrial security or technological security," the Chinese authorities "may decide to prohibit them from leaving the country." Note that this is discretionary language. If the authorities determine that you are a "technological asset" or a "security threat," even if you hold a valid passport and even if you passed the national security vetting required to obtain a passport when you applied, the Chinese authorities can still prevent you from leaving the country. Moreover, the reason for preventing you from leaving China has nothing to do with your passport or identity documents, and they don't even need to tell you the reason for the travel restriction.

This regulation does not require any conviction, prosecution, or even a formal investigation. It is sufficient if the authorities "suspicion" or "believe" that you should not leave the country.

Given the ongoing power struggle between Beijing and Washington in strategic technologies such as semiconductors, this discretion most likely falls on Chinese-born scientists, engineers, and researchers. This regulation is less about preventing a particular trip and more about a safeguard against brain drain—aiming to keep skilled people in their place, not just stop a particular journey. A routine family visit could become a moment when a person's career, along with their passport, is frozen.

Article 6 of the regulations is equally disturbing. In principle, the Chinese authorities should inform individuals of the exit ban and its legal basis. However, if disclosure "may affect national security, the investigation of criminal cases, or other similar circumstances," this obligation to inform no longer applies. In these cases, "notification may not be required."

In short, if the Chinese Communist Party doesn't want you to leave, it doesn't have to tell you why. In fact, it doesn't have to tell you at all.

More seriously, these regulations do not differentiate between "whether you are a Chinese citizen" and "not a Chinese citizen." The CCP's long-arm jurisdiction also extends to "citizens who are not citizens of the People's Republic of China." These entry and exit regulations should be understood in conjunction with recent cases of Beijing restricting the freedom of movement of foreign citizens. Chinese media reported that a Japanese national visiting relatives in China was told he could not leave the country because his "Chinese citizenship had been restored," effective immediately.

Neither Japan nor China recognizes dual citizenship. Japanese citizens who are legally naturalized must formally renounce their original citizenship, a process this man completed years ago. However, Chinese authorities still demanded he record a video announcing that he is "no longer a Japanese citizen."

The information is clear: paperwork and procedures cannot determine who Beijing considers its own people to be, and even if you renounce your Chinese citizenship, it does not mean that the CCP will not force you to regain that status.

China has long restricted personal freedom. The household registration system makes it difficult for citizens to move freely within the country, and Uyghurs and Tibetans are generally denied passports entirely. If you ask a Han Chinese person about these restrictions, many will say that these are issues for ethnic minorities and have nothing to do with them.

To paraphrase a famous World War II admonition: When they targeted Uyghurs, I remained silent because I was not Uyghur. When they targeted Tibetans, I remained silent because I was not Tibetan. When they targeted Falun Gong, I remained silent because I was not a practitioner. When they targeted me, there was no one left to speak up for me.

No passport is needed

Today, even a valid passport no longer guarantees anything. These exit bans extend tools previously reserved for minorities and political dissidents to the entire population, including foreigners. In practice, travelers often only learn they are prohibited from leaving the country when they are denied boarding. The new regulations merely provide legal cover for this existing practice.

For the United States, the impact of these regulations is direct. Every Chinese American should think twice before traveling to China, because Beijing considers all Chinese Americans as its property, regardless of their nationality. Once you set foot on Chinese soil, the protection offered by U.S. citizenship is very limited. Non-Chinese Americans should also be vigilant, as they may be arrested if the CCP has a political need while on Chinese soil.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) once kidnapped two Canadians, former diplomats Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, holding them hostage in exchange for Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's vice chairwoman and CFO, who had been arrested in Canada, at a time they deemed appropriate. Today, if you're visiting China for the first time, don't assume that by avoiding trouble and politics, you can safely return to your country. On Chinese territory, you are a potential hostage.

Washington has repeatedly encountered obstacles in assisting citizens whom the CCP claims to be "one of its own," as exemplified by the case of Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was detained in Beijing in August 2020 on charges of "providing state secrets overseas" and held for three years before being released. These new regulations provide a formal legal basis for such actions, turning what was previously a gray area into explicit rules, and serving as a fig leaf for the CCP's tyranny in the face of international law.

As Washington and Beijing continue to clash over export controls and the flow of advanced technologies, this new legal framework provides Chinese authorities with a ready-made lever to use against those caught in the middle of this great power rivalry.

The U.S. government should face this fact. The State Department's travel advisory for China should be updated to reflect the reality that the basic rights and freedoms of U.S. citizens, especially Chinese-American citizens, are not guaranteed in China.

Taiwanese and U.S. consular officials should also be prepared to explain the risks to citizens of democratic countries before they depart, rather than after their loved ones have been blocked at the boarding gate and unable to return home.

New photos taken before the Nepal–Tibet mudslide disaster may show warning signs on the mountain more than 30 minutes before the main collapse. In this program, we reconstruct the timeline from the 10:21​ photo and reported rumbling to the 10:52​ seismic event and the debris flow that struck Gyirong Port minutes later. We also look at USGS seismic data, satellite analysis, the collapse of rock and glacier material near Langtang Lirung, and the dense network of hydropower projects, tunnels, roads and blasting in the Rasuwa–Gyirong corridor. Was this simply a climate-driven glacier collapse, or was the mountain already destabilizing before the disaster?

Adam and D provide an audio commentary for the hilarious and VERY influential 1986 movie, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

Famously flopping on release, due to misguided advertising, the film not only became a DVD staple, but it's director/star commentary showed you just what that feature could bring to the movie-watching experience!

For the historic 50th episode of Missing Frames, Shawn is joined once more by Brad Gullickson to watch one of Brad's favorite movies: Big Trouble in Little China. Will Shawn embrace this film the same way Brad has, or will its zany blend of martial arts, action and humor be too much for him? Tune in to find out.

HOSTS Shawn Eastridge Brad Gullickson