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).

Chinese feast on Oscar hype: Clifford Coonan writes about Oscar buzz in China for Variety Asia:

The focus in the Chinese newspapers ahead of the awards is largely on China's chances, although the global obsession with Hollywood celebs is making increasing inroads into Chinese newspapers and on the tube. Indeed, the fortunes of Steven Spielberg are closely watched, since he is consulting with China's leading helmer Zhang Yimou (who has regularly been churning out Oscar-nominated martial arts costumers) on the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Online it's a different story, as well as on the entertainment TV channels popping up all over the country, such as Enlight Media. Here, the focus is on everything from what the stars will wear on Oscar night to anecdotes about competing films.

Via The Golden Rock.

Southern Metropolis plays an "Edge Ball": Xiao Qiang at CDT explains how Southern Metropolis Daily pushed the envelope with its headline on the recent State Council White Paper on political parties:

The headline reads: "Authoritarian Rule and Dictatorship Will Certainly Fail."

Reading the front page more carefully, the full length of the title actually reads "Authoritarian Rule and Dictatorship Will Certainly Fail: The Information Office of State Council Publishes White Paper, Introducing the Multi-Party System in China." But the editor made the first half of the title particularly large and bold. "Authoritarian Rule and Dictatorship Will Certainly Fail" also directly came from one of the sentences of the White Paper itself, even though this is obviously not what the White Paper really meant to discuss.

Hairy crabs, the hill of pain, and a thousand massage touts: Imagethief finds enjoyment in his walks around Beijing:

Shanghai is all industrial wasteland and toxic lakes infested with carrion-eating vermin that somehow got rebranded as a delicacy, probably during one of the many famines. But in Beijing you only need an hour on clear roads and you're back in the dongbei in all its rural, dustbowl splendor. This is fine for me because, as it happens, I like rural dustbowl splendor. There is something about Northeast China that evokes loneliness, resilience and endurance honed in an endless arid wasteland. The ghost of hard times still lingers over these lands.

CNOOC to slurp more Nigerian oil?: From CNN.com:

China National Offshore Oil Corp Ltd (CNOOC) is considering buying stakes in offshore Nigeria blocks from Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The Anglo-Dutch energy firm may sell stakes in two assets as it restructures its Nigeria holdings, the newspaper reported.

Shell said earlier that it expects to sell about nine bln usd in assets this year.

Reporters in China, watch out: Peking Duck quotes a notice from the Foreign Correspondents Club:

Recently some foreign correspondents have been detained, harassed and physically roughed up -- two incidents Tuesday alone. The FCCC board thought you'd want to hear about what happened. One of the journalists who experienced problems had not been aware of previous problems in the area; information such as this therefore might help you plan your travels.

Eyewitness to an explosion: At Sanya Expat, Mario writes about a massive blast at the Luhuitou Transformer Station on 20 November:

The story goes like this...about midnight on Sunday there was a sudden loss of power city wide followed by a huge, and yes I do mean it was a "HUGE FILL THE WHOLE SKY HEY WAIT A SEC ARE WE ABOUT TO BE VAPORIZED KINDA FLASH" coming from over the Lu Hui Tou hillside no more than 600 meters from where we were standing on our apartment balcony...a few seconds later we witnessed a giant ball of fire exploding upward, rising into the sky

See also: China News Report (Chinese)