Photographer Thomas Arne Strand alerted us last week to a collection of pictures he took of the Drum and Bell neighborhood, which he posted last Sunday. As he writes: These photographs were taken at the beginning of January (been traveling and unable to upload before), after I learnt that the wrecking ball would soon come to... Read more »
The latest art craze sweeping the Chinese Internet? Tree hollow paintings. Netizens are going crazy for art student Wang Yue’s cutesy creations, painted in the hollows of trees lining a street in her hometown of Shijiazhuang. The story has been picked up by several mainstream news outlets, including CCTV News’ “Weiguan Tianxia” program, whose host Xu Zhuoyang called them “a touch of warmth in the midst of a cold winter.” Aww.
Hey look, a Mo Yan sighting. It looks like the floodgates have opened as far as interviews, too. It wasn’t long ago that his first interview since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature was published by Der Spiegel.
The Beijing restaurant manager, a man surnamed Wang, who doesn’t want to serve customers from countries engaged in maritime disputes with China has removed this fairly racist sign from his Houhai establishment. He took it down Thursday by his own volition, according to AFP, but has “refused to apologise.”
While many spent yesterday morning squalling over Beijing's pollution (caused in part by this season's first sandstorm), an actual squall of sorts blew through this region, causing more damage. (Incidentally, it was this very wind that cleared out the pollution, so that in a matter of one hour, from 10 am to 11 am, the AQI dropped from 506 to 279, and by 4 pm, it was under 100, according to @BeijingAir.)
The outspoken agitator you know as Ai Weiwei -- who, last we checked, is still not allowed to leave the country -- might be weary and beat down (or just mugging for the camera), judging by these pictures by Jamie Hawkesworth, who recently visited the artist in his Beijing studio, commissioned by the magazine AnOther.
As Rob Alderson writes on It's Nice That:
Years of occasionally reading the Beijinger has finally paid off: the magazine has published its funniest piece ever, and they didn’t even have to write it. Take it away, boys: We are back with a new short story contest… Lord have mercy. You have 140 characters to play with… They had mercy!
Beijing hosted its second Undie Run yesterday, a 3.5-kilometer jaunt through Olympic Forest Park, Xinhua reports (more pictures via that link). Organizers say the event was to promote nature and fitness. There were about 300 participants, including one who was as young as nine years old.
So, it seems that some people have yet to fully understand why racism is a bad thing. With tensions in the South China Sea remaining high, we’re still being treated to bizarre examples of unhealthy nationalism. The latest can be found here in Beijing: the proprietors of a snack shop in Houhai called Beijing Snacks... Read more »
Whether dealing with common pets or endangered species, many humans still don't know how to be humane. But public reaction to conditions at the Beijing Zoo and an incident at South China Normal University in Guangdong indicate that at least awareness is growing among animal advocates and netizens in this country.
A video of the poor living conditions of a polar bear at the Beijing Zoo, posted by Sina Weibo user @临临Lynn, elicited a flood of comments yesterday.
