From Shanghaiist: One of the art works you won’t be seeing at the Beijing human rights exhibition is Andy Warhol’s iconic portrait of an iconic guy, Chairman Mao. The painting found a new owner at a Christie’s auction: Andy Warhol‘s sensational portrait of Mao Zedong, considered a landmark of 20th century art, was sold to […]
Read MoreStayed tuned ahead for Beijing’s war on dogs, and rabies, from Shanghai Daily: A campaign will begin on Thursday to check that Beijing’s citizens have licenses for their dogs, do not have more than one dog per household and are not illicitly operating pet businesses in China’s capital, local police have announced. On Wednesday afternoon, […]
Read MoreFrom Raymond Zhou blog: Maids make up a big segment in China’s labour market. Many middle-class families employ them, freeing wage-earners from household chores and helping balance the economy by allowing their wealth to trickle down. Recently, a labour market in Shaanxi Province has been advertising a special kind of maid, who not only takes […]
Read MoreFrom Nanfang Daily via China Daily: Cinderella needs more than a pair of glass slippers to net her prince, according to a south China company, which is preparing girls for overnight ascent to richness by getting them ready to marry rich bachelors. Shenzhen-based Zuanyuan (or diamond affinity) Information Co. (ÈíªÁºò‰ø°ÊÅØÂí®ËØ¢ÊúâÈôêÂÖ¨Âè∏) opened a so-called “diamond lady […]
Read MoreFrom Reuters: Thousands of Chinese villagers clashed with riot police after barricading officials and foreign businessmen in a warehouse they said had been built on illegally seized land, a newspaper reported on Friday. The clash erupted on Wednesday near Shunde, in the southern province of Guangdong, during the opening of the warehouse, which villagers said […]
Read MoreFrom Washington Post: The children answer to nicknames such as “Seagull,” “Brightness,” “Summer” and “Ocean,” but they come with scars that social workers initially mistake for dirt. When they first arrive at the two-story house here, they hoard toothpaste, or they hide new socks and steamed buns in their bed quilts, as if they were […]
Read MoreWhat’s really puzzling, at least on the surface, in some villages around some Chinese cities or towns is political candidates are offering significant cash gifts to buy votes. In one village in Inner Mongolia, villagers are receiving cash deliveries ranging from 500 to 1,000 yuan per ballot from each candidate. But as the land appreciates […]
Read MoreFrom Washington Post: A new breed of churches in this region of China has demonstrated a boldness and independence unmatched elsewhere in the country, despite strict government guidelines for places of worship. Here in Wenzhou and the surrounding province of Zhejiang, just south of Shanghai, a growing number of congregations that began life as house […]
Read MoreFrom the New York Times: The leader of NASA arrives in China on Sunday for a tour of space agency sites, making him the most senior American space official to go to China to discuss possible cooperation between the countries’ programs. Michael D. Griffin, the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has repeatedly […]
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Here you are, all alone in Tongxian. How do you stay in the loop?
[Turns to his laptop] Let me show you QQ. [Clicks open QQ] Look at all these chatrooms. Here’s my “gossip” (Â∞èÈÅìxiaodao) chatroom – 159 contacts. Here’s my “in-depth” (shendu) chat room – 198 contacts. In all these chatrooms combined, there are at least 500 journalists. Many are from party newspapers and a lot are young reporters. Of those, at least 200 do investigative reporting. I can’t possibly keep up with them all.
Would it be easy for a foreign reporter to join one of these chatrooms?
Well, you’d have to be invited. Generally, no one would want to invite a foreign journalist. It’s anti-productive. We all have very different backgrounds, but we do share a general consensus. We don’t want to see social upheaval. We rather see our country to proceed toward democracy in orderly way, step by step..
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
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