Big Brother pushes the boundries: Heterosexual Chinese male in the house!

They've had a one-armed, lesbian Cockney, a Portugese transsexual and a black albino American rapper. But surely Big Brother has gone too far this time? For the first time in 10 years of the show, they have put a straight, Chinese man in the house.

Yes, you read that correctly: New housemate Kenneth Tong (a millionaire who divides his time between Hong Kong, Scotland and New York) is Chinese, is not mixed race, isn't gay and he is on national television. Whatever next?

Link: Channel 4

EDIT: Oh dear. Some comments about Kenneth's, erm, interesting character are springing up already.

Eat your heart out, Las Vegas

China gets in on the outrageously themed architecture game with this, erm, interesting novelty hotel.

via Gizmodo

Related: Chinese folk religion

When Michael Jackson came to Hong Kong

As the memorial service for Michael Jackson approaches, I found this interesting video online.

In 1987, during preparations for his worldwide 'Bad' tour, Michael Jackson visited Hong Kong and is reported to have stayed for 3 weeks although he didn't actually perform a concert during that time.

I'm not sure about his attempts to blend in with the locals with traditional dress, but it's an interesting bit of archive footage:

Singer/songwriter 'Emmy the Great'

Just discovered this on Youtube. Hong Kong born singer/songwriter Emmy the Great (real name Emma Lee-Ross, daughter of a Chinese mother and English father) talks about her album and video released earlier this year:



And here's the full video. Cool song.

Article about cheese by reporter with appropriate name

HK Magazine presents a rare round-up of places in Hong Kong where you can sample that very un-Chinese gourmet treat, high quality cheese.

And the name of the author? Johannes Pong, of course! :)

Article: HK Magazine

'No Farmers Allowed'

Truly a sign of the times from modern China (Changchun). Well, it's either farmers or workman's attire they don't like.

They have a point, though: Every farmer I know is always wanting to pop into the local Emporio Armani!

via Danwei

Two videos for 6/4

Former Communist Party official Bao Tong has been exiled by the Chinese authorities for the part he played in smuggling out the secret memoirs of ousted Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang.

Zhao was a reformer on the side of the student protesters who was in favour of democracy for China. His smuggled memoirs have just been published in a book, 'Prisoner of the State', which lifts the lid on the inner workings of the Communist Party. It certainly looks like an interesting read. The Telegraph as published some extracts.

Secondly, a profile of Chai Ling, a Tiananmen Square student activist now forging a career in the West:

Did you know the next Pixar film stars an Asian character?

Photo: Parkerblogs

You may have already seen the trailers for 'Up', the latest wonderful-looking film from the makers of Finding Nemo and Toy Story.

What I hadn't realised until now was that 'Russell', the funny little kid who stars in the film (alongside the grumpy old man) is actually an Asian American boy.

As reported by Slashfilm, the character of the boy was based on by an Asian animator who works for Pixar but his ethnicity has not been made a big deal of. He's just a cute, funny little kid who happens to be Asian.

I often post about depictions of East Asian people in the media but do think it's an important issue (in particular for younger generations). I know that were I a 10-year-old boy going to see Up, knowing that the main character was Asian would simply have made my day.