Stupid people turn Sanlitun Apple Store into goddamn Guangzhou Railway Station

Picture from the Beijinger

The only thing about the iPhone 4S Beijing launch that you need to read. "Cold and hunger? Next time, pack a goddamn sandwich and wear a hat, Einstein." [Stan Abrams, China Hearsay]

Best candidate for China, Taiwan, and U.S. wins Taiwan presidential election."Taiwan’s incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou won re-election Saturday, a result that will delight China and calm worries in Washington that this island of 23 million people might veer away from a policy of rapprochement with its giant neighbor.... 'China will be very happy,' said Yen Chen-shen of the Institute of International Relations at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University. Ma’s victory, he added, shows 'Beijing doesn’t need to use missiles but can buy Taiwan through business.'" [Washington Post]

Are mainland Chinese international students failing America's higher education system? Another thought-provoking post by Dan Harris. [China Law Blog]

Paul Manfredi, in an introduction for the poet Xi Chuan: "Journalism, regrettably, is similarly ensconced in something un-viable, at least in terms of what is printed (virtually and non) in China. And this corruption of language is not restricted to Chinese case, as in outside journalism (by which I mean that written by authors in sites beyond China’s borders) we find the same problem. In Western-press writing about China we find language suffering less from calculated or otherwise strategized intent to mislead, and more from the unwitting and unfortunate failure to grasp what is really happening." [china Avant-garde]

Events That Don't Suck: Time Out is teaming up with The Hutong and Electric Shadows to present a series of films related to Spring Festival. They'll be shown at different times, so check the schedule. I'll definitely be attending at least a few of these. [Time Out]

New to the blogroll: The very heady China Debate. Here, you can start with this post about Nobel Prizes in economics, specifically why the committee is ignoring Chinese economics.

NON-CHINA READ: "But a landmark new research paper underscores that the difference between a strong teacher and a weak teacher lasts a lifetime. Having a good fourth-grade teacher makes a student 1.25 percent more likely to go to college, the research suggests, and 1.25 percent less likely to get pregnant as a teenager. Each of the students will go on as an adult to earn, on average, $25,000 more over a lifetime — or about $700,000 in gains for an average size class — all attributable to that ace teacher back in the fourth grade." [Nicolas Kristof, New York Times]