In 2011, police detained Ai Weiwei for 81 days. Now, he's released a song that's turned the experience into a heavy metal protest song, along with a dystopian nightmare video. The lyrics are explicit and angry. Ai says his music is for the many political prisoners who remain jailed.

Some super-rich Chinese are sending their kids to weekend classes in order to learn how to deal with money. The lessons include things like a charity sale designed to teach the children compassion, sharing and the value of money.

Natural disasters make the headlines. But we rarely hear how the survivors are doing years later. Here's the story of Zhang Ming, who suffered devastating losses in the 2008 earthquake in China's Sichuan province.

A massive 2008 temblor in Sichuan province killed some 90,000 Chinese and pointed to the poor construction practices in China. The rebuilding effort was supposed to showcase modern China. But today, many survivors are angry over what they say is official corruption, ranging from poor construction and unpaid workers to bribes and improper compensation for seized land.

Hundreds of police were deployed in southern Beijing Wednesday to quell a large protest after a migrant worker fell to her death at a clothing mall. Police say it was suicide, but there are reports the woman was gang-raped by security guards. Her family is asking for a proper investigation.

After local authorities got word of a planned environmental protest in the southwestern city of Chengdu, they decided to make Saturday a workday. Security personnel, meanwhile, converged on the city center in a display of force.

Chinese leaders and the state-run media keep talking about the Chinese dream. So NPR's Beijing bureau asked the Chinese to define their dreams. Here's what they said.

Touted in the state-run media, "the Chinese dream" is Beijing's latest official slogan. The man who made the phrase famous says it means China becoming the world's No. 1 superpower. But as censors scrub unapproved versions of the concept from the Internet, people wonder: Just whose dream is it anyway?

China's one-child only policy and historic preference for boys has led to a surplus of marriageable Chinese men. Young women are holding out for better apartments, cars and the like from potential spouses. And prospective in-laws are socking away savings to try to appeal to a future daughter-in-law.

For several hours today, a story went viral on the Chinese Internet that the new Communist equivalent of the emperor, President Xi Jinping, had pulled an old trick from an imperial playbook and traveled incognito among ordinary citizens. The legend of The President Who Took a Taxi was quickly shut down.

The international community is bracing for further provocative actions in North Korea's campaign of bluster and escalation. But visitors to the reclusive country say the capital Pyongyang does not appear to be on war footing.

North Korea is said to have moved a missile closer to its east coast, and threatens to close a joint industrial zone.

The North's move to block South Korean workers from getting to a jointly run factory is a familiar way for the communist state to show its displeasure. But it comes at a time when tensions are as high as they've been in years.

North Korea says it will restart a nuclear reactor that it shut down six years ago. Pyongyang said it needs to resolve an acute electricity shortage, as well as bolster what it called its nuclear armed force. The move is a further escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula after a series of North Korean threats.

With its missile units on standby and its hotlines cut to South Korea, North Korea continues to stoke tensions on the peninsula. Even China, North Korea's main ally, is now on board with sanctions.

China's new president has vowed to crack down on corruption. One widespread practice involves paying bribes to get high-level positions in politics or the bureaucracy.

Inside China, Tibetan "customs" include the Nagqu horse festival, complete with state-sponsored repression. At least that's what's on display in an exhibit at the National Museum Of China.

Experts worry that while the North has often made threats, now it's rhetoric is ratcheting up. That may make the new young leader, Kim Jong Un, feel as if he has to follow through on the threats in some way.

North Korea has cut off a hotline with South Korea, as its southern neighbor begins a large annual military exercise with the U.S. North Korea also announced that the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War is no longer valid, though South Korean officials have cast doubt on this. This comes after a week of inflamed North Korean rhetoric, including threats to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the U.S.

Two car thefts, one in the U.S. and one in China, have transfixed many in China. In both cases, babies were in the vehicles. The American case ended happily when the thief phoned police to tell them where to find the child. In China, the suspect has confessed to killing little Haobo.