Well, it's all over the news. Hunan TV is going to do a Chinese version of the hit US TV show Ugly Betty. According to a report from the BBC, the lead character—the Chinese Betty—has already been chosen. A Chinese article that we read, dated March 7, says that Hunan TV wants to hold nation-wide auditions to find the ugliest girl possible. So we're not sure what the case is, but in any case, whoever is chosen will soon have their identity known to the world, because the show is supposed to start shooting in April. The plans are to stretch the show out over ten seasons, with about 40 episodes each, for a total of 400 episodes. However, unlike in the US, there aren't going to be longish breaks between seasons (and presumably, no writers' strikes either).
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China's rising generation of worship leaders [Christian Post h/t Danwei]
John, a composer who was once a rising star at a state-owned symphony, has started a Christian music school where graduates are dispatched throughout the nation.
Photo from nozomiiqel.
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A meteorologist says that it wasn't the mist from firecrackers and fireworks that caused the cancellation of 190 flights at the Beijing airport. Shanghai residents don't mind celebrating Chinese New Year with "foreign foods" such as pizza and hamburgers. (Useless) factoid: In January 2007, Shanghai imported an average of 3.2 billion USD worth of foreigns goods per day. The Washington Post on China's internet addiction treatment centers.
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Mac William Bishop discusses the PLA's cadre of young hackers and the information warfare attacks between the PRC and Taiwan Another interview with Qiu Xiaolong, the Shanghai born writer of English language detective novels featuring the poetry-loving Inspector Chen. Taipei has gay pride parades every year, but this year was a bit different: the parade culminated with a wedding ceremony for four lesbian couples, a first in Asia. The number of people to be displaced by the Three Gorges Dam has been raised by 270,000 to 1.4 million. Photos from Reuters: a man in Hefei attempting to extinguish a torch in his mouth. A Chinese company unveiled a "G spot" female condom that they say 90 percent of female users to achieve orgasm. This number came from a clinical trial of 135 people, and other than seven women that were pregnant and four that were post-menopausal, all the other women reported achieving orgasm. The report (in Chinese) says that the "bumps" on the top of the condom do the trick. Photos: a man in a remote mountain village in Chongqing who has not cut his hair in 26 years decides that washing his hair isn't a bad idea. His hair is 2 meters long and his beard a close second at 1.5 meters. If you're not squeamish, you check out the pictures of people washing his hair -- they had to use nine bags of detergent to do the job. Michael Schumacher lifts the Shanghai curse. Ten expats win friends of the city prizes, and we were not one of them. Shanghai is on its way to becoming a major airport hub in Asia -- and all will come to pass, you guessed it, before 2008.
Results tagged “achinese”
Continue reading "Hunan TV to make Chinese version of Ugly Betty"
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“The French have committees for everything. … After much discussion, the geographers and linguists of the CNT have decided that the rest of the world has it wrong. ‘Beijing’ must be spelled ‘Pékin’.”
“A Chinese government Web site encouraging citizens to report corruption crashed on its first day under the weight of too many hits. China’s National Bureau of Corruption Prevention … launched its official Web site (yfj.mos.gov.cn) on Tuesday.”
Has anyone heard of this magazine? And if they were going to choose to steal a website’s design, why would they choose That’s Shanghai’s?
“Apple Inc. is negotiating with Japan’s top mobile phone carrier to launch the iPhone in Japan, though the cut of subscriber revenue that Apple wants has been a sticking point, according to a report published Tuesday.”
Continue reading "Today's Links: Big rogues, top jokes and child prostitution"
Fresh off the press: A video of the secret police who watched over AIDS, environmental and democracy activist Hu Jia (胡嘉) day and night while they were under house arrest from July last year to March this year has just been released (h/t to CDT).
Continue reading "Hu Jia surveillance video, Gao Zhisheng detained again"
A 30-year old man in Guangzhou appears to have died of exhaustion after a three-day Internet gaming binge. Paramedics tried to revive him at the cybercafe but failed and he was declared dead on the spot.
