Kudos go out to The Atlantic for the launch of its new section, China Channel. In the introduction, overseeing editor Matt Schiavenza describes this country as “a defining story in the contemporary world,” and articulates the desire “to sustain a closer, clearer exploration.” They start with a collection of pictures from Tom Carter, author of CHINA: Portrait of a... Read more »Read more »
Good news sports fans: some of the planet’s top athletes are planning preseason tours to Beijing and Shanghai. Let’s start with basketball, the most popular sport this country by some metrics*. For the first time ever, the Los Angeles Lakers are coming to China. They’re slated to play the Golden State Warriors on October 15... Read more »Read more »
The Xinhua News Agency is reporting that sources say Hangzhou mayor Shao Zhanwei, a deputy at the 12th National Party Congress, died of a “sudden illness” in Beijing this morning. All other details are sparse, but another report identifies the sudden illness as a heart attack. It was just yesterday that Shao spoke about Wen... Read more »Read more »
Few will accuse Hu Jintao of being photogenic (note: some have tried), but the above picture takes the cake. By Jason Lee of Reuters, captioned via Yahoo: “An attendant serves tea to China’s President Hu Jintao (L) next to China’s Communist Party Chief Xi Jinping (R) during the opening ceremony of the National People’s Congress (NPC)... Read more »Read more »
When it comes to PR disasters, few look worse than this. Then again, when you use a carjacking/kidnapping-turned-murder to try to push products out of your showroom, you deserve all the bad karma you get. Abe Sauer of Brand Channel has this story: Liaoning Tianhe Buick, a dealership in Jilin’s neighbor province, posted the following... Read more »Read more »
Its most controversial days are likely behind it, but we have one more update on Beijing Snacks, which some have taken to calling “the most racist restaurant in Beijing” thanks to its owner pasting a “no dog… no Japanese et al.” sign on the front window. RFH recently visited with friends, including a Japanese man... Read more »Read more »
The fighting starts around the 45-second mark, but the build-up is almost worth it. These guys have to be drunk, right? That green bottle that shatters has to be baijiu, right? (Chinese moonshine, basically.) We don't know. And then it ends, weirdly, with both men missing a flip-flop. One guy is driven away with his shoe still on the ground. The other holds his flip-flop and shouts vulgar curses, held back by his less angry friends. Metaphor? Read more »
Dennis Rodman, fresh off his tour of Pyongyang, can’t stop singing the praises of that “awesome kid” Kim Jong-un. Unsurprisingly, some Americans just don’t want to hear about it, such as the bartender at the restaurant bar in Time Hotel in Manhattan on Sunday. According to the New York Post: “He was at the bar at... Read more »Read more »
Other than getting caught, this is probably a carjacker’s worst nightmare. (And a parent’s, too.) “Police in Changchun are searching for a 2-month-old baby who was in a[n] SUV that was stolen on Monday morning,” reports China Daily. One imagines no carjacker ever envisions himself classified as a kidnapper. Read more »
