The problem of residence permits

Southern Weekend investigates

• This week's Southern Weekend's top story is about a tragedy caused by China's residence permit or hukou (户口) system. A man who killed his newly born baby after failing to get a Beijing residence permit for the child. The article does not directly say that the residence permit should change, but points out that there are many problems caused by it (link - in Chinese).

UPDATE: ESWN has translated the article: The Death of the Hukou-less Baby

• A conference was organized yesterday (Chinese) by the conservative Guangming Daily in Beijing to discuss the e gao (恶搞) phenomenon. According to Virtual China, E gao or 'spoofing' "refers to the sudden emergence over the past year of online video clips and photo-shopped stills such as Hong Kong's now world-famous Bus Uncle, or the Bun Murders series based on Chen Kaige's film The Promise."

Of course, the panel of pompous experts decided that E gao is bad for society, and declared that websites should be held responsible for stoppping e gao content. The Beijing News has a short article about the declaration here (Chinese).

• The China Daily reports that Saomai, the strongest typhoon to strike China for half a century, has killed at least 111 people and left many others missing (link).

• After two local governments ordered mass killings of dogs following a rabies outbreak, a heated debate has emerged; there are stories about this in the China Daily and the New York Times.

• The history blog Frog in a Well has an interesting post about buying used books online in China (link).

• ESWN has a note about former Freezing Point (冰点) editor Li Datong's new book, just published in Hong Kong (link).

DVD store

Hidden away
The curtained door opens and closes

People are choosing DVDs like mad

Two policemen rush in
The air is thick with tension

Everybody falls silent

One of the cops asks in a loud voice: Has the DVD version of Crazy Stone arrived yet?

• In The Independent, Clifford Coonan reports: Kung fu has now been made compulsory in secondary schools in central China (link)

• The Economist reports on the problems of China's education policy, which is "torn between the market and the state" (link).

• The Shanghai Daily reports on an adult toy and reproductive health exhibition (link):

Saving China's ancient sex culture and promoting more effective sex education were under discussion yesterday by experts at a summit ahead of an adult products exhibition.

The Shanghai sex expo's website is here. Danwei is a long time supporter of China's ancient and modern sex culture as you can see from two of the most popular pages on this website: Selling Excavating Sex, and Emily Meng owns a sex shop