Continue reading "Today's Links: Pork bans, kung fu peacekeepers and Internet OD"
Journey to the West: Chinese Tourists Do Europe -- in 14 Days [Spiegel Online]
Chinese tourists have recently discovered Europe as a destination. SPIEGEL traveled with a group who covered 11 countries in 14 days by bus, snapping the sights and buying up brand names.
A Glimpse of the World: A Chinese Century? Maybe It’s the Next One [NYT]
China claims that its economy is growing at 10 to 11 percent a year, and China’s official analysts say that their nation will catch up with the United States long before the 22nd century arrives. Don’t believe it, says Lester Thurow of the NYT.
A Glimpse of the World: SLAVERY IN CHINA: Combing the Brickyards for the Disappeared [IHT]
It’s a story that has made headlines around the world: Slave laborers have been found in Chinese brick factories. The authorities have freed many of them, but some fear there could be hundreds more being imprisoned, beaten and starved.
A Glimpse of the World: New Power in Africa: Entrepreneurs From China Flourish in Africa [IHT]
Today, in many of the countries where the new Chinese emigrants have settled, like Chad, Chinese-owned pharmacies, massage parlors and restaurants serving a variety of regional Chinese cuisines can be found; the Western presence has steadily dwindled.
My dinner with Sontag [Salon.com]
"I didn't mean to get into a fight with Susan Sontag", says Val Wang of Salon, but she eventually did. A dinner with Sontag in 2000 would prove to be her initiation into New York literary life.
The gentle decline of the 'Third Korea'- Asia Times Online [Asia Times]
By Chinese standards, the city of Yanji is rather small, with a population of nearly 400,000. About a third of them are ethnic Koreans: Yanji is the capital of Yanbian autonomous prefecture in the northeastern province of Jilin.
World's hairiest man / pop-star bids to join Beijing Olympic torch relay
Would you believe it? The world's hairiest man is a Chinese, and he is a rock-and-roll singer! Yu Zhenhuan, who has an average 41 hairs on every .4 square inch of his skin, and is now just recovering in Shanghai from an ear operation, says he wants to be part of the torch relay for next year's Beijing Summer Olympic Games.
The right number for the Beijing Olympics is about to be auctioned
It's a very special number in China — 20080808 — and Zhang Jianyun hopes it's about to pay off.
Beijing introduces first ever zip code for Olympic Games
A postal code for all the 2008 Olympic venues in Beijing was put into use on Wednesday to speed up the delivery of letters and parcels.
A Chinese car champion finally?
A tie-up between Shanghai Auto, China's biggest car maker, and smaller rival Nanjing Auto could lead to the creation of a Chinese national car champion to rival the big multinationals.
TIME Magazine's Simon Elegant suggests that the self-interested, apolitical pragmatism of China's 300 million adults under the age of 30 could turn out to be the salvation of the ruling Communist Party — so long as it keeps delivering the economic goods.
69 miners rescued from flooded mine
All 69 miners who were trapped in a colliery for more than 75 hours were rescued today in the most successful mine rescue in China in recent years.
Continue reading "Today's Links: World's hairiest man, Olympic numbers and rescued miners"
Image of Japanese prostitute's application papers from China Daily.
Continue reading "Today's Links: Polluted rivers, spam and airport stenches"
to embroil a listed company this year.
Continue reading "Today's Links: Death by scissors, inflation, and 1001 Chinese"
It was reported this weekend that the much ballyhooed 25-minutes-from-Shanghai-to-Hangzhou maglev train, which was supposed to be fully operational around 2010, has been delayed. Indefinitely. Which makes us ask, how much longer are we going to have to wait to be ushered into the sci-fi utopia of the 21st century that we spent most of the 20th century dreaming about?
Continue reading "Construction of Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev halted"
"The Shanghai government agency responsible for clearing drains and repairing lifts in apartment buildings has emerged as a leading shareholder in at least three listed companies, in spite of being barred from such risky investments."
