Friday Outro time! We know it's technically Saturday as we speak, but we ask that you be okay with this. Brain Failure, a punk band that started in 1997, is in the middle of a national tour that began October 19 in Hangzhou and will end November 23 in Chengdu. Tomorrow, the guys are in Beijing's Tango Club for one night only. Check out its promo video via Beijing Daze if you'd like to see more. The song embedded here is one of their most famous ones off its 2007 Beijing to Boston album.
Nerds of 20th-century Chinese history will love this. Brought to us by the good folks of Tea Leaf Nation, this image on Sina Weibo imagines what would happen in an election between Mao Zedong’s Communist Party of China (red, obviously) and Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang, which fled for Taiwan in 1949. Via TLN: The “election” began in... Read more »
This might be our longest links edition yet, thanks to foreign media caring so deeply about China’s power transition. (You foreign media!) We’re not linking to any Global Times silliness — TAR Nation will be by on Monday to take care of that.
Screenshot of original ad after the jump; the above pic is via Weibo, @shdaily. Wanted: Condom Tester. Must Be Female, Good-Looking, Between The Ages Of 18 and 25. No, seriously. The ad has been removed, but for a while, “lively and good-looking women” between 18 and 25 were given the chance to apply to test... Read more »
China Daily: “Hu’s report gets nationwide attention.” No, seriously, it says that. RFH has a theory that the people who organize the National Congress intentionally make it as boring as possible to test the outer limits of what “watchdog” journalists are willing to tolerate before they throw up their hands, a la: Chinese media, however,... Read more »
Mark Zimny is one smug fuck. Feel free to draw your own conclusions, but I don’t know what else to think of a man who promises rich parents in Asia that he can get their child into prominent overseas universities. And then when one family sues to get its $2.2 million back because he failed to deliver,... Read more »
Whatever your feelings about American politics, it’s hard to argue that Barack Obama doesn’t shine on the big stage with the lone spotlight. The man knows how to deliver a message, and it’s liable to be heard as clearly halfway around the world as by those closest to him. According to Tea Leaf Nation: In his... Read more »
As we prepare to begin the second day of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, here’s a roundup of some pictures from Day 1 and prior. Our coverage so far: Clinging to life; Twitter accounts attacked. More via China Digital Times, MSNBC and Sina.
Back in August, Alicia turned up a video of a five-year-old in Hong Kong playing the piano so outrageously well that many viewers justifiably asked if the video was fake. Go watch it again. It truly is unbelievable.
The video's authenticity has since been confirmed, which means the kid behind the keys really is as amazing as he looks. The four-minute clip has racked up more than 2 million viewers, a number that will only likely increase thanks to this bit of recent publicity.
