Chinese media, advertising, and urban life.

Academic Criticism (学术批评网) is a useful website founded in 2001 by Yang Yusheng (杨玉圣), a historian and critic.

The website aggregates commentary by and about academics: newspaper op-eds, book reviews, forewords to anthologies, and other similar material. It's a way to find a wide variety of opinion in one convenient place.

Yang is also known as an "academic janitor" who takes out the trash of scholarly dishonesty and academic malpractice, including the plagiarism cases that crop up so frequently nowadays.

Did he make some enemies? Academic Criticism used to be located at acriticism.com, but late last month, it was the target of a DDOS attack that left the website paralyzed, forcing it to move to criticism.cn.

Sayre's Law says that academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so low, but in many of these cases, the stakes are quite high indeed. A recent letter posted to the site demanded the resignation of Lu Jierong, a professor at Liaoning University who was listed as coauthor of a student's paper that later turned out to be plagiarized. And although faculty and administration frequently resist taking action against plagiarizing professors, occasionally one will be dismissed in disgrace.

Earlier this year a blogger in China was stabbed by someone who took offense at the charges one post leveled against a friend of his. Who's to say an aggrieved academic wouldn't hire a botnet to take down an unfriendly website?

Related only by the topic of website inaccessibility, Danwei's server in Texas has been generally unreachable from mainland China since around 4pm Friday afternoon. A targeted block? An unfortunate side effect of recent upgrades made to improve the efficiency of filtering unwholesome material? A giant mass hallucination?

It's impossible to tell at this point. So spend the weekend outside and we'll see if we can't get things turned around by Monday.

Update (2009.07.04): Well, a new IP address has made the server reachable again, but the connection invariably gets reset. Not the best possible situation to be in, I'm afraid.

Chongqing Times
July 3, 2009

Police have completed their investigation into the June 5 bus fire in Chengdu that killed 27.

They concluded that cause of the fire was arson, committed by a 62-year-old man named Zhang Yunliang who carried gasoline onto the bus and then ignited it.

According to the report, Zhang was a compulsive gambler who had been unemployed since 2006. Earlier this year, his daughter, on whom he was financially dependent, cut back his allowance. He protested by threatening suicide several times. On June 4, the day prior to the fire, Zhang called his daughter and told her that he would "be gone tomorrow," and "in a very different way."

Zhang's dead body was found on the center of the fire and there was no sign that he tried to escape. His family in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province received a note from him in the mail on June 9.

Netizens have questioned the truth of the police explanation, with the sudden appearance of a weeks-old suicide note and the fact no explanation was given for the jammed doors major points of doubt.

In other news, a police officer in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province who took his dog for a walk by strapping it to a moving police patrol car was removed from his position as vice captain after someone uploaded the photo to the Internet.

And a primary school teacher in Chongqing decided to get plastic surgery for the benefit of her students. According to the paper's report, after the teacher overheard some students commenting on their teachers' looks, she decided a prettier look would make her more popular among the students, thus benefiting her teaching.

Liu Shihua, Pu Enfu, and a police officer

The case of a Kunming man accused of helping his daughter become a prostitute, and protecting her by letting police carry off his two foster daughters, may be an example of coerced confessions and overzealous law enforcement after all.

The initial story, which came to national attention through a Southern Weekly report at the beginning of June, painted a picture of police brutality. In March, police picked up two elementary school-aged girls on suspicion of prostitution, and beat up their parents who were brought to the station for questioning. The two girls were tested at a hospital and found to be virgins. The police apologized, but the father, Liu Shihua, demanded 200,000 yuan in compensation for the abuse his family had suffered.

A few days later, that story was contradicted by reports that claimed that Liu had misled police into carrying off his two younger daughters (actually foster daughters) to protect his biological daughter who was the real prostitute. And the two girls' mother, Zhang Anfen, was accused of misleading the hospital into issuing fake test results, as well.

The police detained Liu and Zhang for their role in aiding prostitution, and the local publicity department accused the media of mishandling its reporting of the affair.

Now Wu Hongfei, a Southern People Weekly journalist and the lead singer of Happy Avenue, has posted a teaser of an upcoming report containing new allegations of police misconduct.

