Well, everyone and their grandma is calling the 2008 Beijing Olympics China’s coming out party, and they’ve just been given the biggest reason yet, as it doesn’t get any gayer than this.

Sorry, I don’t mean to offend or misrepresent the gay community, <em>Queer Eye</em> teaches us you all have far more fashion sense than this.

This fashion faux pas of the century (and we’re still early into it) is China’s official Olympic opening ceremony uniform.

I’m slowly developing a phobia for mid-afternoon taxi drivers. I’m not sure if they’re all absolute twats, or if its just me.  Can’t possibly be me. I hope not anyhow…

Taking a cab between 3:30 and 4pm is easily the biggest pain in my relocated ass right now. My current schedule requires me to commute at this time of the day, and it very rarely goes smoothly. Taxis usually change from the day driver to the night driver around 4pm.  And to do that they need to go pick up the second driver in a certain part of town. If your destination is not reasonably near that part of town then your shit outta good fortune, as I all too often …

When I read about the bus explosions in Kunming on this past Monday I was a little surprised that the local police weren’t calling it terrorism. I don’t believe that it was done by anyone with a political agenda. This was probably done, as the police are saying, by someone with a local grievance. But isn’t that terrorism?

According to Dictionary.com the first definition for terrorism is “the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.”

Even if the person had a local grievance didn’t he terrorize people? He used violence to intimidate people — two people died. But since the local Kunming and most likely the central governments disagree with me, that makes me wonder …

There are a few things that no matter how long I’m in China will always bring a pleasant smile to my face - the elderly practicing taiqi, dancing or just walking backwards in parks is one of them. The above photo is by Shanghai-based photographer Stephane Ferrero.

I have to say that I was really surprised when I opened up a Sara Bongiorni’s A Year Without Made in China – the story about one family’s attempt to boycott Chinese products for all of 2005 — there wasn’t much about China in it.

The book is subtitled “One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy” but it isn’t really about globalization either. The book is a story about commitment China and globalization are just background players. Nowhere is this more true than looking at Bongiorni’s knowledge of China. She keeps talking about Chinese factories as sweatshops but makes no attempt to examine major retailers’ supply chains other than to call companies and ask if the product came …