Hello Beijing Cream readers. My name is Josh and I work at this other website called Smart Beijing, where I write tl;dr music articles on a weekly basis. The Tao is outsourcing these Friday Musical Outros to my comrade Morgan, but he's doing some other shit right now. So you're stuck with me.
Here's a taste of this Saturday's show by Shanghai's Friend or Foe. This video was shot by homegrown, straightforwardly-named blog/burgeoning media empire Live Beijing Music. Read more »
A 22-year-old man jumped out of a moving bus on a Sichuan province freeway and died, reports Chengdu Business Daily via Global Times. Why did he jump?
"He asked me to park the bus because he needed to pee," said the bus driver, Liu Renzi, who was en route to Ziyang from Chengdu that day. "I asked him to wait because it's not safe to park on the freeway. I told him that there was a restroom at Shiqiao service zone, which would take about 10 minutes to reach." Read more »
The Economist has a bizarre regional cover this week. Never mind that it’s tasteless and will surely be interpreted as homophobic by many of its critics. NEVER MIND THAT. Let me isolate the cover-line jokes for you, see if you find them funny:
He Stole His Heart
(And Then His Intellectual Property)
Hmm. Read more »
Beijing will host the World Sudoku Championship, reports China Daily. "The Eighth World Sudoku Championship will be an eight-day battle of wits" starting October 12.
This will be China's first time holding this prestigious event, which will feature more than 300 competitors from 30 countries and regions, apparently. Read more »
Unless you did. In which case, sorry. I'm sure there's a Western equivalent that's as traumatic and possibly intellectually growth-stunting as the Chinese college entrance exam process. Binge drinking? Drugs? I don't know what the equivalent is.
Gaokao, of course, commences today, as does national mourning for the country's youth. To a childhood dying young -- eyes the shady test has shut. Read more »
A 32-year-old American teacher surnamed McMahon was detained on May 13 under suspicion of sexual assault, reports Xinhua. He worked at Lycee Francais de Shanghai (LFS), an elite French private school.
Reports AFP:
The Shanghai kindergarten teacher was seized by police last month after seven families filed formal accusations against him, alleging sexual abuse and rape of students of both sexes, several parents said. Read more »
Ken Tanaka, one of the directors of the funny skit "What Kind of Asian Are You?," which we featured here last week, has sent us a follow-up that features actors Stella Choe and Scott Beehner reading YouTube comments. If you think you already know how this is going to go, you're more or less correct. Read more »
China Daily has published one heck of a lede sure to make journalists cover their mouths and titter. Go read this five times:
Beijing, Shanghai and the eastern province of Jiangsu were found to be the three happiest places in China in 2012, chinanews.com reported, citing research. Read more »
