Blogs » Society » A Guide to STI Testing at Shanghai’s Hospitals

---

• A Guide to STI Testing at Shanghai’s Hospitals
• Mercato’s Ricotta and Cranberry Compote
• Professional writers, erotic scribblers, and general degenerates, get your entries in for Shanghai's Lusty Lit Fest 2013
• Find of the Week: Mercato’s Ricotta and Cranberry Compote
• Watch: Hong Kong turns to organic farming in light of mainland food scares
• Red Harvest
• Chinese Motorcyclist Narrowly Avoids Being Crushed Under Overturning Truck
• Shanghai licence plates are 'as precious as gold', vice mayor
• Effective Due Diligence In China
• China losing cost advantages which made it factory of the world
• Top-of-the-Week Links: Xi Jinping’s visit to a Hebei village, Bo Xilai’s trial was not today, and Li Na makes a lot of money
• Get ready for rage! Weibo introduces new rage comic emoticons
• CPC magazine Qiushi claims world has 'Marxist fever' due to failure of capitalism
• Photos: Chunyun begins! Travellers across China rush home for Spring Festival
• Anti-corruption campaign nets biggest fish yet, Politburo member reportedly under investigation
• Chinese gamer rage results in double murder, burnt house
• Hong Kong journalists warn new 'privacy' law will 'breed corruption'
• Anyone Seen The China Version Of Cloud Atlas? You Know, The Version Missing 38 Minutes
• Police visit muckraking journalist who exposed Lei Zhengfu sex tape
• This incredible photo almost makes Beijing's terrible pollution worthwhile

A Guide to STI Testing at Shanghai’s Hospitals Posted: 28 Jan 2013 07:51 PM PST Date: Jan 29th 2013 11:07a.m. Contributed by: sfriedman

Mercato’s Ricotta and Cranberry Compote Posted: 28 Jan 2013 05:00 PM PST Date: Jan 28th 2013 3:37p.m. Contributed by: geofferson This sweet and savory dish is our find of the week!

Professional writers, erotic scribblers, and general degenerates, get your entries in for Shanghai's Lusty Lit Fest 2013 Posted: 28 Jan 2013 06:00 PM PST Our friends at That's Shanghai are running their third annual Lusty Lit Fest erotic fiction competition, with "sinfully divine" prizes. [ more › ]

Find of the Week: Mercato’s Ricotta and Cranberry Compote Posted: 28 Jan 2013 05:00 PM PST Date: Jan 28th 2013 3:37p.m. Contributed by: geofferson

Watch: Hong Kong turns to organic farming in light of mainland food scares Posted: 28 Jan 2013 03:00 PM PST [Via CNN] Many Hong Kongers are moving toward local, organic farming in response to tainted food scares on the mainland, Hong Kong's biggest vegetable importer. [ more › ]

Red Harvest Posted: 27 Jan 2013 05:00 PM PST In a mining town steeped in vice, an ambitious newspaper editor is shot dead on the street, and almost everyone in the community seems to have an interest in his death, even his colleagues and his ice-cold wife. In this passage from the Chinese translation of Dashiell Hammett's seminal Red Harvest, Hammett's hard-boiled detective confronts the grieving father of the murdered man... entirely in mandarin. Trying to get past competence towards real fluency? One of the things we recommend to more advanced students is worrying less about reading Chinese literature and more about just exposing yourself to whatever fiction will keep you turning the page. And if you like detective fiction we think you'll enjoy this selection. We won't spoil the ending, but if you like the story you can pick up the whole book for less than 15 RMB on Amazon China. And if you can't for some reason send us an email and we'll figure out how to buy it for you. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Chinese Motorcyclist Narrowly Avoids Being Crushed Under Overturning Truck Posted: 28 Jan 2013 10:22 AM PST A motorcyclist in Linhai, Zhejiang province is lucky to be standing today after barely avoiding an overturning container truck last Tuesday. Check out this recently uploaded video in which the cyclist, waiting on Highway 104, finds the sudden need to sidestep a 19-ton vehicle skidding straight at him. The truck driver, fortunately as well, was not seriously injured.