"'Be a foreigner's landlord!' crowed one advertisement -- in Chinese only -- for buyers to invest in a new apartment block in a Beijing development."
"Twenty Chinese women were killed and four injured when a three-wheeled tractor overturned on a mountain road in the north of the country, state media said on Monday. The accident on Sunday in northern China’s Liaoning province ..."
"Yu Zhifei, a former city government official and general manager of the Shanghai International Circuit, was also expelled from the Communist Party and handed over for prosecution, the Shanghai Daily and other newspapers said."
"Police believe the two students were electrocuted after one fell into the fountain and the other wadded in to help her out." We assume they mean "waded."
"The demonstrations occurred after local governments this month dispatched 'family planning work teams' to levy fines on families that were violating government population control policies." In Guangxi.
"Four officials from Shanghai, including a former chairman of a football club, have been expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and will now face criminal charges in the latest corruption scandal to be exposed in the city."
"Now you can check out the latest entries at the homepage of Metroer's 3rd Annual Cellflix Festival. They define cellflix as short pieces of a few minutes that are either captured via cell phones or can be directly downloaded and viewed on cell phones."
"China's national football coach has been ordered to lead the squad to the final four of next month's Asian Cup and avoid the errors that led to a recent defeat to Thailand, state media said Monday."
"However, Chen said the chemical, a thickening agent often used as a low-cost substitute for glycerin, was permitted under Chinese rules and was safe in small amounts."
V"eteran Chinese director Chen Kaige will be the jury president as the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival kicks off on June 16. ... Chinese movies "Wu Qingyuan", "Eye in the Sky ", "The Knot" and "Shanghai Red" are among the candidates."
"China is likely to replace the United States as the world's third most popular tourism destination next year, a United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) official said. At present, China ranks fourth, after France, Spain and the United States."
"Over the past four months, the FDA has rejected 298 shipments from China that included 'filthy' fruits, cancer-causing shrimp, and 'poisonous' swordfish."
"A Chinese man was arrested for posting sexually explicit stories on his online Web journal in a nationwide crackdown on objectionable material circulating the Internet."
"[Paulson] added that the accomplishments were likely to be in the areas of approving more routes for United States air passengers and cargo, granting financial services companies access to Chinese consumers and clearing the way for the sale of energy technologies, particularly clean-burning coal."
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Continue reading "Today's Links: Corruption, toothpaste and riots"
"Video downloads of Guangdong Meng Tong Culture's licensed historical costume drama series "Zhen Guan Chang Ge" were found on Baidu space channel (hi.baidu.com). ... Meng Tone is asking Baidu to pay 440,000 Yuan in compensation."
"The disease has now been officially eradicated in China, but the villages remain partly because the patients were unable to rebuild their lives after being institutionalised for decades."
"Inspectors with the office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said the natural river banks along some sections of the Jingjiang River, part of the Yangtze, could be at risk of collapse."
"Beginning last week, all foreign tourists to Tibet must be approved by the head office of the "Tibet Travel Service" in Lhasa. Needless to say, the PSB is a heavy presence there."
"And coffee grown in China is beginning to climb the quality ladder. Arabica from the southern province of Yunnan is now catching the eye even of specialty roasters such as Starbucks or Italy's Illy."
"Beijing authorities are to raise downtown parking fees by 150 percent to discourage motorists from driving into the congested city center. Motorists will have to pay five yuan per hour instead of two yuan for parking close to downtown commercial areas."
"In Chongqing, a sprawling municipality in central China, so many owners of private cars and trucks are using fraudulent toll-exempt military plates that one toll highway has estimated annual losses at roughly 10 million yuan, or $1.2 million."
"A Chinese policeman was stabbed and wounded on the edge of Tiananmen Square, police said on Tuesday, days after a vandal damaged the huge portrait of late Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong that hangs nearby."
"In an exercise to attract the attention of the world community, Tibetans in exile here will be organising their maiden 'Olympics' from May 15-25 next year."
