Danwei Picks is a daily digest of the "From the Web" links found on the Danwei homepage. A feed for the links as they are posted throughout the day is available at Feedsky (in China) or Feedburner (outside China).

The Ugly Chinaman (Kongfz)

Bo Yang, noted Taiwanese essayist, dies at 88: Bo Yang (柏杨), an essayist, novelist, and popular historian famous for his influential book The Ugly Chinaman, passed away from lung disease, the AP reports:

In many of his essays, Bo told Chinese that their culture — a source of pride for centuries — has many shortcomings. He criticized the Chinese as selfish, unconcerned about other people's rights and being too willing to tolerate the abuse of power.

He argued fervently that those qualities hurt democracy and favored authoritarian regimes.

The Ugly Chinaman has just been adapted into a comic book.

Holy Hollywood! Welcoming John Cusack to Shanghai: Andrew Field relates his encounters with movie star John Cusack, who was in Shanghai doing research for a role in an upcoming period drama with Gong Li.

Is there a Secret Master Plan?: Richard Spencer compares the Chinese government's current behaviour toward the Dalai Lama with its actions toward Japan in the wake of the 2005 protests.

What is "the west"?: At the Zhongnanhai blog, Cam looks at the role of "the west" in the torch relay protests:

There will be conspiracy theorists, probably in this comments section, that will say India, South Korea, Japan, et al have all been influenced by the west, are "slaves of the west", or whatever convenient excuse people choose to create. But the bottom line is the FT movement - and the backlash against the Chinese government (not the people, I'm at pains to add) - is far from a western phenomenon.

China's theory on counterfeits: In Kenya's Daily Nation, Kaburu Mugambi reports on an investigation by ambassador Zhang Ming into imported counterfeit Chinese goods:

Addressing a China-Africa forum at the Nairobi Safari Club, the envoy noted: "We can produce good quality products, and Chinese businesses sell them. Good products are plentiful in China, so why buy low quality?"

...To investigate the claims, the ambassador took a walk along Nairobi's River Road, where he met a trader selling Chinese-made shoes of low quality, at Sh400 a pair.

"When I asked him why he was selling low quality shoes, he told me; 'if I don't sell such shoes people will walk bare foot'. This seller made rethink about this issue. Maybe he has reason to do such business."

A breath of fresh air: Jason at the Over and Out blog translates Han Han's Q&A with a young patriot:

Q 1: If a foreigner came up to you and slapped you across the face would you be nonchalant, not slap back and show yourself as the bigger person?

A: A foreigner has never came up to me and slapped me in the face.

via the Hao Hao Report.

Weekend Olympic roundup: Imagethief covers stories about human rights, Brand China, detente with the DL, and other Olympics-relates stories that broke this weekend.