Shanghai licence plates are 'as precious as gold', vice mayor Posted: 28 Jan 2013 06:00 AM PST Shanghai's vice mayor, Shen Jun, said this week that vehicle licence plates could become as valuable as gold, as the municipal government ramps up efforts to reduce congestion on the city's roads. [ more › ]

Effective Due Diligence In China Posted: 28 Jan 2013 06:58 AM PST Last year a couple of people from the Risk Advisory Group's Asia Group stopped by my office and we spent quite a bit of time discussing risks in China. Risk Advisory Group And of course we also discussed various ways of mitigating those risks and of course, conducting one's due diligence figured prominently.  One of the things that has always bothered me about due diligence is that just about everyone knows it should be done but very few people know what exactly it is that should or even can be done.  And because it can vary so much from deal to deal, I have always found it difficult to write about.  I mean, if you are buying a $2,000 item from someone in China over the internet, your due diligence is obviously going to be a lot different than if you are buying a Chinese company for USD$2 billion. So I did what I love to do when faced with something difficult: outsource it to the experts. I asked the Risk Advisory Group to do a guest post on China due diligence. Risk Advisory Group describes itself on its website as follows: Risk Advisory is a leading, independent global risk management consultancy. We provide intelligence, investigation and security services to clients that include many of the world's leading corporate entities, financial institutions and law firms. We help our clients to navigate increasingly complex regulatory, compliance and security environments in some of the most challenging jurisdictions. Most importantly they do a lot of work involving China.  The following is their guest post, and as I told them in my response to it, I could not be happier with it. – Can you do effective due diligence in China? A lot of companies, funds and other investors ask us about doing due diligence in China. They have heard many stories about business deals that have gone horribly wrong, particularly those very public deals which have made the front pages of the international financial press. They have been told that getting information in China is difficult, particularly if you want to stay on the right side of the law. They have also heard that accessing accurate data about the business they are buying, learning how a company secured its lucrative contract with a State Owned Enterprise (SOE), or understanding more about the background of the favoured candidate to run their joint venture is impossible. That is not strictly true. Yes, it can be challenging: the press is heavily monitored, self-censors and, at times, is actively controlled; company records can be difficult (if not impossible) to access legally; and we all know that every company keeps at least three sets of accounts and you may never see the real figures. But China is just like every other country: the people who understand how it works can help you to unearth information that will help shape your decisions. – The black, the white and the grey First, a word on the law with the caveat that this should not in any way be construed as legal advice. I will leave that to the blog hosts. On occasion we get asked by our clients if we can tell them how much money the company has in the bank, obtain individuals' personal and family details from copies of their household registration files (hukou), details of telephone calls, text messages or some other equally illegal information. The answer is no. There are laws which protect certain classes of information in most countries in the world and China is no different. I would be wary of anyone who offers access to information not generally available elsewhere in the world. The issue in China is one of interpretation. While in all markets laws are subject to interpretation, in China the interpretation is inconsistent and changes regularly and without warning. By way of illustration, last year, there were tens, possibly hundreds of newspaper articles published about increasingly limited access to corporate filings across the country. There were no known changes to the law. Yet, a year or so ago, access would be given to full corporate files by the Administrations of Industry and Commerce (AIC) bureaus. But in 2012, access to financial information and any personal data in the records became much more heavily restricted. The clampdown has not been uniform across China. Access has been far more restricted in Beijing than anywhere else. That is probably no surprise. Civil servants working so close to the seat of power are likely to err on the side of caution, and particularly so in the year of the transition. Today, some AIC bureaus simply refuse any access to the file at all. But why has there been a clampdown? The answer is far from clear. Many draw a direct line between external events that have damaged China's reputation and that of its companies over the last 12 months, citing events such as the publication of Muddy Waters Research into Sino Forest, and similar reports by short-sellers. Others suggest that investigative articles detailing the wealth of senior politicians published by The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, all of which drew heavily on detailed analysis of corporate and regulatory filings, were the root cause. It could well be either of those things, or it may be something entirely different. Nobody really knows because China is not a transparent place. – So what does (good) due diligence get you in China? As with everything in life – that depends. We regularly look at a broad spectrum of industries and people, and in many different