Time 100: Jon Huntsman Calls Xi Jinping “Most Transformational Chinese Leader Since Deng Xiaoping”

Xi Jinping Time 100
Time has released its most recent edition of the Time 100, its click-baity list of "the most influential people in the world in 2014." Among those on the list is -- no surprise -- Xi Jinping, who got a three-paragraph writeup from former US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman. The opening sentence should raise some eyebrows: Read more »

These Are Probably The Most Frightening Panda Pictures Ever

Creepy panda by Ami Vitale featured image
The Guardian recently published a series of photos by Ami Vitale, who was given exclusive access to the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Chengdu to photograph the giant panda, a creature that you and I and the general public knows as comely and cute. Vitale, however, reveals a darker, sinister side, a world of paraphilia, cages, and kinkplay in which China's national symbol is transformed into an object of flesh that -- willingly or unwillingly -- engages in deviant sex and/or some sort of atavistic fetishism. Prepare to never look at pandas the same way -- or the bipeds who love them. Read more »

Scenes From The Beijing Auto Show

Beijing Auto Show featured image
Our friend Amy Sands sends along these pictures from the 13th Beijing International Automobile Exhibition, China's largest auto show. "Like being on the set of a James Bond movie," she says. "Couldn't decide if I found it disgusting or awesome." Bumblebee's having a good time, at least. Read more »

People’s Daily Seeks “Immediate Rectification” From Parody Account @RelevantOrgans

People's Daily vs Relevant Organs
People's Daily, the gift that keeps on giving, did a most glorious thing at 1:39 am today by "publicly condemn[ing]" a parody Twitter account, The Relevant Organs. "We have noticed that a Twitter account has been misleading people by stealing People's Daily 's web address and National emblem of China to make false impression that the account is related to China officials or People's Daily," reads PD's tweeted statement. Read more »

Watch: WeChat Commercials Poke Fun Of Mark Zuckerberg

WeChat ad Zuckerberg
The WeChat-Facebook conflict, a battle for hearts and minds that has simmered for months around hotpot tables where expats and exchange students boast about their respective weaponry, has turned hot. A series of ads recently released on the Youtube channel WeChatSouthAfrica poke fun at Social Network Boy Mark Zuckerberg. The ads -- currently three of them -- are set in the study of a German psychiatrist who prescribes "ze WeChat" to a despondent Zuckerberg. Read more »

Poetry Night In Beijing: Canaan Morse

Poetry Night in Beijing - Canaan Morse
On March 16, we co-hosted an event called Poetry Night in Beijing with Pathlight Magazine as part of the Bookworm Literary Festival. Every Thursday, we'll post a video from that evening. This week: Canaan Morse, Pathlight poetry editor, reading about a childhood memory from Maine and a tribute to lobsters in reply to William De Witt Snodgrass. Read more »

Dispatches From Xinjiang: Traffic Lights And Uyghur Black Humor

Uyghur funeral procession featured image
On April 13, 2014, Abdulbasit Ablimit, a 17-year-old from a small town near Aqsu, was shot twice. It appears he had run a red light on an electric scooter and, rather than stop and pay a fine, he had fled. According to his friends, he was gunned down three kilometers later. The official state narrative, posted a few days after the incident, says he attacked the police officers with stones, tried to grab their guns, and so on. Regardless of how, Abdulbasit died within hours. His body was given to his family for burial. But he was not buried. Read more »