from io9:
The dystopian novel that’s turning China upside down
Chan Koon-Chung’s novel Shengshi Zhongguo 2013 (which roughly translates to “The Gilded Age: China 2013”) has gone from being a marginalized, underground text — which couldn’t even get published in Mainland China — to becoming a major sensation among China’s intellectuals. And according to an essay in China Beat by Professor Zhansui Yu, Shengshi Zongguo 2013 “has changed the way that Chinese define political fiction,” and its success is due to the fact that it exposes “the shocking darkness behind [China’s] dazzling economic miracle.”
And earlier this month in The Guardian:
Workers in China grasp the power of the strike
There was no chanting, no speeches, no violence. When the workers got tired, they sat down and chatted for a few minutes. Then they got up and carried on walking until the end of the shift, marked their time cards and went home.
Industrial action does not get much lower key than this, nor does it get much more significant. The Denso strike was reported across the world because it took place on the frontline between global labour and global capital: workers in the workshop of the world had downed tools – and won.
Akopos 