One of China’s most colorful figures died Tuesday. Nina Wang, 69, was Asia’s richest woman, but “Little Sweetie” was known for more than her money. Her life is an amazing Hong Kong tale complete with a big fortune, quirky personalities, kidnappers and courtroom drama.
Despite her wealth Wang preferred eat fast food and shop at …
Beijing’s main art district is in a complex of abandoned factories and workshops. Very cool people wearing black, lots of galleries. Fun place to visit now and then to see what’s up in the incredibly hot world of modern Chinese art. Or I should probably say what’s up among the most commercially savvy artists, agents and gallery owners. …
As she is no doubt far to modest to do so, I’m putting a link here to a story by my colleague Jodi Xu on the time.com website. It’s about China’s just-“retired” Prince of Diving, Tian Liang (that’s him smiling so nicely above). He was pretty much chewed up by the Chinese sports machine and spat out, as the storyrecounts. Still, he …
A longtime blogger from Shanghai spoke at Hong Kong University today, so I went to hear his take on the importance of the Internet to China, the future of the Great Firewall that the government uses to block online content, and the fate of the Chongqing nailhouse. Isaac Mao discovered blogs in 2002, and since then has become a big …
So, the Nail House in Chongqing is gone. The owners finally reached a satisfactory agreement with the developer, news reports said, achieving their their aim of getting a commercial property instead of cash compensation. The most interesting aspect of this case (which we wrote about earlier, like every other reporter in China) was the …
My daughter, who is just shy of three years old, goes to a pre school here in suburban Shanghai near where we live. It’s part of a school, grades pre k through 12, affiliated with a local university and as such it’s a thoroughly Chinese institution: this is not a place where ex pats send their toddlers to be minded for $10,000 or …
A reader (“anonymous”) argues cogently that it would be counterproductive to boycott the Olympics:
Boycotting will never weaken the Chinese government, but only make it stronger.
Those who support the boycott fail to remember that hosting the Olympics in 2008 is a matter not just of the Party’s interest, but one of Chinese national
…
The actress Mia Farrow has got herself into the news by calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics (she called them the “Genocide Olympics”) because of China’s support for the government of Sudan, which is widely accused of involvement in the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region. This isn’t the first time there has been a call for a …
Last night Chinese state television aired a piece about President Hu Jintao teaching a Mandarin nursery rhyme to a class at a Moscow elementary. It probably wasn’t his biggest priority in Russia this week. During his visit, businesses from the two countries signed $4 billion in deals. And China is still pushing for more access to …
March 27th saw yet another of those milestones being hailed far and wide as a sign of China’s rise. Nanjing Auto said it was beginning production of two car models under the once-iconic British brand MG, having bought rights to the name and what was left of MG Rover’s production facilities in 2006. Once upon a time, an MG was the …
So said Henry Kissinger, then President Richard Nixon’s National Security Adviser, when it became clear to him that Nixon was serious about his idea of an opening to China, the subject of a new book from Margaret MacMillan, author of the prize winning “Paris 1919 Six Months that Changed the World.”
“Nixon and Mao, the Week that …
My colleague in the Time Beijing bureau Jodi Xu writes: the media frenzy over the Chongqing “nail house” has highlighted similar cases in other parts of China, and may ultimately encourage other homeowners to also dig in their heels. A similar case in Shanghai (see picture below) ended a week ago after two years of negotiations when …
The “nail house” that Simon posted on recently has gotten extensive coverage in English-language media. (China Digital Times has a roundup here.) For a single property dispute, it’s a pretty amazing level of attention. It’s even inspired, as CDT notes, a music video. As Simon points out below, the reason for such a heated focus has got …