provinces in China, and it surprises me how little investors know (or are willing to pass on) about the company in which they are proposing to invest. The more you, the client, share about the deal, your concerns and what you already know – as well as the more time and resources you invest – the more value due diligence is likely to add. For example, one of our clients was considering funding a small business in northeast China. They had its name and that of the company's founder – in Chinese characters, fortunately, because transliteration from English can cause a lot of false hits and a lot of wasted time – and very little else. In this case it was enough. Open sources revealed little about the businessman, but through the contacts we have in that part of China, we were able to uncover the businessman's colourful past. He had started out in construction and applied some heavy-handed tactics to grow his business. This meant he had plenty of enemies and a few friends in high places who were responsible for sorting out the resulting mess without sullying his name. For some, this alone would have been enough to put them off the deal. But we found more, not related to the reputation of the entrepreneur, but more importantly perhaps, through the conversations we had with people who knew the business, there were serious questions raised over the quality of the food products his company sold and therefore the long-term sustainability of the business in which our client wanted to invest. All of this information gave our client a much better understanding of the challenges it would face if it went ahead with its investment and for skilled researchers who know their way around China it was not too challenging to find. In some cases, you can find a gold mine of information. During the course of an investigation into an SOE we unearthed reams of legal documents. Those filings detailed allegations of fraud, misuse of company funds and the illegal transfer of assets from the SOE to private companies controlled by some of its directors. Such revelations about SOEs are normally closely guarded secrets and not necessarily made public. That may be changing. Many have interpreted the reference by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to corruption during his first speech to the Politburo as a signal that he will take steps to tackle the issue. – Keeping FCPA lawyers up at night One of the biggest potential risks for US companies doing business with China is the extent of state involvement in the economy. Key industry sectors are dominated by powerful SOEs; there is considerable red tape involved in acquiring licences and permits across the board, all of which are handled by state departments; and as a result of extensive membership of the CCP, many people in private business could still be regarded as government officials. When Liu Zhijun, the former minister of railways, was investigated for 'serious violations of discipline' (generally speaking, a euphemism for corruption) by the CCDI, one of our clients became concerned about its dealings with a subsidiary which came under the Ministry's control. They wanted to understand if the subsidiary had been associated with any wrongdoing, either in relation to Liu's apparent transgressions or any other matter. It is often difficult to ask questions about SOEs and their operations or indeed powerful people within China. Officials are more likely to deny requests for information and people are less open in giving you their views. But in this case, our enquiries established that Liu's influence over the subsidiary was slight and not controversial. We worked with a client on a project in northwest China, a place with patchy public records and – even in the context of China – particularly tight control of the media and access to information. However, through a combination of open sources and conversations with people that live and work in the area we were able to map out a large and complex group of companies, as well as gather sufficient data to piece together the track record and reputation of its founder. His businesses created jobs and brought money into the local economy through tax revenue, but there were rumours circulating that he was corrupt. All of these allegations were published in anti-government publications from abroad and when we probed further, we found them to be baseless. It is always worth identifying the source of any reported wrong-doing properly. Not everything is what it first appears. Because of censorship and state monitoring of the press in China, the Chinese are avid users of blogs and social media. While undoubtedly a great – and sometimes the only – source of information, posts cannot always be relied upon. Wildly inaccurate claims can be made by one blogger with an agenda so many times that they appear to have substance. Knowing your blogs, looking for tell-tale signs that posts were penned by the same writer, and doing your own fact-checking are crucial if you are going to be able to add any value in your analysis. – Do more not less In any country where information can be difficult to access and even more difficult to interpret, it really is worth spending more time – and money – doing your due diligence. China is no exception. It has long been under the spotlight of the US authorities responsible for enforcing anti-corruption laws and that focus shows no signs of dimming. The costs of emerging on the radar of the SEC are far higher than any fees you will pay to accountants, lawyers or investigators. More importantly, as I said at a recent conference, even leaving aside the regulatory reasons, it makes good business sense to know as much as possible about the people you are doing business with; the more you know the more likely the venture is to be successful.

