Hey all, with the holiday week in full swing, I totally lost track of the China: Love It ~ Hate It group writing project and that it was meant to finish yesterday.
Though this GWP failed to attract a huge number of submissions (I’ll blame it on everyone busy preparing for the holiday), we did get some good quality posts.
I kicked things off with my rundown of the good and bad of Chinese supermarkets.
Rick, in his post Black + White = Fucking Grey, summed things up with:
China is like a really cheap, slutty ex-girlfriend with crabs. You know without all the make-up she’s way ugly underneath, and you know she’s way dirty and you shouldn’t go near her…
…but all …
Or: “A celebration of atheism in China’s schools”
On the walls of China’s public schools you might find Karl Marx and even Friedrich Engels (an overture to more weighty propaganda to follow in later life), but you will also find images of Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin along with detailed profiles of these great men of science. These framed homages often line corridors, or take pride of place in between the windows inside classrooms, as if Einstein’s beaming face or Darwin’s fulsome beard might provide light and sunshine of their own.
It has been heartening for me to see, over the past few years, not the visages of Mao, or Lenin, or any representations …
Hey, just a quick post to remind everyone about the new Group Writing Project - China: Love It ~ Hate it. Only a couple days left (end of the day Monday submissions will be closed).
Submissions are trickling in, and a number of people have sent e-mails saying they’ll be participating, so while we wait, here are a couple of entries.
The first, from yours truly, explores the balance of love and hate in Chinese supermarkets. The second, from fellow blogger Rick, delves into a number of topics that affect expats here. And the third, from Jeremy (The China Expat) is broken into two parts as it was written in two different stages.
Give ‘em a read and don’t forget to write …
It’s been a couple months since our first Group Writing Project, and as it was quite successful, we feel it’s time for round two. The topic this time is “China: Love It ~ Hate It”.
We’re big fans of the dao and the wacky balance therein here at Lost Laowai, and as such wanted to offer a chance for the China blogsphere to delve into the things they both love and hate most about this country.
There’s no limit on the number of things you can list, or the depth to which you explore them - however, we do ask that for every yang you have a yin (and who doesn’t like a good bit of yin?).
What …
Would you like to provide something useful to your readers? Would you like to have more people read what you have to say?
If so, the first thing you need to ask yourself is: What value are you providing to your readers?
If you can’t answer this question clearly & with a purpose, maybe it’s time to change, even if it’s just a little.
China bloggers: Sometimes Missing the Forest for the Trees
It’s pretty easy to see that most of the ‘easy’ topics in the China blog-o-sphere have already been done. If you have a blog about China, you probably have written about a number of such topics. Don’t beat yourself up about this, we all …
And so marks the end of the first Lost Laowai group writing project. We received a total of twelve submissions - not at all bad for our first go at this.
We had a last minute submission from Liu Kaiqin:
出乎意料之外?? （in China) :: By Liu Kaiqin
Who also sported some rather creative Chinese for the project, which I’m about to borrow.
Be sure to check out the complete list of of submissions here:
“工乍 工 长门巨山 丁升巨门 山升闩丁 工 长门口山 门口山”
I really appreciate everyone’s hard work at helping fill in this topic with a solid amount of interesting and informative content.
If you read any of the posts, or have anything to add about this project and how we can improve the next group …
Just a quick reminder that the group writing project will officially end at the end of the day tomorrow (Monday).
So, if you’re still interested in sharing your misconceptions or what you “thought you knew” about China before you came here, please write it up, post it on your blog and then send us the link.
Jut a reminder that it doesn’t have to follow the same format as the other submissions - you are absolutely free to interpret this project in any way you see fit.
Get the full details at the related post. And see what others are writing at the Official “If I Knew Then What I Know Now” Submissions page.
A big thanks …
I ran across a blog post over at Dalian blogger Kim’s great new spot, East-West Station, and it got me thinking.
In the post, entitled “The Years BC“, Kim recounts the (often entertainment-industry induced) rather skewed knowledge he had of China before moving here last year. He shares tales of stereotypes, evil villains, kung-fu legends and the fact that in his younger years, like most of us, had no idea China was different from Japan (and Korea was just unknown).
For a while now I’ve wanted to find a topic to launch group writing projects here on Lost Laowai in an effort to bring together fellow Sinosphere bloggers in a creative and constructive manner. Well, in true Chinese form, why …
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