There’s no superlative I can offer for Nicholas Kristof that you haven’t already heard, so let’s just jump to this latest post on his NY Times blog, On the Ground, written by Han-Yi Shaw. Kristof offers a brief introduction to start: This is a dispute that both sides should refer to the International Court of Justice,... Read more »
Remember last week’s senseless beating of an old man in Zhengzhou, Henan province just because he dared to criticize Mao Zedong? A similar case sprung up recently in Beijing, featuring a significantly higher-profiled Maoist. As exposed by @1798旅行者, the incident began Tuesday when an old man out for a walk took issue with the slogan,... Read more »
We’ve survived the black and white burger. We’ve done beef and mash. We’ll happily tolerate every chicken and/or beef concoction McDonald’s throws at us. But this? “McNoodles” will go on sale at its Austrian restaurants from Thursday in a test set to last two to three months, a spokeswoman said. The meals feature noodles with... Read more »
A man in Zhuhai, Guangdong province has supposedly made his own helicopter. (I say supposedly because one never knows about these things.) Here he is testing it out. Scant information is available on the guy, so if you’re able to enlighten us on how helicopters work, please do let us know. One last thing: Is... Read more »
We’re going to let People’s Daily do the heavy lifting on this one. Take it away, boys (assume [sic]‘s): On that day, the final of the 23rd Super Model of The World .Guangxi .China was held in Nanning, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. A total of 20 contestants competed in several awards including The Best Camera-Shy,... Read more »
Oh lord fucksticks. Could the Internet be totally free and should it be? The recent turmoil in the Arab world caused by a contentious video denigrating Prophet Muhammad shows the United States, which is busy promoting global Internet freedom, has paid a huge price with the lives of its diplomats. That’s the first paragraph from this... Read more »
Though China's modern-day Maoists may advocate larger government, wealth redistribution, and a return to a backward agrarian society, they strike me, by and large, as Bible Belt conservatives in their longing for past glories and comforts, their love for a transcendent leader, and their fondness of ideology. They also have this annoying habit of cherry-picking only the best parts from Mao's rule and forgetting that millions were purged, starved to death, and slandered/slaughtered by their coworkers, students, neighbors, friends.
Japanese ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya committing seppuku when he finds out he's been assigned to China is a nice touch, though perhaps a tad too soon:
We’ve seen beauty pageants for cows, so it would naturally follow that there would be a pageant for goldfish. In Fuzhou, Fujian province on Saturday, 3,000 fish from 14 different countries competed in the International Goldfish Championship. They were judged according to breed, body shape, swimming gesture, color, and overall impression, judge Ye Qichang told ITN... Read more »
Here is the cinematic intro to Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising, a tactical shooter game released in October 2009. In it, an island originally owned by the Chinese, called Skira, is jointly colonized by Russia and Japan through military force in the 17th and early-18th centuries. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan gains the entire island, then loses it back to Russia following World War II. Sometime during the Cold War, oil is discovered on this volcanic island but is "hard to reach."
