Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

We all know Michael Scofield’s famous tattoo in Prison Break but tattooing The Great Wall of China, dragons, Olympic rings, symbols of Olympic sports and Fuwa? on your body sure comes close in some way.

New Lost Laowai author Ligaya talks about the fashion faux pas and culture-clashing nature of having tattoos in China, and having Chinese in tattoos.

This is just too weird. A bunch of photos sans description of a farm in China which apparently does extensive tattoo artwork on their pigs.

Red is the new white in China as more young couples forgo Western wedding gowns and rituals for the richly embroidered, crimson costumes and intricate traditions of the ancient Han way. Yet many of their traditions were relegated to history, especially during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, when the old ways were seen to have no place in new, Communist China. But now things are changing...

Taiwan has revised its high-school history textbooks to show that Taiwan is an independent country and not part of China, media reports said Monday.

The China Times said that on the education ministry's order, the title of the national history textbook for high-school - to be used after the winter vacation - has been changed from 'National History' to 'China History'.

In this textbook, terms like 'our country,' 'this country' and 'the mainland' have been changed to 'China' to indicate that Taiwan is not part of China, the daily said.

There is, by my estimation, exactly one advantage to getting inked in the back of a Chinese laowai bar: the characters will probably be right. Fithi Garza decided to tattoo his late brother’s name in Chinese on his arm. He did it in a back room in Dalian’s Nepalese Bar.

A very long analysis by Joel Martinsen about the Beijing Mayor's recent criticism of extravagant real estate advertising. Includes a good translation of a Wang Xiaofeng post, who points out changing the ads ain't going to make housing more affordable.

Pictures of two Chinese men who tattooed their entire body to support the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Most Chinese think they are crazy and stupid.

An interesting Bloomberg column by William Pesek discusses the recent 20% purchase of Africa's largest bank, Standard Bank Group, by the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

Pesek does a good job if illustrating how this might be a changing point in China's otherwise dim history of investment in the continent. He also does well to show how it differs from the usual Western "white knight" investments: