Living in China brings with it a number of occasions where most can do nothing but scratch their heads and say “WTF?” However, largely by the help of the English-language China blogsphere, we’ve started to create a dictionary that can assist in putting words to the weird, definitions to the disarray and captions to the …Read More
Having lived in China for six years I have found that I’ve started missing some of the things from my American life. For the most part I am not a big fan of mainstream American culture. Things like top 40 music and NY Times Bestsellers were usually avoided at all cost. They were a kind …Read More
I love etymology. I’m not sure what about knowing “why” a word is what it is that steams my baozi, but I just dig it. I confess, I’m not hardcore about it, but do frequently visit www.etymonline.com for casual reading. For armchair etymologists like myself, the Chinese language is a fantastic source of wonders. Learning …Read More
Staying positive in China is a topic that has been making the rounds through expat circles of late. Whether it be John’s generally always upbeat blog (except when it comes to Spring Festival), the well-written “10 Reasons Why Living In China Is Great” or Rick’s soon-to-be-published post about Chinese do-gooders. Now, don’t get me wrong. …Read More
I’m generally the first to admit I’m lazy. Perhaps it’s not lazy so much as being part of the Goldfish Attention Span Generation (GASG). I just can’t be bothered to focus on something for too long. This, perhaps, is why when I first heard of Active Chinese I was a little concerned it was a …Read More
One of the (few) benefits of moving into an apartment inherited from a fellow expat is that occasionally they leave books behind. English-language reading material is not difficult to find in China, but stories that delve into the Chinese condition more than the State-approved classics are absent in the bookstores and often guarded by their …Read More
While most of the annual Spring Festival migration is from big cities to the small cities and the countryside as workers, students, and whoever else was able to find a plane or train ticket leaves their jobs for a week to spend the holiday with the family back home, I have noticed over the last …Read More
Chinese new year, also known as Spring Festival (or as the lunar new year), is but six days away. Think: food, lanterns, rice wine, the colour red, and fireworks. Yes, nearly a ton of fireworks will be bought by every household, to the delight of family members both old and young, as they caress hand-held …Read More
Reflections on a month spent wandering the Chinese Internet: China was hit hard about a month ago by the big Boxing Day earthquake in Taiwan, which knocked out or hindered access to most foreign websites from behind the great wall. As one Chinese acquaintance of mine put it “This is really a big inconvenience for …Read More
Zhang Ziyi is in the headlines here in China again. She was seen recently at a NY Knicks game with a laowai nanyou, or foreign boyfriend. The outrage from people writing comments is amazing. Although she has become famous in Japan, Korea, and the US, she has a hard time here in the mainland. Some …Read More
A couple days ago Danwei and Imagethief both had good posts that gave a couple varying opinions on the recent increase in attention to the Starbucks in the Forbidden City. The issue has been recently stirred up by CCTV anchorman Rui Chenggang and his call for Starbucks to get out and stay out of one …Read More
I recently caught this article in my CBC news feed and it got me thinking about what the Chinese call “snake heads“. They are so named for ‘leading/heading’ groups of “rénshé” into other countries. Rénshé is the slang for those Chinese that slither across borders into other countries illegally. Poetic language, Chinese is. Snake heads …Read More
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