From a series of Fanfou updates (1, 2, 3, 4):

The Kunming girl prostitute case is basically forced confessions on the part of the police. Her father is being held at the detention center and will probably be arrested and the case buried. I'm in the Puji police station in Kunming and am unable to see the eldest daughter who was taken away. She's a minor, and without a guardian present she was taken away. A lawyer is drafting a letter to state that the sixteen-year-old daughter did not engage in prostitution, and the facts of the forced confessions will appear in The Beijing News tomorrow. Tencent etc. will republish. The goal is to get the support of additiona media outlets. I am a Southern People Weekly journalist who has always been in Kunming, and apart from me, all local reporters have been muzzled. I hope that there are people who can follow up so that this doesn't become a case of injustice. The judicial implications in this case are for the protection of minors, the gamesmanship between the disadvantaged and the apparatus of the state, and even a reflection on the media itself. I invite you to pay attention.

Wu wrote up a short summary of her findings in a blog post that is probably a bit less dispassionate and rigorous than tomorrow's story in The Beijing News will be:

After speaking to the lawyer a number of times, the following is what we believe to be the facts:

Liu Shihua and his family were taken in by the police on March 16, and under duress, he was forced to confess that his two foster daughters had been acting as prostitutes. One was thirteen and one was fourteen.

Zhang Anfen did not believe that her daughters, in elementary school, had engaged in prostitution and took them to the hospital to check whether they were still virgins.

The Beijing News
July 2, 2009

In the latest development of a case that has received quite a bit of attention over the past week, the admissions office of Peking University announced yesterday that it would not accept the application of He Chuanyang to study at the university's Guanghua School of Management.

He had the highest score on the college entrance exam, the gaokao, in Chongqing this year. However, along with thirty other Chongqing students, He was found to have faked his ethnic minority status, which awards 20 bonus points on the gaokao.

He himself claimed ignorance of his altered records. An investigation revealed that in 2006, his father He Yeda, an education official in Wushan County who lost his job after the scandal was exposed, conspired with Wan Minqiang, then director of the bureau of religion and minority affairs, to change his son's ethnic registration.

The Beijing News also report another PKU-related news item: a senior math major left the university on June 29 and has been out of contact ever since.

The student, identified as Li, was found to have plagiarized a paper, which makes his graduation prospects uncertain.

After he went missing, his parents and grandmother rushed to the university, first begging for leniency and then getting physical with two university staff members. A party secretary told the newspaper that he suffered scratches, and another university official was bitten on the arm. Police were called to take away Li's mother and grandmother.

And in other fight-related news, a man settled a dispute with someone who owed him money by pouring inflammable liquid onto the two of them and lighting it. The debtor was rushed into the hospital with burns over 100 percent of his body, while the creditor fared better with only 10 percent of his body burned.

Danwei commenter eric left a comment today to alert us to the fact that he was encountering the above message rather the usual "Connection Timeout" notice for certain sites. Is this China Telecom taking inspiration from Green Dam but replacing that software's rabbit mascot with a gopher?

eric wrote that access in Shenzhen to CNN and Digg was blocked by this notice.

The notice asks you to enter a password if you want to see the "unhealthy" content, and says that it's a notice from "mommy and daddy."

Do any Danwei readers have more information on this barrier?

In the following image of a park in Nanning, Guangxi Autonomous Region, that ran in the People's Daily on June 26, how many pairs of identical birds can you identify?

A park full of clones

Click on the image for an enlarged version of "people and nature coexisting in harmony," as the photo is captioned.

Zhang Bin, a photojournalist, found six cloned areas, which she pointed out in a blog post:

Zhang writes:

A photographer friend pointed me to the June 26, 2009 (Friday) edition of the People's Daily, page 14, which had a photo that turned out to have been seriously PS'd. Inspecting it, I noticed six places that had been copied and pasted. I don't know how the editor cleared it — if it was a momentary lapsed, or...

We've spoken I don't know how many times about truth in news photos, and we've emphasized it repeatedly, but there are still photographers who make these mistakes over and over. It's really disappointing.

For the People's Daily, the organ of the Party Central Committee, to commit such a basic error really harms the glorious image of party newspapers.

