Today’s date – 11/11/11 – is an auspicious one. Particularly so for many Chinese couples, who have adopted ‘the day of six ones’ as an exceptionally lucky wedding date, ignoring the fact that 11 November is usually celebrated as an unoffical singles day in China. Once a century, those extra two ones make this an excellent day to leave the single life behind.
A report released by U.S. intelligence agencies claims that Chinese and Russian hackers, hired by their governments, have been stealing classified data from American government organizations. Assumptions like this have been made before, but this is the first time such a report to Congress has pointed the finger squarely at China and Russia.
As if it isn’t already enough that just about everything is made in China, now they’ve started making blood, from rice.
China is renowned for its seemingly ridiculous stance on freedom of speech and the proliferation of unauthorised news – a stance which has seen prominent members of society detained without legitimate explanation and popular social networks such as Facebook banned. Now, it seems, actions like that were only the beginning.
Yet another Tibetan Buddhist monk doused himself in fuel and set fire to himself in China yesterday. This brings to ten the total number of monks who’ve resorted to this extreme form of protest since March this year.
The unmanned spacecraft, Tiangong-1, which translates awesomely to Heavenly Palace, is set to blast off tonight from China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gansu province, marking the start of China’s first rendezvous and docking mission. That guy is set to take off between 13h16 and 13h31 GMT.
In other meat-related news today, animal lovers may be pleased to know that China seems to be losing its taste for dog meat. Stats show that more people than ever before now keep dogs as domestic pets in China. While dog meat is certainly still on the menu there, the way dogs are viewed generally is undergoing a major shift across the country.
Huang Nubo, the sixteenth richest person in China, has offered $100 million to buy 300 square kilometres of Icelandic wilderness. He calls himself a “poet and adventurer,” so it would make sense that he’d want to buy the property to develop a golf course and tourist destination.
The Chinese government, in a not-unusual display of authoritarian petulance, has banned the download of over a hundred music titles from popular online music sites in China.
Screenshots from a Chinese military propaganda video uploaded to YouTube last month reveal a cyberwarfare app designed to make attacks look like they’re coming from any IP address. In the video, the Chinese government can be seen sending attacks from an IP address belonging to the University of Alabama.
The Chinese are being weird again. But since they gave us paper, the compass, and dominoes, perhaps we should let this one slide. The latest craze over there involves dyeing their pets to look like wild animals such as pandas and tigers. See pics inside.
Chengdu Zoo in Sichuan ran a tiger-escape drill a couple of days ago, so that people would know what to do in case one broke out of its enclosure. For maximum realism, security guards were given real guns, and the ‘tiger’ was a dude in a Tigger costume. You know, From Winnie the Pooh.
Google announced on Tuesday that they’d been they target of a phishing scam originating in Jinan, China, aimed at the accounts of Chinese activists and senior officials in the U.S. Victims were sent fake emails with links to a fake Gmail site, which harvested the usernames and passwords of anyone trying to log in.
Thanks to China, I am officially never complaining about the state of our roads in South Africa ever again. A lorry (pictured) has fallen down a massive fracture in the road which opened up as the truck drove over it. Scary. This comes just after four other lorry drivers in February were lucky enough to survive after a bridge collapsed as they drove over it.
Chinese factories making iPads and iPhones are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide. If your first reaction to this story’s headline is one of confusion, then join the club. I mean, why would someone who builds iPads for a living be anything but ecstatic, right? But do yourself a favour and read through the rest of this piece before switching careers.
A number of bloggers have been making reference to a ‘Jasmine Revolution,’ wherein Chinese citizens show discontent for local corruption by walking around crowded public areas on Sunday afternoons. This never happened, but Sunday walks did. Authorities are convinced that the protest is still happening.
A resident of Temple City, California, is accused of running a fake military recruitment centre, where Chinese would-be-immigrants were made to pay to join a “special forces reserve” unit that would supposedly improve their chances of becoming US citizens. The “unit” is well known in Los Angeles, and was assumed to be genuine.
While walking is not always the most practical way of getting around, with troublesome Mercury turning retrograde in a few days’ time, you may want to try staying off trains, planes and other forms of mechanical transport for a little while. As evidenced by a tragic public transport collision in China earlier today.
If you say the word ‘protest’ too frequently in a cell-phone conversation in Beijing, your call gets cut off. No spice. We have pretty strict phone etiquette policies here at 2ov, granted, but generally we allow calls, once placed, to proceed without Big Brother intervention.
This hurts me somewhere deep inside. A customer disgusted by the poor service at Lamborghini China service station responded to the situation by hiring a mob with sledgehammers to tear into his Lamborghini Gallardo L140 – this, apparently, to draw attention to poor customer service.
Firstly, no kids for me thank you very much. Secondly, if you are going to have kids and they turn around to bite you in the arse one day, then that’s the risk you take. But people see things differently in China, and the rate of elderly suicides have tripled in the last decade. In an attempt to curb this, the Chinese government wants to impose a law that will force children to visit their aging parents. If they don’t, their parents can sue them.
They can do that now. By ‘they’ I mean ‘those with money and de facto power,’ obviously, not specifically the heads of the PRC – but I mean government scrutiny of human movement is being implemented on a huge, huge scale. It’s called the Information Platform of Real-time Citizen Movement – which sounds like a good and reasonable platform.
That’s because everyone’s boycotting it. China said they’re not going so then Russia said if China’s not going they’re not going and obviously if Russia’s not going Kazakhstan’s not going either. Now Iran, Iraq and Vietnam joined a growing number of countries that refuse to attend the western world’s award ceremony run by “clowns” who are “interfering in China’s judicial affairs.” Where is the love?
Cao ni zu zong shi ba dai. It’s probably about time I learned to speak Mandarin. According to research just published by the Conference Board, a highly respected research institute, the Chinese economy will overtake that of the poor old US by 2012 in terms of output.
China is suffering under the weight of a societal malaise. And this time it’s not due to the influence of the Great Western Devil. In the sweltering heat of summer, when the refreshing breezes desert the city, Hu Lianqun absent-mindedly reaches for a solution: He rolls up his shirt to expose his belly, often fanning […]
Ricky Gervais has announced via his blog that he’s working on an installment of The Office for China, in addition to the Israely, German, Canadian, and French and American versions already in existence. I’m not so sure an obscure, culturally-based sitcom will work in China, especially considering that their gold standard for comedy usually goes […]
In the gulag that Seth has us working in, we have a beating chamber. It’s the one small mercy of my life at 2oceansvibe. When I’m relieved of my duties as a human coffee table (after meetings), I go back to the beating chamber, where I get to break microwaves, furniture and sunglasses from rival […]
This is some pretty cool reading for those of you still trying to shake the post-public holiday major Bafana let down cobwebs. If you’re a white guy in Beijing incapable of speaking a shred of Mandarin, you might feel that your employment opportunities are limited. Or you could get off your ass and get paid […]
According to a report by Shanghai’s Southern Weekly, the southern Chinese city has a bit of a McProblem. And that would be the McRefugees. It’s a pretty heavy vibe.