Some Interesting Sino-Links...

I thought I would take a lesson from Adam Cathcart's blog and post some links which are presently orphaned in my favourites. Adam, who I've described as the Christopher Columbus of great link-finds accompanied with great translation work, runs the highly recommended site to your right.

Sounds like I'm putting together a Sino-Net-Mafia here, but prefer to pimp the sites I like rather than diss the one's which pain me.

Lets start with a couple of heavy hitters.

John Lee, sometimes adviser to the Australian Defence Establishment, wrote a short succint book titled "Will China Fail", and you will come away with the feeling that he hopes so. Lee covers very much the same terrain as Victor Shih - examining the structural characteristics of China's economy and its banking system. Cutting to the chase, this is a highly truncated piece by John Lee HERE titled Structural Flaws will Limit China's Rise.

Here are three great book REVIEWS by Perry Anderson, former editor of the defunct New Left Review, and the less-smarter brother of Benedict Anderson who authored Imagined Communities. Perry's Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism and The Rise of the Absolutist State are now literally collecting dust on many shelves mine included, while Imagined Communities will continue to produce theretical gold dust for years to come.

I think it is time to look at the papers and see what is happening in the Land of Happiness and Red Sing Songs.

John Garnaut wrote an excellent piece for the Sydney Morning Herald today on the serious clout exercised by the State's Power Grid, a corporate Behemoth beholden to no one including Beijing HERE.

Last week migrant workers from Sichuan in blue jeans central - Xintang county close to Guangzhou - congregated in a really uncivil manner, stoned police and torched a few cars and government buildings. Massive police power was subsequently employed and there have been 19 arrests to date.

But here are the kickers. Guangdong's Communist Party boss Wang Yang had previously tied his political ambitions to a Happy Guangdong HERE slogan earlier in January. All very embarrassing and he was not available for comment. Bo Xilai one of Wang's serious competitors for a slot on the Politburo's 9 person Standing Committee must be cock-a-hoop. Bo's thought bubble: "I'm a really photogenic chick magnet, so it's only right and just that that sour puss Wang bites the dust".

Aside from this cruel irony for Wang, it seems that these ungrateful rioting migrant workers are not handing themselves in to assure lenient sentences as requested. Consequently,

China has offered rewards to migrant workers willing to inform on colleagues involved in recent mass riots in the south-eastern city of Zengcheng.

The Zengcheng Daily published a notice offering workers residency permits - which would give them greater access to services like education and healthcare.

The notice also offered up to 10,000 yuan ($1,500; £1,000) cash rewards.

Sourced from the BBC, but the media are all over this snitch offer.

And, as you would expect, the application of Happy or Positive Psychology and the creation of Happiness Indexs are the new municipal fashion statement in the Middle Kingdon.

The China Daily link I was looking for has been disappeared, but I found this entry on my former hometown:Find your happy place in Fuzhou.

After celebrating Fz's banyan trees, CD notes:

Because locals planted so many of them, the city is now covered in a leafy canopy. Thanks to the many shaded areas, Fuzhou women do not need to hold umbrellas to protect themselves against the harsh UV rays.

There you go. Leave the sunnies and sun screen at home.