In yet another sign that China is well on its way to conquering sport on the face of this planet, a husband-and-wife team of figure skaters, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, has claimed China's first ever Olympic gold in the sport at the ongoing Vancouver Winter Olympics. Their compatriots Pang Qing and Tong Jian grabbed silver, edging out Germany's two-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy into third place. Together they smashed Russia's 50 year domination of the sport. more ›

Singapore's Lian He Zao Bao (联合早报) ran an article about "face projects" (面子工程), the highly expensive public buildings that ostensibly make their home cities seem cultured, prosperous, and advanced, but which in reality are often huge wastes of resources. more ›

Every English-speaker who has walked down a street in China has wondered the same thing: Why didn't they just ask a foreigner to glance at the English on the that sign/that menu/that website/that t-shirt before sending it off to the printer? God knows there's enough of us walking around these days. So, what's stopping them? Well, there is, of course, the language barrier -- and the fact that 98 percent of the population doesn't give a shit about the English anyway. So all of the Engrish out there is a little bit understandable. So, what is Hollywood's excuse when it comes to Chinese? Chinese speakers make up a nice chunk of of the movie going population. And you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some Chinese folks in California. Why not not spend some of your multi-million-dollar budget and ask one of them if the tattoos you are drawing on a former boy-band-baladeer to make him look a little more bad-ass don't say something silly like ... oh, we don't know ... "ice skating." more ›