China losing cost advantages which made it factory of the world Posted: 28 Jan 2013 02:40 AM PST Poor environmental awareness and data blamed as Chinese companies face fierce competition from other developing countries. SGS China is a third-party certification body. Xin Bin is northern China director of the international certification department and Chang Jiansong senior project manager. chinadialogue: How have attitudes towards green development evolved among Chinese companies? Xin Bin: The first Chinese firms to worry about this were manufacturers working for export markets. Those companies were supplying overseas brands, and had to meet the needs of their customers. About 20 years ago, such requirements were about the quality of the product itself, but by the mid-1990s they covered workplace health and safety, treatment of employees, community relations and environmental policies, and later we saw a series of environmental and social guidelines issued both inside and outside of China. Concern about carbon emissions is a more recent phenomenon. Three to five years ago, many international brands had low-carbon requirements. Most Chinese firms didn't think those standards were anything to do with them, but they very quickly started to affect procurement decisions. Before the 2008 financial crisis, low-carbon was a big thing. Afterwards, as the economy slumped, companies started to worry more about economic pressures, and so low-carbon demands slackened off somewhat. But pressure from the Chinese government has grown. In 2011, China's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, released a document called the "10,000 company action plan for reducing energy use and carbon". Energy-hungry companies around the country signed energy-saving commitments with local government to make sure the country can meet the 12th Five Year Plan target of a 16% drop in energy intensity [the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP].  During our work we have found that more intense government pressure when it comes to energy and emissions has been a strong motivator for companies. One thing is certain: more and more Chinese firms are realising that a low-carbon future is inevitable. In 2005, just nine Chinese companies published sustainable development reports. In 2011, the figure was 898. In early 2009, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission required central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to publish social responsibility reports within three years. The number of central SOEs doing this has risen from five in 2006, to 76 in early 2011 – that's 65% of all central SOEs. cd: Which area of your business has grown the most? XB: We're seeing a constant rise in demand for carbon auditing and low-carbon management. In 2011, we started ISO 14064 certification of greenhouse-gas emissions in the property and dairy sectors. Subsequently, business around carbon and water footprints and transparency developed, with companies or their investors or customers making more detailed and specific requests. That's a natural trend. cd: What motivates Chinese firms to save power and cut emissions? XB: There are two key motives. One is the pressure to improve that comes from being part of an international supply chain, and the other is government policy.  Twenty years ago, only the first of these was pushing Chinese firms to become greener. But since the 12th Five-Year Plan got under way, the second has become more and more important. The firms listed in the National Development and Reform Commission's action plan account for 60% of total energy consumption. State-owned companies have no choice but to comply with government demands – they have to act. In some sectors, emissions reduction isn't even a matter of debate any more. In the power sector, for example, all new power stations are using the most advanced technology available. There is very little left to be done on the technology front, and attention now needs to turn to management. That means Chinese companies need to increase their overall efficiency. If China goes on to impose a carbon tax and mandatory carbon inventories, that will be a massive spur to small and medium sized firms. cd: What are the biggest obstacles to Chinese firms becoming more sustainable? Chang Jiansong: The first is awareness. Many Chinese firms aren't aware of carbon inventories, and have no clear understanding of what carbon audits or carbon management are. Low-carbon is still a phrase for marketing materials, rather than an opportunity to save energy or cut emissions, take action and achieve effective carbon management. Also see: China's low-carbon zones lack motivation, guidance and ideas Next is a lack of data. In our carbon inventory projects we have found that almost every firm lacks detailed and comprehensive data on carbon emissions. If we ask how much power they've used they can tell us what the meter says. But how much was used at each stage of their business, which part uses most power – they don't keep track of that. In the end, it's very difficult to ascribe power use per final product. You can't manage what you don't measure, and if companies aren't gathering carbon emission data, you can't start to talk about cutting those emissions, much less effectively meet the government's target of a 17% cut in carbon intensity [carbon emissions per unit of GDP]. There's also a lack of an accepted methodology. Greenhouse-gas inventory methods designed for the company or organisation level vary. In some sectors, or with some processes, there are no accepted methodologies, and so no way for calculations to be widely recognised. The government could do more on this by providing data on sector averages so that companies can compare themselves both horizontally and vertically. There's little chance of industries doing this of their own accord, it needs to be done on a single platform. cd: How are Chinese firms responding to a greener market environment? XB: At the lower end of the industry chain, they face more environmental and social problems. Most Chinese firms today are low-end manufacturers, and they can't compete on efficiency and added value. In the future they will face more competition over standards. Simple expansion, as happened in the past, was actually an over-reliance on cost advantages, and that's no good for the company's long-term development. China is also facing competition from neighbouring developing countries. Many emerging economies are building factories with advanced equipment and processes, and the EU and US are exporting some new technologies to those countries, not China. China is losing the cost advantages which made it the factory of the world. Chinese companies have no choice but to become more efficient.

