In Foreign Policy’s introduction to its latest slideshow of rare photos from Tibet during the Cultural Revolution, the line that jumps out to me is the last one: “This installment of FP’s Once Upon a Time series shows the Land of Snows from a long-forgotten period, when Tibet’s enemy wasn’t China, but itself.” The line, I’m sure,... Read more »Read more »
If politics and diplomacy get too confusing, just throw around some animal metaphors. As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, Senior Colonel Liu Mingfu (soon to be Private Liu or General Liu, depending on which way the wind blows and how much cash and guanxi he has) has stated that both a rabid tiger and wolf... Read more »Read more »
Our analysis of this tenement precinct found in Lingshui county, Hainan province begins with the seminal modernist architect Louis Sullivan's famous phrase "form follows function." Buildings should be designed with their purpose in mind, and so it is philosophically laid out here, in this neighborhood, that the purpose of all human life is to sprout like a blade of grass out of red dirt, sway in the wind, and die. All joy is subsumed by the reality of existing. Not one wasted word is spent. You are because you are. Accept it, for residents of Dadun Village are all engaged in the process of death or already dead. Read more »
The Golden Shield Project (aka Great Firewall of China) has decided GitHub no longer conforms with Chinese notions of harmony, as first noticed Monday by GreatFire.org and reported on The Next Web. The block comes on the heels of the Ministry of Railways's unsuccessful attempt to convince Chinese browser-makers to stop providing a plugin that helps users purchase train tickets off MOR's website. Read more »
Mental health issues are no laughing matter, and neither is biting a large flightless bird to death. What to call this then? At a zoo in Guangdong province on Saturday, a man bit and killed a live ostrich in front of elders and children, then laid on the dead bird and made gun motions with his finger at the police. The man, 27-year-old Li, was found with a suicide note in his pocket addressed to his mother and girlfriend. Read more »
Less than a week after Tracy McGrady drilled a game-winner on the road against Liaoning, this season's other big import from the NBA, Gilbert Arenas, showed everyone he has some clutch bones in him as well. With the clock winding down and the Shanghai Sharks down 94-93 in Nanjing, on the home court of the Jiangsu Dragons, Arenas made his move, which you can watch in the video above. Read more »
Surely you’re aware of the Google autofill / autocomplete meme? For instance, someone types the words “i accidentally” into a Google search bar as part of a longer phrase, but Google presumes you’re too lazy to finish your five-word sentence, so it helpfully offers a pulldown list of possible searches such as “i accidentally the whole... Read more »Read more »
What words do we have left for Sunday's colossal wreck of a basketball scrum between Qingdao and Tianjin, in which the two teams were whistled for a combined 89 fouls (an average of one and a half fouls per minute), shot 119 combined free throws, and each had three players foul out? I wrote that it was "how bad basketball can look when entrusted to the wrong people." NiuBBall's Jon Pastuszek called it an "abomination," "nightmare" and "pathetic." Andrew Crawford of Shark Fin Hoops tweeted, "In Chinese basketball, the biggest problem remains the standard of refereeing." It was a sad day indeed for fans of the CBA. Read more »
Earlier this month in Hainan province, this group beating. What happened?
"Chengguan beating people, I tell ya," cries Ms. Gao, a shop owner. "A gang of chengguan came and beat us." Read more »
