Lenovo Group and other PC makers are targeting consumers in rural China, an untapped and fast-growing market, the Wall Street Journal reported this morning.

Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and others see potential in that part of the world, spurred by a $586 billion government stimulus program that helps pay for PCs. They're also trying to offset slower sales in the U.S. and elsewhere by expanding in new markets.

The companies are aggressively marketing to customers in mostly poor rural China, the newspaper reported. Lenovo, for example, is using slogans such as "Buy a Lenovo PC, Be a Happy Bride" -- trying to encourage PCs as high-status wedding presents.

The company recently opened 700 retail stores in rural China.

Lenovo is a Chinese company that maintains a world headquarters in Morrisville. The company established a Triangle presence when it bought IBM's PC business in 2005.

Read the full Wall Street Journal story here.

Shah Capital Management, a Raleigh-based investment firm with $250 million under management, is making a big bet on surging consumer demand in China.

The firm spent $12 million to buy a 14 percent stake in Symphony Holdings, a Hong Kong company that markets and licenses sports and apparel brand names such as Puma, Haggar and Speedo.

The move makes Shah the largest institutional investor in Symphony.

See a collection of the best photos from around the world.

That the cheating tiny stuntmen brothers Mark & Mike got eliminated is a surprise only to my colleague Robbi Pickeral, who actually bet me a quarter that they would catch up, despite the fact that they had received about a three-hour penalty last week.

The first team left Bangkok at 9:36 am; they left at 4 in the afternoon.

No, the action last night was about the Margie & Luke/Kisha & Jen situation. Which got crazy.

See some of the weekend's best photos from around the world.

Abigail Washburn plays music you'd expect to hear in the mountains of Western North Carolina -- except, of course, for the lyrics. She often sings in Chinese, and the combination is as lovely as it is odd. An Illinois native, she has some mixed feelings about about China, a massive and beautiful place that also has a repressive and totalitarian government. Ask her what she thinks about China, and she's liable to wax cosmic.

"It's all part of the big picture," Washburn said in a recent interview. "There are so many different situations in China, it's hard to make a sweeping statement about how I feel about all of it. Generally speaking, I have a long-term commitment to pursuing a career in China, and also America -- and also globally, I hope. I want to be part of a committed group of people who believe globalization is a good thing that beautiful things can come from. It's a big vision that everything fits into. Nothing is wasted, time or energy. It's an experiment in steady living. I can't complain."

Washburn performs Thursday in Chapel Hill. For details on that and further chit-chat, see the interview in Friday's paper.

ADDENDUM (9/6/08): Whattaya know, Washburn is also on the cover of the first No Depression bookazine (which is out next month).

Shi Tao, an award-winning journalist, is serving 10 years in prison in China. His crime? "Leaking state secrets abroad," according to the government. Specifically, Shi posted notes from a directive from China's Propaganda Department. The directive told the media how to cover the 15th anniversary of the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Among other things, it said: "Overseas antagonistic forces are trying to draw young people and teenagers through such channels as religion...."To read more about Shi Tao and other journalists imprisoned in China, click here.  

Bob Dietz follows China for the Committee to Protect Journalists. While China has given Chinese reporters more freedom, there's a limit to how far it will go. "China is on a path of liberalization but it has no intention of being a liberal democracy like the United States," Deitz said via phone from Hong Kong. "They want to present a unified country where everybody is pretty much agreeing to the plan for moving forward."

Tim Johnson, who covers China for McClatchy Newspapers (including The N&O), agrees. Starting Jan. 1, 2008, China gave visiting journalists more freedom. They could travel the country without registering, as was the norm. But Johnson doesn't think this freedom will last. "I fully expect that once the Olympics are over and the crowds have gone home, China will slap on the same old controls," he said in an e-mail. "Freedom of information is the enemy of those who insist they are the only legitimate rulers of a country decade after decade."  
 

Duke University Libraries has launched a new digital collection of about 5,000 photographs, taken mostly in China between 1917 and 1932. The photos were taken by Sidney Gamble, grandson of Proctor and Gamble co-founder James Gamble.

Sidney Gamble was a sociologist and photographer who traveled extensively in China.

Check out the collection here