I’m not sure what amuses me more, that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao has a Facebook profile, or that he has more supporters on his profile than US President George W. Bush.
That’ll teach George not to respond to natural disasters in a timely manner.
Still, the PM is just below Arnold Schwarzenegger - but really, even if you stick all the disasters that Grandpa Wen has weathered, it hardly amounts to saving the world from a future war with cyborgs. I mean, lets keep some perspective.
From the NYT article:
The page appears to have been set up recently. It is not clear whether Mr. Wen, 65, did …
What follows is the fourth part of a series of posts we’re running by fellow Laowai - Turner Sparks. Turner and his friend Jake decided just sitting around Suzhou and watching quake relief efforts on TV was not good enough, and so hopped into Turner’s car and pointed it towards Chengdu. Read
Part I,
Part II and
Part III
After spending Wednesday down at the Red Cross continuing to load and unload supply trucks, we returned Thursday to find out our services were no longer needed as they already had enough volunteers.
One trip through the …
What follows is the third part of a series of posts we’re running by fellow Laowai - Turner Sparks. Turner and his friend Jake decided just sitting around Suzhou and watching quake relief efforts on TV was not good enough, and so hopped into Turner’s car and pointed it towards Chengdu. Read
Part I and
Part III want to talk for a minute about the differences between what the media is reporting regarding the situation here (I can only speak for Chinese media as I haven’t seen international TV), and the reality of what we are seeing and experiencing.
First of all, Chendgu is completely fine and is operating as a normal city. Ambulance sirens are …
What follows is the second part of a series of posts we’re running by fellow Laowai - Turner Sparks. Turner and his friend Jake decided just sitting around Suzhou and watching quake relief efforts on TV was not good enough, and so hopped into Turner’s car and pointed it towards Chengdu. Read
Part I and
Part IIIDay 3: First Night in Chengdu (May 19, 2008)
It’s the End of the World as We Know it…
Monday night started by Jake and I getting invited to dinner at a Turkish restaurant by a bunch of our brand new friends who were volunteering at the Bookworm. The restaurant was just around the corner from our hotel and after a …
What follows is the first part of a series of posts we’re running by fellow Laowai - Turner Sparks. Turner and his friend Jake decided just sitting around Suzhou and watching quake relief efforts on TV was not good enough, and so hopped into Turner’s car and pointed it towards Chengdu.
Read Part IIWe’re on a Road to Nowhere
Day 1 (May 17, 2008)
After two and a half days of traveling and a number of audibles, Jake and I have finally made it to Chengdu. For anyone who is looking to come out here and aid in the relief efforts I would strongly suggest booking a flight and buying a ticket.
While Jake and I would like to …
Today marks the one week anniversary of the Sichuan Wenchuan earthquake, and will officially begin a State-decreed three-day mourning period (May 19 - May 21).
In line with this, today at 2:28pm (China Central Time, the time the quake struck seven days ago), China will observe a 3 minute moment of silence.
Whether you are in China or not, we hope all our readers will take part in this small gesture to remember the victims of this unthinkable tragedy.
Original State Council Notice
国务院公告
为表达全国各族人民对四川汶川大地震遇难同胞的深切哀悼，国务院决定，2008年5月19日至21日为全国哀悼日。在此期间，全国和各驻外机构下半旗志哀，停止公共娱乐活动，外交部和我国驻外使领馆设立吊唁簿。5月19日14时28分起，全国人民默哀3分钟，届时汽车、火车、舰船鸣笛，防空警报鸣响。
The (rough) Lost Laowai translation:
The State Council has decided that May 19-20, 2008, will be a national mourning period where all people can show their deep condolences for the …
It’s the close of a week that will go into China’s history as one of the toughest and most harrowing. And though the rescue operations are still underway and the rebuilding is just beginning, with all the horrific images I’ve been exposed to this week, I wanted to post a photo of the week that was a bit light-hearted. This week’s photo is by flickr user Life in Nanning, be sure to check out his full portfolio.
Every week(ish) we’ll feature an interesting, funny, beautiful or otherwise noteworthy photo here. If you have a photo you think might make …
I recently learned a neat new word in Chinese: 语感, literally “language feeling”. In English, a more common translation might be “language intuition”, a mysterious ability that some seem to possess and others do not.
When I tell people that I speak three languages, I often hear in response, “oh, you must have an innate ability”. I’m never sure how to reply because I’m not sure how much innate ability has to do with language acquisition. If anything, the circumstances in my life have had a far greater influence on my linguistic skills than anything else: a year in Italy led to speaking Italian, and three and a half years in China have enabled me to learn Chinese. Had I stayed …
The following has in no way been confirmed to be legitimate, however I wanted to post it here to see if anyone had heard anything about this.
From the Hangzhou Expat forum:
This information has not and most likely will not appear in the press or the media. But a co-worker’s wife who works in a medical treatment center in Shanghai just recently received between 20-30 victims of two separate bombing incidents on the Shanghai subway.
It’s being kept very, very under wraps at the moment, so no word on who was responsible, if the perpetrators were or were not terrorists, which subway station it was at, or exactly when it happened; but it was sometime within the past week. …
Hey folks, at the request of K. M. Morris at Barking at the Sun, I’ve whipped a little badge that can be placed on your blog or Web site to direct people to the Red Cross Society of China’s quake relief donation information.
Instructions
You can just copy and paste that code directly into your site’s sidebar, or where ever. The graphic is on our servers here, but you are welcome to download it (right-click, save image as…) and re-upload it to your servers if you wish.
Also, please note that the link, by default, …
I’m not sure what amuses me more, that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jia Bao has a Facebook profile, or that he has more supporters on his profile than US President George W. Bush.
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