Hu Jintao has some new year’s greetings to pass along, please give him your attention. “Ladies, gentlemen, comrades, friends, the sound of New Year’s bells…” zzzZZZzzzz.
Police estimate that about 2,600 protesters participated in a pro-government rally in Hong Kong on Sunday (or "as many as 40,000," if you believe organizers). It was the first half of a doubleheader of protests, with the nightcap coming yesterday -- the anti-government variety -- attended by 17,000, according to police. (In proportional hyperbole, organizers declared 130,000 people showed up.)
A wealthy businessman in Fujian province is being praised for bestowing more than 1 billion yuan — $160 million — as dowry for his daughter’s marriage. Wu Duanbiao, head of the ceramics firm Fujian Wanli Group, also donated 15 million yuan to two local charities.
There was a bikini contest in the open air of Jilin, Jilin province yesterday, organized by Beidahu Ski Resort, featuring 40 Chinese and Russian models in two-piece bikinis, snow boots and skis. The Jilin Tourism Bureau’s deputy party secretary, Meng Liru, said via NetEase that they were promoting the ski resort and Jilin City through... Read more »
Hong Kong had fireworks at Victoria Harbor. Shanghai had a 4D light show on the Bund. Beijing had a beam of light out of the China Millennium Monument (a sundial you probably haven’t been to, because Haidian district). We love our home city, but am also kind of okay admitting that Beijing loses this round (though... Read more »
As a blog, we’re contractually obligated to the Blog God to run a year-in-review post, so I’ve asked some contributors to give me their “non-notable story” of the year, telling them to interpret the phrase “non-notable” as they choose. Consider it an experiment in something or other. Here’s what they came up with:
The new year is a time for hope, optimism, and the joy of new possibilities, even in places like Pyongyang, North Korea. Check out its New Year's fireworks display.
On Friday, December 28 -- the birthday of jailed Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo -- a group of activists made a daring visit to the residence of his wife, Liu Xia, currently under house arrest.
You can watch them in the above video, uploaded yesterday to the YouTube account of Hu Jia, activist/dissident and director of the June Fourth Heritage and Culture Association. Hu writes that he and Hao Jian, Liu Di and Xu Youyu, among others, arrived at about 9 pm and basically overpowered a surprised guard.
They’re marching in Hong Kong again — and again — as competing rallies express support and opposition to Hong Kong’s government. The first rally — the pro-gov variety — does not augur more civil public assemblies. As SCMP reports:
Peeping weekly at the best (and worst) that was, is, and will be on the China blogosphere. Aside from family animosities, hangovers and relief in seeing in another year relatively unscathed, there is little worth celebrating in the Sino-English gulag. Drawing up lists of the best and worst sites is a fool’s errand. Ditto content. It... Read more »
