(The commentary by Qiulin 邱林, translated from caixin.cn)

As millions of Chinese netizens mourned over Steve Jobs’ death, they also raised a question – why couldn’t China produce its own “Steve Jobs”? Former vice-president of Google global and president of Google China Kai-fu Lee explained on his weibo that it was because Chinese education puts too much emphasis on reciting and memorizing stuff instead of fostering critical thinking. He pointed out that it wasn’t that Chinese people are not smart enough, nor was the lack of people with the potential to become a “Steve Jobs” since there are pioneers of this sort, such as co-founder of Yahoo! Inc. Jerry Yang and co-founder of Youtube Steve Chan.

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From Netease:

November 24, 2011 morning, fire broke out in a residential area, 134 Shitou Street in West Lake District, Nanchang City. During this fire an ordinary citizen touched many people’s heart: he rescued 8 lives from the fire bravely and selflessly, it was not until afterwards he found his own family was still trapped in flames. In the end fire mercilessly swallowed up his wife, son and mother-in-law, but his touching story passes on in the neighborhood.

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On Oct. 24^th 2011, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) issued the Further Strengthening the TV Star Integrated Channel Program Management Advice (《关于进一步加强电视上星综合频道节目管理的意见》), aiming to curtail the excessive entertainment TV programs. The document is thus called by the Chinese public as another “Entertainment Restriction” (限娱令) on television programs.

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From China News Weekly:

Enjo-kōsai (援助交际) shortened form enkō (援交) means "compensated dating" and is a practice which originated in Japan where older men give money and/or luxury gifts to attractive women for their companionship and, possibly, for sexual favors. The female participants range from primarily school-aged girls to housewives.

In 2006, Japanese freelance writer Nakayama Miri wrote in her autobiography My Notes on Compensated Dating at Age Sixteen, “in Tokyo downtown shopping district, I was driving a remarkable red sports car, living in high-end luxury homes. Open the door, a very soft and spacious bed, rolling in the ecstatic bed sheets… but now there is not a trace, leaving only a memory, quietly floating in the air.”

This is a compensated dating girl remembering her painful past; she would like to tell the future generations, the past that remained in her heart, will ferment slowly in the future, until it is too late to repent.

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From Netease:

Among China’s numerous law enforcement ranks, Chengguan (城管: The City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau) is perhaps the most feared and despised for their brutality and total disregard of the laws. Google "Chengguan" and thousands of news concerning this law enforcement branch pop up. Thought no longer surprised by news on Chengguan violence, Chinese public are still furious about them. Lately a viral video of a Chengguan squad in Henan province attacking a police officer has caused a stir on the Internet.

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From Netease:

Recently, Internet popular figure Luo Yonghao (罗永浩: English teacher, China Internet celebrity, Luo animation studio, Yan tribe, and Lao Luo English language training and Bullog.cn founder, formerly the Beijing New Oriental School English teacher, lectures with humorous style, his speeches spread on the Internet by his students, known as “Lao Luo’s quotations.” Therefore his influence rapidly expanses among students) wrote in his micro-blog, the Siemens refrigerator and washing machine he bought three years ago were all broken. Especially, the Siemens refrigerator door does not shut tightly. Therefore Luo filed several complaints to Siemens customer service. The result was Siemens refused to admit there are any issues with the products.

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From Netease:

November 16, 9:40 am, a severe car accident occurred in Yulin County, Qingyang City, Gansu Province. A dump truck carrying coal smashed into a kindergarten school bus in a head-on collision.  The accident already caused 20 deaths, the bus driver and four kindergarteners were killed instantly and 15 others died in the hospital.

The so called school bus is actually just a small van which was supposed to carry maximum of 9 people.  However according to Gansu Province emergency team, this school van was carrying total of 64 people at the time of the accident, including one bus driver, one kindergarten teacher and 62 kindergarteners.

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At the beginning of this year, the book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by Amy Chua has caused fierce discussion on  traditional Chinese education methods. Recently another book “Therefore, Beijing University siblings (所以，北大兄妹) has brought a so-called wolf dad into the spotlight because he too, adopts extremely strict parenting methods and raises 4 well-behaving kids, 3 of whom get into Beijing University, one of the best universities in China. His parenting motto is “beating every 3 days gets your children into BJU”.

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“Shine my shoes!”  A police car with Fujian province license plate (闽HA042警) parked on the street of Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province. A foot sticking out from the police car, a shoeshine lady sitting by the car door, head down, shines the shoe.

This scene was captured and posted onto weibo, soon was massively retweeted.  Many netizens criticized this policeman of being too much like a “tyrant”.  Soon reporter found out this police car does not come from a police station but belongs to Pucheng County People’s Court, Fujian Province.

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In Taxkorgan County of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, a rural village called Pili Village(皮里村) recently became famous when the above photo showing how children travel to school was posted on weibo by a CCTV journalist and retweeted over 16,000 times.

According to the journalist, there are 416 villagers scattering among the mountains, over 80 of them are children eligible for school. However, the school is more than 200 km away, 80 km of which consists of narrow mountain trails, dangerous cliffs and turbulent rivers.

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From Netease:

Maybe you have never heard of the name Cai Guangming (蔡光明), but certainly you have heard of Yan Fengjiao (闫凤娇), a female contestant on the TV dating show If You Are the One, gained much media attention because of her indecent photos incident. Today, Pilipino male Cai Guangming, suspect in the organizing obscene performance case was sentenced at the Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court. Defendant Cai Guangming was found guilty of crime of organizing obscene performances and group licentiousness (crime of assembling a crowd to engage in sexual promiscuity) and sentenced to five years imprisonment, a fine of 20,000 RMB and deportation from China. Yan Fengjiao was supposedly one of his victims.

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29-year-old Wang Juan curls up in bed, trembling.  She couldn’t eat or drink regularly and attempted suicide several times. She has gone delirious after what happened on Oct 23rd night.

Following up the most talked news in China lately – man cowardly hides next room while wife being raped. According to Netease, the female victim in the rape case attempted suicide because of rumors of calling the incident “adultery” rather than rape.

A pile of microphones and recorders, let’s not talk about anything else, if you are the victim when you are already emotionally damaged by the crime and then facing the swarming media, how would you feel? If you don’t know the answer, let’s hear how the victim feels.

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(From Chongqing online) Ancient dynastic style buildings, old temples, slab roads, ancient court replica, every thing looks pleasantly primitive and simple in Song Gai Ancient Town (松溉古镇), a historical tourist spot in Chongqing City. However, a recent post on the Internet pointed out a “humiliating” flaw in the court replica that ruins the overall antiquity of the ancient town: the judge and bailiffs are mannequins that look like westerner fashion models in ancient court costumes.

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After melamine-tainted milk, drainage oil, fake egg, colored Mantou, lean meat powder pork, shrimp washing powder etc etc, China recently introduces another food “innovation” in Changsha, Hunan Province – garbage beef. Cattle live on garbage in a landfill till they are old enough to be butchered and served on dinner table.  Netizens teased that these cattle are as strong as Chinese: immune to all kinds of food poisoning.

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(From ifeng) In a small rental apartment in Bao’an District, Shenzhen, 29-year-old Wang Juan lies on the bed staring at the ceiling, she looks pale and trembling. Suddenly she sits up, puts her hands in the air and waves frantically and starts crying.  For the past half month, she couldn’t eat or drink regularly and attempted suicide several times. She has gone delirious after what happened on Oct 23rd night. She couldn’t decide which man did more harm to her – the joint-defense personnel (similar to neighborhood patrol) who beat and raped her for an hour, or her husband who hid in the next room trembling the whole time and too scared to even call the cops.

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