There are a handful of movies that define the obsessions of my youth, but few moreso than The Karate Kid. Daniel San and Mr. Miyagi, wax on/wax off, Sweep the Leg — these things had me running around my neighbourhood pretending to be a ninja until I discovered girls (and their strange lack of admiration for ninjas).
It was less than a year ago that I sat down and re-watched the three Karate Kid movies and enjoyed every cheesy minute of them. So, my excitement can likely be guessed when I caught the following preview for the new Karate Kid remake based in Beijing and with Jackie Chan’s shifu attempting to fill Pat Morita’s sensei role.
Welcome one and all to the debut of a new (ir)regular feature here on Lost Laowai, entitled Fact or Fiction. 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. Myself and my guest will respond to each topic with either FACT or FICTION. This concept was borrowed by one of my favourite sites on the internets, 
As an English teacher at a 6,000-strong middle school in the northwest of Hunan province, I come into contact with several hundred students a day. My course load puts me in front of roughly 850 students a week. In a school as cramped as mine, the students and staff are constantly breathing each other’s germs. As such, when I started to get a deep-lung cough and run a mild fever, I should have known it was only a matter of time before the surgical-mask brigade descended on our school.
