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).

CJ7 and the fantasy of Chinese class integration: Barking at the Sun looks at the portrayal of migrant workers in Stephen Chow's new movie:

Could this be that rare popular movie that transcends its normal limits and become serious social commentary?

At first it certainly seems possible. The father and son duo are squatters living in a dilapidated and half-destroyed concrete block; Mr. Zhou works overtime every night at dangerous construction projects so he can afford to send his son to a private school. For these two, eating rotten apples is a treat; flushing out and stomping on cockroaches is a pastime.

Interview with Catherine Sampson, mystery writer: Nicole E. Barnes at The China Beat interviews Catherine Sampson, a former journalist who now writes mysteries set in China:

I found it hard to live in Beijing and write about London. So, when it came to my third book, I was determined that I should write a mystery set in Beijing, and that's how The Pool of Unease was written. It is set in Beijing, in Anjialou, a neighbourhood just down the road from where I live, and has a Chinese protagonist, private detective Song Ren.

Mao and the 10 million Chinese women: AFP reports on the recently-released transcript of a 1973 conversation between Henry Kissinger and Mao Zedong:

In a long conversation that stretched way past midnight at Mao's residence on February 17, 1973, the cigar-chomping Chinese leader referred to the dismal trade between the two countries, saying China was a "very poor country" and "what we have in excess is women."

He first suggested sending "thousands" of women but as an afterthought proposed "10 million," drawing laughter at the meeting, also attended by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai.

Kissinger, who was President Richard Nixon's national security advisor at that time, told Mao that the United States had no "quotas" or "tariffs" for Chinese women, drawing more laughter.

via The Granite Studio.

The phantom campus in China: At Inside Higher Ed, Elizabeth Redden writes about the obstacles that universities face when they attempt to open branch campuses in China:

In May 2006, Kean University attracted national attention for its announcement that it would "be the first American university to open an extensive and newly constructed university campus on Chinese soil in September 2007." As the New York Times reported at the time, "Glasses clinked, toasts were made and then leaders of this 151-year-old institution were calling it the most important moment in its history."

Well, it’s now February 2008, and there’s been no such announcement of the historic campus opening. In response to multiple inquiries on the project’s status, a university spokesman offered only brief answers over e-mail. "Kean University is continuing to pursue plans to open a campus in Wenzhou. The application was approved by the municipal and provincial governments and is now with the Ministry of Education for review," Stephen Hudik said in one.