I don’t know what Mannings is advertising here, but it’s a lovely story of selfless devotion nonetheless. A Babelfish translation of the related site offered no help, but if you can read Chinese, you may be able to clue us in. Link -via Everlasting Blort

The inventions that make up this gallery are strange, unquestionably handmade, and many seem quite useful.

Like the one man paddle submarine pictured above, they look like clever and inventive ways to get around, and may not seem so strange when your town gets hit by a flood.

However, personal safety clearly wasn’t a consideration when these inventions were built, and some of them look like they might explode right in your face!

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(YouTube Link)

The elderly members of this Chinese choir show Lady Gaga how its done, remixing her song “Bad Romance” in a way only an elderly Chinese choir can. They bring senior citizen style and flair to Gaga’s slamming track, proving that you’re never too old to rock the party.

–via BuzzFeed

The line between being a “hipster” and having no fashion sense is often a blurry one. This gallery of images demonstrates this by pointing out a collection of “accidental hipsters” from New York City’s Chinatown… or are they “accidental?” They could be on the forefront of hipster fashion.

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A Chinese company has begun construction of a duplicate Austrian village that is known for its scenic Alpine beauty. The town of Hallstatt attracts thousands of visitors a year, but apparently some of them were there to photograph, draw and take measurements of architecture to be duplicated in its Asian counterpart.

After taking photos and collecting other data on the village while mingling with the tourists, a Chinese firm has started to rebuild much of Hallstatt in faraway Guandong province. Although publicly, Hallstatters say they are proud that their village has caught the eye, others have voiced their outrage about the fact they were not consulted about the plans to replicate it.

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Some Chinese legends say that hell, or diyu, is an unground maze with 18 levels and various chambers in which one must pay for the sins of their life. Wouldn’t that make a great video game? They are quite frightening- there’s the chamber of tongue ripping (shown), the chamber of steamer, the mountain of knives, the cauldron of boiling oil, and more. See each level illustrated at China Underground. Link -Thanks, CinaOggi!

Last year, one Chinese-language newspaper reported that an Alhambra taxi driver was arrested near Los Angeles International Airport after producing counterfeit military identification while trying to get out of a traffic stop.

Investigators learned that the recruits were told that the military IDs could be used to avoid getting traffic tickets and to receive certain types of military benefits and discounts, Eimiller said.

Some of the recruits were so convinced that they were part of the U.S. military that they actually visited real Army recruiting centers and tried to pay their monthly dues directly to the U.S. government, Eimiller said. That was another tipoff when investigators began looking into the group.

Local Chinese American leaders on Wednesday said they were shocked that a group that was such a familiar presence in the community is now being accused of being a fraud.

If convicted of all charges, Daniel Deng could face 11 years in prison. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: FBI)

Well, it’s because Chinese kids have Chinese mothers. Amy Chua explains why Chinese moms are superior in scorched earth, no holds barred, extreme child-rearing techniques:

Despite our squeamishness about cultural stereotypes, there are tons of studies out there showing marked and quantifiable differences between Chinese and Westerners when it comes to parenting. In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that "stressing academic
success is not good for children" or that "parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun." By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be "the best" students, that "academic achievement reflects successful parenting," and that if children did not excel at school then there was "a problem" and parents "were not doing their job." Other studies indicate that compared to Western parents, Chinese parents spend approximately 10 times as long every day drilling academic activities with their children. By contrast, Western kids are more likely to participate in sports teams. [...]

The fact is that Chinese parents can do things that would seem unimaginable—even legally actionable—to Westerners. Chinese mothers can say to their daughters, "Hey fatty—lose some weight." By contrast, Western parents have to tiptoe around the issue, talking in terms of "health" and never ever mentioning the f-word, and their kids still end up in therapy for eating disorders and negative self-image. (I also once heard a Western father toast his adult daughter by calling her "beautiful and incredibly competent." She later told me that made her feel like garbage.)

Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight As. Western parents can only ask their kids to try their best. Chinese parents can say, "You’re lazy. All your classmates are getting ahead of you." By contrast, Western parents have to struggle with their own conflicted feelings about achievement, and try to persuade themselves that they’re not disappointed about how their kids turned out.

Amy – a professor at Yale Law School and author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," a book about raising children the Chinese Way – explains the 3 big differences between Chinese and Western parental mind-sets in this intriguing article in the Wall Street Journal.

See if you agree: Link (Photo: Erin Patrice O’brien/WSJ)

Yu-Hsiang “Shaun” Chung is an artist specializing in typography. He made a movable wooden Rubik’s Cube that can be used as a stamp:

Chinese has a long history with the printing. In 105 AD, Cai Lun invented the paper. In 200 AD, the Chinese invention of Woodblock printing produced the world’s first print culture. In 1040, Bi Sheng invented the first known movable type technology. Therefore, I want to use a Chinese text for my cube. The text I used for my cube is called “Three Character Classic.” It is a traditional Chinese text that teaches young children to be a good person in the society. The text is written in triplets of characters for easy memorization, which is perfect for the cube since the cube is 3 by 3 on every side. The text is written by Wang Yinglin during the Song Dynasty, so I used a font called “Song,” which is correspond to the Song Dynasty when a distinctive printed style of regular script was developed.

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British tabloid Daily Mail recently noticed that some Chinese products have suspiciously familiar names, occasionally with really funny results.

Do you think your children would notice if you brought them home a Polystation 2?  Or maybe you’re in the market for some Birkinsticks?  I can’t wait until someone opens the first branch of McDucks or Pizza Huh in my neighborhood!

Link – via fark

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by ccmushroom.

The use of traditional Chinese characters and references to “the northern mainland” seem to indicate the text comes from Hong Kong or Macau, and it promises burlesque acts by pretty-as-jade housewives with hot bodies for the daytime visitor.

The cover has since been changed, and the institute has issued an apology. Link -Thanks, Daniel Kim!