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Beware Eunuchs at the Family Silver

A corner of the Forbidden City in Beijing has been restored to some of its former splendour. The halls that once housed the treasured collection of an emperor have reappeared from rubble after three quarters of a century.

But the mystery of the fire that engulfed the Garden of Established Happiness in 1923 remains unsolved.

Celluloid in Shangri La

Times are tough for Chinese film makers. And it’s not so easy for Shangri La, either

Pity poor Chen Kaige. It’s not been a good 12 months for one of China’s most famous movie directors. Last year, his film the “The Promise” was launched amid great fanfare as the greatest blockbuster ever made in China. Little doubt it was highest-budget movie ever made in China.

But its box office takings have barely covered the 42-million-dollar cost. It certainly never gained the critical claim of his “Farewell My Concubine.”

Mingling with the Masses

The leaders of the People’s Republic of China are among the world’s most distant from the lives of ordinary mortals.

Thus such a sight this morning in a Beijing park was a somewhat unusual one. Premier Wen Jiabao may have been taking some tips on pressing the flesh from visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

From Sedan Chair to Bicycle to Benz

Chinese want cars. Lots of them. More than 1,000 new cars hit the streets of Beijing every day.

A lot of those cars are compact cars – designed with the average Chinese consumer in mind. After all, the average Chinese car buyer is looking for an engine-powered vehicle to replace his bicycle or the tyranny of the crowded bus.

But some people in this country, where many still struggle on the poverty line, have rather bigger budgets.

Wind, Rain and Climate Change

Typhoon season has begun. But it’s arrived early in China this year.

A reminder of the power of Nature, a force that has claimed countless lives in China.

Already 11 people have died since Typhoon Chanchu began pummeling the south today, and there could be more. Chanchu is the most powerful typhoon to sweep through the South China Sea in the month of May. Already scientists are mentioning the words “climate change”.

Setting Light to the Airwaves

Celebrity gossip is burning up the airwaves in China.

Who wants to read the People’s Daily and its exhortations about President Hu Jintao’s guidelines for better manners – the Eight Honours and Eight Disgraces – when details of the private lives of China’s stars can be found in the Beijing News?

Well, veteran pop star Dou Wei may be wishing he had paid more attention to the Eight Honours.

The Grass is Greener

I know that labour is famously cheap in China. But cutting the grass by hand?

To the Queen from a Red Guard

The Red Guards. There are few more mystifying images of modern China.

The Red Guards are an indelible, and almost iconic, feature of modern history. To remember these radical students is to conjure up images of their adulatory devotion to Chairman Mao Zedong that inflamed the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 40 years ago this spring.

Looking Out of the Ordinary

China likes to cultivate its image as a communist state built on puritanical principles. But people are just as eager for prurient news as anywhere else.

How else to explain that the latest travails of the man famed nationwide as “the hairy boy” featured large on China's usually staid-verging-on-stultifying television news?

Water, water somewhere

I woke up to the pitter-patter of rain today.

So what, snorts the Englishman. Well, if you haven’t seen a drop of rain since September – or was it August? – you, too, would take pleasure in learning afresh that the simple things in life are not to be taken for granted.