Twelve six-month-old panda cubs enthrall visitors at the Chengdu Giant Panda Research Base in Sichuan Province. more ›

The world's oldest giant panda, a 34-year old female called Ming Ming has died, said the China Panda Protection Center in Sichuan. According to their statement, she passed away due to kidney failure on May 7, but it wasn't until today that the news was released to the media. Ming Ming lived to a ripe old age at a center in Guangdong--pandas live on average 15 years in the wild and 22 years in captivity. more ›

Since the China-based scare ad by Citizens Against Government Waste came out, it's been parodied endlessly ala the Hitler Downfall meme. My favorite one so far, though, comes from our playful animating friends at Next Media. more ›

Anyone who spends a lot of time researching China news (i.e. us) has probably noticed: editors love using the China as dragon metaphor. Heck, just a cursory search for one publication's (The Economist) editorial cartoons immediately brought up three dragons. India gets the treatment too, often being represented as an Elephant or a Tiger, depending on how dangerous they need to sound to Western audiences. Other stereotyped images: Pandas, rickshaw/junk boats and Mao Zedong. Foreign Policy has helpfully compiled a list of China/India cliches for our amusement (and hopefully for future news desks to avoid). But as they note on the last panel, Chinese are suckers for hackneyed imagery too. more ›

It sure sounds like it! According to the Telegraph, six of these Panda Ambassadors will get to spend this October working at the famous Woolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center - and you could be one of them! more ›

In one of the more bizarre power plays we've heard of in a while, China's Great Wall Motors is accusing Italian car designer Fiat of stealing their business secrets. If you're thinking "wait, isn't it usually the other way around?", you might be interested to know that Fiat had sued GWM two years ago for copying the design of a previous car, suspiciously named the "Panda" (we know, national heritage). The Chinese manufacturer claims that after their faux-Panda was banned in Italy, Fiat illegally infiltrated their engineering center with the purpose of stealing GWM's secrets. Although the attorney for GWM has deigned to specify exactly what secrets were stolen, we have a funny feeling they were more knock offs. After all, they're only asking for 100,000 RMB in reparations, which is suspicious in itself. more ›

• China announces first panda from frozen sperm [ KOLD News 13] "For the first time, a giant panda cub has been born in China after being conceived using frozen sperm, officials announced Friday — an innovation scientists hope will help the endangered species avoid extinction. The new cub's birth Thursday means breeders will no longer be forced to rely on semen from China's few virile males, and may even be able to bring in sperm from zoos in San Diego, Mexico City or elsewhere."
• 'You're just a pawn' [The Standard] "Hong Kong must give way to Shanghai in the nation's financial development, according to a top Beijing official, who sees the SAR role as being reduced to that of a "pawn." Xia Bin, head of the Financial Research Institute, which comes under the State Council's Development Research Center, also said there may be a change in the role of the Hong Kong dollar by 2020. "Shanghai's financial market must eventually surpass that of Hong Kong's," Xia told the China Economic Times."
• Meet John Doe. No, Really! [NYTimes] "First he turned “Jang” into “John.” Then, he talked his family into adding an “e” to their last name. He was concerned, he said, about razzing and wanted to make sure it would be pronounced like the “do” in “tae kwon do” and not the “do” in “hairdo.” He has been John Doe ever since. Airport security grills him every time he flies. “I have to sit in the office,” he said. “Every time.” Landlords and election inspectors view him quizzically, and prospective dates need more than a little assurance that he’s not hiding a dark past. “I say my name is John Doe and they say, ‘No, what’s your real name?’ and I pull out my ID,” he said."

Following the birth of 2009's first panda cub in Thailand (on May 29 at the Chiang Mai Zoo), Chinese experts have now expressed their intention to make sure the vitality of the father gets passed on to all the pandaettes in China. more ›

Yesterday marked the worldwide premier of what's poised to be this year's feel good flick: Disney-produced panda movie 熊猫回家路 (Xiongmao huijia lu). more ›

We've all seen the numerous documentaries about baby pandas at the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuary, and it was only a matter of time before some of us decided we absolutely must have one. Of course, it's not like you can just go out and buy an endangered species, so we suppose we're going to have to go the shanzhai route like this entrepreneurial pet owner. We're gonna call it "Pandog." more ›

On the list of things that seriously really piss us off children’s movies, Americanized kung fu and animated pandas don’t exactly play a starring role. In fact, it’s probably fair to say they don’t even make a cameo. Unfortunately for artist Zhao Bandi (赵半狄), all these things seem to be at the top of his list, and all these things are clearly evident in DreamWorks’ new film Kung Fu Panda. To display his righteous outrage, Zhao rallied his (only?) two friends and fellow panda advocates for a protest outside the Beijing State Administration of Radio Film and Television offices, brandishing a petition calling for the film’s release to be canceled. Choice words from the protest, courtesy of WSJ Blogs: “If the Hollywood film ‘Kung Fu Panda’ is released on Jun. 20, it will be just like snatching the necklaces and watches from the corpses of disaster victims.” Um, ok. How so?

Among the main gripes with the film: Hollywood is exploiting China’s “national treasure” (its pandas) and its martial arts; the film is made by Dreamworks, a studio founded by Steven Spielberg (who withdrew from his role as an adviser to the Beijing Olympics earlier this year over concerns about China’s role in Sudan); and more broadly, it’s a Hollywood film, and Hollywood is the place that produced Sharon Stone, reviled in China for her Cannes comments about Tibet, the Sichuan earthquake and karma.

BBC: "Protests in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu turned violent as police made arrests outside the Chinese embassy."
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