Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Found in a box while cleaning are a collection of Cultural Revolution paper cuts. The collection was originally donated, and put away. There’s plenty of images that you can see in hi-res. It’s inspiring since a lot of this art has become part of the pop culture world. Although Chinese art is popular and these seem like they’d be in high demand, the weird punch line about the set of images are the fact that these would sell for $155 each, “if it finds a serious collector.” That’s all? (UM – Paper Cuts)
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C’mon. Chinese selling off babies for adoption. The ring was busted and 17 babies were sold in the last month! Farmers do get a sum of nearly $8000 for a boy, which is more than they make in a year. It probably happens all over the world, but the pressure of having baby boys can be that high in Chinese society that even with the population so huge, there’s still a need for baby trafficking. (USA Today – Trafficking)
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Who pays for the house, keeps the house. When a divorce happens in China, guess who keeps the house? It’s whoever buys it. Of course it favors the men who are often the money maker especially in a patriarcal society, and what about the support, upkeep, household work, etc? Down the drain. It doesn’t count. The Telegraph article states, “A major reason why the new law is regarded as unjust by most women is that in China men, or their parents, traditionally buy the family home. Indeed, many women will refuse to marry until that happens.” The social norms of women’s family paying for the marriage, but the men’s side paying for the house, favors the male. The law also favors men who want mistresses. “”They think the new law means their husband can take a mistress without anything happening to him, because if the wife threatens him with a divorce he will get to keep the house. Even women in good marriages are suspicious and calling us about the implications of the new law.”” (Telegraph UK – China Divorce)
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Even before this film called “Walking Tall” appeared decades ago, a human with stick was a force to be reckoned with. Kids in the US, grow up with bats for baseball. Yet, in China where baseball isn’t a national sport, bats are for defense. The story is amazing since bats are made not for baseball, but to keep as a weapon of defense. The styles are funny. Metal ones that are heavy but formed not for hitting a ball, but optimized for hitting a human. It can’t be too heavy since you may take many swings to crack a skull unlike it baseball where you gear up for that giant swipe. The cool thing is these bats are under $10! (LA Times – China Bats)
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Chinese artist He Xiangyu’s “The Death of Marat”. It’s Ai Weiwei. Some passers in a German Gallery thought it was real and alerted police. The government might wish it to be true, but this man is alive and talking.
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