–

• Practical details for successful online book shopping in mainland China from Maggie Green at the China Beat. Her salespitch for online shopping isn’t overdone at all — it is really that good  (and in-store is really pretty bad, in my personal experience).
• A comparison of Mandarin and English air pollution terms, from the air quality sleuth, Live from Beijing.
• Some have alleged sexism in Chinese characters, but can they be gay? Sinosplice has graphic details.
• A conversation about Yanqing (exurban Beijing) dialect on Beijing Sounds
• Sinoglot’s Xiamen office points to a local newspaper publicizing a call for bilingual sign standardization, in which are mentioned problematic translations such as the one pictured below. However, since that picture is from 2006, we believe it more likely that the would-be standardizers are responding to a wave of negative publicity incited by this much more recent Xiamen sign photo on Sinoglot.

You're reading that right: "concentration camp"