Chinayouthology has a piece over on their blog explaining who the Chinese hipsters are. The term of “hipsters” in Chinese is 潮人, which literally translates to “trendy/hip person” and sounds a bit like 超人 (“super man”). The term is more straightforward than the American word “hipster” and not as unique a classifier. (Arguably, the term…

Continue readingDissecting China’s “hipsters”

I found this many months ago but it is still relevant. From a Reuters article on the one-child policy:

China’s famous “one child” policy is actually less rigorous than its name suggests, and allows urban parents to have two offspring if they are both only children. Rural couples are allowed a second child if their first is a girl.

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Continue readingAdding some nuance to the one-child policy

Leung Chun-ying writes in the Hong Kong Journal about Hong Kong’s future as “Asia’s world city” and the two key problems it faces:

1. Local income disparity: “Restaurant workers today earn 4% less than they did 17 years ago. Workers in fast food outlets earn 19% less. Those driving container lorries earn 30% less.” + “Barely a quarter of Hong Kong…

Continue readingA review of Hong Kong’s future

He is singing about Chinese New Year. It is awesome.

Via Adri.

招财童子 (the wealth-bringing-seeking children) are a suite of Chinese-themed, adorable, cartoon characters. For example:

Since I profiled their Opera-themed siblings in 2007 (here), they’ve become famous enough to appear on T-shirts, silly Flash animations and phone cards:

Happy preemptive Chinese New Year folks!…

Continue readingSome cute for Chinese New Year

According to CNNGo:

“Live like the pleasant goat, and marry someone like the big big wolf.” That’s one of China’s most well-known catchphrases since the cartoon “The Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf” (喜羊羊灰太狼), the first domestically produced Chinese cartoon, was broadcast in 2005. The characters starring in nearly 600 episodes, broadcast by…

Continue readingA look back at China’s first domestically produced cartoon

Frog in a Well has an interesting article about print culture and publishing in historic China:

Happily, China had a thriving printing culture for a good thousand years before the introduction of western-style printing machinery in the late 19th century created a modern publishing industry, so we know something about this.  The Chinese reluctance to adopt movable type  is even now sometimes…

Continue readingPrint culture in ancient China

Ice scupltures by Joseph Ellis

Alfredo Martinez at work

The New York Times has an interesting article about various artists who have chosen to go to China to maximize their creativity. Reasons include the cheap costs of materials and (other people’s) labor, an escape from the spotlight of the New York art scene, and…

Continue readingForeign artists find a safe haven in China

The Financial Times has a narrated slideshow that speaks about the displacement of migrant workers during the ongoing rapid expansion of the city of Beijing.

While none of the facts are spectacular, the narration is low-key and subtle (in a good way) and the photographs do tell a rich emotional story.

See it here…

Continue readingSlideshow of displaced migrant workers

I hadn’t noticed that the human flesh search phenomenon (moarality-driven smart mobs in China) had spawned its own search engine + news site. See above.

Interesting to see that the phenomenon has persisted for so long — I’d love to see where it goes in a few more years.

Via China Observer.

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Continue readingHuman flesh search dot com