By RFH Reuters’s anonymous sources (reliable, surely) may tell us that the upcoming 18th Party Congress – aka Xi Jingping’s coronation – will be delayed, but our reading of the tea leaves yields a different conclusion. If you can’t afford to visit North Korea this summer (where a long weekend with a tour group can cost a couple-thousand... Read more »
Today (by which I mean Friday) marks the official premiere of director Yung Chang's documentary China Heavyweight in New York. Far be it from me to tell you New Yorkers how to spend your Friday evening, but this movie looks like it's worth your time. (There are two more showings today at IFC Center, at 7:25 pm and 9:40 pm.) It's by the same company that made Last Train Home (though not the same director), a film that I've seen no fewer than four times while writing a 40-page amanuensis
This picture appeared on the forum tt.mop on Wednesday without much information other than “maybe” the setting is Chongqing. Bravo to whoever did this though — identify yourself and collect your praise. For you young’uns who don’t know, this is Zuma. I’m sure you’re able to use your Interneting prowess to find a free version of... Read more »
Mongolian garage rockers Mohanik are in Beijing tomorrow, specifically Temple Bar on Gulou East Street, for a fundraising show called Rock Naadam to promote cultural exchange between China and Outer Mongolia through music. Mohanik will be joined by Shanghai bands Banana Monkey and Scary Magic, and DJ Bo, also from Shanghai. The show is free, but organizers kindly suggest a 50 yuan donation. Expect it to start around 10 pm.
Yesterday, a man died after getting stuck inside an escalator. You read that right. Escalator. This happened at a craft store in Chengdu. A maintenance man surnamed Zhang, 49, was called in to fix an escalator, made by Schindler Elevator Corporation, and to do so, he had to lift up a panel near the top... Read more »
This lead by Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin is pretty much the perfect example of an online magazine lead: Echoing the laments of pundits like Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued Saturday that China outpaces the United States in building major transportation infrastructure like high-speed rail because of its authoritarian system and... Read more »
Your incredible story of the day comes from Guiyang, Guizhou province, where on Monday a mentally ill man surnamed Xu, brandishing a long knife, tried to enter Guizhou Normal University. The guard on duty — unarmed, as all security guards and almost all cops here are — picked up the nearest weapon-like thing he could... Read more »
This is an Olympics Countdown post. Sporadically, we’ll post Olympics- and/or England-related content ahead of this summer’s London Games. The above picture (photoshopped, obviously) is making the rounds on Weibo, and why shouldn’t it be? Sports is an outlet for people here to release their pent-up emotions and express their frustrations (sometimes this is bad). In... Read more »
I’ll tell you straight up that pandas on slides are nothing new. But look, it’s International Panda Awareness Week, and pandas are wrecking havoc in London, and pandas are, after all, pandas, so I’m sure you can spare a couple minutes to watch Sina’s newest videos of pandas. Four pandas. Babies. On a slide. One... Read more »
