People always worry able how they’ll be able to survive in China without being able to speak the language. Simple tasks like ordering food can be a challenge, especially in areas with few foreigners. This shouldn’t be discouraging though. You may get a little hungry, you may order some unexpected things, but you will survive [...]
Archive for May, 2009
Lost Laowai gets comic-ized
With half the country in holiday mode today, and the other half grumbling from the office that they didn’t get to start their weekend yesterday (who’ll be grumbling on Sunday?), there’s perhaps no better time to have a laugh. So, allow me to draw your attention to a great site full of China-themed comics: MandMX. [...]
A Laowai’s Soundtrack
Sorting through the tracks to bring you the best - by natita2
I am one of those people who associate music with times and places in my life. As the academic year in China comes to a close, a few songs stick out to define the highs and lows of the rookie year of my China experience. If you are about to start your own trip to the Middle Kingdom, or would like to reflect on some old times, be sure to acquire these songs to guide your thoughts.
Itadakimasu!
I was away at college when my family first got into sushi, but I remember the story well. During one of our weekly Sunday night telephone conversations, my mother drolly recounted to me how she and my sister had been sneaking take-out from a new local restaurant into the house behind my grandmother’s back. While [...]
The Plague is Nigh
There is currently a sense in China that a Damoclesian sword is hovering ethereally over the head of the nation. The fear is palpable; it can be read in all the newspapers, heard in daily conversations and glimpsed in the growing proliferation of facemasks. With the gradual spread of Swine Flu across the mainland, the [...]
Burn After Seeing
With the fateful anniversary just less than two weeks away, it’s not surprising that the sino-blogsphere is filling up with posts about . It’s difficult not to comment on it. It’s hard to not feel a bit like there is a necessity to address what has now lain silent for two decades. The tragedy of [...]
Dealing With the Expat Blues
Weather like this can contribute to the expat blues by cogdogblog
Let’s face it, China can be a pretty tough place to live. When you combine language barriers, gloomy weather (at least in Central and Northern China), culture shock, homesickness, and always having to smile to get your picture taken, it can be downright depressing. Back in the winter, I had a rather difficult time finding my China niche, and I have been noticing several of my friends and colleagues going through similar feelings right now. As such, I would like to take the chance to share a few tips that I used to overcome my own China Blues, and learn to fall in love with this great country once more.
Chicken Feet and Eggs
I like to think of myself as an adventurous eater, a game one. I tend to follow a monkey see monkey do policy when it comes to food; if I see someone else eat, and they’re not asphyxiated by disgust moments afterwards, I’ll give it a go. Still, I would be lying to say that [...]
The Bargaining Debate
One of the many things that is a bit of a change of pace for people new to China is the concept of bargaining. In the West we are used to relatively simple and painless transactions, someone asks for a price, we pay, both parties leave satisfied. However, in much of the rest of the world that is simply not the case.
Shopping in China is a more, shall we say, “organic” experience. Where prices are constantly negotiated, and two people can very easily pay a very different price for the same thing, bought from the same place, on the same day. Some Westerners have mastered this art, many have not, many more claim to have mastered this art, but really have not.
In general laowais fall into one of three categories of bargainers…
Afterquake — music to remind us that help is still needed
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since tragedy struck Sichuan — killing nearly 90,000 people and displacing millions.
And while time can’t pass fast enough in putting that horrible day firmly behind us all, today is a good day to remember that its survivors are still in need.
Working hard to remind us all of this is a fantastic new project by folk artist Abigail Washburn and Dave Liang of the Shanghai Restoration Project called Afterquake. The 7-track album melds Washburn’s folk with SRP’s electronica and mixes in voices, songs and sounds from the people and places affected by last year’s earthquake.