"Among the hardest hit is Henan province, the country's bread basket, where rainfall since March has been down 70 percent on the average for the last two years, with no significant rain expected this month, Xinhua news agency said."
"The average disposable income of Shanghai urbanites hit 6,795 yuan for the January to March period, followed by 6,676 yuan in the neighboring province of Zhejiang and 5,901 yuan in Beijing."
"The chief surgeon, who removed the rusty bullet, was amazed it had remained in her head for so long without causing major problems." Wonder if this will spark a new wave of anti-Japan protests.
"The Beijing municipal government blacklisted the horror stories calling them 'illegal terrifying publications.'" The book is called .
"But it won't take long for parents to discover that Shanghai, with its many parks, markets and museums, can captivate the younger set."
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Continue reading "Today's Links: Baidu, bullets and stabbed cops"
"...the February surge was caused by exporters shipping goods early to beat an expected change in taxes, leaving less to ship in March."
"Mak was convicted on two counts of attempting to send sensitive material to China, acting as a foreign agent without notifying the US government and making false statements to federal agents."
"The serious accidents should be taken as 'lessons that have come at the cost of blood and lives,'"
"A stock-market bubble has been building rapidly,... The risk is getting higher that it will burst".
"China may face a shortage in its work force in two years time because the amount of surplus labor will not be as great as has been estimated"
"Finding and retaining good personnel was ranked the second- most difficult aspect of the Chinese banking industry by the 40 foreign banks polled, behind regulation."
"...deposits for land bidding can now not only be paid with RMB, but also US dollars, Hong Kong dollars, Japanese yen and euros, payable to the municipal land bureau. This was not the case in the past."
"A Chinese government spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, told reporters that Yasukuni was an “important and sensitive political issue” and asked Japan to “strictly abide” by its pledges to cooperate with China."
"China should give priority to a manned space flight, lunar exploration, new launch vehicle, high-resolution earth observation"
"The authorities declared this case domestic despite Cho's legal status as a Korean citizen, while the media plastered the front pages citing "Korean" as his national origin."
"The dogs will first receive tranquilizers to keep them calm before they are injected with a special medicine..."
"the rehabilitation effort for the Songhua River, one of the most heavily polluted rivers in the country, would remain in effect for 10 years"
"The water that leaves the plant will still not be drinkable, however, and the city will still have a long way to go before all of its river discharges are properly treated"
"... tests to determine if the (Chinese) disease is porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, a viral disease... it is the costliest virus for swine herds in the United States."
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"Drafting a new licensing rule for online magazines is on the agenda of China’s administration of press and publication, which will require online magazines to obtain license from the government before publishing, China Business News reported."
"To counter the trend, here's our list of Shanghai cafes that still keep the free wifi faith."
"Shanghai's efforts to build a city-wide taxi call center has suffered a body blow with the decision of Haibo, its biggest member company, to quit the 96965 hotline service, the Youth Daily reported today."
"Allowing street business on the two streets will not only affect tourists' impressions of the city but will also hamper traffic flow, the bureau said in a proposal about rules for street stalls, the Oriental Morning Post reported today. "
"The suspects range in age from 15 to 18 years old and all hail from Anhui Province, according to prosecutors. They allegedly couldn't find jobs in the city and decided to steal some money to return home."
"The ruling came amid U.S. pressure for Beijing to stop rampant copying of music and other goods."
"U.S. complaints to the WTO over commercial piracy in China will 'badly damage' cooperation, Vice Premier Wu Yi warned on Tuesday, insisting that China has made great strides in protecting patents and copyrights."
"China's chief censor has been been removed from his post, state media reported Tuesday, following an outcry this year over a reported decision to ban eight books."
"A Chinese college has introduced fingerprint scanners to stop students playing truant ... Meiya College of International Studies at Hunan University spent 250,000 yuan (16,000 pounds) last year to install the scanners in each of its 30-plus classrooms."
"Chinese authorities acknowledge the safety problem and have promised repeatedly to fix it, but the disasters keep coming."