I hope to see fewer and fewer of these kinds of errors!

Phoenix Weekly, June (II) 2009

Old Kashgar is not long for this world. Quake fear, anxiety over ethnic unrest, and pursuit of development have spurred the authorities to launch a large-scale plan to demolish and redevelop 85% of the Old City.

There has been considerable criticism of the project among Kashgar residents and in the world world media, but it has done little to stop the project. This month's Phoenix Weekly contains an interesting cover feature on life in the Old City and how it may change in the future. The story is a little oversold based on the coverline: "The Shadow of 'Eаst Turkestаn' on China's Strategic Anti-Terrorism City," as most of the feature is about everyday life as opposed to terrorism.

Translated below is an excerpt that looks at how the area has already changed in the days since the founding of the People's Republic.

First though, a look at what's coming next. The "This is Xinjiang" blog put up a post that detailed the changes that are in store for Kashgar's old city and included photos of a promotional sign trying to sell the project to a skeptical public:

Basically, in this plan, the city will straighten the major pathways within the block. The first story, comprised of neatly squared stores, will attempt to replace the current commercial district in the area. Now, people must pass through a labyrinth of homes in order to reach the inner core, but in the future, anyone will be able to access these shops easily from the street. The project aims to cover the entire first floor with a roof, which will eliminate the traditional sunlit courtyards of Uyghur houses. Instead, I guess that street lamps will light these alleyways, which is so very environmentally friendly. A grassy surface will top the first floor. Four outdoor staircases, one from each major road, will lead to this second level, which opens to four lawns and possibly a central fountain, all enclosed by five-story apartment buildings. Finally, the project offers eight different types of apartment layouts. This plan organizes social life vertically, instead of horizontally, which dramatically cuts down on daily interactions.

The blog post has more descriptions of the reconstruction project, photos of the old city, and additional views of the plans for the new buildings.

Here's a translation of an excerpt of a much longer piece on Kashgar's Old City that ran in Phoenix Weekly:

Li Xin, English editor at Caijing

Caijing magazine has a formidable reputation in Chinese media circles. They reported straight away when the Green Dam "delay" notice came from Xinhua last night, and has held onto their reputation for hard, investigative reporting.

Although they talk about current events such as chief Hu Shuli's editorial on the Green Dam, Caijing is a leader in financial analysis. They are also developing an English-language news agency service.

Danwei interviews Li Xin, who is an editor at the English and international desk. She is responsible for Caijing's English website, and sometimes reports on international affairs.

Between 2006 and 2007 She was Caijing's correspondent in Washington DC, covering Sino-US relations, politics and finance.

Danwei: What were you doing before going to Caijing?
Li Xin: I was a documentary producer for Rediscovering China at CCTV-9.

Danwei: Caijing has a reputation for using tough and investigative journalism. What are you most proud of covering, and which stories do you wish you can report?
LX: Currently my responsibility is overseeing the English desk, involves limited original reporting. Back in 2006 and 2007 when I was Caijing's correspondent in Washington DC, I enjoyed writing an in-depth piece of Chinese companies lobbying in the states. They just started to learn the game in DC, paying a dear price. In the failed CNOOC－Unocal deal, the Chinese firm spent US$ 3 million in 3 months on lobbying and PR, but its image just couldn't be changed overnight.

It takes more than money to cultivate trust, to convince Americans that Chinese investment isn't intimidating, especially to those who fear "waking up to find a Communist under their beds." Instead it can be a purely commercial decision. Chinese firms need more time. They need a deeper understanding of the country they are investing in, and they need the effort of more than one company on more than one deal. Later on, a number of Chinese firms set up their lobby representatives in DC, and afterwards, we have seen overseas investment deals being crafted more skillfully, such as in the Huawei-3Com case and this year's ChinaCo-Rio Tinto case. The results, of course, are another story.

I also had lots of fun working with my colleague in covering how several Chinese businessmen selling a much-inflated "silicon valley high-tech product" to a land-locked Chinese province and finally the business went belly up. It was so tranquil between 06-07', and I missed the historical presidential election and the financial crisis.

