· April, 2012

Stories about Chinese from April, 2012

Taiwan: Travel with Art

Blogger and artists Lovingpure(黃愛淳) uses contemporary paintings about Taiwan from distinguished painters to create this video as the ultimate travel guide for foreign tourists.

27 April 2012

China: What is Causing the Death of Endangered Finless Porpoises?

More than a dozen corpses of the Finless Porpoise, a species even more rare than the Giant Panda, have been found in Dongting Lake in Hubei and Hunan provinces since March 2012. Chinese micro-bloggers are keeping each other updated on the situation while trying to determine the reasons for the deaths of this critically endangered species, as the government is yet to confirm the death toll and put forward a rescue plan.

17 April 2012

China: Feminist Questions ‘Date NGO Girls’ Charity Event

A nonprofit organization that supports the development of NGOs recently introduced a charity event in Beijing to help young female NGO staffers to find their marriage match. However, prominent feminist blogger Lu Ping questions why charities and NGOs are spending resources to promote a culture that reinforces gender, marriage and sexual stereotypes.

16 April 2012

China: Struggle to Remember Fang Lizhi

Chinese intellectual Fang Lizhi, who inspired a whole generation of student activists during the 1980s, passed away on April 6, 2012 in the United States, at the age of 76. Authorities were quick to ban the news from the Internet and Chinese netizens now have to struggle with web censors to remember Fang.

9 April 2012

Is Basketball's Jeremy Lin the Light of Taiwan?

From a benchwarmer to an NBA player who led the New York Knicks to seven consecutive victories, Jeremy Lin's inspiring Cinderella story has incited “Linsanity” in Taiwan. All major newspapers have extravagantly portrayed him as "the light of Taiwan." However, many Taiwanese bloggers are wary of this kind of blind idolatry.

6 April 2012

Taiwan: Protect Homeowners Against Forced Demolition

About 400 people gathered to protect one Taipei family against eviction by the police. A controversial urban renewal project has made the Wang's house part of the government sanctioned renewal zone, which allows the government to forcibly expel citizens from their own house when 75% of their neighbors agree to sell their land to the developer.

3 April 2012

About our Chinese coverage

Oiwan Lam
Oi wan Lam is the North East Asia editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.