We've all been hearing reports about the nightmare caused by the snow, or what Xinhua calls "China's war on snow havoc", which isn't quite as felicitous a phrase as the "US War on Terror", but hey, at least it's more real! The New York Times, among other media outlets, talks about the sense of anger and resentment that people are feeling about what some consider as a lack of preparation on the government's part.
EastSouthWestNorth has translated an excellent story on the translation crisis in China that first appeared in Phoenix Weekly. It talks about the more than 1,000 foreign literary works that are translated and published in China each year (and we assume that number is still growing). The story laments over the "awfulness of the translations, the crudeness of the translators and the absence of critical reflection on what is happening". It then looks into why translation...
Right: Phoenix Princess or Fenghuang Gege (凤凰格格), the pre-op transsexual detained in Shenzhen for going on demonstration and recently announced that she would soon undergo sex-change operation is apparently very happy with her boob job. She's just uploaded a video of her posing with her entire (it would seem) repertoire of bras, attracting over 407,000 views within a single day.
Remember the pre-op transsexual who was detained in Shenzhen early last month for going on her one-(wo)man demonstration on the streets, holding a placard that says, "I want a sex change, even if it means death!" (我要变性！死了都要变!), and attracting a huge crowd before the police led her away? Well she has gained quite a lot of media exposure in the last two months or so. And just yesterday, Phoenix Princess (凤凰格格) announced through a Youku video that a few sex-change hospitals have gotten in touch with her thanks to the kind help of various media outlets and netizens, and that if nothing goes wrong, she will undergo sex-change operation very soon. As Shanghaiist understands from an American friend who also happens to be a pre-op transsexual seeking surgery in China, many hospitals offering sex-change operations are now competing to work on high-profile cases like Phoenix Princess and herself in their bid to establish themselves in the field, so they may use them as successful case studies to attract new clientele from around China, and eventually overseas. We wish Phoenix Princess all the best for her upcoming surgery!
When we read that a man had taken a 4 year-old girl hostage at a Putuo district KFC yesterday afternoon, we wrongly assumed that it would was just some loony, maybe an institution escapee that would be quickly overpowered by bystanders or the police—problem solved. Not quite so.
While April is Alcohol Awareness Month in the States (some of you might be in the dark). If you are living in China, it might as well be Promoting the Gay Agenda Month Online Gay TV Awareness Month with news of the arrival of three online gay TV shows. Earlier this month, we reported about China's first online TV show about issues relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities within China. Aired...
It's not the New York Times and it is certainly a bit slanted towards Beijing by the nature of its source, but the list of top ten books noted by users of book club site Douban.com is a whimsical glimpse into what young, plugged-in Chinese are reading offline these days. Here is the list as it stands today:
At the risk of appearing as though we are once again fellating the "gay agenda", we thought we'd point out the interesting news announced Thursday that China aired its first program about gay and lesbian issues ... online. The show is called 同性相连 in Chinese and Gay Connections in English (although the Chinese press release calls the program Connecting Homosexual People) and it premiered its first episode of a 12-part weekly series on April 5...
So, will anyone go?
Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to...
Video clip from ttudou.com
The parlous state of migrant workers in cities such as Shanghai is no secret, especially vulnerable are pregnant women who don't get the kind of prenatal care and proper delivery they need. This Continue reading "Migrant workers scammed by private hospitals"
Shanghaiist is in a fury. No, not because of the freezing weather, but because of a recent thread in a pet website we frequent.
Looks like leftist/author/poltician/TV personality/wearer-of-sunglasses Li Ao spoke at Fudan University today after all, despite reports that his plans had changed. The controversial 70-year-old, an advocate of both free speech and the unification of Taiwan and China, is making his first trip to the Mainland since his family fled to Taiwan in 1949. Hi speeches last week at Beijing University and Tsinghua University created quite a stir and some confusion. According to the New York Times, "Li chided China's leaders for suppressing free speech, ridiculed the university administration's fear of academic debate and advised students on how to fight for freedom against official repression" at Beijing University, prompting authorities to impose a blackout on coverage of the rest of Li's China visit. But at Tsinghua, Li said China was in its "halcyon days" and he "lauded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) several times, saying that while China was bullied by Western powers in its modern history." Li reportedly admitted that the government had "asked him to eliminate political content from his talk" at Fudan. Did he? Well, since Shanghaisit has never been too good at learning foreign languages, we don't know just yet. There appears to be video footage of the speech (in Chinese, of course) at the Phoenix TV website. (We're hoping ESWN will translate it soon -- he translates everything else.)
A little more than five years ago, Shanghai police arrested Chen Genrong, the mastermind behind the underground production of fake Phoenix-brand bicycles. Shanghai Star reported then that daily around 1,500 bicycles used to be shipped from his secret warehouse on Gong Qing Tuan Lu in order to be sold nationwide.
A stunt man playing the role of a man jumping to his death in the Huangpu River nailed the scene yesterday -- right down to the dying part. Police would not provide the man's name, only saying that the man was in his 50s ... and that he was dead. The accident occured near Huishan Dock on the north end of The Bund in Hongkou District shortly after 4 pm during filming of a new television show called Yuhuo Fenghuang (Phoenix in Flames) helmed by prolific Hong Kong director Wong Jing (pictured) -- responsible for Lord of the Wu Tang, Naked Killer and many, many movies with the word "Gambler" in the title.
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Nuclear fallout Beijing: Mao's underground city
'Stateless in Shanghai': Nov. 21 and 22
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