Go ahead. Point to the indoor ice-skating rinks. Lavish praise upon the successful Olympic bid. Dry hump the glittering puddles of architectural vomit that Riken Yamamoto has sprinkled throughout our fair town. For most of the post-adolescent, fist-pumping contingent of Beijing‘s expat community (in whose meticulously coifed ranks I stand coolly detached. In expensive pants.), [...]
Archive for October, 2007
Foreign Abject
I’ve lived in a few countries, travelled through some more, went to school, made friends, associated or worked with people from all over the world and have learned languages that were never spoken by any of my ancestors, but not before I crossed into the People’s Universe of China, had the concept of someone or [...]
Photo of the Week: The Poor in Macau
We again return to Derrick’s great photography for this week’s Photo of the Week. Derrick has a knack at capturing a lot of emotion in his photos, as can be seen in this picture taken at the National Day in Macau. Be sure to check out his site – www.maskofchina.com – for more great photos. [...]
C’mon, let him hold the Torch!
As some of you may have heard, the Olympics are coming to Beijing next August. No, really. And beside colourful rings, fancy logos and a bunch of sickeningly cute paraphernalia, the key imagery of the event has got to be the Olympic Torch. Starting last June the Olympic committee began hunting out the near 22,000 [...]
Carrier Bags ? Just Say 不要了
Under the influence of Thomas Newman’s haunting theme, something twirls and dances to the whim of the breeze and for a few minutes of movie history a white carrier bag is beautiful… However, anyone who’s spent any time wandering down any streets in China can tell you that whilst a single carrier bag might be [...]
Bookworms, China’s dirty textbook market
Anyone that’s taught for more than 10 minutes in China’s public school system will attest to how craptastic the supplied text books are. Chinese-produced pablum that bears the name of prominent Western universities in hopes that no one will notice that the content is blander than a bowl of zhou. A recent Southern Weekend article [...]
China’s Stolen Children
One hundred and ninety children are abducted in China every day. Nearly 70,000 per year. Take a moment, stare up at the ceiling, and ponder that number. Need some perspective? In the entire year of 2005 my home of Canada had 31 kidnapped kids[1]. The UK weighs in at the 60-70 mark[2] and even the [...]
Photo of the Week: Hard Hat
This week’s Photo of the Week is an unusually appealing and colourful pic of the entrance to a construction site by Flickr user: myblueheaven. Every week we’ll feature a funny, interesting or otherwise noteworthy photo here. If you have a photo you think might make a good Photo of the Week, throw it in the [...]
[GWP] China: Love It ~ Hate It wrap-up
Hey all, with the holiday week in full swing, I totally lost track of the China: Love It ~ Hate It group writing project and that it was meant to finish yesterday. Though this GWP failed to attract a huge number of submissions (I’ll blame it on everyone busy preparing for the holiday), we did [...]
