As the year 2009 comes to a close, it does so having been a monumental year for China's LGBT community. Beijing and numerous cities across China experienced the successful completion of 12 anniversaries and public events that expose LGBT culture and related issues like never before.
China's LGBT community, which is an acronym that refers to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, has adapted the terms tongzhi to refer to gays, lala for lesbians, ku'er for queer - an umbrella term for those who do not identify as heterosexual with regard to sexuality, sexual anatomy or gender identity.
The community is young. Most are in their 20s and 30s, are educated, working professionals with experience abroad who are now highly active and public organizers, authors, editors, designers, film directors, curators, activists and artists.
One catalyst was the Olympic Games in 2008, a landmark event that many in the LGBT community have interpreted as a "coming out" event. LGBT websites have allowed for communities to build, to advertise events, and to allow contact and information to be exchanged between LGBT members from big cities and small towns in China with those from around the world.
4 Million USD, dropped from a armed helicopter of Chinese Navy, made Somalia pirates satisfied and released the Chinese ship including its crew.
"De Xin Hai", the hijacked Chinese ship.
A hijacked Chinese bulk carrier and 25 Chinese crew members aboard were successfully rescued at 3 a.m. on December 28, according to Chinese Marine Search and Rescue Center.
After the rescue mission, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that "De Xin Hai", the hijacked vessel, has been under protection of Chinese naval escort fleet.
A special task force charged with wiping out corruption in this East China metropolis has been appointed a new leader.
Gu Guolin was installed as the head of the Shanghai Corruption Prevention Bureau on Thursday, said a statement released on the municipal authority's website.
Gu has been vice-secretary of the Party's Shanghai Disciplinary Inspection Committee and director of Shanghai Municipal Supervision Bureau.
The appointment came shortly after the arrest of former Putuo district chief Cai Zhiqiang, 45, on charges of taking "huge amounts" in bribes while working as deputy director of human resources under the Shanghai Personnel Bureau.
Culture authorities will soon have a better idea of the "top of the pops" than music producers thanks to a new content monitoring system for China's karaoke clubs.
The Ministry of Culture is nearing its goal of connecting tens of thousands of venues to its supervisory network, which restricts the songs customers can sing along with.
The system comes in the form of an interactive channel that can record which songs are most popular, as well as bar access to illegal and unlicensed material, said a ministry release sent to China Daily on Friday.
The system has also been touted as a way for karaoke bars to generate more revenue.
The ministry issued a notice to staff nationwide in May last year demanding the National Karaoke Contents Management Service System be installed in all KTV clubs by the end of 2009.
Competition between airlines and rail operators will further hot up on Saturday thanks to the launch of China's longest high-speed train link between Wuhan and Guangzhou.
The line stretches more than 1,000 km and will slash the travel time from Wuhan, Hubei province, to Guangzhou in Guangdong from 10 hours to just three.
Tickets for the service - which also stops at Changsha, capital of Hunan - went on sale at new stations in the three cities last weekend, with prices ranging from 780 yuan ($110) for first class to 490 yuan for second class, said a joint document released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Railways.
The system comes in the form of an interactive channel that can record which songs are most popular, as well as bar access to illegal and unlicensed material, said a ministry release sent to China Daily on Friday.
The system has also been touted as a way for karaoke bars to generate more revenue.
The ministry issued a notice to staff nationwide in May last year demanding the National Karaoke Contents Management Service System be installed in all KTV clubs by the end of 2009.
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