Xinhua is reporting that four are dead and 10 injured after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake (5.8-magnitude according to the US Geological Survey) struck the tourist area of Shangri-la in Yunnan province this morning.
In an otherwise excellent piece on Chinese tennis star Li Na, Brook Larmer, writing in the New York Times, made one critical error, which Chinese media quickly pointed out. The offending passage originally read:
Whatever happens in the privacy of one's home is apparently not always private, especially if you're a notorious rabblerouser with 12 million followers on Sina Weibo.
Chinese American Charles Xue, aka Xue Biqun (and Xue Manzi on Weibo, an anti-trafficking and environmental adovcate), was captured in Beijing last Friday for soliciting a 22-year-old prostitute. That's hardly the end of the story though. In the past week, authorities have gleefully smeared him in public, including on, it seems, every CCTV news broadcast, emphasizing Xue's confession and his love for sex parties. LOCK HIM WITH THE PEDOPHILES!
Li Tianyi -- who is now being called Li Guanfeng in an official capacity, which means we'll probably start doing that as well -- is the only of five defendants to plead not guilty in the high-profile gang-rape trial that ended yesterday in Beijing.
In the annals of bad parenting, this man here in Harbin, Heilongjiang province deserves a special plaque. As relayed by Offbeat China, earlier this month, a baby girl, Guo Guo, was sent to the hospital to have a 5-centimeter-long sewing needle removed from her chest. Two weeks later, on August 19, the 56-day-old child was in the hospital again, this time with three sewing needles stuck in her: one under her arm and two in her torso.
Once again, Chinese tourists shame their countrymen:
"In the latest controversy involving Chinese tourists - a group of mainland travellers have upset Singapore Airlines staff by refusing to hand over 30 sets of stainless steel tableware during a recent flight, Chinese media reported."
The start of this Craigslist ad for a "Personal Assistant to Director (Foreigner)" begins like many of these do: with insinuations ("Open Minded Ladies only") and more insinuations ("Females only"), and a few more of those ("Age between 22 to 29... Pleasant looking, well-dressed, well-groomed"). But then, three-quarters of the way down -- far enough for the poster to have finished his whiskey -- the pretenses disappear:
