Tea Leaf Nation has this amusing story of former Japanese AV star Sola Aoi, who has more than 13 million followers on Sina Weibo, trying to placate fans on both sides of the sea: Ms. Aoi recently tweeted two images via iPhone from her account (@苍井空)… the first reads “Japanese-Chinese Friendship,” with Ms. Aoi commenting... Read more »
We’ve gone way beyond civil disobedience. Who are the Chinese attacking? Chinese-owned Japanese restaurants, and Japanese people who may call China home, and now journalists. It is, as the proverb goes, shitting on your carpet to spite the neighbor. We’ve seen this line of indiscriminate violence in this country before — it was called the... Read more »
Tension over Japan’s purchase of the Diaoyu Islands appears to be escalating. Today, on what appears to be a gorgeous autumn afternoon in Beijing, thousands gathered outside the Japanese embassy to throw rocks, eggs, and bottles. Similar protests apparently happened in more than a dozen cities. Jacob, who runs the excellent YouTube channel BeijingShenghuo, was at... Read more »
In a cab yesterday evening, the first words the driver said to me were, "They gonna fight?" I was confused and signaled as such. He nodded at the radio. A broadcaster was in the middle of reporting on the Diaoyu Islands -- sold on Tuesday to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's administration from their Japanese owners -- and that's when I realized he really meant, "Might they go to war?"
Protesters occupying Hong Kong’s city plaza have won — sort of. Wall Street Journal reports people are feeling “mixed jubilation and frustration” after the city announced yesterday it will make its controversial National Education curriculum “voluntary.” While it’s too early to unravel all the implications of this decision, a direct result is that those on their hunger... Read more »
As fall semesters begin to kick into gear, here’s a reminder that not all new students are happy where they are. Last Thursday in Guangzhou, four female students publicly got their heads shaved to protest sexist college admission practices, part of continuing controversy over lower test-score requirements for boys vs. girls.
Four protesters in Shenzhen on Tuesday afternoon came up with a creative way of voicing discontent over the Japanese claims on the Diaoyu islands. With bayonets between their thighs — and three of them in swimwear — they chanted things like, “Civilized patriotism, rational Japanese resistance.” I think what they mean is: don’t do this.... Read more »
On Sunday, a Jilin province-based ginseng association was holding a promotional activity in Beijing’s Chaoyang Park when environmentalists brought its event to a sudden halt. Before being intercepted by park security and escorted out, the young protesters made it known that ginseng mining destroys forests. At least one woman was topless, drawing all the cameras. Poor... Read more »
Chinese president Hu Jintao was in Hong Kong over the weekend as part of the 15th-year anniversary celebration of Hong Kong's handover from the UK. Yesterday, he dropped by the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center to swear in the somewhat unpopular Leung Chun-ying as new chief executive, but before he could, a demonstrator tried to interrupt his speech with pro-democracy slogans such as, "Vindicate June 4 [referring to those killed near Tiananmen in 1989]" and "End one-party dictatorship, establish a democratic China." Hu, we imagine, didn't even blink -- because he never does, since he is a robot.
Video of that citizen's arrest attempt on Tony Blair, which we alluded to yesterday in our links post (via Huffington Post), has surfaced on several media, notably Telegraph and ITN, but the above video has the best sound quality, so you're getting that.
