CBA Makes Up Rule To Help Bayi, The People’s Liberation Army Basketball Team, Suck A Little Less

Bayi Rockets
The Bayi Rockets are the crown franchise of the Chinese Basketball Association, not because they’re good — they won 31 percent of their games last year — or particularly likable — as Jim Yardley wrote in Grantland after Bayi brawled with Georgetown last year, “Anti-Bayi sentiment [at one time] was so deep that rumors began to... Read more »

Don’t Prematurely Ring The Goddamn Bell If You Ever Proctor A National College Entrance Exam

Gaokao hell
It’s every student’s worst nightmare: sitting in the most important test of your life, you’re told out of the blue that time’s up. You look at your sheet and realize that 13 questions remain unanswered. Impossible, you think, because you have taken a million practice tests and you know exactly how much time it takes... Read more »

Beijing-Based Sommelier Sets World Record By Holding 51 Wine Glasses In One Hand

Here’s a man who knows how to handle his wine glasses. Via the AFP video’s description: “Beijing-based sommelier Philip Osenton breaks the world record for the number of wine glasses held in one hand. The previous world record was 39, set in Spain, five years ago by Reymond Adina from the Philippines.” Local nightlife blogger... Read more »

Wild Boar Breaks Into Office, Terrorizes Woman, Basically Ruins Everything

Wild boar terror
Sky News has this funny video captured Friday in Shantou, Guangdong province. A wild boar apparently broke into an office and, because it's just that kind of wild, destroyed a bunch of things and scared the crap out of everyone before -- again, that kind of wild -- smashing through a window to make its escape. Bad boar. Sky provides these details:

Ningbo Protests Against Chemical Plant Heat Up As City Announces, Perhaps Dubiously, Halt To PX Project

Ningbo PX 2
Another widespread protest against a factory in China has yielded, at least on paper, another victory, following the one in Shifang, Sichuan province in July. Does it matter that no one believes the city government’s statement saying it’ll halt its construction plans? First the background: In Ningbo, Zhejiang province, thousands of locals have clashed with... Read more »

Protests In Ningbo Over Chemical Plant May Get Ugly, Netizens Fear [UPDATE]

Ningbo chemical plant protest
Reuters reports that more than a thousand people gathered in Ningbo, Zhejiang province yesterday to protest plans for a petrochemical plant that is a subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation. And according to the BBC, witnesses said authorities used tear gas and have arrested some people. Searches on Youku for “Ningbo” turn up nothing. Sina... Read more »

The Official Denials Have Begun In Wen Jiabao vs. New York Times

Wen Jiabao vs NY Times
The lawyers for the Wen Jiabao family issued an official statement yesterday regarding the New York Times's recent piece that got the website harmonized inside China. It's "a rare instance of a powerful Chinese political family responding directly to a foreign media report," NY Times reports. But the lawyers, while trying to deny everything, actually deny nothing. Read the translated statement closely, as brought to you by SCMP: