Here's an interesting post from angrylaowai.com drawing an interesting comparison between the new Shanghai Expo 2010 mascot and a character that many of us know and love from our childhood. Have a look at the mascot on the right and tell me if he think you resembles Gumby (on the left):
What do you think? Is this just another Chinese rip-off? Or is the difference siginifigant enough to make it an original?
A post over on Peking Duck raises an interesting question. Will China approve gay marriage before the US does?
There’s something to be said for a society that isn’t blinded by the foaming-at-the-mouth intolerance of the fundamentalist religious groups (Muslims, Jews, Christians, fill in the blank). Granted many Chinese have their own customized blinders - party dogma and a culture that makes it all but impossible to tell your parents you are not getting married. But the new generation of Chinese are amazingly tolerant and they simply don’t possess the wild-eyed ideology to make them fall for such hollow nonsense as gay marriage “threatens the sanctity of traditional marriage.”
I don't think either country will approve gay marriage particularly quickly, but there are some indications in China that there is tolerance for homosexuality in contrast to what one might expect. Remember our post from back in February about lesbians in Beijing posing for wedding pictures? They didn't seem to run into too much trouble. And that's certainly a good sign.
Danwei has a fascinating post on how one Chinese housing developer has come up with an interesting strategy for selling houses:
The company encourages future homeowners to date its sales girls and promises a wedding present of RMB 60,000 to any couple that ends up getting married. The official story is that the company lured the sales ladies with a commitment to pay 8% in sales commissions as well as the opportunity to strike gold by securing a wealthy husband.
However, a local Real Estate executive I spoke to pointed out that the girls on offer are not that attractive. His theory is that the developer is not making money on selling apartments and so it signed a deal with a matchmaking agency to mary these "unwanted" girls to rich husbands. In return, the developer will receive much more than RMB 60,000 for every girl they manage to "give away".
I knew there had to be a catch. Ugly girls. Still, it just goes to show that this economic crisis is not leaving China unaffected.
Somewhere in China, police officials are extremely pissed off. According to the Telegraph one of their training manuals has been leaked online, and as one would expect, the content is a little controversial.
The published sections of the manual explain that officers must quell any dispute swiftly. "Without letting go of the subject, several officers shall act together and in a single move take the individual under bodily control," it said. "Each action must be effective so as not to give the subject any pause for breath."
Most likely the police will defend this by claiming that the document is a fake. But it will be interesting to see if the document circulates far enough to have any serious impact. Or will it be censored before it can make a splash.
I can't believe this story. In fact, I'm surprised that xinhua expected anyone else to believe it. As their story goes, Somali pirates were in position to pounce on one of their ships when China's army of dolphins came to the rescue!
Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's. The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while. China initiated its three-ship escort task force on Dec. 26 last year. xinhua
Tell me if I'm becoming too cynical about Chinese media, but does this not strike anyone else as a load of horse manure? It is good entertainment though. It's unfortunate for the Chinese people though that their main publication is about as reliable as gossip rags in the US. Both lie through their teeth, but for vastly different reasons. But then again, maybe I'm taking this too seriously. Who knows?
Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.I don't know how much truth there is to this story, but you have to admit that it's a truly magnificent narrative. Read more over on Xinhua.The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's. The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. . . . About 20 percent of Chinese merchant ships passing through the waters off Somalia were attacked by pirates from January to November in 2008, before the task force was deployed.
You gotta give it to this guy. He obviously loves his girlfriend far more than she deserves. Having heard his girlfriend threaten to jump, he went down to street level to try to persuade her not to jump.
When she jumped, the man (identified as Wang) held out his arms to try to catch her. She landed on him, and unfortunately he suffered fatal injuries. His girlfriend on the other hand suffered only a few fractures and is expected to make a full recovery.
Ok. Like me, you're probably thinking how the f*** do you accidentally swallow something like a pair of scissors?!
Well, it seems that the man had just finished eating and had borrowed the scissors to pick his teeth with. And if that's not crazy enough, when one of his friends told a joke he laughed so hard that he swallowed the whole thing.
Here's another Chinese mutant discovered in China. If anything makes a case against unsafe food and crazy safety standards in China this is will certainly do it. This piglet was born in Zhejiang province, and according to Ananova, this strange condition was likely caused by genetic mutation or feed pollution.
Fans of The Simpsons out there will likely be reminded of Blinky the three-eyed fish that came into existance because of pollution from a nuclear power plant. It just goes to show that in a place like China, things crazier than fiction are happening every day.
If that fish was named Blinky, I'm not sure what we should call this poor pig. Maybe Blinky-chatty? I can imagine the mess of neural interactions that it's brain is trying to send to and from it's eyes and mouth.
And Blinky-Chatty isn't even the first of his kind either. Check out Choppy:
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