Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top party leaders went to the polls on November 8 to elect the people's representatives for their respective districts. As usual, state broadcaster CCTV's news bulletin Xinwen Lianbo was on hand to dutifully cover the president's every step. This time, however, it probably gave a little too much, or rather, too little away. more ›

Intelligent Life, the lifestyle and culture magazine from The Economist, is running a poll to find out which city should be the capital of the world. more ›

The Pew Global Attitudes survey was just released again and it looks like China's the big winner! Most people think China either has or will eventually replace the US as the world's leading superpower. And for those who think China already has done this, it happened last year sometime. more ›

A research center under the Beijing petition office (called the Center for Research on Social Contradictions, of all things), along with private polling companies, has released results of a survey on the most common cause of social unrest in China. Respondents said forced evictions were the most important factor, placing it above all other reasons, combined! Low compensation and forcible resident removal were obviously important factors in the choice. Now that they've got some proof, here's hoping they actually do something about it so people can stop blowing themselves up and lighting themselves on fire. more ›

Late Saturday evening, Hu Xijin (胡锡进), the Editor-in-Chief of the Global Times, sent out the following tweet on his Sina Weibo account: "Today, the Global Times conducted an online poll asking netizens, 'Do you think a western-style general elections will lead China to chaos?' Foreign forces interfered with the poll. Between 1700 and 2100 hours, responses from outside of China increased to 2639 votes, representing 84% of the votes for that time period. Foreign users of Global Times normally account for under 10%, and for online polls, it's usually under 8%. 84% is a highly abnormal figure. Foreign forces have tried to control the results of this poll and interfered with the fairness of the poll. We have closed the poll at 21:11." more ›

Shanghai is now the sexiest city in China, according to a survey by Horizon Research. Hey, maybe that's why all those tourists want to visit! The survey found that 17% of respondents found Shanghai to be the sexiest city because of its "landmark buildings," "big events such as Expo" and its appearance as a "modern city, strong economy and prosperous." Second place was Hong Kong, and Chongqing. It seems only Chongqing was actually quoted for having beautiful women. more ›

Isn't it interesting that, despite what the central government might say, most Chinese people think that access to the internet is a fundamental right? Then again, just because it's a right doesn't mean it should be totally unregulated - Chinese were some of the least likely to agree that "Internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere." Of course, Nigeria was one of the top countries who believed it shouldn't be touched and judging by my yahoo inbox, they could use a little more touching. more ›

The recession is really damaging to national self confidence: 44% of Americans now believe that China is the world’s leading economic power, as opposed to the 27% who (correctly) believe that it is the United States. Compare those latest Pew poll stats from those from February 2008, when 41% identified the US as the leading nation (with 30% identifying China). more ›

Edison Chen was narrowly beaten by Barack Obama for "Person of the Year 2008" in Radio Television Hong Kong's poll. The public was "cordially invited to vote for the most outstanding personality of the year at RTHK or by calling in during the program "Backchat". The results of the poll were announced on Radio 3, on Friday, January 2nd. The RTHK nominees were as follows: more ›

The Economist has opened up the vote to its readers worldwide to see who'd be the next US president if the whole world could vote. China, as it turns out, is "strong Obama" — 83% of respondents here voted Obama and 17% McCain. With more than 10,000 votes cast, it looks like the whole world is voting overwhelmingly in Obama's favour. When we last checked, 9,120 votes went to Obama while McCain managed 270 votes, defeating his opponent with a small margin in such enlightened states as Cuba, Congo, Sudan, Algeria, Namibia and Macedonia. Iraq turned out to be the only "strong McCain" constituency (thanks to all his military buddies). We think there‘s a lesson to be gleaned from this exercise: The Economist's readers are just not mavericky enough.
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Our friends over at Split Works tipped us off to their Yue Festival website, on which you can vote for the artists you'd most like to see at the second annual event this fall. Lots of big names on the list — how many of them are realistic, and how big of a role voter opinion will play in the signing process, remain to be seen. But we have been told that all but perhaps one band mentioned on the list are possibilities, although some are much more expensive than others (yes, we're looking at you Mr. West). more ›

According to a blog essay we found, a recent poll by Harris Interactive showed that of 6,000 people from France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the US, the overwhelming majority considered China the second most powerful nation in the world after the USA. We did some searching on the internet, and couldn't find mention of that report. We tried on Harris Interactive's site as well, but no dice. Perhaps we haven't looked hard enough? Or... more ›

China hurting in world opinion polls [China Post]

In a survey covering 18 countries which account for 56 percent of the world's population, 38 percent said China can be trusted to act responsibly while 52 percent said the country can't be trusted.

Shanghaiist is going to give Senator Clinton the benefit of the doubt -- that she actually knows better but is just being the politician that everybody expects her to be. But the following infuriatingly pandering comment puts Senator Clinton right up there with the lovely Senator Schumer on this Shanghaiist's "too-political-for-America's-own-good" list:

"We have to have tougher standards on what they import into this country," she said. I don't want to eat bad food from China or have my children having toys that are going to get them sick," said Clinton.

For too long, many domestic TV entertainment channels have profaned music and the notion of competition by giving top honors to tomboys or sissy boys for being what they are - boyish girls and feminine boys - NOT for what or how they sing. The realm of music (which if not sacred should at least require some talent) suffered most when Li Yuchun, a tomboy whose voice was the weakest of all the finalists in a national singing contest in 2005, walked away with the "Super Girl" championship. Shi Yang, a boy who dances like a young woman, became a hot idol during the "My Show" contest in Shanghai last year.

Whatever the case may be, naysayers at the time of Hong Kong's return (including Time and Fortune which predicted the demise of Hong Kong) have all been proven wrong. Led by the buoyant mainland economy, Hong Kong continues to boom and thrive today. more ›

think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? more ›

The song that got the most votes was the folk ballad, "My Wonderful Home Town," followed by "I Love China," "Singing Praises of Motherland" and 27 others, Xinhua news agency said.

The giant pandas are finally ... um, probably ... going to Taiwan after 19 years waiting. Um, probably. According to a press conference held in Beijing late in the week, China finally unveiled the panda pair from 23 nominees today as a gift offer to Taiwan. more ›