Abby Liu · May, 2013

Latest posts by Abby Liu from May, 2013

Chinese Social Web Defends US Vice President Biden

United States Vice President Joe Biden has faced a firestorm of criticism from Chinese international students after he referred to China as a nation that cannot "think different" or "breathe freely" during his commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania. But mainland Chinese Web users have hit back, reproaching the students abroad for their behavior and defending Biden's speech as worthy of reflection.

26 May 2013

Cadmium-Laced Rice Found in China

Rice contaminated with high levels of the toxic heavy metal cadmium, dubbed "cadmium rice," is the latest food scandal in China to trigger public panic and anger among the country's consumers.

22 May 2013

Why Is China's Post-80’s Generation Dispirited?

China's state-run People’s Daily ran a piece titled “The Post-80′s Generation is Dispirited: Early Decline Cause for Alarm[zh],” arguing that China’s youth born after 1980 face “spiritual confusion and a loss of...

19 May 2013

Chinese Officials Attempt to Stem Protests

After Kunming's Anti-PX protest on May 4, 2013, local government has tried to stop further protests by sending text messages, “visiting” protest organizers, and censoring information online. East by Southeast has...

15 May 2013

WeiboSuite: New Tool to Analyze Sina Weibo

WeiboSuite is a new toolbox for journalists and netizens. Created by data journalists from the University of Hong Kong, WeiboSuite provides English translations of censored materials on Weibo and tools to...

14 May 2013

Popular Chinese Writer's Microblog Scrubbed from Sina Weibo

The online Sina Weibo microblogging account of Murong Xuecun, one of China's most popular writers and one of the country's foremost critics of censorship, has been deleted from the site, suspected to be part of the government's efforts to crack down on online rumors by targeting high-profile users.

13 May 2013

Obama, Minister of Chinese Petitions?

The White House petition for the Zhu Ling case has received 137,676 signatures by May 8, 2013. Some web users have made light of the fact that Chinese have turned to...

8 May 2013

Rat Meat Sold as Lamb in China

Chinese police have caught a gang of traders who bought rat and fox meat and sold it as lamb. When the scandal was featured in Chinese newspapers and websites, it...

6 May 2013

China Censors Chemical Plant Protest

Residents of China’s southwestern Kunming city took to the streets on May 4, 2013 to protest against the potential production of a toxic chemical at a nearby factory. China's state media kept the news of the protest quiet, and online censors aggressively deleted information and photos about the demonstration on social media.

6 May 2013

China's Unfair Pension System

The Economic Observer[zh] ran a piece on China's dual-track pension system, which reveals the huge inequality between migrant workers and civil servants. ChinaSmack has translated the Chinese article as well...

5 May 2013

China: Unsolved Poisoning Case in Spotlight

Due to the recent poisoning case at Shanghai's Fudan University, Chinese netizens have taken renewed interest in another well-known university poisoning from 20 years ago. In 1994, Tsinghua University chemistry...

5 May 2013

Shanghai is China's Number One Cancer City

The cancer rate in Shanghai is 25 percent higher than the national average, over 80 people die from the disease every day, according to the Shanghai Center for Disease Control...

5 May 2013

Chinese Academic Snubbed at Home, Lauded in the U.S.

An outspoken Chinese scientist who was passed over two years ago by China's Academy of Sciences has been scooped up by the United States National Academy of Sciences as a non-voting member, prompting netizens to take a harsh look at the priorities of China's academic world

3 May 2013