September 5, 2013Jing GaoOne Comment

The Most Idyllic and Pristine College Campus in China (Hint: def not PKU or THU)

The site of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts used to be part of a rural village. After moving in, the school authorities manage to preserve everything ranging from fields and soil to ponds and bamboo forests and farmhouses. Exterior walls of student halls and buildings are not painted in any unnatural color. Farm tools commonly [...]

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August 28, 2013Jing Gao2 Comments

Learn From Everyone – A knowledge sharing initiative launched by young Chinese

Written by Charlene Ni, co-founder of LFE, who is also a contributor at Ministry of Tofu.     向学LFE (Learn From Everyone) is an NGO committed to sharing interesting knowledge, stories and opinions regardless of the social status of their owners. It is founded by a group of Chinese college students studying in the U.S. with [...]

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August 28, 2013Jing GaoNo Comments

6-year-old boy has eyes gouged out after being drugged, corneas missing

Source: IFENG Screen grab of a local television report. Headline reads, “Cruel! 6-year-old Child Has Eyes Gouged Out” A 6-year-old Chinese boy in central China had his eyes gouged out after the perpetrator abducted the child away from home into the middle of nowhere and drugged him. The boy, still hospitalized, is not in any [...]

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August 27, 2013Jing GaoOne Comment

My Video Story for LinkAsia: The App Has Eyes: China’s Social Surveillance Spooks

I struggled for a long time whether to share this, but here it is… I so wish I had put on some makeup.

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August 1, 2013Jing Gao2 Comments

Ou Leili: China’s Wheelchair Bomber Shines Light on Injustice, Disability Rights

Ou Leili is a contributor at Ministry of Tofu. You can learn more about her on our About page. “I am festering away, paralyzed and over 100,000 yuan (US $16,303.60) in debt. Our family has suffered an unimaginable fate.” This declaration was translated from the now-deleted blog of Ji Zhongxing. Ji, a 34-year-old man from [...]

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July 30, 2013Jing GaoOne Comment

Zheyan Ni: Chinese Box Office Hit Flaunts Wealth, Angers Communists

Zheyan Ni is a contributor at Ministry of Tofu. You can learn more about her on our About page. Tiny Times was released on June.27. It’s based on the director Guo Jingming’s  best-selling novel published in 2007. The movie portrays the urban lives of four college graduates in Shanghai, their friendship, relationships and careers. The movie’s [...]

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July 18, 2013Jing Gao3 Comments

Chinese professor: Raping female escorts is less harmful than raping honest women

Li Tianyi, the 17-year-old son of a nationally known Chinese folk singer who holds the military rank of major general, has been charged with gang-raping one woman in February alongside four other teens. The case has been the center of attention in the past few months as it provides perfect fodder for social hatred in [...]

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July 16, 2013Jing GaoOne Comment

A Court in China Gives Citizens Metaphorical Warning

Recently, a bizzarre poster in the city of Manzhouli, China, has surprised netizens there. The poster was put out by People’s Court in Manzhouli, warning people to obey the law, other wise they could turn from “a fresh daisy” to “a shriveled sunflower”. To give you a bit of context here, “daisy” and “chrysanthemum” in [...]

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July 12, 2013Jing Gao4 Comments

Brutally abused girl got help from Weibo

Picked up from Wenxuecity.com A little girl in eastern China’s Wuhu city has been brutally abused and locked up by her own father and step-mother. Every night, she has to sleep in the bathroom. Before beating her, her step-mother often stuffs a towel into her mouth so that her cry won’t be heard easily. But [...]

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July 4, 2013Jing Gao4 Comments

Students’ humiliation of Hong Kong’s chief sparks debate about free speech

Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung was given thumbs-down, the middle finger, ‘No’ signs and was even mooned at the commencement by students at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts last week. In return, Leung greeted each of his protesters nothing but an awkward smile. Long seen as a puppet leader installed by Beijing, [...]

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June 25, 2013Jing GaoNo Comments

Big slumber party on Chinese campus

Temperatures in half of China hit 35 Celsius (95 F). In Wuhan, one of the three ‘hot pots’ along the Yangtze River, temperature soared to as high as 39 C, and it is humid as hell. Chinese college dorms, which are mostly AC-less, are the worst-hit. Having no AC at their dorms, students at Wuhan-based [...]

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June 25, 2013Jing GaoNo Comments

Pic of the Day: Abandoned baby girl

A few-days-old baby girl was abandoned by birth parents in front of a clinic in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou last Friday. When discovered, she had ants crawling all over her face.

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June 25, 2013Jing GaoNo Comments

The “Diaosi” social class: presage of impending social changes in China

Outside China, people are buzzing about Peking pound, the hot money from China that drives up prices or drains supplies of a wide range of things from property to baby formula, from gold to oil, as if a sneeze from the rising Chinese middle class could truly freeze the entire world. But at home, what [...]

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June 11, 2013Jing Gao2 Comments

Soul-searching former Red Guard won praises on Weibo

From Takungpao A former Red Guard made a written apology for his evils during the Cultural Revolution last week, the first of its kind in China. Liu Boqin, a man in his 60s, was a second-year student at Jinan No.1 Middle School (equivalent of eighth grade in the U.S.) at the start of the Cultural [...]

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June 7, 2013Jing Gao4 Comments

No red-carpet faceoff? Michelle Obama won’t meet China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan

This is a moment that Chinese have long been waiting for – China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan shake hands with her U.S. counterpart Michelle Obama, with the rest of the world sizing them up, chattering about which one is more graceful and has a better red-carpet look. “Now that we finally have a presentable First [...]

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June 7, 2013Jing GaoNo Comments

Pic of the day: Best iPhone product placement

Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at Chichen Itza in Mexico. Best Apple product placement. Guess CCTV won’t have the gut to smear iPhone any more.

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June 6, 2013Jing Gao2 Comments

June 6, 2013Jing Gao3 Comments

Video of chengguan bully beating and stomping on victim angers Chinese

A video of five chengguan (city management) officers manhandling bicycle vendors has shocked and outraged Chinese netizens, bringing the age-old topic of highly abusive chengguan force back into spotlight. In the video, a man was knocked down onto the ground by the five chengguan officers in uniform in a violent brawl. One officer then jumped [...]

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June 5, 2013Jing GaoNo Comments

Chinese college humor: Do you pleasure yourself? Survey on masturbation goes viral

A recent video interview of more than 50 college students on their masturbation and porn-viewing habits has become an online hit on Chinese social media sites. The project is launched by a study group called ‘Research on Masturbation’ from Guangzhou-based Zhongshan University. The study group, headed by sexology professor Pei Yuxin at the university, aims [...]

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June 5, 2013Jing GaoOne Comment

A deadly fire in Jilin kills 120; Weibo bans mourning emoticons

A deadly fire broke out Monday morning at a poultry plant in northeast China’s Jilin province, claming at least 120 lives. As rescue efforts and police investigation go on, on Sina Weibo, the Chinese answer to Twitter, popular mourning emoticons such as flickering candles and black ribbons have been disabled to prevent the public uproar from [...]

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