A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: China

Aug 12 2012
Mark Twain, probably

China’s wealthy and influential sometimes hire body doubles to serve their prison sentences

China’s wealthy and influential sometimes hire body doubles to serve their prison sentences

Geoffrey Sant for Slate:

The practice of hiring “body doubles” or “stand-ins” is well-documented by official Chinese media. In 2009, a hospital president who caused a deadly traffic accident hired an employee’s father to “confess” and serve as his stand-in. A company chairman is currently charged with allegedly arranging criminal substitutes for the executives of two other companies. In another case, after hitting and killing a motorcyclist, a man driving without a license hired a substitute for roughly $8,000. The owner of a demolition company that illegally demolished a home earlier this year hired a destitute man, who made his living scavenging in the rubble of razed homes, and promised him $31 for each day the “body double” spent in jail. In China, the practice is so common that there is even a term for it: ding zui. Ding means “substitute,” and zui means “crime”; in other words, “substitute criminal.”

W-w-w-w-what?

Tagged , ,
Jul 08 2012
Mark Twain, probably

China lifts ban on lesbians giving blood

China lifts ban on lesbians giving blood

Molly Gray, CNN:

The Chinese Ministry of Health has lifted a 14-year-old ban on lesbians donating blood in effect as of July 1.

The ban still applies to men who are sexually active with other men, but celibate homosexuals are permitted to give blood, according to the Ministry of Health’s website.

The original ban, enacted in 1998, barred homosexuals of both genders from donating blood out of a fear of spreading HIV and AIDS.

Well, it’s a start, I guess. Apparently the only guaranteed way to stay free of HIV is still to stick to heterosexual sex, though.

Tagged , ,
Apr 05 2012
Mark Twain, probably

China ship insurer deals new blow to Iran oil exports

China ship insurer deals new blow to Iran oil exports

Randy Fabi, Reuters:

A major Chinese ship insurer will halt indemnity cover for tankers carrying Iranian oil from July, dealing a blow that narrows the insurance options for Tehran’s main export already constricted by payment barriers caused by Western sanctions.

With Western sanctions on Tehran increasing, sources at the China P&I Club told Reuters on Thursday it did not want to stand alone in the market, especially after insurers in Japan and Europe plan to either limit or ban their own coverage for tankers operating in Iran.

This is the first sign that refiners in China, Iran’s top crude buyer, may struggle to obtain the shipping and insurance to keep importing from the Middle Eastern country. Iran’s other top customers — India, Japan and South Korea — are running into similar problems, raising questions on how Tehran will be able to continue to export the bulk of its oil.

Tagged , , ,
Mar 02 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Iowa town welcomes back China’s next president

Iowa town welcomes back China’s next president

David Pitt for the AP:

The last time China’s soon-to-be leader visited Iowa, he slept in a bedroom with green shag carpeting and Star Trek character cutouts on the walls. He ate eggs with a spoon because his host forgot the chopsticks.

But apparently Xi Jinping remembered the 1985 stay fondly because he insisted on returning this week to Muscatine, a small farming community he toured to learn about crop and livestock practices.

Back then, he was a young Communist Party leader seeking ideas to help his agriculture-rich region of northern China. Now the nation’s vice president, he made certain to add Muscatine to his jam-packed itinerary so he could reunite with the same Americans who showed him around the region’s hog and cattle operations and its abundant corn and soybean fields.

Adorable.

Tagged , ,
Feb 05 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Yes. This is a real, official variant of the Oreo sold in China. Planet Money has the full story, which features green tea oreos and long, rectangular oreos that are easier to dunk — just goes to show how much of our perception of the world is shaped by our culture.

(Via Mikey-san.)

Tagged ,
Nov 17 2011
Mark Twain, probably

A Chinese Peace Prize Names This Year’s Winner. Ummm, Vladimir Putin?

A Chinese Peace Prize Names This Year’s Winner. Ummm, Vladimir Putin?

Hanna Beech for Time’s Global Spin blog:

In September, an obscure Chinese cultural organization revealed the finalists for the second annual Confucius Peace Prize, an award that suddenly popped out of nowhere last year after imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. The first Confucius Peace Prize, which was ridiculed as a clumsy attempt to divert attention from the fact that the world’s most famous peace prize had just gone to a jailed Chinese dissident, went to Lien Chan, a veteran Taiwan politician. Taiwan’s former Vice President didn’t even know he had won, and in a very curious ceremony a couple days later, a confused-looking little girl picked up the award in his stead.

And the story gets even more bizarre from that point.

Tagged , , ,