After years spent in Los Angeles, Azad returns to live in Tehran. He wanders his vast and rambling town capturing these striking images on his simple mobile phone. His message: ‘Don't believe what they tell you; life goes on in Tehran'. Read more...

By our Observer, Cai Chongguo, China specialist.

Quite often French people have told me that they find China very dynamic and that it seems like a really happening place. "And what about France?" I ask. France is dead, they say. I tell them, "Elect me as the president of the French republic. You’ll see, I’ve got all the answers in my pocket".Lire la suite...

This video was filmed on a bus in Hong Kong in May 2006. Since then, it has become an online hit in China, and the subject of various take-offs. The story starts when a teenage boy tells the man in front of him to speak more quietly on his mobile phone. The man- now known as Bus Uncle- begins explaining, furiously, that he wishes to remain undisturbed, that he's under pressure, and that he wants to sort out the dispute by shaking hands. The scene is absurd, mainly due to the outrageous behaviour of ‘bus uncle' himself. Why was this video so successful? Maybe because it shows a person on the verge of a nervous breakdown and exhausted from working, like many in Hong Kong. But also because it illustrates the clash between generations, in which the aggressor is not the one we would have at first assumed. Read more...