Following a string of at least eight suicides among government officials this year, the state is taking action - by packing potential hires off to the shrink before taking them in. Wu Hanfei, chief of the examination and assessment center of the Communist Party of China announced at a leadership pow-wow on Sunday that those applying for official posts in government will soon have to undergo a psychological analysis during selection to assess their "psychological qualities" as well as "moral integrity". more ›

Suicidal thoughts, already plaguing Shanghai college students and unemployed graduates, are also on the minds of almost one in four secondary school students as well. According to a survey released yesterday, thoughts of killing themselves had occured to around 24.39% of students, with 15.23% taking it into serious consideration. One psychologist had this theory about the high rates: "Most young students nowadays come from families with rather good economic condition and haven't met much difficulties... Thus they are weak inside when facing frustrations." You know, as opposed to, say, a different set of pressures born from being an only child in a system that determines your self worth based on test scores? Jeez, we hope Shan Huaihai never becomes our shrink. Source: Shanghai Daily more ›

A Shanghainese woman who's lived abroad in the U.S. recently posted a blog entry on the stereotype of "Chinese Mothers" in the West that garnered a lot of attention from netizens. more ›

Jonah Lehrer's piece in the Boston Globe got us thinking (or, at least, trying to think — our brain has been subject to Shanghai for six years now): more ›