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Continue reading "Today's Links: WiFi, piracy and vendorless streets"
There is really no more to say. This incredulous story from The SMH (and yes, we did check the date for April 1st):
Continue reading "Poo pile saves Nanjing woman from death plunge"
"The anti-pet brigade, angered over noise and mess from domestic cats and dogs, is lobbying the authorities for tougher restrictions on pet ownership, as the number of people keeping them without a license increases."
"FedEx's domestic China service will flow from its hub at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in east China's Zhejiang province. ... Domestic carrier Okay Airways will provide air transportation, using three Boeing 737 jets." Okay!
"A group of Chinese reporters came up with a novel idea to test how greedy local hospitals were -- pass off tea as urine samples and submit the drink for tests."
"The typical Chinese restaurant menu is a sea of nutritional no-nos, a consumer group has found. A plate of General Tso's chicken, for example, is loaded with about 40 percent more sodium and more than half the calories an average adult needs for an entire day."
"A Chinese man bought carry-on wine and spirits worth a record 23,000 euros (15,600 pounds) at Paris airport's duty-free shop -- including a bottle of 1806 cognac that might have slipped through the fingers of Emperor Napoleon."
"The Los Angeles Lakers' star has the top-selling jersey there, while sales of Yao Ming's jersey in his home country continue to fall, according to results released by the NBA on Tuesday."
"FedEx will launch the next-business-day domestic express service May 28, with time-definite service to 19 cities and day-definite service to more than 200 cities across the country, the company said."
"A dean at one of China's most prestigious universities has been fired after criticizing the school's administration on his blog."
"Police in Hong Kong are investigating an elaborate device found embedded in the turf at a world-famous horse track apparently designed to shoot poison darts at the animals at the start of a race."
"Although it has been in operation for less than two years, Aoyou.com, a joint venture between China Youth Travel and Travelport, has reportedly suffered a loss of RMB60 million."
"Following the recent one yuan .CN domain name promotion in China, it has now turned its eyes to teenagers in China and is advocating them to use the .CN domain names."
"Oceanographers yesterday dismissed claims by a British journalist that rising tides will engulf Shanghai, Tianjin and other coastal cities by 2050."
"The average age gap between Shanghai women and their foreign husbands is 10.5, and 13 percent of the foreign husbands are 20 years older than their local brides, the report said."
"When the city's first sex hotline for the middle-aged and elderly opened in August, operators quickly found out that many of their callers' biggest problem was loneliness."
"While the local media could not publish about the most famous house in Chongqing, the stories kept on spreading on the internet, often hardly based on any facts. But that forced national media like CCTV to bring the story and Venture160 did a great job in translating the interview."
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Continue reading "Today's Links: FedEx, Kobe and sex hotlines"
"In China, there’s more precedent for blogging getting people in trouble with the police than there is for blogging in itself getting one getting fired. So what happens to cops who blog?"
"The company, Lunar Embassy to China, had sold a total of 49 acres (20 hectares) to 34 customers before authorities acted, Xinhua news agency said."
"A Chinese government audit has found that local officials have misused $4 billion in social security funds that are meant to provide a safety net for China's growing population of retirees."
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"They used to inhabit in large numbers the main trunk of the Yangtze River, but with the expansion of human economic activity and large-scale sand dredging, they have been squeezed into Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake, where they are only just surviving."
"We were stuck on the train for about five minutes as only about half of the cars were in the station, and I could see people on the platform outside taking pictures of something in the front of the train, but when I asked an attendant what had happened he said “nothing” (没什么事)."
"Fish lovers in the city could find it much easier, and perhaps cheaper, to raise jellyfish at home this year thanks to the work of a postgraduate student at Shanghai Fisheries University."
"When Cheng's boyfriend found out about the deal, he asked if Jiang looked wealthy. When the women said yes, the boyfriend, Fang Xiao, allegedly said earning money from prostitution was too slow so he wanted to rob the man, prosecutors said."
