Although the skies were conveniently blue for the first day of the National People’s Congress on March 5, by the next day the AQI was already creeping back above 300. In an interesting twist, a prominent member of the National People’s Congress has criticized the Chinese government for its anti-pollution efforts.

In an interview with Shenzhen Evening News published yesterday, Chinese Academy of Engineering scholar and NPC delegate Zhong Nanshan, 77, who rose to fame in 2003 for his work during the SARS crisis, said he hopes the government will start paying as much attention to pollution levels choking our fair city as it does to GDP.

We just saw a panel of delegates refuse to answer a female reporter’s question about the environment — perhaps she should have asked Zhong, who has conducted research into the true scale of Beijing’s pollution problem:

The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau’s 2010 tumor prevention report reveals that the lung cancer rate among Beijing men has reached 76.57 in 100,000, while the breast cancer rate among Beijing women has reached 48.6 in 100,000. “Pollution rates are highest in the Chaoyang, Fengtai and Shijingshan districts and lowest in Miyun and Huairou.” Zhong fears that if this level of pollution continues, the number of cancer patients will increase astronomically.

“People have no natural defense against pollution.”

Zhong also hit back at China’s national oil companies for claiming that national standards are too low and that they aren’t to blame for the current crisis. “So we can’t make any international comparisons?” Zhong asks. “Does internationalization not come into it at all?”

Zhong believes the environment should be used as an indicator of government performance. Although GDP is a clear indicator of economic progress and living standards, priority should also be given to the environment: “When basic actions like eating, drinking and breathing become an issue, what good is having the highest GDP in the world?”

Naturally, he finishes on an inspiring note.

“When the Chinese people come together, there is nothing we can’t achieve,” he says. “If the government acts now and people give up their polluting habits, we will see a real difference in the next 10 years. Hopefully I will still be alive to see it.”

Will it ever actually happen? You decide.

Robynne is a writer, translator and Chinese graduate living in Beijing. She tweets @frommyplate.

(H/T John Hanrahan)

The latest art craze sweeping the Chinese Internet? Tree hollow paintings. Netizens are going crazy for art student Wang Yue’s cutesy creations, painted in the hollows of trees lining a street in her hometown of Shijiazhuang. The story has been picked up by several mainstream news outlets, including CCTV News’ “Weiguan Tianxia” program, whose host Xu Zhuoyang called them “a touch of warmth in the midst of a cold winter.” Aww.

Wang Yue and her photographer friend Li Yue are surprised by how much attention the paintings have attracted. The two girls are remaining calm in the face of their newfound fame. Initially Wang Yue was going to paint around cracks in the sidewalks, but later decided to use tree hollows. In the future, she plans to paint on the remains of demolished buildings.

Wang Yue loves cartoons of people and animals. Her designs usually include animals and scenery. She said: “I love beautiful things so much that sometimes my thought process isn’t very rational. People say that I’m too naïve, too emotional.” Since she became famous for her tree hollow paintings, Wang Yue has been working with her teachers to transform her ideas and focus more on story telling. Her latest group of works, completed on Lantern Festival (February 24) reflects her efforts. She chose a tree trunk with two hollows. In the top hollow she painted a bird looking down towards the floor and in the bottom hollow she painted a squirrel waiting with open arms as if to embrace the bird.

“Tree Hollow Painting” listed as a Baidu entry

Just a few days after they were discovered, Wang Yue’s tree hollow paintings became a hot search term. On February 26, it was listed as an entry on Baidu’s Baike encyclopedia. The entry details the date and location of the paintings, along with a description of their creative style and a series of pictures. Netizens commented that the Baidu entry is proof of their support and encouragement for Wang Yue’s art.

So does this mean we can expect to see an explosion of street art across Chinese cities? Apparently CCTV’s Xu Zhuoyang seems to think it does. We’ll let you be the judge:

Many netizens have commented that Wang Yue’s paintings have become popular not just because they’re charming, but more for the love and respect they show for the urban environment. In some small way, every urban citizen owns a part of the city they live in. Wang Yue saw the flaws in her city and decided to do something to make it more beautiful. As CCTV host Xu Zhuoyang commented, Chinese cities lack the creative outside art installations that are found in many cities abroad. On the whole, Chinese urban citizens have very little say in urban design and management; perhaps they should be given more chance to participate.

Robynne is a writer, translator and Chinese graduate living in Beijing. She tweets @frommyplate.

女孩绘树洞画装点城市 媒体称其“感动冬天” (CCTV via Tencent News, h/t Katie)

Here’s a political sex scandal out of Jiangxi province with an unexpected twist. Qu Wenyuan, a village-level party secretary in Nanchang, Jiangxi, was recently suspended after his girlfriend posted a naked photo of him on Sina Weibo. Shanxi Evening News reports that Hu Dandan (pseudonym) posted the picture possibly as payback for his “corruption and gambling,” evidence for which she claims to have.

Afterwards, Qu reportedly asked Hu to marry him. He “has since claimed that he was just trying to patch things up,” according to Shanxi Evening News.

The rest of the story, translated, as follows:

Both parties have admitted that they had been living together. Qu’s wife had passed away 10 years previously. He has since been suspended by the party committee of Liuhu Township, Xinjian County. A spokesperson for Xinjian County Party Committee said that the matter is currently under investigation.

Standing naked with his hands on his hip

On the evening of February 20, a photograph of Qu Wenyuan, party secretary for Guxi Village, Liuhu Township, Xinjian County, Nanchang, Jiangxi, began to circulate on Weibo. The photo showed Qu standing with his hands on his hips, naked but for a pair of sunglasses.

Weibo user “淑女也会想杀人” said that she has proof of Qu’s corruption and gambling, and is in possession of a number of other indecent photos. The “淑女也会想杀人” account belongs to Hu Dandan. She told the reporter that she used to be the manager of the Imperial Vacation and Leisure Center in Xinjian County. She met Qu in early 2012 when he visited the center for a foot bath. “At the time, Qu told me that his wife had been dead for several years and that he wasn’t seeing anyone. I had been divorced for more than ten years and I was eager to re-marry. He seemed reliable, so we started seeing more of each other.” They moved in together just over a month later and Qu bought a house in Xinjian County, Hu told the reporter.

The pair opened a restaurant together in April last year. Hu said that Qu liked to gamble and would borrow money from the restaurant when he lost. He would eat at the restaurant and then not pay his bill and didn’t keep records under his own name. “The restaurant was badly managed and he was borrowing money all over the place; I felt bad, so I started asking him to write promissory notes.” One of the notes from May 3 last year shows that Qu borrowed 80,000 RMB from Hu last year. The note clearly displays Qu’s identity card number. Hu said that all the notes were written by Qu himself, but that he later failed to acknowledge his debts.

Robynne is a writer, translator and Chinese graduate living in Beijing. When not on Twitter complaining about the weather, she can be found exploring the hutongs looking for the next hit Sichuan restaurant. She tweets @frommyplate.