Most of the front pages of China’s newspapers today revelled in the display of aircraft landing on China’s new aircraft carrier. Scroll down to see a gallery.
But there was also much else on China’s front pages to enjoy today, such as China’s own 47 kg “Mike Tyson”; China’s best books of 2012; marine life off Shenzhen; a tirade against incorrect signposts in Shanghai; and the travails of a 14-year old girl working in her mother’s stead sweeping the streets of Wuhan – and no-one seems to mind.
Here are the latter stories’ front pages:
The Straits Times (海峡导报) from Fujian province today has the story of Xiong Chaozhong (熊朝忠), a former miner from Yunnan province now suddenly changed into “China’s Mike Tyson”. On the evening of the 24th of November, Xiong fought a “WBC Mini Lightweight World Boxing Gold Belt” bout in the 47.8 kg class against the Mexican fighter Javier Martinez in Kunming, Yunnan province. After 12 rounds of “bitter struggle,” as the Straits Times puts it, Xiong prevailed in this battle of the ultra lightweights.
The Daily Sunshine (晶报) from Shenzhen in Guangdong province today printed a list of its top ten books of the year so far. The list was chosen by a number of literary organizations in Guangdong, and this year Reversal of the Sun: Reflections on the Thoughts of Russian Intellectuals (倒转红轮:俄国知识分子的心路回溯)* by Jin Yan (金雁) (Amazon) came out on top.
Also on the Daily Sunshine front page today, the newspaper has a section on the “beautiful marine life” off the coast of Shenzhen under a headline asking, With such beautiful marine life, how can we have the heart to harm it? The article includes pictures and descriptions of various plants and animals.
The front page of the Shanghai Youth Daily is quite incensed today about a number of misleading and incorrect signposts that went up in the city recently without anyone seeming to know exactly where they came from. Naming and shaming every one of these fake signposts one by one, the newspaper launched its own investigation as to the source of what it clearly regards as irritating blemishes.
Lastly, the front page of the Wuhan Evening News (武汉晚报) from Hubei province today included a follow-up of the sad tale of Hu Linjiaxin (胡林家欣), a 14-year old girl from a rural area in Hubei who was found by the newspaper to be working as a street cleaner in Wuhan in the place of her mother, who was too busy with the responsibilities of the household. Wuhan Evening News originally published the story of Hu Linjiaxin on the 12th of November, and a number of other news agencies has since picked up on the story, with many readers all over China expressing their sympathy. Wuhan Evening News today printed a follow-up story about Hu Linjiaxin in which we hear that the girl’s classmates, teacher and parents all think there’s nothing strange about Hu working in her mother’s stead as many of her classmates also work to help out their parents. An “expert” from China’s Academy of Social Sciences compared Hu very favorably with the sad state of the “pampered and spoiled kids” that were born after 1995 and 2000.
Then there’s the military hardware. Here’s a few front pages today showing aircraft landing and taking off from the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier:
* Our translation.
Links and sources
海峡导报 (Straits Times): 中国矿工变身“泰森”
晶报 (Daily Sunshine): 2012“年度十大好书”揭晓; 这样美丽的生命 我们怎忍心伤害
青年报 (Youth Daily): 这些山寨指路牌谁来“认领”？！
武汉晚报 (Wuhan Evening News): “不算新闻”引出更多孝行新闻