The smart fellas over at Discovery Channel's MythBusters recently decided to take a closer look at a traditional Chinese popcorn-maker, which I can tell you from experience makes a great (cheap!) snack. Vaporized water, liquefied starch, relief of pressure, cooking in a bomb suit... this segment has it all.
China’s multi-decade quest for rapid development has by all measures been a stunning success. However, this has not come without a few unintended consequences. The physical conditioning – or lack thereof – of 90s-generation youth has been called a “crisis.” Sun Yunxiao, author and deputy director of the China Youth and Research Center in Beijing,... Read more »
In Foreign Policy’s introduction to its latest slideshow of rare photos from Tibet during the Cultural Revolution, the line that jumps out to me is the last one: “This installment of FP’s Once Upon a Time series shows the Land of Snows from a long-forgotten period, when Tibet’s enemy wasn’t China, but itself.” The line, I’m sure,... Read more »
If politics and diplomacy get too confusing, just throw around some animal metaphors. As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu (soon to be Private Liu or General Liu, depending on which way the wind blows and how much cash and guanxi he has) has stated that both a rabid tiger and wolf... Read more »
Our analysis of this tenement precinct found in Lingshui county, Hainan province begins with the seminal modernist architect Louis Sullivan's famous phrase "form follows function." Buildings should be designed with their purpose in mind, and so it is philosophically laid out here, in this neighborhood, that the purpose of all human life is to sprout like a blade of grass out of red dirt, sway in the wind, and die. All joy is subsumed by the reality of existing. Not one wasted word is spent. You are because you are. Accept it, for residents of Dadun Village are all engaged in the process of death or already dead.
The Golden Shield Project (aka Great Firewall of China) has decided GitHub no longer conforms with Chinese notions of harmony, as first noticed Monday by GreatFire.org and reported on The Next Web. The block comes on the heels of the Ministry of Railways's unsuccessful attempt to convince Chinese browser-makers to stop providing a plugin that helps users purchase train tickets off MOR's website.
Mental health issues are no laughing matter, and neither is biting a large flightless bird to death. What to call this then? At a zoo in Guangdong province on Saturday, a man bit and killed a live ostrich in front of elders and children, then laid on the dead bird and made gun motions with his finger at the police. The man, 27-year-old Li, was found with a suicide note in his pocket addressed to his mother and girlfriend.
Surely you’re aware of the Google autofill / autocomplete meme? For instance, someone types the words “i accidentally” into a Google search bar as part of a longer phrase, but Google presumes you’re too lazy to finish your five-word sentence, so it helpfully offers a pulldown list of possible searches such as “i accidentally the whole... Read more »
Earlier this month in Hainan province, this group beating. What happened?
"Chengguan beating people, I tell ya," cries Ms. Gao, a shop owner. "A gang of chengguan came and beat us."
Are you interested in property with garish golden columns and statues of boys urinating, Hello Kitty doorbells and fluffy pink wallpaper? Now’s your chance: the fire sale of all fire sales in now on! As The Telegraph reports: Luxury properties are being dumped on the market in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for anyone able to... Read more »