You have to have a set of stones to don a wingsuit and jump off a mountain in China. Fortunately for all our entertainment pleasure, these guys have just such a set:
Arts & Entertainment Posts
The first time I used a squat toilet
Is successfully using a squat toilet a sign you’ve “adjusted” to life in China?
I never grew comfortable with squat toilets, and the more public they were, the worse shape they were in. The absolute worst was in a public restroom in a smalltown bus station, where you had rectangle-shaped stone holes, side-by-side. No privacy.
I did everything I could to avoid using squat toilets, including running all the way from a restaurant back to my apartment when my stomach had an argument with one of Wuhan’s streetside offerings, and lost. Always thankful for the western toilet in my apartment; I never went as far as to worship it, but I did kneel before it a few times after some unfortunate nights with baijiu.
Others might come to China with prior squat toilet experience. If you stick to the highly developed areas, you may not have to worry about it. In France, there apparently are squat toilets. I never encountered any. Instead, in my dorm, we had Western toilets lacking seats. Weird, but I guess since you could buy portable toilet seats at the local Carrefour, there was no need to include any.
So China was my first experience with squat toilets, and I want to tell you about that. I don’t often write about my life — there’s a reason — but I feel like getting this off my chest.
Review: Parfitt’s ‘Why China Will Never Rule the World’
I’m going to assume that most of the readers of Lost Laowai are the kind of people who bother to run VPNs and the kind of people who follow the China blogosphere. If so, they may have seen Troy Parfitt’s “Why China Will Never Rule the World” coming up again and again. Peking Duck, Seeing Red in China, China Law Blog, they’ve all written reviews on it and they’ve all covered different but equally valid aspects of why this is or is not the book for you to read.
The job of a book reviewer is to tell you, gentle reader, why you should or should not spend your time or money on a book. I won’t lay down a pronouncement yay or nay so much as give my thoughts and let you make your own decision based on those opinions.
Fun with the 100 RMB bill
Being bright pink, the 100元 note comes across as a bit of a 2D party. That with it you can buy a boatload of stuff in cheap-as-chips China also gives it a certain fun-factor. But I’m here to tell you, there’s more!
Shit Laowai Say
Alright, I’m a bit slow picking this up, as it made the rounds a few days ago, but felt it was worth the late share all the same. It really should be called Shit Shanghai Laowai Say as there’s a lot of very localized references in it (I miss Sherpa’s), but still quite funny.
What do you mean you don’t have a VPN? 
Photo: Reality
I was looking for a more upbeat photo that captured a bit of that Spring Festival snap, crackle and pop. But when I saw this photo it grabbed my attention and reminded me of the excesses of the season (which this year has been pretty much a month-long Western-Chinese celebration hybrid). The Nanning-based photographer, Sun Suri, is (I believe) our first Chinese featured in this spot. Check out her photostream for a fantastic collection of street photography.
Review: You are the Apple of My Eye
Apparently it is movie week here at Lost Laowai, because I have another recent Chinese flick to review. In an effort to help learn Chinese I always ask my students about good recent movies. Let’s be honest, most Chinese movies us foreigners hear about are either political or kung-fu based. However, I’m interested in the other movies; the comedies, the teen movies, the things my students relax with at night. I’m not looking for The Last Emperor, but rather Teen Witch or something similar.
So I paid attention when a number of students started talking about a new movie called You are the Apple of My Eye (Chinese title: 那些年，我们一起追的女孩) It’s a new movie, released in 2011, from Taiwan director Giddens Ko who has a badass pen name: 九把刀. It has been a major hit in Taiwan and Hong Kong, breaking all sorts of box office records (including one which was previously held by Kung Fu Hustle) but has not yet been released in mainland China.
Review: Flying Swords of Dragon Gate
For the laowai who likes movies, there are certainly a number of offerings available this month to tempt you out to the movie theater instead of staying at home and watching pirated DVDs. While Nicki has just reviewed the “Flowers of War” with its serious historical plot line involving things few of us really want to think about, I’d like to take this time to talk about pure fluff.
My parents are visiting from the US and we celebrated Christmas in traditional Jewish fashion — Chinese food at a restaurant followed by going out to a movie.
I like to play movie roulette. Walk into the theater and buy a ticket for the next show. I hate buying tickets in advance. It seems to me whenever you buy tickets in advance and are enjoying your meal, you have to rush to leave. Perhaps the situation in larger cities like Beijing or Shanghai is different from Haikou (or Baltimore for that matter) but there are always enough empty seats 20 minutes before the show that I and my other similarly inclined friends manage to get seats together.
The Flowers of War: Christian Bale and the making of a hero
Today, for my all-to-close-to-Christmas birthday, my hubby took me on a date. We saw the new and somewhat controversial Zhang Yi Mou directed “The Flowers of War,” starring Christian Bale.
For those of you who haven’t been following the controversy involving Mr. Bale, the movie is a period piece set during 1937′s Rape of Nanjing. Since it’s a war film, and especially since it is a Chinese-made film about the Japanese occupation of Nanjing, it naturally involves a lot of violence and, although the camera never focuses directly on it, rape. That’s to be expected, you’ve had fair warning and should know what you’re getting into if you choose to watch this movie. And I think if you are a laowai living in China, you should choose to see it. More about why in a bit. What you’ll not need to worry about is the language of the film: it’s in Chinese, sometimes in the local Nanjinghua, but it has terrific English subtitles.
Photo: The Shooting Stance
A lot of photos I choose to feature here are serious, gritty or artsy — felt it was about time for a humorous one. Taken at Suzhou’s famously-designed-by-IM-Pei museum, it looks like this guy is putting some Tai Qi lessons to practical use. Check out Jun Ballena’s photostream for a whack of beautifully vibrant photography.
