Government outlaws free plastic bags, will expats even notice?
The Chinese government has announced a ban on free plastic bags. Starting June 1, supermarkets will cease giving out the ubiquitous little buggers, though they will still be available for a fee. Meanwhile ultra-thin plastic bags (the kind used bag your apples) have been banned entirely. The move is part of a growing trend among policy makers in China to tackle the garbage problem. “[The plastic bag issue] was one of the earliest environmental issues because it’s very obvious,” says Lila Buckley, Assistant Executive Director of the Global Environmental Institute, a Chinese NGO based in Beijing. “[The ban] will inspire awareness, but whether it actually makes any impact is another issue.”

So is the next wave of hipness going to be the custom made grocery bag? Maybe. The whole “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” phenom which swept the globe finally washed ashore in China in 2006, but let’s be honest, these are glorified purses, not bag enough to hold two loaves of bread, a gallon of milk and two cases of Qingdao beer (our grocery staples). And furthermore, don’t most grocery store visits occur between work and home? Who’s going to remember to fold a grocery bag into their laptop case that morning? The ban probably won’t mean much to foreigners who won’t even notice the extra kuai per plastic bag, but it will mean something for Chinese who are already keen about the rising price of daily goods. Could this mean the dawn of a new Bamboo Age? “There is actually more awareness among the foreigners I’ve talked with,” Buckley adds. “This could be the starting point.”

Harbin: Green Bacon
China is full steam ahead on the genetic manipulation of animals. The most recent news is the two pigs which were successfully cloned at the Harbin Agriculture University with a gene allowing them to glow green in dark. Cloning is cool and we can’t wait to tweak our kids’ genes to make them fluent in 10 languages, but why on earth would anyone want a pig that glows green? According to Zhou Hua, the scientist in charge of the project, "The method will help cure some diseases in human beings, and also the organs of these pigs can be transplanted to human beings.” That, or maybe people just want to enjoy their bacon and eggs even after the a-pork-alypse.