Understanding Jackie Chan, Chinese Nationalism, And Double Standards In English Media

Jackie Chan
In a December interview on a Phoenix TV talk show, Jackie Chan made comments that Western media have recently described as "anti-American" -- ...really? I think his comments regarding America are immature, but they're not without reason. What a lot of reporting has ignored is that Chan was speaking in Chinese on a Chinese television channel, and the message he was delivering to a Chinese audience was this: “Yes, China has flaws, but if you talk about our country's shortcomings with foreigners, they'll misinterpret the message.”

Reuters Interviews Rich Crank, Concludes Luxury Bikes Are Cool In Greater China

Reuters bike story featured image
Foreign commissioning editors get a lot of pitches like this: “The Chinese are now watching Homeland / eating caviar / behaving like us.” These activities usually owe to the fact that a few ultra-wealthy Chinese have found some new, pointlessly expensive Western habit — like high-end gold hi-fi aficionado clubs, or bottles of purified Moon water... Read more »

After Running Over Pedestrians And Continuing To Run Over Them, Driver Lets Passenger Take The Blame [Graphic]

Driver runs over pedestrians over and over
Holy-shit video time. Last Thursday in Zhengzhou, Henan province, surveillance cameras caught a driver running over a couple on the street — and then continue to run over them, and run over them, and run over them. (Viewer discretion is advised.) The good news first: the pedestrians who were run over will survive, though they... Read more »

Your First Look At “No Pants Subway Ride” Shanghai 2013

No Pants Subway Ride Shanghai
No Pants Subway Ride, the annual event launched in 2002 by New York City-based Improv Everywhere, has spread to more than 60 cities, in which subway commuters strip off their pants on January 13 just because. Thousands participated this year in New York, hundreds in Mexico City, and, um, maybe a dozen or so in Shanghai?... Read more »

While US Embassy Pollution Index Measured 755 Last Night, Beijing’s Official Air Quality Index Was “Out Of Service” [UPDATE: Video]

AQI 800
We don't really get how a reading that theoretically should max out at 500 can spit out a number like 755, but look at the above. It got so bad last night that Beijing's official air-quality index conveniently went "out of service" from 10 pm to 10 am this morning. When it came back, it featured this warning: