This summer Hong Kong will mark the tenth anniversary of the return of the colony from Britain to Chinese rule. So over the next few months we will begin to see all sorts of assessments over how the place has fared since the handover. It’s a complicated question, with the answer likely to be based as much on who you are asking as on what …

Another new development in Beijing’s Olympic prepations. Again big headlines, big news: Beijing is launching a campaign to get people to stop spitting and form orderly lines. Yes, here we go again. Another year, another campaign against the spittists. This year’s version will feature fines of 50 yuan, as well less-punitive measures like …

Apologies. The website in my last post is Chinadialogue not “diaologue.” I’ve fixed the link.

A post last week on the various films coming out on the Nanjing Massacre prompted several heated comments. Most said they didn’t believe the Japanese had fully come to terms with the wartime aggression of their country, while others pointed out that Japanese leaders have apologized repeatedly in the past. I think the emotional replies …

One of our former colleagues Maryann Bird wrote this morning to ask if we were aware of the the website she’s now working for. It’s called Chinadialogue and it’s a bilingual site (in Chinese and English)offering commentary on China’s environment. We didn’t know about it and we’re glad we now do. Currently on its homepage you’ll find …

Take dried pigs blood, mix in some chicken feathers. The result is a bogus “silkworm chrysalis amino acid compound,” and pride of first mention in a list of China’s ten biggest fake food cases last year. A state agency announced the stomach churners earlier this week. (There’s a Chinese-only version here). It must have been hard to …

Last week I mentioned the reports that Kim Jong Il’s oldest son has been spotted in Macau, the former Portuguese territory near Hong Kong. On Friday I headed over with a colleague to see if we could find him. Here’s a report on our search. And here’s a link to some video shot by a Japanese TV crew of a man believed to be Kim Jong Nam, …

My last entry on efforts to standardize translation of signage in Beijing drew a lot of commentary.

I agree with Brittany, who writes that more visitors to China ought to learn Chinese, though I’m not as worried as she is that more precise translation of signage is a threat to Chinese culture.

I also agree with those of you who said …

A great piece on the issue of organ harvesting in China and the dilemma facing all foreign reporters in China trying to cover the story by Daily Telegraph’s Richard Spencer. Keying off a new report issued on the subject in Canada, he summarizes the state of knowledge about “this disgusting form of evil.” He also dissects the moral and …

The strange case of Chinabounder has turned up again. This was an anonymous blogger who purported to be an English language teacher in Shanghai describing his amorous conquests. Because these involved Chinese women and he said he was English, once his posts were highlighted there was a (predictable?) storm of nationalist vitriol on the …

The signs of irrational exuberance in China’s stock markets don’t seem to be going away. Take the Financial Times report (here, behind a paywall) that people are borrowing against their homes to buy stock. My colleague Kathleen Kingsbury had a piece out Friday that included comments from a small-scale punter in Beijing who doesn’t see …

A headline in today’s China Daily reads: “Unclear Signs in English to be History.” I feel like I’ve read this headline before. Many times. The gist is that in order to prepare for the Olympics, the city is going to wage a campaign against the creative translations in public signage that have delighted tourists and exchange students for …

People in Hong Kong woke up today to learn they have a new neighbor: the eldest son of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. The son, Kim Jong Nam, has been living in nearby Macau for the past three years, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. (The paper has a subscription-only web site, but here’s an AP report that hits …