My second year of Chinese studies in China is about to start, this time at a Shanghai university. The first day of the semester consists of a placement test. All of us new exchange student wait outside the classroom, clutching our newly sharpened pencils and feeling like we did on our very first school day. [...]
Archive for September, 2008
Inflation of Egos in Taxis
Nothing boosts one’s ego in the early days of learning Chinese as conversations with taxi drivers. I’m sure we all have had this experience; you step into a cab and spit out your address (carefully memorized, of course), the cabbie subsequently nods and tells you how good your Chinese is. A bit later, once you [...]
Does China Know How to Balance Its Culture History with Progress?
Yesterday I decided to take a walk to the redeveloped portion of Shanghai’s Wujiang Lu — one of Shanghai’s famous food streets. I was surprised at the new portion of the road. It was clean and wide. There were shopping malls on either side connected by walkways over the street. As nice as it was [...]
Compare and Contrast
A remenant story from the Beijing Olympics where Western media trying to cover something “sensitive” were met by the Chinese authoritarian public guard?
“… All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back. Salazar’s violent arrest by baton-wielding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, “I’m Press! Press!,” resulted in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial pain. Goodman’s arm was violently yanked by police as she was arrested.”
