An exploration of virtual experiences and environments in and about China.
The 走走看看—赵静的BLOG is a great photoblog that includes photos from Tibet, surgeries, as well as the biggest rice pile in China:
"March 16, 2007: HeiLongJiang HuLin remote car station, China’s largest rice company - BeiDaHuang rice industry group’s primary food storage site."
Go to 走走’s blog.
The nail house incident blogged here earlier has made it way into the English blogosphere: BoingBoing linked to Ananova about it (before we caught it actually), ESWN linked to Danwei’s post, and Peering Into The Interior translated an interview with the owner.
Meanwhile, as Global Voices Online points out, it is also picking up steam on the Chinese BBS’s.
The latest item that’s caught my eye: netizens show support by mashing up headshots of the nail house owner’s husband.
Picture via GVO.
Earlier we blogged about the "nail house" 钉子户 in Shanghai–these are the residences of urbanites whose neighborhoods have been "moved" 动迁 and who are the last hold-outs–they stick out like nails in an otherwise modernized environment. Making the rounds of Chinese portals and BBS in March, this "greatest nail house in history," from Chongqing, which is renowned across the city.
On March 19 the China Legal Daily published what it claims is the first interview with the woman who owns the house. Her demand? To be given an apartment in the new building that is going up on the same spot, with comparable square footage to the house she now lives in. This will be impossible, says the developer. According to Chongqing law, says the article, there are three possible ways to compensate owners in this type of situation: 1) provide housing on the same spot; 2) provide housing in another spot; 3) provide a sum of money. The city is only willing to provide Ms. Wu, the resident, with the third option, but she is not willing to accept a sum of money.
Because the two parties cannot come to an agreement, they have not budged since relocation at the site started in September, 2004. although excavation of the worksite is already well underway…"On January 11, 2007, the developer brought an administrative action against Ms. Wu with the department responsible for relocation, the Chongqing Jiulongpo District Housing Management Bureau. The result was a demand for the resident being relocated to voluntarily move within 15 days and to return the house to be demolished by the developer. If the party being relocated does not agree with this ruling he or she can file a suit with the Chongqing Jiulongpo District Court within 3 months or apply for a reconsideration within 60 days from the Chongqing Jiulongpo District Government or the Chongqing Municipal Housing Bureau.
Ms. Wu’s response to the Legal Daily reporter: I simply won’t accept this mistaken ruling!
The Jiulongpo District Housing Management Bureau says it will apply for a legal ruling to institute forced relocation.
Everyone says sex makes the Internet go round; maybe it’s just a little more obvious in China? Sandwiched in between Tianya photo posts on Qing dynasty-era embroidery and government officials planting trees is one of Tianya’s most popular ongoing photo threads of the year: an adult industry exhibition in Las Vegas. Over 400,000 have viewed the pages in the last three months (one suspects many of them are return visits), almost 3,000 have written comments. Lots of conversation about how big the photos should be in order to get the maximum effect but not to slow down the load rate too much; some requests for specific porn stars, by name. The author has promised to slowly display his treasures from the 2006, 2005, and 2004 show, and readers are eagerly awaiting. This about sums it up:
Okay, so I don’t know why these are so fascinating to me, but I couldn’t help but spend ten minutes comparing the lovely photos Jason blogged below (you really should see the whole set at PCAuto), with their counterparts from a map of Beijing that Rania Ho has on her Flickrstream, and which I blogged last year. Aren’t they gorgeous?
It’s hard to take care of the public commons with a population 4 times the size of the U.S. This is especially obvious when you have hundreds of millions people mixing and milling across the country, going home, and taking vacations during their Spring Festival holidays. Often times it’s not the big issues that make a difference, but the
small things that can make daily life and public spaces habitable–or
not. In this spirit, Moobol/Molive.com has a post on Not Forgetting the Small Things During Spring Festival Travels." 小处不可随便" probably has a better English translation, but for now I’ll go with "don’t forget the small things." [Update: or perhaps, "don't forget the little places."]
