Earlier we blogged about the “nail house” 钉子户 in Shanghai–these are the residences of urbanites whose neighborhoods have been “moved” 动迁 and who are the last hold-outs–they stick out like nails in an otherwise modernized environment.  Making the rounds of Chinese portals and BBS in March, this “greatest nail house in history,” from Chongqing, which is renowned across the city.…

Continue readingpersonal rights: another Chinese housing hold-out

Highlighted on the front page of QQ’s [Sensationalist] News in Photos:

女孩公交上出手打亲妈 乘客劝阻遭其大骂
(Girl Hits Mother on Bus, Helpful Passengers Scolded)

Photo Caption: Girl leans on front of #70 bus. Prevents bus from moving.

What transpired:

• Teenage girl and mother get on bus…

Continue readingBreaking News! Girl hits mother on bus, helpful passengers scolded!

If you’d like to be a tester for the new Chinese virtual world HiPiHi, and you speak Chinese or know someone who does and can help you, you’ll find an application form here.  If you’re REALLY interested and can’t figure out how to fill out the form, why not try sending an email directly…

Continue readingif you want to enter a new Chinese virtual world…

One of Sina BBS’s “HOT” threads last week: “People’s Congress Delegate Advocates Repealing Concept of Illegal Cohabitation, Do You Support?” It was posted by “eastinred,” who kicks things off with a long response titled, “This People’s Congress delegate’s proposal puts the incidental in front of the fundamental,” some of which I translate…

Continue readingon the BBS: cohabitation and the law

Linked to on PostShow, and appearing in various BBS’s and websites:

《祸布斯》10大穷光蛋排行榜 (Huobus’ Top Ten Poor Bastards Chart)

Each post is accompanied by ten pictures, some more exaggerated and satirical than the others. It is satirical because, for example, the number one entry is about the Chinese football players and the debt caused by their debauchery. Most…

Continue readingThe Top Ten Poor Bastards of 2006

Everyone says sex makes the Internet go round; maybe it’s just a little more obvious in China?  Sandwiched in between Tianya photo posts on Qing dynasty-era embroidery and government officials planting trees is one of Tianya’s most popular ongoing photo threads of the year: an adult industry exhibition in Las Vegas. Over 400,000 have viewed the pages in the…

Continue readingsexual tourism in Virtual China

If you’re curious about how the new Five-Year Plan compares with previous Five-Year Plans, you can browse China Mapping Out the 11th Five-Year Development Guidelines, which reminds us that the 1st Five-Year Plan’s (1953-1957) goals were pretty different than today:

to concentrate efforts on the
construction of 694 large and medium-sized industrial projects,
including 156…

Continue readingfive-year plans, the official history

Okay, so I don’t know why these are so fascinating to me, but I couldn’t help but spend ten minutes comparing the lovely photos Jason blogged below (you really should see the whole set at PCAuto), with their counterparts from a map of Beijing that Rania Ho has on her Flickrstream, and which I …

Continue readingmore Beijing clovers

A growing facet of Virtual China: Maryann O’Donnell’s Shenzhen Fieldnotes has a great post on her thoughts about finding out that her local hospital in Nanshan is a leader in alternative stem-cell therapies for foreign patients. O’Donnell compares China stem cell blogs and
China adoption blogs. These two sets of online resources are major
contributors to understandings of China, outside of…

Continue readingChina’s stem-cell therapy blogs

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