Shanghai Daily reports today that the city's rolling smoking ban has been expanded to middle schools around town. We're not really sure what's more striking: the fact that the ban didn't include schools with young students to begin with, or the fact that people smoke in schools regularly.The new policy will include maximum fines up to 30,000RMB, which we imagine is a hefty fine if you're a middle schooler. more ›

On-line dating is already one of the most successful business ventures to spring out of dot com mania, but it looks like one Shanghai based company is going to take the dating service idea one step further. more ›

Yep. At least that is what Newsweek would have us believe. They attended the 2007 World Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Florida, last month and noted that 38 teams from 15 foreign countries participated in the international events. Two years ago, when the international events were launched, three teams showed up. more ›

What was your reaction when Chen Hui, the 28 year old boss of several major Chinese porn sites, was sentenced to life in prison recently? Our favorite sexologist, Li Yinhe (李银河) wrote about this in her blog, where she said that the sentence was way too heavy, that China was stuck in the sexual "dark ages," and that porn itself is a form a speech, rather than a sexual "action" (such as prostitution), and that if there is a market for porn, that it ought to be available. We think she means that if the porn isn't available to kids, but is something that willing adults want to spend their money on, that's perfectly fine. She also raises the question of why this one "porn king" got a life sentence while tons of others are still out there doing business. And doesn't this set a bad legal precedent -- will the judicial system continue to mete out life sentences (since the only thing worse than life in prison is capital punishment, and in most cases you can't get that for being a porn king)? more ›