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Continue reading "Today's Links: Hookers, jellyfish and the finless porpoise"
"China Digital Times has noted a Wall Street Journal article that reports on heightened sensitivities around the subject - sensitivities that may have resulted in the current issue of the business magazine Caijing being pulled and revised."
"A member of China's parliament has demanded the immediate closure of a Starbucks coffee shop set up inside Beijing's Forbidden City, the Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday."
"Ads for soft drinks and fashion magazines have crept onto Chinese campuses - not only spoiling the ambiance but undermining the very essence of education in the arts and sciences."
"The majority of the foreign visitors expected during the 2008 Games have religious beliefs, and we should cater to their needs," said Liu Bainian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
"What is the truth about the 'green paint on the mountain in Fumin county, Yunnan' incident that shook up the nation? Does the local government bear any responsibility? Was this the act of an individual businessman?"
"In a joint statement released late Sunday, the Supreme People's Court, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice and the country's top prosecutor also said condemned prisoners should not be paraded through the streets and suspects should not be tortured."
"The government took its assault on the internet gaming world a step further this week with an announcement that it perceives the explosion in virtual currencies used in a variety of online gaming forums – everything from Second Life to World of Warfare to virtual poker rooms – as a serious threat to its national security."
"The overall airport reconstruction project in the western China region will cost 52 billion yuan (6.5 billion US dollars), including an input of 9.6 billion yuan (1.2 billion dollars) and the sum is higher than the input for the same use in east China, according to media reports from the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC)."
"Apple has sent a letter to Shanghai Municipal Consumer Interest Protection Commission and said that it will make improvements on its after-sales service, which has seen many complaints from Chinese users."
"Until now, one kind of establishment has eluded the city: the boutique hotel. But a new wave of these hotels are opening this year, providing yet another lure to entice the young international travelers who are already flocking to this city, whose transformation is occurring at breathtaking speed."
"Yet nearly three months later, the deal's appeal among consumers and financial community is waning after an initial burst of interest, according to Tom Group Inc., one of Tom Online's largest shareholders."
"China expects to start making large commercial aircraft developed domestically by 2020, an aviation industry official said Monday, raising the possibility of competition for Boeing and Airbus in the country's booming market for new planes."
"More than 200 top athletes of extreme sports from America, Brazil, Japan and other Asia-Pacific countries and regions will compete for over US$100,000 on X Games Asia 2007 this May in Shanghai." America? Brazil?
"Thousands of residents in the districts of Xuhui, Minhang and Pudong have already been told that move they must. Many feel taken by surprise. Expressions of opposition have proliferated on the internet."
"Bookshop owners in Shanghai are snapping at an influx of camera-wielding pirates taking photos of pages to avoid paying for pricey books, local media reported on Monday."
"A fierce strike from midfielder Yu Tao seven minutes into the second half, however, gave Shenhua victory over Shandong on Sunday and earned the team a share of a two million yuan ($258,300) bonus from multimillionaire owner Zhu Jun."
"Silvercross, the iconic British pram company that supplied generations of Windsor babies, has struck a deal to sell its products in China, becoming the latest UK company to cash in on the booming Chinese middle class desire for heritage brands." Pram?
"Traffic authorities in Shanghai will link cycling lanes around the city this year to create a network of lanes with no obstructions, as one of several measures to improve conditions for drivers and cyclists in the city."
"The Shanghai Call Centre, which was launched almost a year ago, provides both English and Chinese information about tourist destinations, culture, sports, trade, medical care and other issues concerning daily life in Shanghai."
"Please note: supermarket is fine tuned for convinience, not neccessary for price, or quality. If you want more fresh vegetables, and fruits, many some local market is better, such as the Beicai Market nearby."
"China will intensify controls of the growing numbers of bloggers using the Internet to lay bare their thoughts, politics and even bodies, the country's chief censor has announced."
"All company-operated and licensed Starbucks stores in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greater China will be giving away free Tall (12-ounce) cups of coffee to anyone who drops by."
