Al-Jazeera Forced To Close Its Beijing Bureau [UPDATE]

Melissa Chan Twitter
Al-Jazeera’s China correspondent, Melissa Chan, was denied a visa extension and scheduled to leave the country last night, marking the end of the Qatar-based company’s Beijing bureau. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, of which Chan was a board member, was quick to issue a statement: Chinese officials had expressed anger at a documentary the channel... Read more »

Mike Sui Is Sort Of Taking Over Social Media

Mike Sui on Youku
You might remember Mike Sui as the teacher/singer/host/actor who imitated a bunch of people in a video that made it big on Youku. Everything he does on Chinese media these days is rising to the top, evidenced by the latest product, the above below [Ed's note: I'm putting it after the jump because there's an ad... Read more »

Cowgirl Sex Not Allowed On Cable Cars

The world has now been introduced to the “No Humping” pictogram. We readily acknowledge this China Daily story about a sign forbidding sex on the cable cars in Yao Mountain in Henan province is a bit dated (it’s from Friday), but that’s a damn fine pictogram. We also acknowledge that we can offer a better translation of... Read more »

Patient In Hubei Rises Off Surgeon’s Table To Attack Doctors

Patient rises off operating table doctor featured image
I’m mildly surprised that a patient, possibly under anesthesia or drunk, would rise off a surgeon’s table to beat the people he entrusts to eventually cut him open. What I’m really surprised about, however, is that after his bout of deranged violence, he’d agree to lie back down on the table and go under the knife.... Read more »

Beijing News’s Apology Clown

Apology clown
This is different: In the still of the deep night, removing that mask of insincerity, we say to our true selves, “I am sorry.” Goodnight. The message, which first appeared on Beijing News’s Weibo, was in response to its anti-Chen Guangcheng editorial on Friday. The picture above is what accompanied the apology, truly a WTF... Read more »

This “Speed Dating” Event For Hong Kong Girls Seeking Rich Old Foreign Men Makes Everyone Look Bad

HK speed dating
Plenty of people nurse a healthy loathing of the “expat in Asia,” and in some instances, that antipathy is understandable, if not justified. (The image you want is of a mustachioed former mill owner, old and white, in Thailand. If you’d like to see some of these fellas here, try the bar Maggie’s.) Yet I’ve... Read more »