A Nature article about China’s latest space launch yesterday, the first to cease reliance on Russian spacesuits:
The craft also carries a companion satellite, which will be released once the astronaut capsule is in orbit. Flying in close formation, it will relay real-time images of the spacewalk back to Earth.
“China wants to get the flight in full 3-D glory to maximize the publicity,” says Eric Hagt, China programme director at the World Security Institute in Washington DC. “This is going to be the Hollywood mission.”
See the full article on Nature.

ijoi’s Chinese name is 视觉我享, which roughly translates to “I Enjoy Sight.” ijoi is a web platform to promote design(ers) from and in China. They showcase work, conduct interviews and have plans to roll out podcasts (video & audio).
For example, here’s an excerpt from the video interview (subtitled in both Chinese and French) that was done with Weestar 魏星宇:

Translation: In fact, I’ve really liked drawing ever since I was a child.
ijoi was started by Gabriel Jorby, who we profiled here.
It’s a pretty impressive effort so far, and reads like a good and glossy design magazine: Visit ijoi now.
Qifang and PPDai are both online peer-to-peer lending systems, where you can donate small amounts to people who are often poorer and from rural areas (it is a form of microfinancing).
But where PPDai focuses on the fast and high returns, Qifang takes it a step further:

Translation of left side:
An open style scholarship platform: Need help? Want to help?
Get in now > Safe, Simple, Free.
By focusing on loans for people who can’t afford education, they’re appealing to a belief in the power education, which may just have enough altruistic sway to sidestep people’s distrust of others, and is certainly a much better story than empowering petty village commerce that does who-knows-what.
Think of donating to education as the China equivalent of people in the US donating to small entrepreneurs in the developing world (e.g. Kiva: Loans that change lives).
And as proof of their social mission, the right block on the screenshot above says:
Post-disaster reconstruction communication platform: Enter now.
Help someone get through school in China at Qifang now.

Aricsqueen. He’s from America, but living in China. He video blogs a “Shanghai Diary.” His mission is to give an alternative and honest view on China. The news and views typically take a critical position on China; stories include how an American got jailed in China for, a watchdog piece on pre-Olympic changes, and a preview of five Chinese rock bands.
The citizen journalist format is interesting , but in this case, sometimes the white American dude point of view has its limits.
I’m late to the show, and Aric’s currently on a break from Shanghai/China.
Luckily, it’s still all online and hosted by Current TV: See episodes from the series here.
(Thank you Parisa from CurrentTV for sending this over, and Micah for correcting me on some details!)
From my friends over at Khaki Creative (based in Beijing):


An interesting detail: “All MOKOMOKO apparel sizes are Asian standard, which is slightly smaller than European standard. Please reconfirm your order to account for this difference.”
See their store with designer shirts and plush dolls.
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