End-Of-Week Links: Wen Jiabao, Bo Xilai, Zhang Dejiang, Dolkun Isa

Probably because you're not blowing hard enough
Via chinaSMACK Beijing Guoan defeated Shanghai Shenhua 3-2 in a legitimately exciting match tonight in front of a capacity crowd of about 68,000. Beijing went up 2-0 before Shanghai clawed back with two of its own, with Anelka — who otherwise did very little — scoring the equalizer. A beautiful header-goal gave Beijing the lead... Read more »

‘You Just Made A French Concession!’ And Other Heckles For Anelka At Tonight’s Beijing Guoan Home Opener

Charles Platiau / Reuters
Before you go racing to Workers Stadium though, you should know Anelka — the former Chelsea and French national team star — may not play tonight due to injury (game-time decision). Also, you may not want to chant “French Concession,” considering the last guy who used that phrase publicly got fined 47,500 yuan. And really,... Read more »

This Is Either The Worst Or Best Pole Dance Ever [UPDATE]

Best or worst pole dance ever
UPDATE: The above video was appended on 3/18. It features Ayo Technology and Don’t Cha. The Chinese Pole Dancing Championship is about to start (apparently), and the woman in the video after the jump (it’s there because it auto-plays) is sixty-something [correction: born in the 1960s] Shi Xiaohong (according to title). All we know for... Read more »

Bo Xilai, Be Well, And Godspeed

Bo Xilai
Earlier today, Bo Xilai was ousted from his post as party secretary of Chongqing, a stunning — if not altogether unexpected — end to an unusually public saga that began when Wang Lijun showed up at the US embassy in Chengdu on February 6 with dirt on his former boss. At 11:43 am, a film... Read more »

How Do I Hate Shanghai? Let Me Count The Ways

A real picture of Beijing
Earlier this week the Economist Intelligence Unit released “Hot Spots,” a report commissioned by Citigroup that “ranks the competitiveness of 120 of the world’s major cities.” There aren’t many surprises: US and European cities remain the most competitive overall; Asian cities do well economically; New York and London are ranked 1-2. We in Beijing really... Read more »