Artists and officials, cosy together in the Middle Kingdom

April 30, 2013 by Jason Li

Over at the Atlantic, Nick Frisch discusses the outrage that ensued when Mo Yan, “Communist Party member, People’s Liberation Army veteran, Vice-Chairman of the state-run China Writers’ Association” won the Nobel Prize for Literature last October.

The paper quoted Gao Xingjian, the 2000 literature laureate whose dissident stature and French citizenship made him ineligible for recognition as a “Chinese”…

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How a bookstore evolved into becoming a banned books center in Hong Kong

April 15, 2013 by Jason Li

PeoplesRecreation1

From the Atlantic, In Hong Kong, a Sanctuary for Banned Books:

Later that year we began to get mainland visitors from cities like Beijing and Tianjin who were traveling on their own. Our sign said “People’s Commune” in Chinese, and our logo was Mao Zedong’s face, so maybe that caught their eye. Sometimes, customers would ask…

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Kowloon Walled City repository

April 9, 2013 by Jason Li

Those of us who’ve been in Hong Kong are constantly barraged by articles and people describing the magic of the now-dismantled Kowloon Walled City. Amidst the romanticization of this 6.5 acre block that was ungoverned or policed for decades (it lay in limbo between communist China and colonial British rule), people rarely offer any photographs of its inside. Until now, I had…

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Swipe typing, China edition

March 19, 2013 by Jason Li

Above: TouchPal (触宝)’s promo video for their smartphone swipe-typing technology. Note the (probably unauthorized) Lady Gaga soundtrack.

Francis Pisani over at Winch5 has a feature on TouchPal Cootek, a China born-and-bred smartphone swipe-typing technology. Pisani claims that their keyboard works much better than the Swype that’s offered on Samsung phones. Amongst Cootek’s many features are predictive text…

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The myopia of excluding censors: A self-defeating White House petition

February 6, 2013 by Tricia Wang

Photo from the China Internet Conference 2011 held in Beijing.

Editor’s note: This is an op-ed that our very own Tricia Wang wrote, which also appeared on Al Jazeera.

In the last week, thousands of people have signed a petition on Whitehouse.gov titled, “People who…

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Trying to cash in on Chinese New Year – Chinese sneakers from Western companies

February 5, 2013 by Jason Li

From Adidas:

adidas-Originals-SS-80s-Chinese-New-Year-Pack-01 Jeremy-Scott-x-Eason-Chan-x-adidas-Originals-JS-Wings-01-630x419

From Nike, and apparently not for sale:

YOTS_by_ZJ_01-500x250

Not very subtle, are they?

(Image sources here, here and here.)

2 rooftops, 2 farms, 2 cities

February 1, 2013 by Jason Li

A Tale of Two Rooftops from The Perennial Plate on Vimeo.

A beautiful tale of two rooftop farms, one in Beijing and one in Hong Kong, and the people behind them.

Via This Big City.

An infamous Chinese hacker becomes a “security professional”?

January 21, 2013 by Tricia Wang

Up until now, Wicked Rose has been infamous for one thing, being a prolific hacker. He exploited Microsoft Office security holes in the US Defense Department and obtained sensitive data for over two years before being discovered.

But it appears that Wiked Rose is exploring a new career path.

Investigative reporter, …

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The First Wankathon in China: First Masturbation Contest for World’s Aid Day in China

January 11, 2013 by Tricia Wang

Walkathons are boring, wankathons are not. Who wants to watch people walk when you can watch people masturbate? The first Masturbation Contest for World’s Aid Day took place in Shenzhen. The Shanghaiist has a set of wonderful pictures of men without pants, floppy dildos, dolls with orfices to stick fingers or penises into, and personal cum buckets. (Shanghaiist’s removed the…

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Announcing the 88 Bot! (aka Group Retweet Bot)

January 4, 2013 by An Xiao Mina

Over here at 88 Bar, a number of us are tweeting about China, Chinese-related things, and just interesting topics in general. And while we recognize the value of maintaining a strong social media presence, our @88_bartenders Twitter account admittedly hasn’t received as much attention as it should. After a bit of brainstorming, we realized we needed a new member to our team —…

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