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.
Humour Posts
Photo: The Shooting Stance
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:
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:
The 7 Year Laowai: Part 6 – Concentration Camp
“How can someone who exists on the fringes of a society understand that society?” Jack said. “You’re a laowai, a wai guo ren, an outsider. You can’t understand pigs without shoveling pig shit, you shouldn’t even fucking eat bacon. How can you be an expert on death without taking the occasional life?”
Three Loves, Two Countries: Three Things You Gotta Love About China
Sometimes conversations in China turned sour. The risk substantially increased after the novelty of being somewhere new wore off and culture shock set in. Here it was very easy to idealize my beautiful country of golden fields and azure skies, and criticize my new home in the City of Perpetual Gloom. You can try staying [...]
Weird Things That I Got Used to in China, Part I
Today I read part 1 of the Forbes China Tracker Blog article Weird Things That People Get Used to in China (a translation of a Chinese article on NetEase). I suppose it is about things that Chinese people get used to, but since I’m leaving soon (countdown: 4 days), I figured I’d write one based on the [...]
Joe Wong, the new face of Chinese comedy — just not in China
Comedian Joe Wong
I love stand-up comedy, and it is one of the things I miss access to the most here in China. It is a rare find to come across any stand-up DVDs in the local DVD shops for the reason that the comedy just doesn’t translate, so has little domestic interest. If you look at the foreign comedians that have made a splash in China, you’ll pretty muhc be limited to various Mr. Bean sketches — the humour of which is almost 100% physical.
Tan’s Traffic Talk Show
Ever wonder what happens when an edutaining Chengdu traffic cop runs square into China’s fēi zhǔliú culture? Well, wonder no longer. Thanks to the relatively new blog, Veggie Discourse, having subtitled this in English, we can all enjoy a gender-bending, hair-raising motorcycle safety video together: If you’re outside of China, or have a good VPN, [...]
Chinese-Cockney rhyming slang
London, not quite my hometown, but a city I know very well, has its own peculiar culture called Cockney, which is evident as an accent, in traditional clothing, and in the idiosyncratic ‘Cockney rhyming slang’. The Cockney accent and mannerisms were famously mis-represented by the actor Dick van Dyke in the Mary Poppins movie, and [...]
Haibao pushing stereotypes for World Expo 2010?
I caught wind of these “multicultural” Haibao images on the blog of James Fallows, and couldn’t help but feel they’re a bit… well… ummm… insensitive. I would like to think that I am one of the least politically correct people out there, and I groan even approaching the topic. Perhaps it’s just that in my [...]
