A Mid-Week Reader

1. If it isn’t already part of your media China blog circuit (it has just become part of ours), check out the Wall Street Journal’s China Journal. Run by Sky Canaves, the blog apparently draws on more than twenty journalists, and even ran a recent entry on Beijing’s air quality (that’s a favorite Western media story that has slipped out of sight lately).

2. Tim Johnson’s blog, China Rises, has a few moving recent on-the-ground reports from Sichuan. Zhongnanhai also has reports from an individual in Sichuan. For detailed information about the earthquake and its casualities (including maps), see the new documents at the China Data Center.

3. As Shanghaiist reported, the twitterati were chirping about implications of three days of mourning on online activities. Danwei lists specific prohibitions. EastSouthNorthWest references a blog that comments on the omnipresence of CCTV during the mourning period.

4. In recent days, Western reporters have noted a hardening of last week’s lax press standards (standards have snapped back for Chinese reporters too, though it has been reported that many Chinese press outlets are willing to go along). At the New York Times, Howard French describes the atmosphere as press denied the initial ban and got away with it. In referencing this article, China Digital Times contextualizes it with a quote from Chinese writer Shen Rui, who describes the re-tightened restrictions as “dancing in shackles.”

5. In response to the earthquake, the Dalai Lama has called on Tibetans worldwide to end anti-China protests.