Top-of-the-Week Links: Xi Jinping’s visit to a Hebei village, Bo Xilai’s trial was not today, and Li Na makes a lot of money Posted: 28 Jan 2013 04:00 AM PST This is Beijing, via Kotaku We're on a new server – apologies about the erratic posting schedule today. We're back on track with links. The story of the week — about wealth disparity, Xi Jinping, and a village in Hebei province. "Never before has grinding poverty had such a shiny silver lining. At least that is how the 600 corn farmers who inhabit this remote mountain hamlet in north China are feeling in the weeks since Xi Jinping, China's new leader, dropped by to showcase their deprivation. // With a gaggle of local party chiefs and photographers in tow, Mr. Xi ducked into ramshackle farmhouses, patted dirt-smudged children on the head and, with little prompting, nibbled on a potato plucked from Tang Rongbin's twig-fueled cooking fire." (NY Times) Bo Xilai's trial was not today. "Demonstrators in southern China unfurled a banner in support of ousted Politburo member Bo Xilai outside a courthouse where some reports said his trial was due to begin today. // 'Secretary Bo, corrupt and incompetent officials envy you, the people love you,' said the red banner with gold letters, held by a man and a woman outside the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court in the southern province of Guizhou. The two folded up the banner and left after about a minute." (Bloomberg) Corollary: "The mayor of the scandal-plagued southwestern Chinese metropolis of Chongqing said on Saturday that local authorities had banished the malign influence of the city's former top official Bo Xilai, and vowed never to never allow a repeat of his crimes." (Reuters) Hillary Clinton not missed in China. "It's a badly kept secret in Beijing that quite a few Chinese officials, including very senior ones, never warmed to Hillary Rodham Clinton. How much of that is because she is an outspoken supporter of women's rights is unclear, but it is almost certainly a factor: China is run by men (literally — there is not a single woman in the inner circle of power, the Standing Committee of the Politburo), and women have little policy input, whether on domestic or global issues." (Rendezvous, NYT) This is nice. "Shock! Horror! Weibo users are not all foaming-at-the-mouth nationalist bigots! Following the defeat of Chinese tennis player Li Na by Victoria Azarenka, a few abusive posts on the Belarussian's Weibo page were drowned out by thousands of messages of congratulations." (Shanghaiist) On Li Na being world's highest-earning female athlete: "Saturday's Australian Open women's tennis final will be an all-Nike affair as Li Na faces off against Victoria Azarenka. Nothing particularly unusual there, given that the US sportswear giant also sponsors Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams. But Nike won't quite have it all its own way. // That's because Li Na has a deal – unique among Nike's stable of tennis superstars that also includes Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer – that allows her to have two other brands on her shirt in addition to the Nike swoosh. Those two? The well-known car company Mercedes-Benz, and the less well-known insurance company Taikang Life." (The Li-Ning Tower) Hell of an article start. "In Western media and scholarship, Chinese crowds are often schizophrenically portrayed as either terrifying or emancipatory – from the manic frenzy of the Red Guards to the student fighters for democracy at Tian'anmen, from angry mobs destroying Japanese goods to heroic Hong Kong citizens defying Mainland 'brainwashing,' the massive, nameless Chinese crowd looms large in the global imagination as a specter embodying the ambivalence at the heart of modern political democracy." (Roy Chan, Dissertation Reviews) Hmm. "'The Chinese government remains committed to China-Japan relations,' Mr. Xi told the Japanese lawmaker, Natsuo Yamaguchi, in some of his first remarks on foreign policy since becoming general secretary of the Communist Party, according to an account provided by China's Foreign Ministry. // Mr. Xi urged both sides to 'look at the larger picture' and 'push relations forward,' the Foreign Ministry said, language markedly more restrained than the combative statements from military officials and state-run news media since the dispute over the islands erupted last year." (NY Times) "Eating up your dishes." "Chinese netizens have launched an online campaign against waste on dining tables, calling for people to take uneaten food home after banquets and take action to curb waste." (Sina) USC US-China Institute's "Assignment China – End of an Era" interlude: Finally… Funcom Beijing shutting down. (Gamespot) Nu River dam project will go forward. (SCMP) "On dating Chinese men… Are Chinese men the best kept secret?" (YinYangJinFeng) Pictures: when catwalk models fall. (Xinhua) Meet the writers of the Beijinger on Wednesday at Cuju, 5-8 pm. (the Beijinger) Finally, finally… Via Shanghaiist

