ART EXPO: Artist Chen Yanmei displays her works at Artexpo New York in the United States on March 21. The expo celebrated its 35th anniversary as the world's largest fine arts trade show (WANG CHENGYUN)

Organ Donation

Seven hundred Chinese donated 1,918 organs from the start of 2010 to March 20, national newspaper Health News reported on March 22, citing the National Organ Donation Center.

With China legalizing posthumous human organ donation in 2010, the center said that the 700th donator was a 15-year-old boy from east China's Shandong Province, whose organs saved three lives and helped two patients recover their sight.

There are currently 18,745 registered volunteer organ donors across the country.

The center said that its donation information database might come into service this year, facilitating equal distribution of donated organs.

Prior to 2010, no legal channels existed for posthumous human organ donation in China.

Government Microblogs

An annual report by the E-Government Research Center under the China Academy of Governance said that China had 176,714 government microblog accounts at the end of 2012, almost 2.5 times more than the previous year.

Some 113,382 of these accounts are run by Communist Party of China committees, legislatures, governments, political advisors, Party disciplinary watchdogs as well as judicial and procuratorial agencies and government-sponsored institutions, said the report, which was released on March 27.

The remaining 63,332 are kept by officials and staff members of such agencies, according to the report.

It added that a great number of these accounts are run by agencies and individuals associated with the public security and police system, with the proportions respectively accounting for 37 percent of authorities' microblogs and 39 percent of individual accounts.

Award on China Studies

Ezra F. Vogel, an 82-year-old Harvard University social sciences emeritus professor and author of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, was honored on March 23 with two other renowned researchers for their outstanding contributions to China studies.

Dr. Sergei Leonidovich Tikhvinsky, 94, academician of the Russian Academy of Science and former ambassador to China, was also presented the Award for Outstanding Contribution to China Studies at the opening session of the Fifth World Forum on China Studies.

Jao Tsung-I, a 95-year-old emeritus professor of Chinese language and literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, earned the Award for Outstanding Contribution to China Studies by an Overseas Chinese, a newly minted version of the general award.

Initiated in 2004, the high-profile forum aims to nurture new views and approaches in China studies while promoting mutual understanding and academic exchanges between Chinese and overseas scholars.