Danwei: This is the month when everyone is talking about the Green Dam, the limiting of Google services and the internet in China. I hope you don't mind me asking you some questions about these issues. First, do you think that the Green Dam will have any benefits for anyone?
LX: There must be someone who benefited commercially from the Green Dam, say, the software developer. But it hurts the public's right to collect information, sets a bad example of opaque procedure in drafting and implementing administrative rules, and damages the government's image, both at home and abroad. We do hope public opinion has an influence on the government's decision-making. The delay is a step in the right direction, but it's not enough.

People's Daily
July 1, 2009

A special edition of the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, marks the party's 88th birthday with a profusion of red print on its front page, and an abundance of feel-good political buzzwords inside.

Beside the nameplate of is a wrap-up titled "The number of the party members have increased 16 times," which reviews the development of the CPC since 1949:

This year is the 60th anniversary of New China. According to statistics from the Central Organization Department, through the end of 2008, Communist Party members totaled 75.931 million, 16 times the number at the time New China was founded. The number of the low-level party cells is 3.718 million, 19 times that at the time New China was founded. The numbers indicate that the party membership has consistently grown its ranks, optimized its structure, and gradually improved its quality. As the party organization increases its coverage, the CPC demonstrates great vitality and energy.

In terms of sex, ethnicity, and educational background, the 15.969 million female party members account for 21% of the total, compared to only 11.9% in 1949. There are 4.944 million party members who are ethnic minorities, accounting for 6.5% of the totality, compared with 2.5 % in the country's earliest stages. [25.833] million members have college degree, accounting for 34%. In 1949, that percentage was 0.3%.

The top headline concerns President Hu Jintao's recent talk on promoting in-party democracy.

Hu was quoted in the article saying that in the face of new historical conditions, "We must converge the wisdom and strength of the Party to an utmost level; we must fully inspire the creativity and vigor of the Party, and we must spare no efforts to consolidate the unity of the Party." He also spoke about the need to stick to the principle of scientific administration, democratic administration, and rule of the law and to join the bring together different ethnic groups to promote the great cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Beneath the lead article are three reports on the activities of other central leaders, laid out from top to bottom apparently by the order of their ranks:

● Premier Wen Jiabao sent his congratulations to the 7th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union. (Full transcript in translation here)

● Vice-President Xi Jinping visited a conference with selected outstanding party members. Xi encouraged the attendees to be the "vanguards of the time" and take the task of burnishing the party into their own hands.

● Zhou Yongkang, head of the CPC Central Political and Legislative Affairs Committee, met with Zimbabwe's Minister of Defence Emmerson Mnangagwa. Zhou said that although China is facing its own difficulties in the global financial tumult, it will offer Zimbabwe help within its capacity to do so. Zhou also encouraged Chinese enterprises to invest more in Zimbabwe.

The headline at the bottom of the page heralds a report on the life of Wu Daguan, an aviation engineer who played a leading role in the research for China's third-generation fighter jet engine, codenamed Taihang. Wu passed away on March 18 this year at the age of 93.

Wu was praised for his unwavering faith to the party even when he was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution on suspicion of being a spy. In what seems a self-advertisement, the article wrote that Wu had been a subscriber to the People's Daily in his last days.

Also, the paper has announced a makeover starting today: the former 16-page newspaper has been expanded to 20 pages, but the price will remain the same.

Politically qualified

If you've got a grievance against local officials, here's another reason not to take your case to the national petition system: you may end up derailing your child's dreams of studying law enforcement in college.

A good score on China's college entrance exam — the gaokao (高考) — is just one requirement for university admission. Applicants also have to submit a physical examination, and for certain fields, they have to take an oral interview.

Then there's the "political inspection" (政审), a background check that certifies, among other things, that applicants possess a clean criminal record, are not involved in any evil cults, do not have non-ethnic tattoos or other markings of gang membership, and do not have close relatives involved in major criminal or cult activities.

Applicants to military and law enforcement schools are required to have their current school, local party committee, and local police station sign off on the inspection form before they can continue with the application process.

The petition system, another hot-button topic, was connected to gaokao political background checks in news reports this month about Hu Jiajia, a high school student in Hebei Province, whose background check was denied by the local PSB because her father had once been detained for three days for petitioning to have the village repay a loan.

