China’s recent high speed train crash tragedy-coverup-gaff-scandal provides an opportunity to see how Chinese internet users interact with the news when the news is ‘harmonized’. What do you do when all non-official news reports get deleted and blacked-out keywords make explicit online discussion impossible? China Geeks breaks it down for us: All Your Facts Are Belong to Us

Chinese people seem to be exceptionally angry about this particular tragedy. Here’s one guy’s take: “part of the answer is symbolism. The high speed rail system was a prominent symbol of a safe, modern, high-tech China, that the government carefully portrayed in promotional rhetoric. This tragedy dealt a severe blow to that image. Recent subversive art using the iconography of the train system shows how former symbols of progress have been recontextualized within the public backlash.”

You know you’ve always wanted to know how to name the Smurfs in Chinese. Does this mean they really are a bunch of little blue Commies after all?

A Chinese media mogul writes a bit of social commentary about the prospects of ‘ugly’ women in China, and how education, humour and virtue all work against them when it comes to finding a husband. It’s an interesting reflection of common Mainland Chinese ideas and attitudes toward marriage and gender roles and relationships: Ugly women shouldn’t be virtuous

Sinologist Brent Fulton offers some analysis of the ongoing standoff between the Chinese authorities and a large, defiant unregistered church in Bejing:

“the public declaration of Shouwang’s intentions and the subsequent media attention that was drawn to the actual outdoor event triggered a very predictable official response. Furthermore, by demanding not only that they be allowed to meet, but also that the government guarantee in writing their ability to do so, the Shouwang leadership pushed the government beyond what its current policies could accommodate. Honoring Showuang’s request would have entailed a broad policy change, with ramifications not only for Shouwang but for thousands of unregistered religious groups across the country. The officials with whom Shouwang was dealing had no authority to make such a decision.

“Such is the nature of religious policy and its implementation in China: accept the ambiguity of functioning within a gray area, and one is free to operate within certain limits; demand that the government define what is and what is not allowed, and the scope of one’s freedoms narrows significantly.” [Link]

If it weren’t for the 2008 Olympic slime attack, I would hardly believe that these are the same beaches we visited when we were in Qingdao this past May:

• China besieged by giant green blob
• China’s green beach: Fancy a dip?