I’m not sure exactly how the Hong Kong transport authority determines which license plates will be auctioned at any given time, but the list for this next auction has some interesting entries. There’s plenty of local-sounding names (MRS CHUM) and animals (SHEEP, BUNNY) but then there’s a whole range of other options ranging from the ironic (EM1SS1ON) to the utterly baffling (TOMCRUZ).

The general portrait this particular list seems to paint is of a religious and, yes, materialistic city, but one with decent taste in secondary Hollywood action movie characters.

First round:

1) ALPHA
2) 1CEMAN
6) HUNG 678 (A reference to the 678 International Club massage parlor in Shenzhen? Or maybe it’s the Best Casinos Online Directory?)
30) 20061122 (The Playstation 3 launched in Japan on November 11, 2006, but that can’t be it. Please help.)
35) 1LUV2EAT, available in 2 rows: 1LUV 2EAT
43) BOBAFETT, available in 2 rows BOBA FETT
49) CASHMERE
62) ANALYST
68) PUKKA
83) CNOOC

Second round:

1) HO ONE
31) P1NG AN
32) FAM1LY
37) BMW M3
49) HEADFAME (For the ultimate administrative assistant)
53) TOMCRUZ
67) VU1TTON
74) DOGAROO (??????)
80) EM1SS1ON
92) W W J D
93) PSALM121
94) HA HA 88

For those who want to get their hands on one of these treasures, the auction takes place July 19th at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wanchai, with the first round starting at 9:25am.

According to the all-time top ten list, the top getter is “18″ (not “8″) auctioned off to some lucky bugger last year for HK$16.5 million. Anyone who knows why someone might pay two million bucks for that number, please explain.

[Image: A genuine Hong Kong license plate, courtesy of Mark Oh!]

I’ll sift through my notes for more substantive observations later, but in the meantime, here are a few of the more surprising/noteworthy statistics that surfaced in the presentations:

80: Percentage of Chinese Internet users who think the Internet should be managed or controlled. (From survey cited by Deborah Fallows of Pew Internet Research)

85: Percentage of above who think government should do the controlling.

300 or so: The number of Chinese blogs in a sample of more than 500 that carried content critical of the government, corporations, social phenomena, etc. (From Ashley Esarey, assistant professor, Middlebury College).

Midnight to 4am: Time during which majority of politically critical blog posts in China are written. (A. Esarey)

43: Percentage of Americans who answered “yes” to the question “Do you think China will inevitably change with the Internet?” (From Zogby Poll, January 2007, cited by Lokman Tsui)

1: Hangzhou’s position in ranking of 30 major Chinese cities based on percentage of people who blog (from China Media Monitoring study cited by ESWN blogger Roland Soong.)

What to make of all this? It’s anyone’s guess. If there’s a singe line to summarize the findings presented at the conference, it’s this: China’s Internet is a schizophrenic and slippery–and, therefore, as unpredictable–as the country itself.

To get a fuller sense of the confusion, see the official CIRC blog (heroically compiled in real time by John from Global Voices and Dave from Mutant Palm) as well as coverage from Kai Pan at CN Reviews here and here.

[Image: CIRC 2008 group photo, courtesy of RConversation]