Mid-Week Links: Hu Yaobang, another campaign against porn, and Beijing is a top 10 global city!

Via Xinhua: “Tens of thousands of locals and tourists have fun with water during the Water-splashing Festival in Jinghong City of Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, April 15, 2014.”

Links! Meanwhile, I’ve folded sobriety into a bundle and won’t see it again till the morning. Likely drunk on rum thanks to the Anthill and Cu Ju‘s Writers and Rum event, a Creamcast of which will be posted in time.

Tribute? “The direction of China’s current reform is consistent with the notion of late Party chief Hu Yaobang, said political analysts on the 25th anniversary of the death of the reformist leader, which fell Tuesday. // Hu was elected as general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in February 1980, and he resigned in 1987. He died on April 15, 1989 at the age of 74. // On Tuesday, Net users posted online messages of tribute hailing his push for reform and for building a clean government.” (Global Times)

Takeout piece on Beijing Guoan: “Apart from its name—the “Workers’ Stadium”—and the socialist realist statue outside the entrance, Beijing Guoan’s home ground shows no signs that it was first erected at the height of the Maoist era in 1959. Today the renovated stadium is ringed with slick bars and clubs; posters advertise an upcoming Bruno Mars concert.” (Roads and Kingdoms http://roadsandkingdoms.com/2014/beijings-green-army/)

Toxic spill, what me worry? “A freighter loaded with shipping containers collided with a sand barge at 2am on the morning of April 13 on the south side of Humen Bridge in Dongguan, iFeng reports. As a result of the collision, toluene diisocyanate (TDI) was spilled across the deck of the ship.” (The Nanfang)

Classic movie returned. “In a gesture that could help ease relations between Norway and China, strained since the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to the imprisoned democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo, the National Library of Norway has returned a long-lost Chinese silent film. // A print of ‘The Cave of the Silken Web,’ released in 1927 during a vibrant era in Chinese filmmaking, was discovered in the library’s archives in 2011. It is believed to be the only existing copy of the film, which was directed by Dan Duyu and is based on an episode from the Chinese classic novel ‘Journey to the West.’” (Sinosphere)

Beijing! “Beijing has made it into the top 10 of the world’s most global cities for the first time, ranking eighth in the A.T. Kearney Global Cities Index.” (China Daily)

Good luck. “The launch of a renewed campaign against pornography on the Internet was announced on Sunday. Despite multiple previous campaigns, the spread of pornography online persists. Some websites continue to produce and spread pornography in the name of sex education, some do it as part of their marketing strategy to gain a higher click-through rate, and still others make online games and fill their product with obscene and vulgar content. Many telecom operators, web portals, as well as search engines and mobile application stores have turned a blind eye to the phenomenon and have thus opened the door to the spread of pornography.” (China Daily)

Homemade porn! “A couple in Kunming, Yunnan province, was caught spreading and selling self-directed and self-starred pornographic videos online, Kunming Metropolitan Times reported on Tuesday. // The woman, surnamed Gu, 23, once worked as a sex model, whose pornographic images can be found on a well-known Asian porn website.” (Ecns.cn)

Going undercover to expose sex. “Sex, people just can’t enough of it can they.? Especially those rich dudes that go down to Sanya every year for a wild and decadent orgy. What’s that, hadn’t you heard? Well, it doesn’t matter because a Chinese reporter willing to giver her all for her craft had heard all about it.” (The World of Chinese)

Graft. “A senior government official in China’s Sichuan province is under investigation for ‘severe discipline violations,’ which is often a euphemism for corruption, state media said. // Zhao Miao, a senior official in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, was taken away on Thursday for questioning by anti-corruption investigators, the Xinhua news agency said late on Saturday.” (Reuters)

Shenzhen train station knife attack. “At around 8am on April 13, a woman walking into Entrance A of Shenzhen North Railway Station was stabbed in the abdomen by a man wielding a knife, who would later turn the blade upon himself, Nandu reported. Named Zhang, the man was despondent that the victim, his wife, was transferring to Shanghai to work for two months, said a source belonging to the woman’s family. The woman had been working at Foxconn and was the sole breadwinner for the family that includes their seven year-old son.” (The Nanfang)

Pulitzer Prize for appalling driving goes to bus driver in Nanning. Luckily, no fatalities: http://t.co/xKSJkx6485 pic.twitter.com/1pujDviUqc

— Chris Buckley 储百亮 (@ChuBailiang) April 15, 2014

Pulitzer prize for urban planning goes to Zhengzhou for planting trees under an expressway: http://t.co/mthQOWZgET pic.twitter.com/bn0Fkup8Ys — Chris Buckley 储百亮 (@ChuBailiang) April 15, 2014

Remembering A Forgotten Tiananmen. Uncovering a forgotten crackdown in Chengdu http://t.co/qSGI0oI6O8 Via @nprnews

— Louisa Lim (@limlouisa) April 15, 2014

Father of Boston Marathon bombing victim Lu Lingzi at BU memorial last night. Here from Shenyang, China. #theworld pic.twitter.com/mVwHDlerTS — Matthew Bell (@matthewjbell) April 15, 2014

137th self-immolation today in Tibet. 25 years ago Tibet was unde martial law, and Hu Yaobang died. pic.twitter.com/KfjpYxvUSh

— Ralph Litzinger (@BeijingNomad) April 15, 2014

Little kids speaking Chinese interlude:

Finally…

“Tiananmen Watch: Sina Weibo Relaxes Censorship of Discussion of Hu Yaobang, Baidu PostBar Doesn’t.” (FeiChangDao)

“In praise of the Mandarin bum.” (Kevin McGeary, The Nanfang)

“What Makes a Tier-2 City in China? Count the Starbucks.” (WSJ)

“Official Praises Eviction Workers as ‘Most Lovable.’” (Sinosphere)

“Top 10 most popular foreign documentaries about China.” (China.org.cn)

“Chinese father sacrifices HIMSELF to save his son as he pushes him out of the way of a lorry shortly before it ran him over.” (Daily Mail)

“LinkedIn’s biggest obstacle in China isn’t censorship, it’s culture.” (Tech in Asia)

“NPC member latest casualty of Dongguan prostitution crackdown.” (The Nanfang)

“Three-dimensionally printed homes are assembled in Shanghai.” (WSJ)

“Chinese Thunder God Herb Works as Well as Pain Therapy.” (Bloomberg)

Go tell these people which city is the best for expats. (YouGov)

Finally, finally…

Via Isidor’s Fugue, “underneath the Zhanjiang Bay Bridge at night”:

One more…

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