Wen Jiabao at a Hebei high school, via That’s Online
Start of fifth lunar month links.
Via former the Beijinger editor Jonathan White, interviewed by Morgan Short: “Well, the reason I wanted to start the magazine [The Cleaver Quarterly], at the outset, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t want the last magazine I’d ever make to be The Beijinger. I just didn’t want to do service journalism anymore. I mean, service journalism is great, to a point. There’s a reason why they exist. There’s a market for it and they serve a purpose, but you don’t feel like a journalist when you’re working at it.” (Smart Beijing)
UGH. “Li Pingping, a former marketing consultant in Huizhou in the southern province of Guangdong, bought the kitten earlier this month and decapitated it in her bathroom last week, China Daily reported on Thursday. // She then posted photos of the kitten’s body and its severed head on Weibo, setting off outraged reactions. // Li deleted the posts but after the online criticism continued for days, she penned an open letter apologising and explaining that she had been drunk and acted out of anger after suspecting her father had been involved in an extramarital affair, China Daily said.” (SCMP)
Another detained. “Wang Aizhong, a founder of the Southern Street Movement, which calls for an end to one-party rule, was detained in the southern city of Guangzhou on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking troubles, according to his lawyers Zhang Xuezhong and Wu Kuiming.” (AP)
The “If you see something, say something” campaign comes to China. Only, you know, a lot more eyes here. “As reported on Sina News, a total of 100,000 people in Beijing are collecting information and writing reports on any activities they suspect might be terrorist-related. Included in this group are streetside cobblers and newsstand vendors who are ordered to report any suspicious activity at any time.” (The Nanfang)
Oh Global Times. “Hundreds of people on social media have called on a state-run newspaper to apologise after it called a county in Xinjiang the ‘hometown of terrorists.’ // The Global Times on Monday ran a feature on Pishan, which was the home area of the four assailants blamed for an attack on an open air market in Urumqi last week that killed 39 people.” (SCMP)
Yunnan earthquake. “Twenty-nine people were injured, including five in serious condition, after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake jolted a county in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, local authorities said Friday.” (Xinhua)
An original video. “In ‘Staying Afloat: Life on a Disappearing Lake,’ Chinese filmmakers Lynn Zhang and Shirley Han Ying train their camera on the people who have been both perpetrators and victims of Baiyangdian’s decline.” (ChinaFile)
The downside of rumors. “Mass panic, complete bedlam: video surveillance of Dongmen Pedestrian Walkway in Shenzhen this past Sunday shows a scene of utter chaos. The vicious knife attack that was rumored to have happened turned out not to be true, and neither was the actual cause of this panic.” (The Nanfang)
Are Chinese women ready to cheat more? Because there’s a service that hopes so. “It’s difficult to know what to make of Noel Biderman, CEO of the infidelity-promoting, match-making website AshleyMadison.com, as he breaks down his business and plans for the future.” (The Atlantic)
Amnesty International statement. “The deplorable mass sentencing of 55 people at a stadium in China’s north-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region [XUAR] is no solution to addressing public security fears, said Amnesty International.” (Paul Mooney’s Facebook)
This new book could be good. “In Liu Cixin’s Three Body trilogy, the entire solar system is flattened into a two-dimensional image in an apocalyptic battle between earthlings and aliens. // The masterpiece by Liu, an engineer by trade, has been hailed for its extraordinary artistic vision. Three specially selected translators, Ken Liu, Joel Martinsen, and Eric Abrahamsen, have been working on the English version of the trilogy.” (Xinhua)
And this: “Chinese prose writer Yan Lianke, whose strongly satirical and parody-tinged novels and short stories are based on Chinese history from the 1960s on, will receive the Czech Franz Kafka Prize in Prague in October.” (Prague Post)
With violence rising in Xinjiang, China leader Xi Jinping calls for assimilating ethnic Uighurs. http://t.co/ovDJOZmyVN
— Edward Wong (@comradewong) May 30, 2014
Student: “Foreigners talking about poverty in China are like us talking about guns in America. Why only focus on negative things?”
— Matthew Stinson (@stinson) May 30, 2014
“the government will be paying close attention to those who keep a coffin at home.” http://t.co/q2RrZT1j4X
— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) May 30, 2014
@mauracunningham That conforms with current trends but hard to imagine it won’t be bigger for the big 2-5 pic.twitter.com/7yAfRmjxzP
— Robert Foyle Hunwick (@MrRFH) May 30, 2014
Beijing police prep for “terrorist attack” involving mobs of people w/ wooden sticks as their instruments of terror pic.twitter.com/kCdNSdXvhM
— Eric Fish (@ericfish85) May 30, 2014
Wolf Totem the movie looks like it’s gonna be pretty good interlude, via WSJ:
Finally…
“Tiananmen Square: 25 years later, unrecognized by today’s youth.” (The Globe and Mail)
Surprise! Chengguan are hated. (Sinosphere)
“Sailing around the world for 497 days: A Chinese woman’s adventure.” (SCMP)
“113-year-old lady marries 70-year-old ‘boy toy’ after rejecting his first proposal.” (Shanghaiist)
“After Paul the Octopus, panda to predict World Cup winners.” (Ecns.cn)
“The best books on North Korea.” (The Guardian)
Finally, finally…
Largest Chinese tour group ever, via The World of Chinese:
