Quote of the Day

From Saturday's China Daily:

President Congratulates Kim on Reelection
President Hu Jintao on Friday congratulated Kim Jong-Il, the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), on his reelection as chairman of the country's National Defense Commission.  

Is it really a re-election if you're not running against anyone?

Springfield, China

That's Blinky, the famous fucked-up fish from Springfield's nuclear-waste infected rivers.

That's a pig that was just born in Zhejiang, near Shanghai.

Quote of the Day

"Driving BMWs and drinking polluted water is the bitter irony of our modernization."

-Zhou Shengxian, China's Minister of Environmental Protection

20 Years After...

"Tell the world, they said to us."

This June 4th will mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre/"incident".  And honestly, I can't believe this happened in my lifetime.

Anyways, look for China to up its censorship efforts in the coming months while coverage of the anniversary picks up.  And further, any time there's an anniversary like this (or any other event that protesters may try to use as a stage) China will lock down Tiananmen Square too--a couple weeks ago I had a friend visit Beijing and she couldn't even see the square because the military set up a 2-block buffer zone around it during the National Congress.

Drinking and Ruling

Day and night he drank strong liquor. Everyone from the aristocratic high officials to his own lowly clerks and retainers saw that Shen did not carry out his. duties. Everyone who came wanted to speak with him about it, but when they arrived Shen always offered them a cup of strong liquor. When, after a short while, they said they had something to say, he offered them more. Only once they were drunk did they leave, having spent the whole time unable to bring up the subject.

-Han Dynasty chancellor Cao Shen

Found that on Froginawall.net

Das Kapital: Coming Soon to an Opera Near You!

Well, it's not really an opera, per se. It will, apparently, take elements both from Broadway musicals and Las Vegas shows as well. But yes, it will be about Marx's ever-popular 1,000 page treatise on Communism. And no, they're not going to be taking any "artistic liberties".

The show, whatever type of show it ends up being, will be directed by He Nian, and will be thoroughly vetted by Zhang Jun, an economics professor at Fudan University, before it's released to the proles. The story, actually adapted from a Manga comic about Marx's masterpiece, will revolve around a company where the workers come to realize that they're being taken advantage of by their boss. This inevitably divides the factory into different factions, with some continuing to work while others rebel or take to collective bargaining efforts. In the end, of course, they all learn to embrace Marx's theory of surplus value.

A German troupe tried something similar three years ago--they even gave out volumes of The Collected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels at their shows--but it ultimately failed because (surprise, surprise) it was deemed to be too boring. According to He, however, this rendition will be "fun to watch".

It's not quite clear whether the show's 2010 debut will be in Shanghai or Beijing, but if you ask me, it'll be worth seeing either way.

Dirty Dirty China

Another video showing just how shitty working conditions are in China. The only thing worse than this is this 6-part mini-series by VBS TV on Linfen, the "world's most polluted town".