The story behind the phrase "小处不可随便" "Don’t forget the small things" is also interesting. According to Baidu Knows, a famous KMT official got tired of people peeing around the premises and wrote a sign saying “不可随处小便” "Random Urinating Not Allowed." His calligraphy was so prized that someone stole the sign, cut it into individual characters, and rearranged it into "小处不可随便" "Don’t forget the small things." [Update: Literally, "don't be too casual in small places"]. This has evolved into referring to things that deface little corners of public space, like littering, spitting, and random parking.
Happy New Year! 新年快乐！ 恭喜发财！
Moobol/Molive (photo credits: qazzaq321) presents a glimpse at a rural Chinese New Year (or rather, the cooking done the night before):
More to come! Link to original post.
Was going over my photos from fieldwork done at Microsoft Research Asia last summer and found these photos my friend Neema and I took when we were at the Beijing railway station. We had just asked the counter in one of the waiting rooms about our schedule, and here is a photo of his copy of the schedule:
Computerization? Printing press? Nope.
It was, I believe, written on the back of some soft-card packaging (cigarettes would be my guess).
Having lived many years in Beijing, I’m partial to northern China in the winter (I realize it may be an acquired taste!). Two photoblogs, one from Dalian and one from Xi’an, start to convey the flavor of the bare branches, straight avenues, steam rising from roadside food vendors, bundled up pedestrians, smell of coal, and blue skies of a northern Chinese winter in the city. Ziboy is usually good for a slice of Beijing hutong winters (see his 2006.1 archive, for instance), but he’s busy doing his magic in NYC at present. Something from Harbin or Yinchuan would also be wonderful, but have looked and can’t find one.
Photo Xi’an is presented in English and is done by Wang Zhifang, who describes himself as "a Xi’an citizen and also an undergraduate studying
Geographic Information System (GIS) in Chang’an University, Xi’an." 
Longtanwan is a Dalian photoblog with especially nice apartment and building photos.
Yesterday I came across a Tianya BBS forum called Tianya Myself 天涯真我 (Roland Soong of ESWN translated it as True Self Community Forum…I’m just using the Chinglish version from the website itself). It’s the place where February Girl first posted her photos, and I guess what I’m writing about here is just the latest version of that: pretty girls posting pictures of themselves and having what seem to me fairly odd conversations with what appear to be strange men. Voyeurism in Virtual China. [Update: see ESWN recent translation of a fascinating article on the new profession of "Internet Promoter"--creating and promoting Internet stars).
"Chaseaini" is the post with the longest thread at the moment. Her Tianya profile says she's a 21 year old college student in Fujian province. On Jan. 3 she posted her first photo under the title "My first time posting photos, hehe." It was a kind of Chinese Britney Spears-esque/anime schoolgirl picture.
Since then there have been almost 6500 comments (including her own) and over 124,000 page hits. It's still going strong. It reads something like this:
Beautiful! Do you have any more?
Chaseaini: I hope everyone will use civilized language, otherwise, will the BBS moderator please delete them.
MM [meimei/little sister], I’m waiting, keep going.
What a beauty!
I’ve been on Tianya for 5 years and this is the first time I’ve ever commented on a post.
Keep posting photos!
Basically, as long as you’re female, after PhotoShop every one is a beauty.
Where is she? I still want to see more!
Where do you live in Xiamen? I can be there in half an hour!
She’s really extraordinary!
I’ve been on Tianya Myself a long time, but this is the first time my heart has been moved.
You could kill a man with these photos.
After coming to Tianya, I’m not going to porn sites anymore. The girls here are much prettier!
Over the next few days Chaseaini reveals a bit more about herself: she is not studying at Xiamen University, she’s into writing, she likes to write essays and poetry, she’d like to get published and wonders if anyone has any suggestions. At this point you start to wonder? Is it written by some Tianya editor to hook in male readers? It just sounds a bit too much. Then she actually starts posting some poems. Readers discuss what kind of role she would play if she went into acting. Several weeks and 6,000 comments later, Chaseaini writes:
Before when I posted my photos I was kind of naive, and just posted them for myself. Now I feel I’m posting them for my "you."
Just yesterday a new post appeared, posted by a girl called "Land of Happiness," followed by her QQ number and titled "I’m a 17 year old student. Photos inside. Please evaluate." 
The first comments were very direct: "More angles. Full body. No PS. No heavy make-up."
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