"I want to use the blog to not only discuss the development of Chinese Movie Database, but also the movie news that interests me, and my experiences of movie going, and perhaps other things."
"A Chinese lawmaker has proposed a tax on urban dog-owners to curb growing numbers of the animals and to fight rabies, state media has reported."
"A new property law is a breakthrough, even though it raises hopes that one-party rule may dash"
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Continue reading "Today's Links: Bibles, free coffee and property rights"
"A Chinese businessman has advertised on the Internet for a stand-in mistress to be beaten up by his wife to vent her anger and to protect his real mistress, Chinese media reported on Monday."
"A private company in Anyang, Henan Province in China asks applicants whether they are filial, honest and kind before hiring them. This is the first in the central province to ask about applicants’ ethics during recruitment interviews."
"278 cities in China do not have sewage treatment plants, according to a report recently released by Research and Markets on the state of the China Sewage Treatment Industry."
"China's broadcasting authority has decided to impose a new time limit to some reality pop contests like "Super Girl", "My Hero" and "Dream China". The authority demanded such TV-propped contest run for no more than two and a half months."
"Scientists with the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center of east China's Shandong University of Science and Technology say they implanted micro electrodes in the brain of a pigeon so they can command it to fly right or left or up or down."
"China's communist leaders have no plans to allow democracy in the near future because they must focus on economic development before political reform, Premier Wen Jiabao wrote in a newspaper article yesterday."
"The coastal city's once ailing power supply system has been vulnerable to typhoons and thunderstorms, and been strained by rapid economic growth and infrastructure development. But the Shanghai Electric Power Co said it had finally built a power blackout restart system after years of research and development."
"The Xinguo Lu-Tai'an Lu area is a clean, quite neighborhood with actually a low-level of traffic. The problem is that a high percentage of drivers moving east and west on Tai'an Road just pay absolutely no attention to the stop signs on either side of Xinguo Road."
"Tor is a toolset developed by a non-profit team that helps you circumvent Internet censorship and increases your privacy and security as you surf the web. ... The Tor team emphasizes that Tor is not 100% secure and nor is any other tool."
"A violent dispute broke out at Jing'an Temple on Sunday, when a Mercedes-Benz driver tried to barge through the temple gates and allegedly bit a pilgrim who protested at her actions."
"Street vendors may escape the restrictions on their activities imposed by Shanghai's urban management office if they obtain the permission of residents who live near their stalls to stay in business."
"On the 18th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the site of Denghai's Great Pig Contest is quite a spectacle. All one can see is over 500 flayed-open fat pigs, each spread on a wooden frame about 1 meter in height."
"When these buildings went up in the 1920s and '30s, a great deal of money and thought went into creating a beautiful city. Since then, so many new skyscrapers have gone up haphazardly without any aesthetic plan. I just want to show those in power how things could be."
"A legal source told Reuters on Monday that Google was trying to buy the Internet domain name www.gmail.cn, which is run by Beijing-based ISM Technologies."
"If you are looking for English language timetable information for railways in China you have come to the right place! I publish both full and Quick Reference timetables - click for details."
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Continue reading "Today's Links: Sewage, cyborg pigeons and dead pigs"
Olympic Games.
Continue reading "Afternoon Links: Antiques, swimmers, and civic indices"
The Sydney Morning Herald reports on China's plans to reverse the brain drain that has seen one million of its students sent abroad, with two-thirds not coming back:
"It has been a great loss for China - which is now in dire need of people of expertise - to see well-educated professionals leave after the country has invested a lot in them," the official newspaper China Daily quoted one of the report's authors, Li Xiaoli, as saying.A Chinese report gives some more details. There are an estimated 35 million overseas Chinese (of mainland origin or descent) spread over 151 countries around the world, with the most being in Europe, Canada, the US, and Australia. In the 1990s, 460,000 mainland Chinese emigrated to the US. From 2000-2005, another 355,000 emigrated to the US.
Continue reading "Invasion of the brain snatchers"
"This window was on a nondescript building near my new office. The characters mean 'laser' and 'quit smoking,' begging the question: how exactly do you use lasers to quit smoking?"