After the story ran in the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, local authorities backtracked and cleared Hu's background check. The Beijing News caught up with Hu and her family for an interview last week:

Modern Jinbao
June 30, 2009

Today's front pages were dominated by two major transportation accidents that took place yesterday.

Today's Modern Jinbao, a Ningbo-based newspaper, features a large photograph of a a road bridge in Tieli, Heilongjiang Province, that collapsed yesterday morning, causing eight vehicles and 21 passengers to fall into the river. Four have been confirmed dead.

The bridge was built in 1973. According to a primary investigation, an overloaded heavy-duty truck weighing about 60 tons is believed to have been the last straw for the aged structure.

The other accident, which appears in a small photo at the bottom of the page, took place in Chenzhou, Hunan Province. A failed brake system caused the K9017 passenger train to plow into another stopped train as it was approaching the station. The K9017 subsequently derailed, knocked down a wall, and hit a building before coming to a complete standstill.

Among the three people who died in the accident, two were train passengers and the other was a resident of the building the train hit. In addition, more than 60 other people were wounded.

The top headline of the newspaper reports that National Development and Reform Commission, the government agency responsible for domestic energy pricing, raised gasoline and diesel prices by 600 yuan per ton, starting at 12:00 am this morning. This is the second time this month that the NDRC has raised fuel prices.

Rumors about a sale of French fashion brand Pierre Cardin have been buzzing around recently. In the front-page sidebar, a headline reports that several Zhejiang and Guangdong companies are in talks with Pierre Cardin.

Inside the newspaper, an article reports that a recent anti-smuggling campaign in Russia has taken a heavy toll on the Zhejiang importers doing business there. For about two decades, Chinese businessmen got their goods into Russia through legally dubious channels, including bribing Russian customs agents.

Among the two billion US dollars worth of smuggled goods that Russian authorities claim have been seized, the paper estimates that 1.5 billion belonged to Zhejiang businessmen.

I can outlast you

Two famous Chinese mountains were put up for UNESCO World Heritage status this year. Shanxi's Mount Wutai was successful and was recognized for its wealth of Buddhist architecture.

Mount Song, a Daoist peak in Henan Province that is home to the Shaolin Temple, missed the cut and had its application put off until next year.

Not to worry, writes Xie Yong in an op-ed for the The Beijing News chock full of martial arts references: the persistence of regional authorities in their pursuit of international recognition will eventually wear down the judging panel and win World Heritage status for Mount Song as well:

One of the most mocked scenes in martial arts fiction has a student coming to find a teacher to instruct him in the art, and he kneels for days before the gate as snow gathers on the ground, until finally the master, moved by his persistence, accepts him as a disciple. As I muse on such stories now that my age and reading experience have increased and my heart has grown gloomier, they seem a little off: both teacher and student are clearly scheming shortsightedly. And while the eventual outcome always has the teacher finding a disciple and the student finding a teacher, and everyone is happy, I always wonder whether, having gone through that bout of suffering and scheming, the teacher-student and student-teacher relationship will contain much sincerity at all.

These musings were spurred by the enlightening remarks made by one official from Henan's Cultural Heritage Bureau. According to the Oriental Morning Post, after examination of the twenty-seven bids for Cultural Heritage status at the 33rd World Heritage Convention, China's Mount Wutai barely made the cut, while another application, for Mount Song's historical architecture, was returned with a request for supplemental material, and its decision was postponed until next year, bringing to an end China's remarkable unbroken fifteen-year string of successful applications. As for why Mount Song's bid got "jammed," an official from Zhengzhou's Municipal Cultural Bureau who attended the convention said that the expert panel had already arrived at the decision to turn it down: "Our charge at the pass got tied up, and although things did not turn out exactly as we would have liked, we basically achieved our goals." The official said that after more than one hour of animated debate by the committee, the status of Mount Song's bid was changed from "postponed indefinitely" to "decided next year," making it an automatic candidate next year.

Why do you like Michael Jackson?

An editor from Henan, Yue Jianguo, wrote in to the Beijing Youth Daily to comment on the questions asked by Hong Kong universities － in this case the University of Hong Kong － to their mainland applicants.

