Food is better. Whilst proofing news briefs for a Taiwan 🇹🇼 newspaper, I read a crazy story about how vendors in Beijing were caught stuffing cardboard into dumplings 🥟. People are so poor there and desperate to make a buck that they would put cardboard as a filler in shui
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It has generated great publicity for Bon Jovi’s upcoming Asian tour, and a fierce debate between Chinese speakers on both sides of the strait. At the time of writing, the song has enjoyed more than 1.2 million views, 11,462 likes, and over one thousand comments on youtube. One point of
Read moreBy Phillip Charlier The recent and ongoing dispute over the territorial sovereignty of the Diaoyu Tai/Senkaku islands is becoming one episode in a rapidly developing re-polarisation of the geo-politics of the Asia-Pacific region. Both the Republic of China (Taiwan) and People’s Republic of China agree that the islands, located 186
Read moreWritten by Li Rui (李锐), Hu Jiwei (胡绩伟) and others Dated: October 01, 2010 Dear members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress: Article 35 of China’s Constitution as adopted in 1982 clearly states that: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the
Read moreIn this age of demagogic bombasts, famous (and infamous) for bloated, turgid rants and supercilious harangues on the ‘fear-of-the-day’ or cause célèbre, what was it about hearing a soft-spoken, octogenarian academician that appealed to the disparate gathering in Taipei on August 9th? One may conclude that what brought all those people together was the chance to bear witness – a hunger even – to one man’s quest for truth in a world of obfuscation, deception and propaganda.
Read moreThe Wild East Opinion Desk There’s something creepy about Chinese people trying to breed pandas. What’s this about showing ‘Panda porn’? ‘Sexercise’ for pandas? I wouldn’t go into oestrus, either, if only out of spite. China should back off its panda ‘preservation’ programs, stop intervening in panda sex by practically holding
Read moreAccording to vice-chairman of the ROC Centenary Foundation, S.P. Tsai, the logo is free to be used by anyone and associated with other symbols as one likes. This sounds like a politico-marketing version of ‘copyleft’. Open Source politics in the age of democracy.
Read moreBy Jonathan Chandler, in Qingdao Lantern Festival marks the end of Chinese New Year or Spring Festival as it is officially known here and the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China is in its annual nod-off. Though glimpses of spring are
Read moreJonathan Chandler The Wild East The snow which fell a week or so back has yet to melt completely and the winds are still bitter in Qingdao. This ultra-wealthy city where two-wheels are banned and all the cars are brand new is a Party town. Not that kind of party
Read moreJonathan Chandler The Wild East It snowed dream-like and blew bone-flaying gusts of Artic wind last week. The sky was bleeding lead with pure white snowflakes floating along and then for two days a purplish sea-fog rolled in and tied Qingdao into a manky, ice-cold blindfold. Sombre enough for the
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