"Among the affected areas, sections of Xizang Road S., Minli Road W. and Dalin Road in Luwan District were shut down yesterday because of Metro Line 8 construction, according to the city's Engineering Administrative Bureau. They are expected to reopen in June."
"Beijing's censorship of language is a serious obstacle to democratization, but it would be a mistake to overemphasize this point. In China, the Internet has already set into motion a core component of democratic consciousness."
"Suicide Rabbit, introduced in August by Liu Gang, a 35-year-old cartoonist, has attracted a swiftly increasing audience by portraying with gentle humor the million little abuses suffered by Chinese people as their society endures a bumpy transformation."
"Asked whether he regretted the decision, Mr Brin admitted yesterday: 'On a business level, that decision to censor... was a net negative.'"
"But Liu Chunquan, a lawyer with the Shanghai Office of Beijing Guangsheng & Partners Law Firm, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that 'a price alliance of such kind is seen as unfair competition and is defined as illegal according to China's laws.'"
"China's economy surged in 2006, moving it closer to overtaking Germany as the world's third-largest economy. Now it may have No. 2 Japan and No. 1 U.S. in its sights, if it doesn't succumb to the pitfalls of an overheated economy, like soaring inflation and rampant debt."
"The bull market is so dramatic — the Shanghai index hit a record high this week before falling back slightly — that one senior Chinese official has warned against 'blind optimism.'"
"Campaigners for freedom of speech on the internet have hailed a major breakthrough after Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! agreed to join a working group to draw up a code of conduct for protecting human rights online."
"A Chinese man has persuaded his new bride to have plastic surgery to make her look like his first wife who died in a car crash. Zhao Gang, 32, from Chongqing, wed six months ago." That's the entire story.
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Continue reading "Evening Links: Suicide Rabbit, Google and realtor cartels"
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Continue reading "Evening Links: Country potatoes, Starbucks, kids + guns"
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Continue reading "Extra! Extra! Dark dinners, climate change and (no) incest "
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Continue reading "Extra! Extra! Torture, TomKat and turkey"
It being late Sunday night, Brad was the only person in the bar at the time. But still, with the fire and the fire trucks and all, he described the experience as "fucking scary" and is now thinking about getting some kind of fire insurance for the place. Brad said there were no injuries or deaths that he knew about, even though dozens of people "unofficially" live in the building. Brad spent the night in a nearby hotel and as of a few minutes ago, there was still no electricity at the bar. Live Bar needs electricity by Wednesday, because (you heard it here first) Australian instrumental rock trio Dirty Three are planning on playing a free show at Live Bar at around 10 that night, a warm-up for their scheduled gig at Yunfeng Theater on Thursday. So let's hope they get this figured out -- and be sure to check out Live Bar's bathrooms: "I went back in last night," Brad said, "and only the back part near the toilet smelled of smoke. It used to smell of urine, so this is actually an improvement."
Continue reading "Fire at Live Bar! Show will go on (eventually)"
For the ever-pragmatic Chinese, adopting English names has always represented a way for them to bridge the linguistic and cultural gap. Now, as China widens its reach abroad and as the number of expatriates living in China swells, picking an English name has become a rite of passage for most young, urban Chinese. So ... this is news?
Continue reading "Extra! Extra! Yahoo! lawsuits, lesbian weddings, and Schumacher wins"
A Chinese reporter recently called the Shanghai Education Bureau to find out what was going on with regard to the newly revised high school history textbooks that supposedly minimize Mao and other Chinese historical figures and represent a somewhat radical departure from the kind of history taught in China in the past.
Continue reading "Shanghai Education Bureau: Mum's the word on new books"
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Continue reading "Extra! Extra! Cash cows goats, deadly bottle caps, massacre denial"
media reported on Friday. They welded the cage shut. Add him and his wife to the ranks of the sexually frustrated.
Continue reading "Extra! Extra! Cover-ups, cages and sexual frustration"