If you found it hard to get hold of some traditionally-cooked turkey this week, think of the lengths you would've had to go to in the '80s. Si Bu Xiang tells of just that: how one enterprising foreign-affairs officer secured a big turkey for Americans living in Chengdu in 1981.

Recent TV series Snail House, otherwise known as Dwelling Narrowness, has been the hottest thing on the telly this year with its tales of mistresses, corrupt cadres and, erm, housing developments. Chinayouren enthuses about the show and tells us why it's so popular.

Danwei interviews Jonathan Watts, former China correspondent for the Guardian, about climate change and Copenhagen, and James Fallows reacts to comments, and then "follows up" on a much-discussed opinion piece in the Guardian about China getting its way in Copenhagen.

You can see how Chinese medicine works and whether it can cure the common cold thanks to an enlightening e-mail exchange on My Health Beijing in which our favorite physician, Dr. Richard, quizzes an American doctor trained in Chinese Medicine about how TCM approaches 'ganmao.'

It turns out that Taobao is more than just a treasure chest of just about anything you could ever want to buy: It can also be a source of humor. Veggie Discourse has a funny post of exchanges between sellers and their disgruntled and rather witless customers. (Requires proxy)

And Shanghaiist has gone list crazy. If you have a penchant for numbered paragraphs, check out the top ten sports stories, the top 'bubble stories' of 2009, China's five most significant stories of the decade ... and many more.

For all those pondering the potential of tennis in China after the low turnout for the ATP Champions Tour in Chengdu this month, China Sports Today has an interview touching on these matters with rising tennis star Zhang Shuai.

The dismal state of sex education in China is illustrated by this post on China Hush about the reaction of a small town to a 14-year-old girl who managed to keep her pregnancy secret until she gave birth to the baby in her dorm room.

The disaster movie 2012 has been under the spotlight for its perceived positive, neutral, and negative portrayals of China. But the comments translated by ChinaSMACK hint that people are getting a little bored of nitpicking over anything that might possibly be construed as negative about China's role in big foreign movies.

Naturally, much of the China blogosphere is buzzing about U.S. President Obama's three-day visit to China this week. Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap was deeply unimpressed with the phrase "big supporter of non-censorship", while Sam Crane at the Useless Tree notes the negative coverage and rises to Obama's defense (Requires proxy). China Digital Times and China Beat do a good job of summarizing (requires proxy) media coverage, and the New York Times Room for Debate blog invites opinions from scholars on China about whether or not Obama was too soft in approaching China's leaders on the issue of human rights.

And in an amusing piece (yes, there is one this week!), Evan Osnos of the New Yorker writes about the experiences of the press corps that follow the president on trips abroad.

A Chengdu man invokes the wrath of Chinese netizens after he boasts about using donated blood plasma to fertilize his plants, translated by Chinasmack.

Everyone knows that China isn't uniform, and the different areas each have their own stereotypes and reputations. Check out these funny maps depicting how the various provinces view each other, via Shanghaiist.

Ever sat through countless hours of TV dramas about the Red Army? No? Well, for good reason it seems. Uln of Chinayouren plows through 22 hours of "Stab in the Back" and shares his thoughts on its artistic merits and what it tells us about good communist ethics.

Lu Guang is the photographer who took the incredible and frightening pictures of environmental degradation in China that we linked to a few weeks ago. Now, Chinahush translates a Netease interview with him about photographing heavily polluted areas and how the villagers feel about the pollution.

The methods of translating foreign names into Chinese gets examined in a Danwei post about the possibilities of changing Barack Obama's Chinese name. (Requires proxy)

Fran enjoys surfing the China blogosphere and every Sunday she shares her weekly picks with GoKunming readers.

Inspired by the question of why China's peasants didn't revolt during the three-year famine of 1959 to 1961, Inside-Out China publishes a transcript of an interview with Chongqing resident Mr. Chen, at the time a local government worker, who describes the shocking conditions he witnessed in Sichuan during the Great Leap Forward. (Requires proxy)

Danwei TV interviews author Wang Gang about his experiences in the Cultural Revolution and why nobody else wants to talk about it.

