Today's Links: Wooden chopsticks, punk republic and the bamboo curtain

• Call to abandon wooden chopsticks [China Daily]
  Restaurant owners and patrons should abandon the use of disposable chopsticks for the good of their health and the environment, an official with the China Cuisine Association (CCA), has said. The country produces and discards more than 45 billion pairs of wooden chopsticks every year, at a cost to the environment of about 25 million trees.


• Protective pig takes bite out of man's penis [Shanghai Daily]
  A man's penis was bitten by a sow trying to protect its baby while it was being injected with a vaccine, a Jiangxi Province Website reported today.


• 'Male' panda gives birth to twins [China Daily]
  A giant panda once believed to be male has given birth to twin cubs in southwest China's Sichuan Province, but is now fighting for her life.


• The Punk Republic of China [TIME]
  Ross Bloom of TIME magazine says the Beijing punk scene contains many of the same nuances it has in the countries from which it was imported.


• Behind the Bamboo Curtain [ESPN]
  It's one year to the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. There's a China they want you to see, and there's one they don't, writes Wright Thompson.


• Beijing blooms as Olympic flowers go on display [China Daily]
  More than two million flowering plants specially bred for 2008 Beijing Olympics were presented to city residents as China marks a one-year countdown to the Games.


• Beijing's path to big show unlikely to run smooth [The Guardian]
  Beijing's Olympic countdown extravaganza suggests China is likely to put on a spectacular show next August, but the run-up also illustrated that the next 382 days are unlikely to be trouble free for the hosts.

Photo from sheniferous.