There’s no question Bo Xilai has had an eventful year, directly responsible for outrage, consternation, confusion, exhilaration, and joy (he was manna from heaven for China’s foreign correspondents). As Time’s Austin Ramzy writes, “Bo was favored to win a seat on China’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee this fall after having boosted his popularity by reviving Mao-era... Read more »
We — you, me, the world — might see outgoing president Hu Jintao as a wan robot less charismatic than a cardboard box, but there was a time during this man’s life when he was sprightly, good-humored, and jovial. Let this video — of a speech he gave in 1984, in front of colorful balloons —... Read more »
Via Washington Post, a map in the new Chinese passport that “shows a version of China that includes disputed territory claimed by India, a vast stretch of the South China Sea, including islands claimed by several other countries, and the entirety of Taiwan.” The Beijing Ducks are 2-0 after their 110-102 win in Jilin yesterday.... Read more »
The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, inaugurated in 1962, is the oldest and arguably most prestigious of China’s four major film awards (the mainland’s Hundred Flowers Award was also founded in 1962, but it was suspended from 1964 to 1979, for obvious reasons). On Saturday, in its 49th annual show, director Gao Qunshu’s Beijing Blues... Read more »
Earlier this year, I gave a lecture to high school journalism students in China about the importance of citation, spending a good 10 minutes on the how and why of it. This may or may not surprise you, depending on whether you read Chinese publications and/or crappy blogs, but sourcing is often optional here; what’s... Read more »
The Associated Press succeeded in getting People’s Daily on the line to answer for its slideshow, “North Korea’s top leader named The Onion’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2012.” An online editor said the 55-pic spread would be taken offline (note: it already has been), and also: “We have realized it is satirical,” said the editor who... Read more »
All-around good guy Yao Ming was at the University of Hong Kong on Tuesday to receive an honorary doctor’s degree for his work in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness. We don’t want to take anything away from Yao’s accomplishments or scoff at HKU, but Jesus, what’s up with the gold Roman Catholic scepter? Yao, meanwhile, was recently interviewed by... Read more »
On July 2, Sina Weibo user @馨儿徽安 posted three eye-catching photos of herself to her microblog, in which she wore a police outfit while engaged in various attractive poses. Nothing at all is wrong with this, in case you’re wondering. Images that are deemed too lurid are simply deleted by one of Sina Weibo’s thousand censors, and no... Read more »
Remember when Chinese propaganda rag People’s Daily confused an Onion spoof for real news, proudly touting that Kim Jong-Un was the Sexiest Man Alive? Of course you do, it happened yesterday, and everyone in the world is talking about it. It was only a matter of time, of course, that The Onion would talk about... Read more »
This is too perfect. The Onion — you know, that website whose lead story is currently, “42 Million Dead In Bloodiest Black Friday Weekend On Record” — named North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un its “sexiest man alive” on November 14, writing: “He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at... Read more »
