Upheaval Over Land Dispute In Guangdong

Guangdong upheaval 2
China Digital Times curates a news story from Caijing reporting that yesterday before dawn, thousands of residents clashed with hundreds of riot police in Zuotan, part of the city of Foshan, Guangdong province. According to Caijing: “Zuotan officials secretly arranged for the sale of land in three neighborhoods to developers. The officials thought they could claim... Read more »

This Is Why You Should Never Play Real-Life Frogger

Boy plays Frogger featured image
This is not the first time within the last four months that someone playing real-life Frogger in China has been captured on video losing. In March, there was this (I added the music... it seemed appropriate at the time), in which a man sprinting across heavy traffic gets nailed by a van in the furthermost lane. Apparently that video wasn't enough of a deterrence, a clear message that real-life Frogger is a bad idea.

Grandmother Chops Off Eight-Month-Old Granddaughter’s Hands

Baby in surgery
Not sure why this news story exists, existentially speaking, but earlier today, Shenzhen Media Group reported that on Saturday, a grandmother in Jinan, Shandong province cut off the hands of her eight-month-old granddaughter before trying to commit suicide (she survived). What does one do with a story like this? The Daily Mail picked it up... Read more »

Just Three Buddies On The Beijing Subway

Three happy men
Should any of us experience this type of blithe, unadulterated joy while riding the subway, we should count ourselves lucky — or insane to have finally unyoked from the shells of prejudice and misunderstanding that trammel the great grand human social experience. May the world be as happy a place as depicted here, sans worry,... Read more »

Studying In The Subway, On A Portable Desk

Studious on subway
It’s unclear when this picture was taken, but it appeared on 王浩然vic‘s Weibo yesterday. Netizens have expressed bemusement. Why this young lady needs a desk to read is a question I’ll not answer here. Instead, I’ll point you to Helen Gao’s recent article in The Atlantic about gaokao. One feels compelled to rip the desk away, tell... Read more »

Eerie, Surreal Defector Drawings Of North Korean Concentration Camps

North Korea concentration camp drawing 1
If suffering is a wellspring for art, there are no greater artists currently living than defectors from North Korea. Witness: this forum, which has compiled drawings from survivors of the country’s brutal concentration and work camps (more are sampled after the jump). The commenters over at Gawker have put China at the top of their... Read more »