Get ready for rage! Weibo introduces new rage comic emoticons Posted: 28 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST Rage comics, "a sad pantomime of humor [created] by referencing a million internet in-jokes", are coming to Weibo. Sina has rolled out 71 new emoticons, all animated versions of the various rage comic cartoon characters. [ more › ]

CPC magazine Qiushi claims world has 'Marxist fever' due to failure of capitalism Posted: 28 Jan 2013 04:00 AM PST The official journal of the Communist Party of China, Qiushi, which was calling for continued reform and opening last October, is taking something of a different tack in a recent editorial, in which it claims the world has "Marxist fever". [ more › ]

Photos: Chunyun begins! Travellers across China rush home for Spring Festival Posted: 28 Jan 2013 03:00 AM PST                                          Chūnyùn (春运) or 'Spring Festival travel period' officially began this weekend, and already there are millions of early travellers beginning the arduous trip home as they take part in what will likely be history's largest ever human migration. [ more › ]

Anti-corruption campaign nets biggest fish yet, Politburo member reportedly under investigation Posted: 28 Jan 2013 02:00 AM PST Li Jianguo, Politburo member and general secretary of the National People's Congress, may be about to go the way of Bo Xilai, as Hong Kong-based newspaper Ming Pao reports that he is under investigation by the CPC's central commission for discipline inspection. [ more › ]

Chinese gamer rage results in double murder, burnt house Posted: 28 Jan 2013 03:11 AM PST We've all experienced the apoplexy that comes with a dropped Internet connection, especially in China, where connections can drop in so many ways (such as a non-VPN'ed google search of a sensitive term, which is the worst). But needless to say, few of us have acted on our threats to "kill someone." The guy in this story did though. Brought to us by Charlie Custer of Tech in Asia: A spotty internet connection can be a real annoyance, but a gamer in China surnamed Zhao took things to a whole new level at an internet cafe in Renqiu, Hebei. When the connection dropped while Zhao was playing a favorite web game, he got angry and sought out the owner of the cafe at his nearby home. The two got into an argument after the owner (surnamed Ren) suggested that Zhao had downloaded a virus that caused the drop, and Zhao began to hit Ren with his fists. Ren, trying to protect himself, brandished a hammer (though he didn't strike Zhao with it), and Zhao responded by grabbing scissors and stabbing Ren repeatedly. Ren tried to counter with the hammer, but Zhao grabbed it and began smashing him in the head until he fell to the ground, dead. When Ren's wife came over, Zhao smashed her in the head with a hammer too, also stabbing her with the scissors and a nearby kitchen knife. Hints of Dostoevsky in that crime, if I may be allowed to say. Chinese Gamer Murders Two, Burns Down House When Internet Cuts Out (Tech in Asia)

Hong Kong journalists warn new 'privacy' law will 'breed corruption' Posted: 28 Jan 2013 01:00 AM PST Over 1,700 journalists, professionals, and academics have signed a petition calling on the Hong Kong government to withdraw legislation that would restrict the public's right to information about company directors. [ more › ]

Anyone Seen The China Version Of Cloud Atlas? You Know, The Version Missing 38 Minutes Posted: 28 Jan 2013 02:03 AM PST In what can only be regarded as "Hollywood with Chinese Characteristics," 38 minutes of Cloud Atlas, a sci-fi drama starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, have been deemed unfit for Chinese audiences. In America the movie suffered from lukewarm reviews; in China, it suffered from mass excision, notably love scenes involving both straight and gay couples. Such a cut comes on the heels of high-profile censorship of Skyfall. Echoing a collective frustration, the deputy editor-in-chief at Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing Bureau exclaimed on his Sina Weibo, "What kind of era do we live in today! Still want to control people's minds?" Censorship is the status quo in the PRC, but to what ends are such actions aimed? In this case, it can't be to deny reality. Beijing's bars and clubs often publicize their "gay nights," and the neon signs of sex shops dot the city. And do the powers that be truly believe that James Bond gunning down a Chinese bodyguard to be some sort of slight to the Republic, which the public is too impressionable to experience? Censorship in the film industry is so particularly backward and obvious because it's the easiest to control, with a limited number of foreign films allowed to premiere in China. But with each cut, China is embarrassed on the world stage. Then again, slimming down a plodding three-hour Wachowski flick might be a blessing in disguise. If you've seen the movie, let us know. (Please, no spoilers.)

Police visit muckraking journalist who exposed Lei Zhengfu sex tape Posted: 28 Jan 2013 12:00 AM PST It must feel like the other shoe has finally dropped for journalist and blogger Zhu Ruifeng, who exposed the seedy sex life of Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu, after police visited him in his home in Beijing, in typically aggressive fashion. [ more › ]

This incredible photo almost makes Beijing's terrible pollution worthwhile Posted: 27 Jan 2013 11:30 PM PST This incredible photo, shot with an iPhone, beautifully illustrates the difference between sunny weather and the terrible smog currently choking Beijing for the fourth time in a month (Infographic version after the jump). [ more › ]

You are subscribed to email updates from Update » Blogs » Society To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610