In some Chinese cities, grave plots cost more per square meter than homes. And they only bury ashes because land is too tight. And! They only get their grave for 20 years.
From @LivelyIvy. Seen in China.
Lien Chan didn’t show up to accept the Confucius Peace Prize.
The first ever Confucius Peace Prize was awarded to former Taiwanese Vice President Lien Chan, who worked for closer ties between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. But Tien wasn’t in attendance, largely because no one from the committee had bothered to inform him about it. Instead, the award was given to a young girl described as an “angel of peace.”
In response to the Nobel Peace Prize going to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who is currently in prison, China has created its own prize, called the Confucius Peace Prize. The nominees for the first such prize include Mahmoud Abbas, Nelson Mandela, and Bill Gates, but (surprise!) the winner is a former Vice President of Taiwan who made nice with mainland China’s government.
The award ceremony will take place in Beijing on Thursday, the day before Liu is formally awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Neither he nor his wife have been allowed by the Chinese government to go to Oslo. Liu’s wife has been put under house arrest.
At a UN retreat, a Chinese diplomat named Sha Zukang got drunk and gave an overly honest toast, singling out Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“I know you never liked me Mr. Secretary-General — well, I never liked you, either,” Sha told Ban at a dinner attended by the U.N.’s top brass, according to a senior U.N. official who attended the event. “I didn’t want to come to New York. It was the last thing I wanted to do. But I’ve come to love the U.N. and I’m coming to admire some things about you.”
He also confessed he didn’t like one Bob Orr because “he’s an American and I really don’t like Americans”.
CLASSIC.
Construction has caused a 60-mile, 10-day (and counting) traffic jam in northern China. Some people have been stuck for 5 days, and locals are taking advantage of the situation.
Though there were no reports of road rage violence, drivers complained about price-gouging by villagers who were their only source of food and water. A bottle of water that normally costs 1 yuan (15 cents) was selling for 10 yuan ($1.50), while the price of a 3 yuan- (45 cent-) cup of instant noodles had more than tripled, media reports said.
Some Chinese companies hire white people to represent them (and to do nothing else). Here’s a story from someone hired to do “quality control”.
For the next few days, we sat in the office swatting flies and reading magazines, purportedly high-level employees of a U.S. company that, I later discovered, didn’t really exist. We were so important, in fact, that two of the guys were hired to stay for eight months (to be fair, they actually then received quality-control training).
“Lots happening,” Ken told me. “We need people for a week every month. It’ll be better next time, too. We’ll have new offices.” He paused before adding: “Bring a computer. You can watch movies all day.”
Yikes. Jackie Chan — heretofore, undeniably awesome — thinks perhaps China is better off without freedom:
“I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not,” Chan said. “I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic.”
Chan added: “I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want.”
