When you live on government land, what's yours isn't really, since it can be taken away in a whim. Of course, all land in China technically belongs to the government, so no one, in effect, can claim for him or herself that most basic of Maslow's needs, shelter. Which is perhaps why the issue of demolition in China is such a tinderbox, ready to explode with cries about fairness, justice, and -- forbid -- a government's scope of power. Read more »
Noting the wild popularity of Hong Kong's big rubber duck in Victoria Harbor, designed by Florentjin Hofman, Wuhan went ahead and got its own. It's made by a property company, notes Sina.
To be honest, I'm surprised that a property company practicing shanzhai wouldn't go bigger instead of smaller. Surely 16.5 meters isn't the upper limit for rubber duck sizes. Read more »
Welcome to Three Shots with Beijing Cream, where local personalities show off their drinking prowess at bars you should patronize. Produced and directed by Gabriel Clermont and Anthony Tao.
You've likely bumped into him at one of the city's bars, if you're the bar-going kind. Otherwise, you might know his work from The Atlantic, the New York Times, TIME, CNN, Huffington Post, and a variety of other publications. Our guest this week is Mitch Moxley, former China Daily copy editor, author of the forthcoming Apologies to My Censor about being a white man in China. Read more »
If you haven't seen it already, check out Matt Sheehan and Matt Allen's "We Livin in Xi'an," sung to the tune of tonight's outro. We'll meet again soon. Read more »
Happy Friday night, Internet goons - here's a little something for you to watch and listen to while you're lacing up your shit-kickers for a night on the town. This week, I'm using this space to plug a friend and colleague's project because, hey, it's credible on its own. My conscience is clear. This isn't Pepsi Cola or H&M or some shit. Read more »
“Is it a sin to work for Global Times?” asks the headline to a recent SCMP blog by Amy Li that launches into an account of a recent, unpleasant and viral Weibo exchange between a reporter from the English version of GT, Zhang Zhilong, and a scribe for a more liberal paper, China Business News, Wang Wai. Zhang had contacted Wang under the unspoken “we’re all journalists together” pact in hopes of getting more police information about a taxi accident involving his parents and doing a story about it. Read more »
