This piece of Chinese public art (or "art") is headlined "the dumbest thing I have seen", but really it's not.

Inexplicable, yes. Dumb, I'm not so sure about.

Something to look out for when you're using the public toilets in Chongqing....

Going to China, but running around in a panic trying to figure out how and what and where? Journeywoman.com's "GirlTalk China" presents a big list of tips for women traveling in China.

Topics include: what to pack (and how), where to shop, how much things are worth, the etiquette of dinner invitations, and a whole bunch of other stuff. As the name implies, it's all geared toward woman travelers, but men can learn a thing or two, too.

There are also some sweet anecdotes (I like the "Will my adopted granddaughter remember?" series.)

Because we within the adoption community (inasmuch as there is such a thing as one adoption community) can't get enough of celebrity adopters either (not least because whatever they do in public changes the way people look at us in the supermarket checkout lines), it's probably time for a check-in.

Madonna is insisting that ... more

This has nothing to do with anything on here, really, except in a general social awareness way, but sometimes it's actually embarrassing to be Floridian.

Perhaps the city fathers of Orlando can next erect signs on all the roads leading into town: "Homeless, don't let the sun set on you here."

Sheesh.

Of course, the Canadian counterpoint might be going a bit too far....

Are you afraid of Chinese grannies?

Respect their power.

So, as you may or may not know, I work in a rather odd newsroom while I'm not doing this thing on here.

While writing that previous entry on the hexagram heng and how it represents an unusual sort of marriage, I get assigned to write two stories based on news clips from China -- one on this married couple and one on this married couple.

Must mean *something*, mustn't it?

From the transcendent Hanzi Smatter comes word of a research project some of you folks might be interested in.

Mariah Miller, a graduate student at the Global Studies Programme (which is a joint project of the German University of Freiburg, the South African University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Indian Jawaharlal Nehru University) is looking for people with Chinese character tattoos to fill in a questionnaire (that's a .doc... more

I've been listening to NPR lately (as I do), and they've been all over China. Not just listening to classical music, either. They just had a big report on an AIDS activist getting some recognition despite the "AIDS? What AIDS?" official line.

Until Friday, the 80-year-old retired Dr. Gao Yaojie was under house arrest.

Gao says that since Feb. 2, she has been confined to her apartment, by as many as 50 policemen.

Their apparent aim was to keep her from... more

The leftists over at Daily Kos have an interesting reflection on poetry and Chinese history -- specifically, Auden's reflections on the Rape of Nanking. Well, we call it "The Nanjing Massacre" nowadays. But it's still a big deal in lots of people's minds. That's lots of people.

And Auden wrote a pretty good sonnet.