More stories come out every day about how China is favoring state-owned enterprises (SOEs) at the expense of China’s private sector. Every day there are stories about SOEs advancing and the private sector in retreat or 国进民退 as it is called in Chinese…

Excerpted from the China Vortex.

From Bronson’s email newsletter re: Amy Chua:

I just couldn’t endorse the book, though. Not because Amy Chua admits to insulting and guilting her daughters constantly … and not because Amy Chua deprives her kids of playdates and sleepovers … and not because Amy disses athletics and drama. Believe me, I’ve spent years now watching scholars’ videotapes of how…

Continue readingPo Bronson versus Amy Chua

Via the NY Times 10th Annual Year in Ideas, a train that never stops (a passenger train):

And in case you missed it, the train that runs on top of the highway:

(This one has less fun sounding…

Continue readingUrban transport innovation

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From Asia Times Online:

In an apparent move to forestall similar criticism in Laos, China has worked hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Communication and Transport to establish a new Lao National Internet Center, which will come on-line in 2011. The center’s Lao staff have undergone extensive training in China, including members of a newly created “security emergency response” team,…

Continue readingExporting the GFW

Local security bureaus within Xinjiang and Jiangsu have started offering money, real or virtual (QQ coins), to netizens who can provide information regarding certain cases.

Not only is it notable because small-time officials are monetizing and harnessing the human flesh search engine, they are also implicitly legitimizing a virtual currency.

A sign of the future?

(See…

Continue readingMonetizing the human flesh search engine

Two brothers looking for work in Tangjialing, a slum on the outskirts of Beijing:

It’s a place where flats are equipped with broadband, but not washing machines:

Photos by Mark Leong, from Newsweek’s great feature on China’s New Underclass: White-Collar Workers.

Images from

• http://club.cat898.com/newbbs/dispbbs.asp?boardid=1&id=2827189

News source

• http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200905c.brief.htm

Apologies for the dated nature of this post (2009!).

From Jiang Xueqin’s post over at the Diplomat:

Now that I’m in Beijing I often wonder if it’s possible to build a strong educational programme in the imperial capital of guanxi. To counter guanxi, which is essentially about leveraging one’s personal network, I thought it best at Peking University High School to emphasize process over people.…

Continue readingAn educator’s attempt at fighting guanxi

Translated from Helen Fang’s diary, originally titled “我们是中国乐队?“:

In Europe:

This tour has taken us to many places, including Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg. Touring abroad, we’re often interviewed by the foreign press. These interviews make me feel that the outside world really doesn’t understand China.

Every journalist will ask me, do you encounter obstacles…

Continue readingAre we a Chinese band?