Yet another nail-house (钉子户) confrontation involving angry residents and anti-government banners took place recently in Guangzhou, though at least this time it all ended happily. On September 6th, 2011, Yao Runzhen (姚润珍) engaged in a heated negotiation with housing officials, protesting against their eviction and refusing to move, despite the reality of their neighborhood turning into rubble and fine dust. After a successful negotiation involving a satisfactory compensation package however, the couple willingly backs down, while the "Good Life" (好生) demolition company tears down their abode. more ›

We've all heard of the endless amounts of nailhouse disputes in China, but very few of us will actually get the chance to experience the fight against developers... except for in video game form! Meet the hot new flashgame tearing up China's interwebs: Nail Household v. Demolition Team. more ›

Melissa Chan has posted another update on the homemade cannon farmer, whose brother was blinded after being hit in the face by bricks last week. The government has now given him his compensation for his land and - surprise - it seems like each side is reporting different numbers. Farmer Yang has said he received $25,000 in cash and a modest apartment, a lot less than what he was hoping for. Meanwhile, China Daily is touting his reward as "unprecedented," and saying he received around $110,700 in cash. That's quite a discrepancy - did the apartment cost $75,000 or is one side doing some messy accounting? more ›

A Beijing family is refusing to vacate their home despite a court order to throw them out. The Yu family has been living in the same house (located on Di’anmennei Street, a main road in Beijing) for 60 years, selling roast chestnuts and other snacks to passerby. When they were ordered to move out by last Sunday in an effort to "clean up" the neighborhood before the Games, the family defied the order and have been maintaining a campaign against their removal ever since. The Yu home is plastered with images of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, with Communist Party and national flags flying high above its roof. They hope that Chinese leaders will be able to help them resolve this issue. "If they knew about this problem, they would look after us. They would care and sympathise with us," Ms. Yu, one of 14 family members living in the house, told BBC. The Yus say that the 340,000 yuan compensation offered to them is not enough. "In Beijing you can't even buy something the size of a toilet for that," Ms. Yu said. more ›