• ‘Cake Theory’ has Chinese eating up political debate, from Louisa Lim at NPR, examines two competing ideas within the party that may one day lead to inter-party elections.

• Bearing Witness, from That’s Shanghai,  is an interesting collection of memories from Shanghainese octogenarians who recount what life was like many years ago.

• March of the Freshmen, by Eric Fish (who also writes his own blog, Sinostand), is a great piece looking at military training in Chinese schools. For the story he asked a student to keep a notebook detailing her experiences, and gives a first hand look at a program that many have described as “brainwashing”.

• What it means to vote in China, an essay by Xu Zhiyong that appeared this week in the Economic Observer. An interesting look at how Chinese Democracy works, and what its current limitations are. One of the more interesting aspects of this article is that it is very much directed at a Chinese audience, and only appears here in translation.

• Ten awkward questions to ask Crazy Crab, cartoonist who challenges China’s Great Firewall, appeared in The Post Internazionale. Features a very subversive blogger who might be China’s most cutting political cartoonist. The interview deals largely with the Great Firewall, but also touches on many of China’s most sensitive issues. You can see Crazy Crab’s cartoons on Hexie Farm.

• China’s lawyers under siege, by Jerome Cohen, summarizes his recent testimony in front of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China in an emergency meeting held on the case of Chen Guangcheng. His three main points are key to understanding the importance of Chen’s case: 1) Lawyers in China are routinely harassed, not only in extreme cases of activism 2) Chen’s detention is not an example of local gov’t abuse, but is endorsed by the central gov’t 3) In Chen’s case there is not even the veneer of legal justification for his detainment.

• Shark fin soup disappearing from the menu at Chinese weddings, appeared in The Guardian this week, and looked at how Hong Kong, the largest market for the delicacy, is battling the traditions that are endangering the world’s shark populations.

• Closing rural healthcare gap tough challenge, from the Global Times, is an interview exploring the problems created by China’s two-tiered healthcare system that benefits urban residents over rural.

• As a a bonus, the University of Michigan discovered that it had a collection of papercuts dating from the Cultural Revolution. Until last week, they had been sitting in storage. Take a few moments to view all 15 of them.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.