Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Week That Was At Beijing Cream, June 11-17



We were the first English-language China blog to write about the story of the 27-year-old in Shaanxi who was forced to abort at seven months. It broke on the same day that RFH took the opportunity to joke about the gaokao: real questions were uncovered, and they were ridiculous. Also, Louis CK has left the building. Here's our review by RFH.

Chengguan have had a bad week. Kids went "clockwork orange" on them, as Jeremiah Jenne tweeted on Twitter, referring to this story about a chengguan being overwhelmed by a mob of middle school students. That same day, we wrote about poor Josh Garcia, chengguan tool. And here's a chengguan truck on fire. If only chengguan were caught on tape doing what this foreigner in Chengdu did -- directing traffic to let an ambulance through -- maybe their reputation would improve. By the way, where were the chengguan when someone from the US embassy got assaulted outside Elements nightclub in Beijing?

Our post about the London's Olympics opening ceremony drew... interesting responses. A llama in Tianjin is the new Paul the Octopus, able to predict soccer matches. Guangdong's Euro 2012 bikini girls were a hit for a while, until producers decided to cover them with t-shirts. Here's latest edition of panda erotic fiction.

Just as we were talking about men rescuing toddlers from balconies, a three-year-old in Shenzhen died after falling from her fourth-story balcony. And here's a deputy police chief in Yunnan possibly intentionally wrecking someone. Tom Grundy of Hong Wrong, which we've linked to in our East is Read column, tried to arrest Tony Blair in Hong Kong. And The Good Doctor reviewed The Medullary Paralysis show in Beijing -- stolen, one might say, by its as-yet-unidentified opening act.

The weather's been somewhere between very good and spectacular this week in Beijing. Go outside and enjoy yourself. We'll still be here when you come back.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Week That Was At Beijing Cream, June 4-10



The Shanghai Stock Exchange on June 4 was spitting out eye-catching numbers, as RFH pointed out. He also wrote about a London Olympics "village" inside Beijing's Water Cube. Meanwhile, The Good Doctor wrote about Beijing's growing graffiti scene.

The Huffington Post, Business Insider and Bloomberg TV did shitty journalism this week. RFH wrote about Eva Cohen's fishy guest post over at Foreign Policy (the picture gave us the opportunity to quote Shaft). We ranted about Chinese officials telling the US to stop monitoring Beijing's air, and this China Daily story that glorifies a Sanlitun cop for all the wrong reasons.

bus driver in Hangzhou who was fatally wounded by debris but continued to do his job has been declared a hero. Bizarrely, a bus in Beijing did unspeakable things to a police car, leaving one dead. The activist Li Wangwang was found dead in a hospital room, and his friends and family think foul play was involved (authorities say it was suicide).

The dramatic rescue of a toddler dangling from a fourth-story balcony found its way onto several traditional media outlets: the websites of the San Francisco ChronicleNY Daily News, and Albany Times Union (and sourced on the Guardian). Within the same week, another toddler got his head stuck between the railings on the fourth floor of an apartment. Our tractor thingymajig post was linked on Jalopnik.

Quick-hit videos: a horse kicking a Ferrari, Asia's largest indoor stadium being demolished, and a dog nursing three kittens. Finally, we'd like to remind you that boys' urine should probably not be used for pharmaceutical purposes, though some would disagree.

Louis CK performed in Beijing tonight. Sorry if you missed out on tickets -- we gave you a one- or two-hour window to buy. Predictably, they sold out fast. If you were at the show, I'd love to hear about how it was -- drop me a note at tao@beijingcream.com. Thank you for reading.