Two Hong Kong TV officials have taken responsibility and resigned for broadcasting a false report of Jiang Zemin's death in July. Since 9/11, there have been more than more than 35,000 terrorism convictions in the world, and half of those took place in China and Turkey. Most of the arrests in China were, unsurprisingly, made in Xinjiang. In his new memoirs, Dick Cheney explains how he wishes he could have gotten just a little more intimate with Hu Jintao, instead of getting cockblocked during his first meeting, and spied on in the next! His inability to whisper sweet nothings led eventually to "the end of all conversations between the two politicians." more ›

Insightful as always, here's Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei.org, commenting on internet censorship in China on Australia Network News. Note his comparisons with David Cameron's and Hillary Clinton's own attempts in reining in social media. more ›

In just the last few years, China has been diagnosed as the "most diabetic country in the world" and seen 70 to 90 million of its people be categorized as obese. And Paul French, co-author of the book Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines Will Change a Nation has been documenting the country's rising weight. more ›

We'd been waiting for Danwei to post this video on a more GFW friendly site (if you want to see the original on Youtube, it's up on Danwei.org) and they didn't fail us! Awesome. Check out Julien Gaudfroy, a rare Western face in the Chinese tradition of cross talk (相声 xiang sheng) more ›

We make no apologies for professing our love of Han Han: there's something about unbridled angst and resistance to the status quo that really gets us going. Needless to say, that view isn't shared by everyone on the mainland, and we often find Han Han at the center of some controversy, which only makes us more intrigued by him. The most recent blow comes from China Daily's Raymond Zhou, knocking the "rebel without a cause" for his poor interview in Time magazine. more ›

Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei sits down for a chat with Yang Yang and celebrated gay film director Cui Zi'en (催子恩), masterminds of the Beijing Queer Film Festival (北京酷儿影展) which took place in June this year. more ›

Plagiarism is sad to see, especially when it's of art, and exceptionally when it's too blatant to chalk up to "artistic inspiration". Danwei has a story on a painting called "When I Was Young" by Li Yueliang, an artist from Zhejiang province, which was on display in Jinan at the National Games. more ›

• Taiwan and China [NYTimes] "Taiwan’s position as a de facto independent state seems to be morphing very slowly toward the “one country, two systems” status of Hong Kong. The process is not irreversible but the sentiments of those of mainland origin in the governing Nationalist Party, along with the self-interest of business groups and a widespread sense of economic vulnerability are all pushing the island toward accommodation with Beijing. The trend could mean an erosion in the support Taiwan gets, albeit erratically, from the United States and Japan."
• North Korea ready for six-party talks - with caveat [Christian Science Monitor] "North Korea's new readiness to return to stalled international talks about its nuclear program - if prior negotiations with the United States go well - puts the diplomatic ball in Washington's court. "This is a test for the Obama administration's policy on North Korea," says Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. Initial signs suggested that the US was prepared to pick the ball up. "We, of course, encourage any kind of dialogue that would help us lead to … the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly."
• Internet Blackout in Xinjiang? What blackout? [Xinjiang: Far West China] "Greetings world. If you’re reading this note, then my message in a bottle has somehow made it from this secluded island I live on to the shores of your country. Xinjiang is still under complete blackout and there is no end in sight. As a result, my knowledge of world events has vanished and my sanity has suffered primarily due to the fact that we are the only westerners in our city and I can’t contact my friends at home."

• A hotel room that has stories to tell [Danwei] "But to see the photos as a realistic reflection or criticism of the social morbidity is not the only angle to appreciate them; take a closer look, you may find these photos do resemble a mystery/detective movie."
• China's navy turns 60 [Straits Times] "China's navy will mark its 60th anniversary with a ceremony starting on Thursday dubbed the 'naval Olympics' that will display the country's nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, state media said. The four-day event involves 21 vessels from 14 countries in the eastern city of Qingdao and includes a fleet review to be held Thursday - the fourth one in China since 1949."
• China Blog Guide: Ten Eclectic China Blogs You Should Follow [CNReviews] "The answer to English China blog fatigue is to start following some Atypical China Blogs. And, yes, some of the best are authored by “white dudes” (although some of them may in fact be “fake foreigners“…Adam Schokora comes to mind). Here they are..."

Interested in learning about the man behind one of our favorite websites on China issues, Danwei? The Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club is bringing us the man responsible, Jeremy Goldkorn, to give a talk tomorrow on the internet in China. He will discuss his own experiences in the blogosphere, as well as topics ranging from the media industry and regulation and the impact of the net on China's society and people. more ›

Danwei brings us pages from the "Old China" book by Graham Earnshaw, called Tales of Old Shanghai. more ›

The exploding cellphone incident in Guangzhou, which killed a young man at a Lenovo store, may have had some of us scrambling to make sure our cellphone batteries weren't going to be the end of us too. more ›

Adam Schokora of Danwei points us to this audio recording of a "disgruntled customer lecturing a telephone operator at a well-known, city-wide food delivery company based in Shanghai". Do a bit of research and you'll find there's only one food delivery company in town that delivers Blue Frog and it happens to be an advertiser on Shanghaiist. Does the voice of this douchebag sound familiar to any of you readers out there? We say unleash the foreign internet mobsters on this guy! more ›

What do you think? more ›

After their great series of stories about the Chinese media last week entitled "Brand China", National Public Radio (NPR) show, On the Media, has done another great story explaining exactly how the Chinese internet works and what role the internet plays in Chinese society. The show includes interviews with Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei and internet specialist, Rebecca MacKinnon, and can be downloaded or streamed for free. Transcripts of the show are also available for free. more ›

From Danwei: "But conspicuously missing from the list are the Big Three of the Chinese Youtube clones: Youku.com, Tudou.com and 56.com. Although 56.com has been off line for nearly two weeks after an apparent porblem with the authorities, these three websites have the largest amount of funding of any video websites in China, most of it foreign. By most accounts they are also the most popular video sites in China." more ›

Adam Schokora of Danwei outdoes himself with this latest episode of the Shanghai Beat which sees him interviewing three of the city's top graffiti artists: Popil, Zhang Lan (AKA: Mr. Lan), and HKer. Good to know the graffiti scene is alive and well here! more ›

Jonathan Watts, the China correspondent for The Guardian, has recently put in his year so far article about the internet here. It covers a lot of familiar ground and quotes Zonaeuropa and Danwei.org, among others, as sources. One of the most quoted facts in these kinds of articles is the world’s most read blog being “Lao Xu”. Lao Xu is the Sina.com blog of actress/writer/director Xu Jing Lei 徐静雷. more ›

From Danwei: more ›