If you read nothing else today, read this: “How Did I Break [out of] Jail?“. The incredible first-hand account of how Chinese blogger Peter Guo (Guo Baofeng), better known as Amoiist, was arrested but managed to get an SOS message out via his Twitter, which then turned into an international campaign to see him released. [...]
Archive for 2009
Chinese artist takes ‘blending in’ to a new level
No, you’re not looking at some cheese-smothered Photoshop job, these pictures are the amazing artwork of Liu Bolin, a 35-year-old artist from Shandong. Liu’s attention to detail and precision positioning make it appear as if he is invisible.
I’ll let the images speak for themselves.
Time for the Associated Press to buy a decent map
The other day I wrote a quick post about how pneumonic plague had infected and killed residents in a small community in Qinghai province. My post was meant mostly as a joke, as my friend Glen was in Qinghai and complaining about being ill. However, there’s nothing funny about pneumonic plague. Now several more people [...]
Confessions of a Chinese Language Student
Chinese is a really difficult and frustrating language to learn, but it always helps to laugh at yourself to get you through the process. My confessions 我的自白: Injuries I have, in frustration, banged my head against my Chinese textbooks. I’m pretty sure I’ve ruined my eyesight by staring at Chinese characters for too long. I [...]
Chinese Graduates’ Lives Destroyed by Manila Envelopes
I recently read this NYT article on missing student records and became infuriated. In short, the article is about recent graduates from various universities, who came from poor families, worked incredibly hard to set the foundations for their futures, only to find that their entire academic records (high school grades, college grades, test scores, proof [...]
Plague Strikes Qinghai: Glen has sniffles.
I was talking with friend and frequent Lost Laowai contributor Glen yesterday. He mentioned that he is currently hanging out in Xining, Qinghai, and while he has intentions of travelling more, his plans have been delayed as he is feeling under the weather. And then I read this: One dies of Pneumonic plague in NW [...]
Rule Of Law
Just got back from the Dalian beer festival, Xu Zhiyong was arrested, The piss ran in streams from the urinals, And not a soul protested, Here we are in the land of the dragons, Xu Zhiyong was arrested, Maybe Hu’s words got lost in the Jargon, Cause not a soul protested, The rule of law, The rule of law, [...]
R.I.P. YouTube in China, 2005 – 2009
This year might well mark the death of YouTube in China. The world’s most popular video sharing website came to life in early 2005 and was bought by Google in November 2006. However YouTube has effectively died a death in China, being constantly blocked since March 24th of this year. On that date a Google [...]
5 Tips for Staying Sober in China
A whole lotta baijiu (c) nozomiiqel
“Sober?” you say. “What in heaven’s name makes you think I want to stay sober in China?” I admit that the following advice doesn’t apply to a large portion of foreigners in China, but hear me out.
Whether you’re someone who never drinks, who only drinks socially, or one whose blood-alcohol level should be renamed their “alcohol-blood level”, I suspect that there always comes a time in China when you’re required to drink against your will. For those times, I offer these 5 tips.
Photo: To Be Destroyed
Having just returned from Beijing myself, this image of a Beijing Hutong marked with “拆“, which essentially means “to destroy” was especially poignant. Yet another great capture from regular Lost Laowai Flickr pool submitter Elephantonabicycle.
