Beijing Ancient Observatory

OK, so what I was saying about toxic counterfeiting? That isn't the only bit of advanced biochemistry that China's contributing to the world. (And it's not like... more

Kongfuzi, better known on this side of the Prime Meridian as Confucius, outlined one of the world's clearest and most durable ethical systems. Thousands of years after writing his Analects, he's still got admirers among scholars (and bloggers!) around the world. And although viewed as a dangerously counter-revolutionary imperial influence during the... more

Do you remember the time not so very long ago when I got all het up over Vladimir Putin offering citizens money to make more Russians the old-fashioned way, by putting babies in Russian mommies' tummies?

As opposed to, oh, maybe taking babies out of social welfare institutions?

Well, apparently, the Russians aren't the only one of China's neighbors to offer money to people to create... more

On the one hand, China is embracing Americana in some fairly strange ways, as exemplified by Shijingshan Amusement Park. It's a Disneyland that isn't. "NO, no, that character is not Mickey Mouse!" they say. "That's a cat with large ears!! And many ducks wear sailor suits! Not just... that duck!" As far as I... more

"Yīgè Dàyuè Wèile Fán Réndào" means "One Great Leap For All Mankind."

If the world had worked a little differently and the gorgeous children who are now my daughter and son had stayed in China, they would one day have faced a terrifying thing: the Chinese math test. That's a link from the... more

A boy and his globe, Topaz, Utah, 1943

So, there is becoming more and more like here every single day. Check out these signs of a burgeoning monoculture:

After pulling off their "race war" season without any fatalities, ... more

The Centers for Disease Control are issuing a warning that adults adopting from China seem to be at risk for developing measles.

Of all things.

Three different families traveling with the same Missouri-based adoption agency -- but traveling separately, possibly to three different SWIs in three different cities -- stayed at the same hotel in Guangdong Province last July.... more

Beijing has long arms. Capital cities do. But I don't think the Beijing movers and shakers ever really expected the One-Child Policy to affect Canadian children.

Yet here we are -- Hong Zhang is a Chinese citizen, and her year-old daughter, Sherry, was born in Canada to a Canadian father. The daughter's a citizen, the mother isn't and is being deported. The problem is, the mother's not allowed to have the daughter in China. People... more

This is not the $2million teapot. It is a more ordinary Ming plate sitting in a museum in Berlin. 400 years ago, it was affordable contemporary art.

Someone just spent $2,130,000 (more or less) to buy a teapot. It was sold by Sotheby's Hong Kong to London-based... more

This might have a direct effect on families traveling via Tokyo, which some do -- and perhaps more will.

It looks like despite things being rather frosty between China and Japan (which I've alluded to before)... more