"Many people see rampant bribery as evidence that village elections don’t work or matter. And it definitely isn’t a good thing from the perspective of democracy. But actually elections must be working fairly well for candidates to see bribery—an expensive proposition—as necessary to win. If the elections didn’t matter or if it were easier to stuff the ballot or undermine the election in another way, no one would spend so much money on bribery to win them. The elections ensure that the developers and local officials have to share some of the wealth that they might otherwise just pocket themselves.” more ›

A few links to start off your day: China claims that all government agencies will be using legitimate software by the end of 2012. Uh-huh. If they're for real, Microsoft is going to have a pretty sweet year. In an Op-Ed for the NY Times, Georgetown professor Victor Cha predicts that China will move towards effectively adopting North Korea as a province to prevent any possibility of growing US influence. A piece by Damien Ma in the Atlantic this week covers the rise of social media in China, and whether or not it can become a force for making the government more open and accountable: more ›

Evan Osnos, the New Yorker's impeccably-coiffed Beijing-based China correspondent, is in town for another chatty discussion with Jeffrey Wasserstrom, history professor at the University of California Irvine, and author of the China-primer China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know. more ›

When China's Southern Media Group's bid for U.S. magazine sale would've ever gone through ("the spiritual gap between them and American news organizations is larger than even the most sober Chinese media baron probably imagines"), one shouldn't dismiss the excellent journalism exhibited by the reporters of Southern Weekly, part of the Southern Media Group, who routinely break news in a country with an iron grasp of censorship. For some of the controversial Southern Weekly (aka Southern Weekend) stories we've covered, check here. more ›

Around three hours until our craft beer tasting at Southern Barbarian. Plenty of time to take in "A Better Brew: The rise of extreme beer," Burkhard Bilger's story in the latest New Yorker. That should get you in the mood. See you soon. more ›

Well no he isn’t, but this recent AFP report has some Beijing kids getting their sugar fix on confectionery inspired by the cave dwelling terrorist rock star to welcome in the new year among the drums and dragons in Long Tan Park: more ›

DCist helps us make more sense of the world this week. Posts like this concert review are the reason for Scott Stapp. DCist also enumerates the reasons for playing ultimate frisbee, Condi's tight buns, their love of a local convenience store, and their jealousy of a person in Seattle calling the city. more ›

• Ever wonder why Zhang Ziyi speaks English so fast and always makes her sentences rhyme?
• ".cn" is the new favorite suffix for web addresses in China. And Chinese consider Google to be the best search engine, although more people still use Baidu. Oh, and China now has 111 million internet users. And 14 percent of youths in Shanghai are addicted to the internet.
• Japan has turned manhole covers into works of art. Not a bad idea.

Pictured is the Geely Beauty Leopard, a sporty sedan from the first Chinese automaker to display a car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It sells in China for US$15,125 and comes standard with a karaoke player. Geely cars aren't available for sale in the U.S. yet, and if they ever will be, it won't be for a couple of years. Same goes for the cute little Chinese Chery cars (profiled by Peter Hessler in The New Yorker), expected to cross the Pacific in 2007. But, according to this TIME story, making waves in America won't necessarily be easy for Chinese car companies: more ›

Wei Hui's debut into the literary world six years ago was marked by controversy, furore, criticism and ultimately commercial success -- Shanghai Baby was banned by the Beijing Government in April 2000 for its worship of Western culture and blatant representation of female sexuality and its author denounced as "decadent, debauched and a slave of foreign culture." Subsequently, 40,000 copies of the novel were publicly burnt, Hui's editor was fired and Shanghai Baby predictably shot to the top of best-seller lists around the world. more ›

One of the nice things about writing books is that you get sent lots of books. Given the sort of money most writers make the perks are important. This month Shanghaiist was extremely grateful to Guangxi Normal University Press for sending along a copy of a new book they’ve issued called Assignment Shanghai: Photographs on the Eve of Revolution. Guangxi Normal Press is a long way from Shanghai, but they’re carving out a nice niche in reissuing collections of photographs and artwork from the early years of the revolution (or just before) with a local interest. more ›