Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

Hilarious political cartoon

There is a new Chinese test for non-native speakers of Mandarin who are studying Mandarin.

The test will be for ...

This in-depth post gives some excellent advice for anyone considering teaching ESL in China - and, in particular, at Chinese universities. Tam gives prospective teachers a large list (broken into categories) of questions you should be asking when considering employment.

Language podcast, 40 free online lessons to learn mandarin Chinese. Vocabulary, grammar but also character writting.

One person tries repeatedly to put his opinion on Sina.com's forum but his comments are repeatedly erased by Internet censors. Cute cartoon police warn him to cease and desist!

A report has found that the standard of Chinese teaching in Australian high schools is ineffectual, with 94 per cent of final year students being 'first language' speakers.

Sinosplice has a funny and interesting post about a Chinese children's book that teaches the kids the finer points of how to say, write and draw the likes of machine gun, heavy machine gun, handgun, rifle, semi-automatic rifle, Uzi, revolver, hand grenade, flame thrower, rocket launcher, smoke grenades, tank, aircraft carrier, bomber plane, fighter jet, guided missile, stealth bomber.

It raises an interesting question of is it military propaganda, or just fun for kids. Where's the line?

In the latest Lost Laowai post I find a bit of new hope for my otherwise jaded opinion towards free thought in China. It comes, oddly enough, in the form of a CCTV anchorman. He's no Ron Burgundy, but he's pretty cool none-the-less.

Whether he's telling Starbucks to get the hell out of the Forbidden City or telling Chinese to get the hell over their problems with the Japanese - CCTV's Rui Chenggang has thoughts that work outside the rinse-read-repeat system so common among China's "intellectuals".

For most spam there's no question that it is the scum of the net and deserves to quickly be cast into the bowels of HHR hell. However, I recognize that there is somewhat of a grey area when it comes to what the good peoples of the world consider "spam", and as such I've created these Submission guidelines and a Spam Policy/FAQ for guidance on the matter.