An article by Mawuna Remarque Koutonin in the Guardian last Friday has been making the rounds. The piece asks, “why are white people expats when the rest of us are immigrants?” and concludes without much nuance that it’s white racial supremacy at work. I disagree, mostly.Read More
American Chris Matthews, star of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, recently visited China — and it “shook” him. In a piece for his show’s blog entitled, “The 10 Days in China that Shook Me“, Matthews redefines parachute journalism and brings new depth to negative stereotypes surrounding Americans travelling abroad.Read More
Popular Beijing-based blog Beijing Cream has just released the inaugural episode of The Creamcast, a weekly podcast hosted by John Artman and The Good Doctor. The podcast’s first guest is long-time China expat Frank Yu, founder of Chinese start-up Kwestr. The format is very much unstructured and conversational, and will remind most of a typical …Read More
I’m trying to be a good citizen or resident or businesswoman or whatever you want to call me. I figure I use the things that tax money buys. I use the roads and the street lights at night. I use the parks and the heavily subsidized public transportation. So I figure it’s only right that …Read More
There’s always “one more thing” that wasn’t mentioned the first time around. I’m in the middle of the registration process for a client’s company. Because I know the process, and because the sole reason for hiring my personal assistant Jimmy was to have someone who stands in lines, things are going much much faster for …Read More
After my last post for Lost Laowai, where I expressed my annoyance with the irritating and pointless public announcements in Chinese public transport, I will now move on to another aspect of life in China which I find irritating: the tendency of the Chinese to address foreigners in English even when it would be easier …Read More
Over the years I’ve lived in China, certain aspects of life here have begun to bother me more and more. I think it’s normal. Every long term expat has their pet peeves about China. There is one particular thing which began to irritate me when I had been living in China for around three years, …Read More
Time may provide you with the skills to manage Bad China Days, but there is no cure. I’m finally home from an extremely stressful morning downtown. I had to head to the PSB to get my visa sorted out. Surprisingly this was not where the stress came in. With the exception of a small delay …Read More
When I started at a four-year college in 1998, I didn’t think it the least little bit odd that the schedule included in my orientation package already had the date of my graduation ceremony listed. Considering that family and friends would be traveling from out of town and would need to plan in advance, this …Read More
Seventy six trombones led the big parade in the Music Man. One hundred and ten cornets were following right behind. All of them were delivered by the Wells Fargo man. It’s a shame that Wells Fargo doesn’t have their act together as well as they did back in River City. Maybe if they did, my …Read More
A recent submission over at the Hao Hao Report has stirred up a bit of conversation about China’s One-Child Policy (OCP) and specifically an American organization that strongly opposes it. For most of my life the OCP debate was completely absent in my daily dialog. I don’t know that I ever gave it a moment’s …Read More
I’ve given some thought to doing an MA in TESOL. After all, I taught it in China, liked it, so why not earn 5,000 RMB a month instead of a mere 4800? All I need is a golden ticket. Luckily, I found one, via a Google ad on a message board. Upon seeing the heading, …Read More
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