Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

While the rest of the world looks to Beijing to stop North Korea from exploding a nuclear bomb, a leading Chinese analyst says it is too late - China cannot act without doing worse harm to its own interests.

Zhang Yimou is in charge of the 2008 Beijing Games opening and closing ceremonies.

Ceremonies such as those that go on before and after Olympic games need more talent and creativity than one person can provide.

An article from Angry Chinese Blogger about a little known ceremony that takes place once a year to remember those that suffered and died to build Japan's largest man-made lake.

Built largely by Korean slaves and Chinese POWs during the 1940s, the lake now offers Japan's young and old alike a place and time to reflect on a dark spot in their history.

You probably do not know what ostmanthus tree is. It doesn’t matter. But I can tell you it smells so wonderful when the tree is in blossom, producing a light, fresh and pleasing fragrance with its small yellow flowers.

To experience this very delightful smell, you must visit Hangzhou in September. For ostmanthus is the city flower of Hangzhou, which is one of China’s five ostmanthus producing areas. The Manjuelong Village to the south west of the West Lake is the spot for smelling the tree flowers. There, more than 7000 ostmanthus trees are planted, with some 200 years old.

On April 9, 2008 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, two high-profile student 'protests' for and against Tibetan independence took place. Grace Wang (Wang Qianyuan 王千源), a 21 year old girl from Qingdao, Shandong, joined in the protest on the campus. Wang is a student at Duke University.

Taiwan has revised its high-school history textbooks to show that Taiwan is an independent country and not part of China, media reports said Monday.

The China Times said that on the education ministry's order, the title of the national history textbook for high-school - to be used after the winter vacation - has been changed from 'National History' to 'China History'.

In this textbook, terms like 'our country,' 'this country' and 'the mainland' have been changed to 'China' to indicate that Taiwan is not part of China, the daily said.

A Next Weekly (in translation via ESWN) article by Steven N.S. Cheung, where he gives a bit of depth to some of Beijing's reasons for supression of free speech, and why in the end it will stop knowledge development - and in turn Chinese social development.

The president of the Bruce Lee fan club announced that a theme park, along with a memorial hall and statue are slated to be built in his Chinese ancestral home of Shunde.

This Radio Free Asia article (via Truth About China) reports that about 900 rural Guangdong villagers were beaten back onto the busses in which they came to protest in Guangzhou about corrupt land seizures.