Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

This 75 page book has all of the secrets you’ve been searching for: Common Asian customs, Her value system, How to get her to see you as a movie star or dashing hero, How to win the approval of her family, ,What language to avoid using so that you don’t offend her ...

One agent said packages sent and delivered to Beijing within China could not contain powder, liquids or batteries. Certain things are understandably illegal to send by mail. In the U.S., for example, it has been illegal to mail children since 1913. That makes sense. Firearms are banned by the U.K.’s Royal Mail service (although “sporting guns” are permitted). But batteries?

It appears the Chinese government has decreed that companies going public need to pass environmental regulations. And guess what? This affects Chinese companies.

Danwei has an amusing article that takes some common red-banner slogans found hanging around China and translates them for us.

Some examples:
谁不实行计划生育，就叫他家破人亡。
Whoever does not follow family planning will have his household ruined and his family perish.

武装抗税是非法行为。
Armed resistance to taxation is illegal.
Is it legal to peacefully resist taxation?

谁烧山，谁坐牢！
He who burns the mountainside will go to prison!

The following series of photos, taken from my new book of photography ‘CHINA: Portrait of a People,’ are what I personally consider the most beautiful sites of Old China; those remote villages that have yet to meet China’s wrecking ball, and a proud people contented to proceed with their antediluvian customs as they have for five thousand years.

Common mistakes to avoid when learning Chinese.

This is stuff I wish I knew when setting out to learn the language, you may feel the same.

A funny entry from Violet Eclipse that draws attention to the fact that when speaking Chinese or doing your best to, context is super important.

The thing is, everything in China relies on context. It's kind of like when you meet your boyfriend's friends and they're all "Remember that time? Hahahaha!" while you're all "Hi, I'm Meg". They use these half sentences and references to other things, and even an awesome girlfriend just can't keep up."

The Sichuan earthquake has created many stories of both heroism and survival, and several things are strikingly different from anything in my experience. Right now one of the most hailed heroes is Jiang Min, a 28-year-old police woman who lost ten family members. It is the divergence in attitudes between common people and the official media toward her that signals an important shift.

It's a slow news day - besides that whole one-year-to-go thing - and while we were tempted to run with this story from the Shanghai Daily, the better angels of our nature prevailed and instead, we decided to republish an excerpt from our popular “Common mistakes and misperceptions when investing in China - and how to avoid them” China Briefing issue from July of last year.