Sex scandal shocks China as microbloggers wield the baton
Chongqing, a city of around 30 million in the southwest of China, is not getting its fill of scandals, it seems. The one involving the spectacular fall of Bo Xilai is still fresh in memory and in...
View ArticleChristmas in China: celebrations and controversies
Zhuhai, a city in south China, bordering Macau, is ready for Christmas. Shops, malls and restaurants are decked up and large Christmas trees greet visitors at hotel lobbies. Late one warm night last...
View ArticleStricter laws on rape in China but prejudices against women exist
Last week, a friend was taking a taxi back home quite late in the night. The taxi driver struck up a conversation after learning that he was an Indian. The conversation: how unsafe New Delhi and India...
View ArticleRare journalists’ street protests gathers online support
As the Global Times newspaper said in its editorial this week, there’s unlikely to be a surprise ending to the Southern Weekly issue. Which basically means that Chinese media will not miraculously,...
View ArticleAfter cold snap, pollution covers China
Residents of Beijing woke up on Wednesday to a welcome clear day. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. Simple pleasures, right? Not quite. It wasn’t the case for Beijing and many other cities in...
View ArticleIs the Chinese government serious about abolishing gulag-style camps?
In July and August last year, the sad and grim story of Tang Hui, 39, occupied the volatile top trends of China’s microblogging sites. Tang’s daughter was raped and forced into prostitution a few...
View ArticleTip to stay healthy in Beijing, much of China: don’t breathe
Two weeks ago, I wrote about Beijing’s pollution in my blog. How the grey had covered the blue in a thick haze of smog. The air cleared up for a few days only to return earlier this week with a...
View ArticleThe largest annual festive migration of humans has begun
Couple of days ago, my mostly cheerful Chinese teacher looked and talked downcast. I say mostly cheerful because no teacher will ideally appear happy at the desultory progress made by a student or if...
View ArticleSkeptical Chinese losing trust among themselves, on govt
Would you trust a stranger? If a stranger on the street asked for your cell phone to make an urgent call, will you feel awkward, mumble a sorry request and walk away? Or would you hand over the phone?...
View ArticleTocqueville, James Joyce enjoy a Chinese resurrection
Two very different books are enjoying a sudden, unexpected spurt in popularity in China. No, neither are written by new Chinese Noble Laureate for Literature, Mo Yan. If the popularity of French...
View ArticleIndian authors enthrall Beijing
When historian and author Ramachandra Guha is in the room, it’s difficult not to ask him about cricket even if the evening’s theme is Mahatma Gandhi’s relevance to China. So, braving the thought of...
View Article‘China bird flu is US biological weapon’
The long, cold winter is finally making way for a chilly and breezy spring in Beijing. It was the longest ever winter for me; the first bout of snowfall was in the first days of November and at the end...
View ArticleCensors wield the scissor freely in China
The Beijing International Film Festival ((BIFF) is a comparatively new festival compared to its counterpart in Shanghai. But it has had its share of controversies. As the 3rd BIFF opened on Tuesday at...
View ArticleCampus murders trigger soul search in China
The world focused attention these past days on the Boston bombings. And as China grieved over the Chinese student who died in the blasts and for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake, discussions among...
View ArticleIndia-China spat: Questions remain unanswered
Throughout the last few weeks, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, the petite, mostly smiling Hua Chunying remained delightfully vague when asked about the border spat. She happily peppered her...
View ArticleDevelopment or destruction in Tibet?
Recently a petition was sent to China’s top leadership and simultaneously to the UNESCO by right group about it alleged to be calculated destruction of Lhasa, capita of Tibet’s, heritage architecture....
View ArticleA Chinese port built in the ’60s to help the Viet Cong
The port at Fangchenggang city located deep in south China was built decades before the city itself came up on the drawing board. The port, old and graying now, was built in the late ‘60s with one...
View ArticleSurveillance and censorship in China
For about two weeks now, a warning flashes consistently when I open my Gmail account. It warns me that – for no reason apparent to me at least – “state-sponsored” attackers could be targeting my...
View ArticleDon’t get more than 50 books to China
At the customs inspection and quarantine department in Beijing last week, I naively assumed it was finally getting to the end of the surreal ordeal of getting six small cartons released from the cargo...
View ArticleVisit your parents, or else: jail
Chu, 77, did not wait to act very long after a revised law making it mandatory for children to take care their parents’ mental health besides their financial needs came into effect earlier this month....
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