Sometimes newspapers bend the truth, or cast a story in its own editorial light. For examples of this, follow James Fallows's sporadically updated series about why he reads more than one newspaper.
But then there's the above. Tens of thousands marched in protest yesterday of Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung and Beijing political influences, but if the only newspaper you read was the China Daily (a hypothetical that applies to no one), you'd be forgiven for thinking all those bodies around Victoria Park were celebrating the 16th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover.
Hey, I'm Morgan, blah, blah, blah…
So Saturday is the return of Moroccan sausage Badr Benjelloun's 'dazeFeast, the all-day, all0night rock and / or roll party out there at 2 Kolegas. Tons of bands (check out the full line-up right here), some capoeira out on the grass, comedy, roasted animals, beer, dancing, good times, laughs, memories, surprises, and all manner of good things.
Amy Daml of Coon Creek, Minnesota has had a productive first year in China, braving TCM, Chinese grannies, and sex scenes in movies (alas, just as a voice actress, with her sexy, sexy voice). Listen to her charm the pants off our hosts, John Artman and The Good Doctor, in the latest episode of The Creamcast.
You can also catch Daml (pronounced Dam-ol) on China Radio International's Easy Cafe (time tbd).
You might remember Greg Donohue, our English teacher columnist. What's that, you don't? Here's your reminder.
Greg Donohue? I thought you'd been fired.
Me too. But then the BJC editors reached out and explained that unpaid columnists couldn't be fired, especially since I'm not a particularly corrupt official, a pedophile, or a LBH teacher. And how little do they know.
I spent my last 30 minutes at the 2nd annual Beijing Craft Beer Festival sitting behind a desk under the LGBT Resource Center tent handing out fliers and chatting with curious Chinese onlookers and expats happy to see the table. (How drunk was I? You decide.) Ni hao, women shi Beijing TongZhi ZhongXin, we announced to a curious child and his semi-interested mother. Her eyes snapped to a rainbow-patterned poster, then to the two smiling foreigners sitting in front of her. With the speed and grace of a defensive tackle scooping up a fumble, lady disappeared with child.
Not a minute later, a separate young mother had her two daughters each put 10 kuai into the donations box. Scurrying and donating -- it was like that all evening, and the organizers were just fine with that.
It could be that I have absolutely no understanding of Taiwan politics, but holy catfight! "Members of the ruling party and opposition party fought for control over the rostrum, ahead of a scheduled discussion on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant referendum," Taiwan-based The China Post explained.
Taiwan's legislature is notorious for its brawls between legislators -- i.e. elected adults who are supposed to be the representatives of a democratic, civil society -- but this recent fight brings politics to a new level: pinching, shrieking, hair-grabbing, pushing, crying. And whatever is happening here:
We don't really have an explanation for this. Edward Snowden is back in the news in a big way -- he left Hong Kong and is traveling to either Cuba or Ecuador via Moscow -- but check out what the Independent did with the front page of its newspaper, which hits newsstands today. The caption reads: "A red-shirted Edward Snowden, the man who leaked classified documents revealing US internet surveillance, among passengers at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport yesterday after he flew in from Hong Kong. Reports say Mr Snowden has asked Ecuador for asylum. BARCROFT MEDIA."
Hello Beijing Cream readers. My name is Morgan and I work at this other website called SmartBeijing, wherein we specialize in faking the funk on nasty dunks. The Tao is outsourcing these Friday Musical Outros to me so he can concentrate on… well, hey, look at that… pretty tame week. Human suffering seems like it was somewhat minimal this week… no toilet babies… no… oh. Oh wait. Yep, there it is. Yes!
Ai Weiwei has managed to upset and alienate many groups during his reign as China’s national gadfly, particularly within the past five years, a period in which the 55-year-old's public profile has swelled to supernova proportions. A respondent brought up the "Ai Weiwei Effect" in last month’s roundup of critical reactions to Ai Weiwei and Zuoxiao Zuzhou’s song “Dumbass,” and on the eve of the release of The Divine Comedy -- the six-song album on which Dumbass appears -- it's worth asking again: how do we perform aesthetic analysis of the outspoken artist-cum-activist's work when our perceptions are so colored by sentiment?
Sam Goodman is a Beijing oldie, having first moved here in 1995. In 1997 he was among the first foreigners to open a shop in the food-and-beverage industry, the sandwich chain Sammie's. He has since written a book, Where East Eats West, and gone on to start an assortment of projects, which you can read about here.
