General Posts

Dec132011

Posted By
Nicki

China Charities for Christmas

It’s already mid-December and although we live in China, Christmas decorations have gone up around town and the local Carrefour and RT-Mart are playing Christmas music. Christmas is a time when many people like to give gifts to friends and family, but for expats in China it can be difficult to send gifts to whatever country (or countries!) our friends and families are living in. If you haven’t sent those gifts months ago, you can always shop online and hope the rush shipping will make it there on time…

There is another option for gift giving or even end of the year tax breaks though, and that’s giving to a charity. You can always donate in the name of your gift recipient, and while they might have enjoyed a physical present more, perhaps they’ll be just as grateful not to have to try to figure out how to regift that panda poop tea.

Sep202011

3Comments

Posted By
Michael

Gift Recycling: China’s Not-So-Underground Economy

As China celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival this past week, countless gifts were exchanged by friends, families, and co-workers in homes and offices all across the country. In the days following the festival, many gifts changed hands once again, this time behind store counters and in narrow back alleys. These second exchanges were part of a [...]

Sep022011

8Comments

Posted By
Michael

Fast Food in China: The Men Who Would Be Colonel

Since the first Kentucky Fried Chicken opened its doors in Beijing in 1987, the chain has dominated China’s fast food market, establishing a presence that dwarfs its profile back home in the US. And so it’s not surprising that aspiring fast food entrepreneurs have been eager to hitch a ride on the Colonel’s coattails. While Chinese and Western netizens have been entertained by stories and photos of the shanzhai Apple stores and Dairy Queens that have sprouted in the past few months, the phenomenon of imitation KFCs has been a part of the Chinese cityscape for decades. And while most are little more than local curiosities, several of these Kentucky Fried knockoffs have risen to become major players in their own right in the country’s fast food scene.

Aug112011

off

Posted By
Ryan

We’re looking for a few good Laowai

Lost Laowai Wants You Like to write? Got something to say about being a foreigner in China? Why not contribute your thoughts and opinions to the Lost Laowai Blog?

We’re looking to stir some fresh expat pee into the writer pool here. If you’ve got a unique voice, a solid ability to write, and — most importantly — something to say, we’d love to feature your contributions here. Whether you’re dredging out an existence as an ESL teacher, toiling away in the salt mines of Chinese learning, or comparing the size of your (expat) package at the local laowai bar; we want your thoughts, opinions and stories.

Check out the contribute page for some basic guidelines and short FAQ, and then get in touch! Simply outline who you are and why you’d like to contribute. Past writing experience is favoured, but not necessary. We’re a blog, not the New York Times, after all.

Jul232011

8Comments

Posted By
Travis

The China-Wide-Web

As I write this, I am listening to Radio Free Asia, a podcast which I subscribed to on iTunes with no hassle. After I finish writing this, I plan, just for shits and grins, to run a Google search on Liu Xiaobo and proclaim my love for a free Tibet on Twitter. When I first [...]

Mar192011

5Comments

Posted By
Ryan

Major General Genre, Mao’s apple is far from the tree

There is a Chinese saying, 虎父无犬子, which mirrors the old Western adage “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Love him or hate him, it’s tough to argue that the late Mao Zedong wasn’t extremely charismatic and a commanding leader. The same is not as often said about his grandson, Mao Xinyu.

A new Chinese meme illustrates why. The meme, “Major General Genre”, takes a rambling, nonsensical dialog that Xinyu had with a reporter and applies it to different topics, mad libs style.

Here’s the original interview:

Mar172011

7Comments

Posted By
Ryan

Video: Chinese flight attends shake things up with safety dance

I’ve been on my share of flights where the flight attendants tried to spice things up with a bit of comedy or improv, but this is a first. The video below shows three flight attendants from China’s Capital Airlines putting a bit of a shimmy in their safety instructions.

Dec072010

NoComments

Posted By
Ryan

China Geeks helping Chinese children find home

Our friends at ChinaGeeks.org have recently started an ambitious new project that I have been meaning to find the time to write about for a couple weeks now. Check out this video for an introduction to “Finding Home”, a documentary that will explore on a personal level the terrible practice of kidnapping and selling children in China:

The film needs all our of help to be made. If you have any means to, please consider donating what you can. Here is a note from the documentary’s director, well-known China blogger (and one time Lost Laowai contributor), Charlie Custer:

Oct142010

2Comments

Posted By
Travis

The 7-year Laowai: Part 2 – Wei Wei

Those first few years were the worst. You enter a period in your life where you can’t say for sure what you’re doing or even who you are. Each day the same as the last, they blur together like a flipbook. You can only see flashes of what you did, what you were. Little isolated fragments that do nothing to illustrate what happened and everything to add to the mystery.

“Why do you come to China?”, my students ask me, which is pretty much “What’s a nice laowai like you doing in a place like this?”. Well…I suppose I came here for a better life. I suppose. It’s hard to say. It’s hard to know what I was thinking. Look at it like this: I was treading water in the middle of the ocean, waiting for a boat to come by.

China just happened to be the first.