While most laowai are probably familiar with the phenomenon of the “ant tribe,” a recent article in The Economist introduced a number of other “tribes” of stressed-out young Chinese struggling to survive in the urban jungle. Perhaps the most unusual is the “crush-crush tribe” (捏捏族), who release their frustrations by hiding in supermarket aisles and [...]
funny Posts
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.
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.
Xinhua featuring weird science, poor grammar and hybrid boobs
It’s tough being a Chinese press agency. It’s even tougher being the Chinese press agency. Everyone’s just waiting for you to stumble, people label you as a “mouthpiece”, call you “unethical” and “biased”, and dub you “pseudo-journalists”; but through it all you staunchly hold your head high and publish this:
History of China in 3½ Minutes
This is just all sorts of awesome. Created by the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors (bio below), the video delivers what’s on the box — the (abridged) history of China in 3 1/2 minutes.
Jack at McDonald’s
Jack finished his last class and coming out the door he lit his first cigarette of the day.
At his apartment door, Jack crushed his fourth cigarette and took the fifth inside. He checked his phone messages. Then he stepped back out and lit number six and headed to McDonald’s.
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:
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.
Weird Wednesday in China #3
Welcome to the third edition of “Weird Wednesdays in China“, a wacky bi-weekly roundup of strange news in China.
Wait, “Weird Wednesdays in China” on a Thursday? I know, how weird is that!? My bad for not getting this out yesterday, the launch of the China Blog Network and the lead up to the holidays has left me scrambling to get things organized.
This week we’ve got robot waiters, really old soup, damn expensive baijiu, and apartments made from shipping containers.
