“Is our law trying encourage homosexuals to marry heterosexuals? Won’t this produce bigger social problems?” — PFLAG China (Majority Favor Same Sex Marriage in Sina Poll)
(via chinadigitaltimes)
Blogging the Slow-Motion Revolution: An Interview with China’s Huang Qi -
By Ian Johnson in the NYR Blog
Fuling, China: Return to River Town -
Peter Hessler returns to setting of his first book for National Geographic. Read more about Hessler’s first travels in China in this Q&A.
Ian Johnson on Lunar New Year exodus for the New York Review of Books blog
Sequencing a complete human genome may soon cost less than an iPhone. Will China’s BGI-Shenzhen decode yours? Christina Larson reports for MIT Technology Review.
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In China: Valentine’s Day and the Business of Marriage -
One 25-year-old woman in Guangzhou, who has just recently started dating her first serious boyfriend, a colleague in a different department at work, said her beau may not be the most exciting or attractive, but more important: ‘He is very intelligent and disciplined, which I like. I think we can have a comfortable life together.’
Christina Larson reports on love in the PRC for Bloomberg Businessweek
Image © Li Liao
by Alec Ash
On October 9th 2012, 30 year old Li Liao reported for his first day’s work at a Foxconn factory in southern China. The colossal electronics contract manufacturer, which makes our iPhones, Kindles and Wiis, provides a livelihood for hundreds of thousands of poor Chinese. It was also the center of controversy after a spate of worker suicides in 2010.
Li Liao was issued his identity card – worker F2356272 – overalls and cap. He was shown around. On the assembly line, he was to help manufacture Apple’s latest gadget, the iPad mini. He worked there for 45 days. Then he quit, bought an iPad mini with his wages, and displayed it and his overalls as part of a contemporary art exhibit in the fashionable 798 art district of Beijing.
His boss, presumably, didn’t see that coming.
The Island Fight Nobody Wants -
Robert Keatley in The National Interest on the Diaoyus/Senkakus debate:
Fortunately, the chances of intentional war are exceedingly slim. The two countries are headed by intelligent men who know full well what the costs of combat would be. And both sides realize that serious fighting could not possibly settle the ownership issue or create the peaceful international atmosphere the two nations must have for economic growth and domestic stability.