His central thread is how the creative, open-ended questions foster discussion and non-textbook answers. Questions varied from students' view of Michael Jackson, and the Green Dam.

The Beijing Youth Daily also reported on the highest scoring student in the Arts, Liu Tingmei, and her interview with the Hong Kong universities.

Lately, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has been conducting interviews in Beijing. "Why do you really like Michael Jackson?", "Why are girls better at studying compared to boys?" are the kind of questions asked at the interviews. The interviewees must split into groups and discuss these topics and talk about what they think. A number of interviewees think that the interview questions of the HKU won't leave you "speechless" (from Legal Daily, June 27).

Face-to-face interviews are just as important as the written examinations for HKU, and it is definitely not just a formality: if the interviewee does not pass, then they are not accepted. And in such important examinations, questions which are so close to real-life events and even ones which are contentious, of course has shocked many people. And because of this, it's worthy of discussion.

I think that these questions from HKU provides a sudden flash of inspiration because this sort of question and the thinking behind the questions is a kind of “breakthrough” for people who are used to a kind of exam-taking and ideas about education.

For example, the question about Michael Jackson. Using an event that has just occurred, the student is unable to prepare, and this does not abide by the rules of exam-based education. The life of Michael Jackson does not appear in the textbooks, and teachers won’t all know about him, and he died suddenly before the exams － there would be no way for the teachers to give lessons about him. Therefore, the students’ general reading, interests and whether their school has taught them skills apart from the ones needed to pass an exam, will be detected instantly.

Michael Jackson is a popular figure, and you can say that his is a anti-mainstream cultural phenomenon. But mainly he is about song and dance, and he is also a foreigner, and this won’t affect the mind of the students because of the seriousness of the topic: but instead a lively debate topic is presented, where any one will have something to say in the midst of an open atmosphere. This also enables a lot of students to really show their powers of expression and ability to answer questions spontaneously.

The Beijing News
June 29, 2009

Yesterday's front pages were largely devoted to a 13-storey riverbank apartment that tipped over in Shanghai on the morning of June 27, killing one worker inside.

The building remained in the news today: according to a report in The Beijing News, nine people, including the "developer, contractor, and quality supervisor," have been detained in connection to the accident.

The 132 households living nearby returned to their homes yesterday after an examination ruled out the possibility that a similar accident would strike again. An investigation of cause of the collapse is under way, but explanations are only speculative at the moment.

Many people believe that inferior construction materials lead to the disaster, based on the photos showing snapped concrete piles that are hollow, with steel reinforcing bars that are thin and sparse.

Others speculate that the breakage of a river levee a few days prior to the accident could be the real culprit.

A third reason, pointed out by an industry insider quoted by The Beijing News, may be that a large quantity of soil excavated for the construction of an underground car park may have affected the balance of stresses surrounding the building. To make matters worse, the soil was piled up next to the building, and its weight may have destabilized the building.

In other news, the central government has authorized a plan initiated by the government of Macau Special Administrative Region to develop Hengqin Island. The first project of the plan involves a new campus for the University of Macau.

According to the agreement, the land, which currently falls under the administration of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, will be leased to Macau through December 19, 2049, renewable upon mutual agreement. Macau's laws will apply within the campus.

The Anshun waterfall

This is a piece by a contributor, Dustin Ooley, who is a U.S.-China Friendship Volunteer, part of the Peace Corps, presently stationed in at Anshun Teacher's College,
Anshun, Guizhou PRC.

I came to China as a Peace Corps Volunteer in June of 2007. In September I was assigned to Anshun, a somewhat remote city in China’s poorest province, Guizhou. I wrote a satirical article about the waterfall as a comment on the willingness of people to visit me on the sole condition that they got to see the waterfall, Huangguoshu Waterfall (黄果树瀑布). The result was the mistaken notion that I hated the waterfall.

When I travel around China and have a conversation where I need to explain where I live and work, I always use the waterfall for reference: “Huangguoshu Pubu,” I say with interlocked thumbs and dangling fingers – to mimic the shape of our province’s biggest attraction. It never fails to elicit smiles and recognition.