In a thoughtful post at the Granite Studio, Jeremiah Jenne argues that in order to explain the apparent gap between Chinese and Western attitudes toward state control, we need to consider what we fear the most, not what we value the most.

ChinaSMACK translates a Chinese netizens' sometimes witty, sometimes not responses to the hypothetical question, "What would happen if the aliens in the movie District 9 landed in China?"

Be a hater. It's not just you who despises the squeaky voices and cheesy lines on Chinese TV commercials. ChinaHush provides a lowdown on 2009's top 10 worst offenders, as voted by Chinese netizens. "And my, over the years, constipation is gone, too."

Shanghaiist reports on the latest stupid things Jackie Chan said on CCTV.

Fool's Mountain examines why China hasn't produced (m)any laureates of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the state of writing in China. (Requires proxy)

Fran likes surfing the China blogosphere, and every Sunday she shares her picks of the week with GoKunming readers.

Editor's note: We have received many queries from readers about how they can contribute to the earthquake relief efforts in Wenchuan and elsewhere in Sichuan, here is information on how to help, courtesy of Shanghaiist:

For those who are looking to contribute to current aid efforts underway, you can now donate money to the Red Cross Society of China which has formed a disaster relief working group to be dispatched to the earthquake-stricken Wenchuan County in Sichuan.

They have also published an emergency relief hotline, along with bank account information to receive donations to assist their cause:

Account name: Red Cross Society of China
开户单位：中国红十字会总会

For those who want to donate in RMB: you can send money to the RMB account at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch below:
人民币开户行: 中国工商银行 北京分行东四南支行
人民币账号: 0200001009014413252

For those who want to donate in foreign currency, you can send money to the foreign currency account at the CITIC Bank branch below:
外币开户行：中信银行酒仙桥支行
外币账号: 7112111482600000209

Hotline: (8610) 65139999
Online donations: Red Cross Society of China website: www.redcross.org.cn
Click the tab for online donations

Arguably the Chinese band with the biggest buzz swirling around it at the moment, Subs will bring its raucous brand of garage punk to Kunming on May 21 when they return to the stage at Speakeasy Bar.

Based out of Beijing, guitarist Wu Hao, bassist Zhu Lei and drummer Zhang Shun and frequently screaming vocalist Kang Mao are renowned for tight, high-energy shows and their ability to get audiences involved. Subs' Kunming performance is one stop on a west China tour that is taking the band to Chengdu, Guiyang, Lanzhou and even Xining in Qinghai province.

After their April 5 performance in Shanghai (see above video for that evening's performance of the song 'The Man'), Shanghaiist couldn't help but gush about the band's live show:

"The Subs just keep getting better. But what makes their shows wild is 'it'. We don't know exactly what 'it' is but, whatever makes bands take the final step, detach themselves and gain some kind of aura or mystique — The Subs have 'it'. From the second singer Kang Mao hit the stage the packed venue exploded. She was on fine form, leading the crowd with her bottomless pit of energy, telling fans who were not getting in the pit to f*ck themslves (in Mandarin) and finally joining in the crowd surfing."


Subs will be joined by opening band Pretty in Punk, formerly known in English as No Answer and still known in Chinese as 打死我也不说 (loose translation: 'Beat me to death and I still won't talk'). The video below is from PiP's first show with new lead singer Bai Cai at last month's Kunming Outdoor Music Festival


Tickets to see Subs, Pretty in Punk and a second opening band to be announced are available at Speakeasy Bar for 30 yuan – the first band will take the stage at 9:30.

Update: We have been notified that Pretty in Punk will not be playing the show as originally scheduled - the opening band will be Noise Addiction.

Image: Shanghaiist

Related articles:

Music under the stars at Kunming Outdoor Music Festival

No Answer: Kunming's Riot Grrrls