Ba ba ba – as the crowds of Olympic spectators herd themselves into their seats for the opening ceremonies, the eights are everywhere. As, by now, everyone’s likely aware – “eight” is an auspicious number in Chinese culture and it’s no coincidence that The Games are starting at 8:08:08 pm on 08/08/2008. The reason for …Read More
This was actually game two for the day, but it’s hard to work a half-day in Suzhou, jump on a two hour train and get to the Nanjing Olympic Stadium (no Olympic events have been or ever will be staged here, by the way) in time for a 2 pm game. Plus, Chico and I …Read More
Only two days until the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and with all the cynicism floating around – we here at Lost Laowai needed a little somethin’ somethin’ to … ahem… raise our Olympic spirits. Thanks to ChineseTools.eu for helping us out. Observant readers will remember we featured these girls previously as well.Read More
Three days to go, the country is primed, factories temporarily closed, cars off the roads, the algea invasion temporarily stymied, battalions of garbage collectors pulled back from the urban front-line, peddlers of counterfeit goods pushed further underground, city streets beautified, foreign media covering China like they just found out it’s there, the delegations of diplomats …Read More
It was announced recently that three Beijing parks, miles away from the Olympic events, will be reserved as areas where people can “protest” during the Olympics. Of course, to protest, you’ll have to apply five days in advance and hope your cause isn’t considered, the rather ubiquitous, “against national interests” (anyone wishing to raise a …Read More
When China shifted its view on food subsidies this week, it was considered a major about face for a country that has been open to free trade for the last 30 years. According to writer Naomi Klein in the conclusion of her book The Shock Doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism, this turn is happening …Read More
I’m supposed to be on a brief holiday in Hangzhou, but couldn’t resist posting about this AP article: Beijingers get dress code advice for Olympics. One of the things that has always bothered me about China is the way that “officials” treat the public like children. Now certainly, anyone that has been in China for …Read More
It’s only been a month since BBC’s English-language news website was unblocked by Net Nanny for the first time in the three years that I’ve been in China with regular web access. And now today, more astonishingly, the BBC’s Chinese language news site has also been unblocked, quite possibly for the first time in the …Read More
Those who are in the know in China all say that a Virtual Private Network is the way to go if you want to get around the so-called Great Firewall in China. Most VPNs cost money, but I recently found this free one that works well, and I thought I’d share it with you guys. …Read More
I recently spent four days in Hong Kong as the final stop of a brief Southeast Asian trip, and as usual I found the language situation there somewhat mystifying. Hong Kong, as we know, has three official languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. Because I don’t speak the former, I was reliant on the latter two …Read More
© James Justin Hey all you fellow laowai in China, Harvard student Wendy Lee is researching how we go about travelling in this big country, and due to the lack of stats about our expat habits available online she’s put together a little survey and asked I tell you about it. Now, personally, I’m always …Read More
Well, everyone and their grandma is calling the 2008 Beijing Olympics China’s coming out party, and they’ve just been given the biggest reason yet, as it doesn’t get any gayer than this. Sorry, I don’t mean to offend or misrepresent the gay community, <em>Queer Eye</em> teaches us you all have far more fashion sense than …Read More
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