How big is this waterfall? I’ve never heard the same answer twice. The Chinese tell me all sorts of different things about Anshun’s Huangguoshu Waterfall. I have heard that it’s the loudest in the world, the tallest in Asia, the biggest in China, the third largest in the world, and the second largest in the world (right after Niagra Falls, as the man told his son while I listened with skepticism).

“Is it the second largest by volume?” I asked him. He shook his head. “Not by volume, no,” he replied.

“By width, then?”

Not particularly auspicious

China's competitive college entrance exam is a source of great anxiety for graduating high school students.

The essay portion of the language arts section of the exam, which took place on June 7 this year, may be oriented toward essays that are boring, predictable, or slanted toward a particular point of view, but some students, particularly if they are not confident of achieving high marks overall, see the essay as a chance for self-expression, or a way to distinguish themselves from the crowd.

One student in Sichuan took the unusual step of responding to the essay prompt in modern Chinese written using ancient characters. The student, Xiao Huang (not his real name), said that he was afraid that otherwise his essay wouldn't stand out.

His gambit seems to have failed: a report in the Chengdu Business News said that his essay received a score of 8 points out of 60 (later reduced to 6):

A knowledgeable source said that Xiao Huang's ancient character essay only scored eight points. The test marking team supervisors found an ancient writing expert to interpret the essay and then held a lengthy discussion before deciding upon that score.

"One supervisor insisted that it be given a zero." The source said that the supervisor felt that although gaokao rules did not stipulate that essays must be written in simplified characters, the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language Law clearly requires the use of standard written language — that is, simplified characters — in public venues and published materials. "The law naturally trumps gaokao rules," and thus the essay should be given a zero.

However, another supervisor felt that giving the essay a zero was unfair: "Using ancient writing is something innovative, after all." And while it strayed from the topic, that was not enough to justify a zero. For this reason, they ultimately gave him a low score.

The test paper reproduced by the newspaper (and shown in the image above) is a copy rewritten by "Xiao Huang" after the exam. In the original, the author substituted the title "Thorough Understanding" (深入了解) for the prescribed "Familiarity" (熟悉) because he could not remember the ancient forms of those two characters.

The newspaper included a transcription of Huang's essay made by his language arts teacher, Pu (not his real name). Although Huang's use of "oracle bone characters" is highlighted in media reports about the essay, his writing was actually an amalgam of various ancient forms:

Just in time for the Party's birthday, the official Danwei T-shirt is now on sale at Plastered stores in Beijing and retailers in Singapore, Guangdong and Seattle (see shop addresses).

You can also purchase online on Taobao (in Chinese), and from the Plastered online store if you're outside China: click here for men's and here for women's.

CG artist Bao Yongliang took this photo of some cautionary signs for patrons at the entrance to the Charter Shopping Center (卓展购物中心) in Changchun:

In the post, tagged "No Dogs or Farmers Allowed" (农民与狗不得进入), he writes:

Changchun Charter Shopping Center: Moral Discounters

Don't tell me oh-so-professionally that this is the international symbol for improper attire. Fuck that.

I used my mobile phone to take the photo and they came to stop me. This is a place with no freedom or rights whatsoever.

A wider view of the door signs:

In lieu of an in-depth front page story today, here's a collection of front pages from Chinese newspapers who marked the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson:

Michael Jackson dominated Chinese newspapers on June 27, 2009

Most of the headlines are variations on either "Michael Jackson dies" or "Goodbye Michael." A few newspapers went with something different, but the usual punning headlines that accompany major international news stories were fairly uncommon:

• Dongguan Times (东莞时报): "The Whole World Mourns"
• Chengdu Evening News (成都晚报): "Farewell to a Legend"
• New Information (新消息报): "The King Will Not Return"
• Modern Express (现代快报): "Heaven Gets the Moonwalk"
• City Evening News (城市晚报): "Remember"
• Chinese Business View (华商报): "The Black and White Life of a Lonely King"

In addition, major online news portals like Sina, Sohu (auto-plays music), and even Xinhuanet collected news, music, photos, and memories from Chinese and foreign media.

Found via Liuzhou Laowai, a 1920s silent film shot in Beijing, Shenyang, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai.