You know it’s cold in your little hutong home when your hibernating pet turtle wakes up, climbs out of his bowl, and is found huddling under the space heater. Still not sure how he did it, we’re thinking he had an outside accomplice with our cat the most likely suspect.
Some hits from around the web on this sunny and cold Friday afternoon:
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Yu Hua has garnered considerable press with the publication in English of his novel Brothers. Ian Johnson interviews the author for the Wall Street Journal Asia Edition and I was particularly struck by this observation on public trust:
But what bothers Mr. Yu more about these obvious problems is a lack of trust in society. The book trade itself is good example of this, he says. “It’s really hard for a young author to break in because there are few reputable critics. It’s corrupt. People pay critics to write all sorts of nonsense.” He says reviewers charge 3,000 to 5,000 yuan for a review. The accusation is impossible to prove but it is true that China has a weak scene of literary criticism. He contrasts the situation to a western publication like France’s Le Monde. He