General

Fact or Fiction

Welcome one and all to the debut of a new (ir)regular feature here on Lost Laowai, entitled Fact or Fiction.Â The premise is very simple, each edition I will be joined by a Guest and we will briefly discuss some of the hottest topics in the laowai world.Â Myself and my guest will respond to each topic with either FACT or FICTION.Â This concept was borrowed by one of my favourite sites on the internets, 411mania.

Anyway, enough explanation let’s get down to business….

My first guest is someone that you all know very well.Â He is the creator of this very site which you are all visiting, as well as The Hao Hao Report, and his very popular blog The Humanaught — he is of course Mr. Ryan McLaughlin.Â Today he and I will be talking about the Great Firewall, Obama, alcohol and parades.Read More

Glen

// Dec 7, 2009 //

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Teaching ESL

Foreign culture in the classroom

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time for a change in my English as a Foreign Language classroom. Â The lessons I’d been teaching had been disjointed one-off topic lessons that piqued the interest of a very small portion of my 825 (give or take) middle-school students. Â The vocabulary used was scanty, I hardly …Read More

Pandemic on the Streets! Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Start Loving the Vaccine

I’m going to be honest.Â I don’t really know how to write an introduction for this.Â You all know the story by now.Â H1N1 is going around and it is either a media creation or a harbinger of the apocalypse.Â So I would like to apologize in advance if I am further flooding the blogosphere …Read More

Hello Ladies

Salutations! I believe a short introduction in order before we engage in relations. Entirely platonic, I assure you. I have nothing but the most noble intentions for the readers here at LLW. I’m the new jerk! Fink, a Laowai who is most definitely Lost without a road map, currently wandering through the streets of Shanghai. …Read More

What’s up Doc?

A favourite thread for the â€˜China ranterâ€™, surely, is the enormous gulf between rich and poor in this society supposedly forged through class struggle; and the inequality this imposes. It wouldnâ€™t be a huge leap of faith to guess that another area that draws criticism among expat ranters and others is the health care system …Read More

Giving Thanks To China

Today is a special day in Northern North America, Canadian Thanksgiving.Â While it is (not surprisingly) less of a big deal for us than it will be in about six weeks for our neighbours to the south, it is still an important day on the calendar.Â While I won’t be heading to mom’s for a …Read More

350 Day of Climate Action coming to China

On October 24, 2009, relatively small groups of people around the world will create an action that helps to raise awareness about the 350 International Day of Climate Action, and with a long list of events taking part across the country, China’s no exception. If you’re like me and are wondering what the heck the …Read More

Ryan McLaughlin

// Oct 12, 2009

China Videos

A Good Dog Couple – å¥½ä¸€å¯¹ç‹—ç”·å¥³

I just caught this video on ChinaHush and I challenge anyone to watch it and keep their eyes dry. I hope ChinaHush doesn’t mind if I borrow their translation of the text in the video:Read More

Manners (and I know it’s been said before, but not like this)

I have eaten dinner with Chinese people at a number of fancy restaurants and a variety of closed-off rooms at special establishments. Each time, I pick out the things that I can bear most from the curious selection of oddities on the table and prepare to eat. Each time, this carefully chosen meal is interrupted …Read More

The Amateur’s Guide to Chinese Name Translation

Chinese names, to the untrained ear, may sound somewhat similar. They jumble together in a scrambled binary of Changs, Wangs, Wus and Hus. They are hard to remember, since they are all 2-to-3 segment K’NEX sets of syllables that fail to strike a strong note with western minds. Yet upon further intensive (albeit unscholarly) investigation, …Read More

10 Slightly Off the Beaten Path Locations in China

Still haven’t made up your mind for the October Holiday yet?Â Don’t want to bother leaving the country, but have already done Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, and the like?Â Well worry not, I’m here to help! I’ve come up with 10 of my favourite places to visit here in China that are off the usual laowai …Read More

The Forecast for Today: Death from Above!

Mother Nature must show up drunk at Chinaâ€™s doorstep, or sheâ€™s on some pills or something. Beijing is said to have year-round weather, but I never knew there were more than four seasons until I flew across the Pacific. To the usual line up of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, add the new seasons: Boggle, …Read More

Nate

// Aug 30, 2009 //

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