Links of the day, and a note about China Geeks

Haven't done this in a while...

• Wall Street Journal on chaiqian (拆迁), i.e. demolish-and-relocate (or "remove," as WSJ translates it.)
  

  The struggle between small homeowners and property developers has become a recurring theme in contemporary China, leading to increasingly dramatic protests against local officials and even inspiring a novel Chinese interpretation of the hit film Avatar.
  
  Aiming to reduce the social tensions inherent in the process of urban redevelopment, Beijing has been planning to revise the regulations that govern the tearing down of people’s homes to make way for new real estate projects. A draft of the new rules is expected to be released for public comment in the coming weeks. In the meantime, experts, lawmakers and officials have been meeting to discuss proposed changes.

  
  
• CN Review's Kai Pan, writing in classic Kai Pan style, summarizes the Google debate, offers a viewpoint and links to every article that was ever written on the subject here.
  
  
• The Peking Duck: Censor Me
  
  
• More about Google, from Fifty 5 (56minus1)
  
  
• Danwei: Dirty jokes by mobile phone
  
  
• Bokane: on Confucius (the movie) and the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (and via a comment from that post, The Warring States Project from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst).
  
  
• the Beijinger: pictures of masked civilians (Shredder look-alike contest, as the authors call it)
  
  
• And finally, via Shanghaiist, this article from Business Week says "modern" doesn't necessarily equate to "Western."
  

  We also asked young Chinese to choose one wish that would make their life happier. Surprisingly, 82% chose to do something for their parents, most commonly to provide them an easy life.
  
  

And finally, I have absolutely no idea how I could've missed this -- and I'm appalled, trust me -- but China Geeks, which has been active since at least May 2009 (and possibly before that -- forgive me for not being able to check at the moment), has to be one of the best China blogs active today. It's only getting stronger with the addition of one of ChinaSmack's team members.