Sep 24
Various front pages in China today feature glowing reports of China’s first aircraft carrier on whose platform a flag raising ceremony was held yesterday. Yet the fact that it happened is just about everything we know for sure about the ship. The Shenzhen Evening Post (深圳晚报) has a special feature today on the carrier, filled with speculation as to when the ship will be formally launched and who the captain will be. Read more
Sep 14
This is the Thinking China Digest, a weekly roundup of recent essays and articles published on the Chinese web, with links to translations on the Marco Polo Project.
This week’s post is looking at marriage and relationships in contemporary China. An article by sociologist Li Yinhe explores the ongoing attachment to pre-marital virginity; two more personal pieces explore the question of fidelity and the distorted relationship between real estate and marriage prospects. All three reveal an ongoing tension among younger Chinese people between traditional values and aspirations to more personal freedom and emotional fulfillment Read more
Aug 16
In the midst of a complicated and ongoing political dispute involving China and a host of other countries over a number of islands in the South China Sea, various papers in China today carried front page stories on 14 Chinese ‘Diaoyu Island protectors’ from Hong Kong (8 ‘protectors’ and 4 crew members) that landed on a rocky outpost of a disputed island (known in China as the Diaoyu Islands) to assert Chinese sovereignty, before they were apprehended and taken in for questioning by Japanese authorities. Read more
Jun 19
Today we present the Danwei Model Worker Awards 2012, a list of the best specialist websites, blogs and online sources of information about China. Read more
Sep 22
Danwei’s Beijing offices are on Jinbao Street (金宝街).
“Jinbao” means “golden treasure”, a tacky new name with no history: the street is the brainchild of real estate developer Chen Lihua, who is the subject of the chapter titled “The Rich Lady” in Out of Mao’s Shadow, by Philip P. Pan. Read more
Sep 15
Below is a translation of a joke that is currently being circulated widely on Sina Weibo and other Chinese social networks:
There is a village that only has one restaurant. Everyone in the village has to eat at that restaurant.
Villager: Why can’t we have more than one restaurant?
Waiter: Our village is in a stage of development where more than one restaurant can lead to chaos, so we only have one restaurant.
Read more
Sep 5
Here is another episode of Kuang Kuang’s Diary, featuring Kuang Kuang, the primary school boy with a permanent bloody nose, and his girlfriend Xiao Hong.
This episode is called The 38th Parallel, a reference to the border between North and South Korea. In Chinese primary schools in the 1970s and 1980s, boys and girls who shared a desk would often draw a line down the middle of the desk and call it the 38th Parallel, meaning it was not to be crossed.
The 38th Parallel is presented here for the first time with English subtitles. Read more
Aug 29
Early this year, an animation showing a group of bunnies oppressed by tigers and then rising up in rebellion became an overnight hit in China, soon making it to international TV news, including Australia’s ABC.
The video was part of an long series of animations featuring Kuang Kuang, the little boy with the bloody nose. Kuang Kuang’s adventures are pure fantasy, but to many Chinese people born in the 1970s and 1980s, Kuang Kuang’s school experiences are all too familiar. The animations are also the closest thing China has to South Park. Read more
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