A few weeks ago I finished my first academic year of teaching Oral English at a university in the Middle Kingdom. There’ve been ups and downs, yadda, yadda, but it’s been, overall, good. Even the work has been okay. Here’s a short piece I wrote back in March about my favourite lesson. This week, in …Read More
As a bit of a follow-up to my post the other day, Tighter visa restrictions or just more of the same?, here is a link to a guest post by Gary Chodorow at the Shanghaiist which outlines everything you need to know about China’s new Exit-Entry Law: All you need to know about China’s new …Read More
These days all hotels worthy of the name “hotel”, and most hotels that aren’t, have a network connection and a computer program that allows them to register all guests at the hotel with the provincial Public Security Bureau. For all intents and purposes the system is standardized. I’ve found some small differences from province to …Read More
I’m a week away from finishing my first academic year as what can loosely be described as a university teacher in China. Someone told me that I should write some kind of retrospective/memoir, but that sounded like far too much work. I mean, I’m on holiday in a week. I’ve begun the wind-down and I’m …Read More
For a bleeding-edge tech company, it’s sure hard not to feel Google’s been a bit slow to acknowledge and address a phenomenon that anyone in China has been witnessing for years — search results are censored. In a new video and blog post, the folks at Google illustrate the problem and explain that they will …Read More
I’m currently in the middle of a bike trip from Beijing to Hainan. This isn’t my first ridiculously long bike trip, I did something similar in 2008 when I went from Hainan to Beijing. But, unlike 2008 it’s a lot more ambitious. Not only did I start from a much lower level of physical conditioning, …Read More
One thing you find out pretty soon if you come into contact with Chinese society is that although most Chinese may not follow any organized religion, that does not mean they are immune from holding superstitious beliefs of all kinds. Superstitions relating to traditional Chinese medicine or to feng shui are of course widespread, although …Read More
They want to help. They really want to help. And whether you want it or not, they are going to help. It’s one of the best things about being in China, and one of the worst. There are always people around willing to lend a hand. And not just willing. They are determined. When we …Read More
The latest Gallup survey says that Americans are more pessimistic about their job market while Chinese are more optimistic about theirs. Therefore, it’s a good time to understand the latest job trends in the Chinese job market and see if there is real reason for these results. Trend #1 – Naked Quitting As many as …Read More
You have to have a set of stones to don a wingsuit and jump off a mountain in China. Fortunately for all our entertainment pleasure, these guys have just such a set:
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While most laowai are probably familiar with the phenomenon of the “ant tribe,†a recent article in The Economist introduced a number of other “tribes†of stressed-out young Chinese struggling to survive in the urban jungle. Perhaps the most unusual is the “crush-crush tribe†(æææ—), who release their frustrations by hiding in supermarket aisles and …Read More
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