Picture Of The Day: Beijing Unfiltered

Picture of the Day Beijing
Ed’s note: The above is a previously unpublished photo from the portfolio of Kevin Schoenmakers, whose book, 118 Photos from China, is available for purchase on his website. Our favorite is the cat in the section “Beijing in Blue,” which reminds of this.

Wanted: Marxist-Leninist scholar who can also handle a zoo animal or two

The East is Read
Insert every Animal Farm reference you can think of. Go ahead, just dump em here. Because they’re appropriate for this story, via SCMP: The Yangcheng Evening News recently stumbled upon Guangzhou Zoo’s entrance exam and found a section of it aimed at evaluating applicants’ “mastery” of Marxist-Leninist thought. This means the 15 zookeepers being recruited at the... Read more »

A Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Of The Peking Opera Version Of Les Misérables

Les Mis
Tom Hooper's adaptation is getting all the press -- it's Oscar season, after all, and Les Misérables is up for Best Picture -- but years before, there was another, one might say bolder, attempt to adapt this musical classic. In 2006, students at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts actually wrote a Peking Opera version of Les Mis, which you can watch in its entirety on Youku (split into two parts, both embedded here). The video was posted three years ago, but Tea Leaf Nation flagged it just now, and since Les Mis is fresh on our minds, what better time to revisit this masterpiece?

Former Chinese State TV Broadcaster Sen Luo Arrested For Possessing “Extreme Porn”

Jan Meza porn star
We know porn's a no-no in China, but did you know that in its "extreme" form it's also illegal in Britain? One former CCTV presenter does -- now that he's facing up to three years in prison. "Sen Luo, 40, had more than 800 videos on his laptop and hard-drives and claimed he needed them to 'research' a Sex and the City-style book," according to The Sun. "But jurors found him guilty of two counts of possessing extreme pornography."

Apple And Facebook Report Being Hacked, Maybe (Or Maybe Not) By The Chinese

Chinese hackers
On the heels of Mandiant’s eye-opening report on alleged Chinese hacking under the auspices of the People’s Liberation Army, Facebook and Apple have said they too — like literally everyone else — have been “hacked.” Some Apple employees reportedly dipped their fingers into cyber traps designed to infect their computers with malicious software. “The same software,... Read more »