Pangbianr 旁边儿 has soft launched pangbianr radio, a series of podcasts on art & culture in China. The first episode is “On Building Electronic Devices During The Cultural Revolution,” an interview with a woman who dabbled in making radios during that technology-starved era.

Highlights include an account of how she was the only woman at the…

Continue readingWoman electronics engineer during the Cultural Revolution

Some China farming statistics from a great Foreign Policy interview with Lester Brown, who wrote Who Will Feed China? before it was on everyone’s radar:

• “China, like the United States, produces 400 million tons of grain a year.”
• “Last year, there were 12 million new car sales in China… In this country, the rule of…

Continue readingSome farming statistics

Born in the 50s in Guangzhou, Mian Situ paints subjects from rural China…

As well as from historic San Francisco.

See his fine art site (via startdrawing.org).

The WSJ reports on Hung Huang’s latest venture, a new store at the upscale Sanlituan “Village” (outdoor mall) in Bejing. The store’s called BNC (Brand New China) in English and 薄荷糯米葱 (Mint, glutinous rice, onion) in Chinese. It will only feature items made by Chinese designers.

I find the store interesting because it will help pave…

Continue readingHung Huang launches upscale Chinese-designer store

By Vincent Lee, with English subtitles:

The animation is pretty slick, and I love the way the animated characters climb on and throw around real-world props.

Via CNNGo.

I went to a startup conference in Hong Kong today, here are my scanned, graphic notes:

For a more legible version of my notes, goto Flickr directly here.

And congratulations to @jonbuford @genesoo @5thconnection @photogoodness @danielhitome @hypercasey…

Continue readingStartup Saturday Hong Kong 2010 – graphic notes

Joomla is an open-source content management system: Anyone can download it and install it on their server to build robust, complex websites. (Think WordPress with more data manipulation options.)

In 2005, two Dutch entrepreneurs took Joomla with them to a small town in the Tibetan Plateau. There they founded a non-profit, Global Nomad,…

Continue readingOpen-source tool exported to Tibet, creates jobs

The accompanying text is: “On July 28 at the Yingxiong Shanrenfang Shopping Plaza in Jinan city, an old man wanted to jump down from the roof of the 6-meter tall glass house. The police tried to persuade him not to. Meanwhile the reporters from Jinan TV sat right underneath and ate KFC and drank Pepsi.”

Originally…

Continue readingPhoto of the day

Jan Chipchase, a well-known design researcher who moved to Shanghai recently, posts about his 6 Rules for Night-riding in Shanghai. I’ve excerpted my favorite parts below:

The first vehicle into a space has right of way: in the event of a tie – the biggest, most phucked-up vehicle wins. If one vehicle obviously belongs…

Continue readingA late-night bike ride in Shanghai

Look look, China overtakes the US in total consumption…

But, of course, the US is still king when it comes to consumption per capita.

Article and graphs from a Wall Street Journal article entitled “China Tops US in Energy Use.”

Via Paul Denlinger…

Continue readingChina now #1 in… energy consumption