2011 Dec 21 News You Might Have Missed: China Bans Chinese and Wines Win
Controversy abounds in Beijing. A section of the city wants to become English-only, an exciting wine win is dampened by certain one-sided parameters, China has a strong showing at a plagiarism exhibit and pollution remains a heated health topic.
Plans have been announced to create an English-only town in the northeast of Beijing. The language-restrictive fortress will require a “passport” to enter; any language slip-ups will result in penalty points. No word on how many points you can accrue before you get booted out. For some reason, this plan hasn't been receiving much praise. One would think erecting walls to segregate a specific group of a population is a bad idea.
After failing to achieve any domestic consumer confidence, China’s alcohol appears to have hit quite a few high notes. A local report would have you believe that Erguotou is all the rage (as long as you don’t need to ingest it). Its popularity may be a bit of a stretch, given that the article “Beijing's Erguotou Museum proves popular” mentions nothing bordering on excitement for the drink or the museum. At least now you can’t complain that there’s nothing to do on the weekends. Meanwhile, Chinese wine has beat out France in a blind taste test. Hopefully, no one will care that French wines were restricted to bottles that retail for RMB 200-500, including tax and additional import charges.
The Erguotou Museum isn’t the only place where Chinese products are getting considerable exposure. If you’re planning a trip to Germany during the holidays, check out a knockoff exhibit at the not-so-subtly-named Museum Plagiarius. While the originals come from various countries across the globe, the majority of counterfeit products come from China.
Finally, reports are no longer mincing words when it comes to addressing Beijing’s pollution. Since becoming a contentious topic on Weibo, Beijing’s pollution has gone from "a fairyland wreathed in fog" to “crisis mode.” If that's too subtle, how about "death-by-air"?
Photos: WSJ, Shanghaiist.com, Wired.com
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