Mid-Week Links: Yahoo shuts down its China music service, Drogba may be out of Shanghai as well, and Kim Jong-un’s wife is pregnant?

Creepy Santa
Creepy Santa in Shanghai, via This Is A Typo Kim Jong-un’s wife is pregnant. “As North Korea marked the first anniversary of the death of its former dictator, Kim Jong-il, the nation’s current leader may be celebrating new life as pictures appear to show Kim Jong-un’s wife sporting a significant baby bump.” (National Post) No... Read more »

Jackie Chan Says He Fought Off Gangsters With Guns And Grenades, Now Being Probed For Illegal Firearm Ownership

Jackie Chan with minigun
Jackie Chan’s bad week continues. Last week, he drew everyone’s ire by speaking out against Hong Kong protesters; this week, the charismatic movie star is being investigated by cops for off-the-cuff remarks he made in a print interview about using firearms to fight off triad members. Global Times, citing China Newsweek magazine, reports:

Daily Mail Writes Shamefully Bad China Story

Daily Mail Taiyuan cabbage 1
Bad articles deserve to die a silent, lonely death. Really bad articles, however, deserve to be thrown into the public stocks and ridiculed. This one from Daily Mail belongs with the latter. It begins: Ravaged by hunger and desperate for food, these are the sad pictures which show just how needy families in China are. Oh... Read more »

People’s Daily editorializes on the Internet, calls it “not a space beyond the law”

The East is Read
Yesterday, People’s Daily published a front-page column calling for better behavior on the Internet, not sure whether with the window open or closed in its ivory tower. As translated by China Media Project (emphasis theirs): An open China requires a civilized and healthy online world governed by rule of law. Everyone, whether supervising government bodies... Read more »

Here’s Footage Of The Primary-School Attacker That Injured 22 Children In Guangshan

Guangshan knife attack featured image
Surveillance footage has just surfaced of the knife attack in Guangshan county on December 14 that injured 23 22 children (plus one adult). Min Yongjun, said to have been affected by doomsday rumors, burst into a Chenpeng village elementary school on Friday and began indiscriminately hacking and slashing with his kitchen knife. He also stabbed an elderly woman. All of the victims survived.

Chinapol creator Richard Baum dead at 72

Richard Baum
China watcher Richard Baum, perhaps most well known for creating the listserv Chinapol in 1999 — a precursor to the many China blogs and newsletters and news groups we see today — passed away at age 72 on Friday of cancer. Via Taipei Times: In 1967, then still a graduate student, Baum leapt to prominence... Read more »