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).

In the footsteps of Wang Baoqiang: From Hu Rongping in The Economic Observer, a short look at aspiring actors waiting for fortune to strike:

Compared with Li Xinjun and A Sheng, Li Chenchen seems to be closer to his dream. Like Wang Baoqiang, who was picked for a leading role in Blind Shaft, Li Chenche was chosen by director Jia Zhangke to act as worker "Er Guniang" in his film The World in 2003. But fate seems to favor him less than it does Wang Baoqiang, who later became well-known by A World without Thieves and won even wider praise through Soldier Sortie. The World didn't end Li's wandering life at the studio's gate. Since then, he has only acted as "insignificant characters that did not impress the audience".

Haze in Eastern China: NASA has a satellite photograph taken 17 December of the massive haze covering Beijing and parts south.

Shanghai group rental eviction photos: Virtual China has photos and information about the enforcement of a ban on groups of people renting apartments together in Shanghai:

I don't like the Regulation getting rid of group renting. Sometimes I just feel helpless and hopeless since I am not a Shanghainese and if there is no cheap, clean and convenient place to live, how could I work here anymore?

Chinese to be allowed to buy U.S. and U.K. shares: The Financial Times reports:

Chinese citizens will soon be able to buy shares and mutual funds in London and New York through their local banks after a regulatory reform that marks a further step in the export of Chinese capital into global markets.

A scheme under which Chinese can now legally buy shares in Hong Kong will be extended to include London under an agreement between the China Banking Regulatory Commission and British regulators.

It might still be more difficult than simply walking into a bank and ordering the purchase of shares. Many of the regulations that 'allow Chinese people' to put money somewhere only seem to apply to certain Chinese people.