NOTE: This hack is somewhat dated now. However, it does still work (as of May 11/08) for Blogspot and Wordpress - Wikipedia is out, and LJ never really worked. More detailed installation instructions (for Mac/PC - Firefox/Internet Explorer) can be found here: Access Blogger and WordPress Blogs in China.

Last November I wrote a post with a collection of “tools” to help you get around the GFC. At the time of writing (literally within hours) Blogspot were released from their “blocked” status in China, and so there wasn’t much use for the otherwise useful PK Blogs site.

A few months on, my predictions of tides changing and …

Living in China brings with it a number of occasions where most can do nothing but scratch their heads and say “WTF?” However, largely by the help of the English-language China blogsphere, we’ve started to create a dictionary that can assist in putting words to the weird, definitions to the disarray and captions to the confusing.

May I introduce:
The LICtionary
The LICtionary, or Life In China Dictionary, contains terms us expats have created to put form to the fiction that is life in China.

Currently it’s a little sparse, but this is where you come in. Got a great term you use all the time? Heard a funny phrase that ‘just fit’ what it’s …

Having lived in China for six years I have found that I’ve started missing some of the things from my American life. For the most part I am not a big fan of mainstream American culture. Things like top 40 music and NY Times Bestsellers were usually avoided at all cost. They were a kind of pop culture pariah that I looked down on as being trailer trash garbage. Another thing that I really tried to avoid in the US was TV. I had a TV but it was only really used for watching movies. Other than that it just sat there collecting dust for years.

Sure it’s not the BBC, but I enjoyed many of the stories and …

I love etymology.

I’m not sure what about knowing “why” a word is what it is that steams my baozi, but I just dig it. I confess, I’m not hardcore about it, but do frequently visit www.etymonline.com for casual reading.

For armchair etymologists like myself, the Chinese language is a fantastic source of wonders. Learning new words in Chinese is unquestionably an uphill battle, and sometimes looking at the literal translations of character combinations is not only helpful for memorization, it is also just a whole lot of fun.

Back when “Chinese” was still just something I said mostly for the amusement of onlisteners, I remember being taught “小心”, which of course means “take care, be careful.” Literally translated it …

I think it is a fairly common phenomenon in China for foreigners to get angry and make snide remarks when we hear the government make comments about how they will have a peaceful rise to world power or how they will be number one by 2050. I must admit something in me shutters when I hear it. But recently I have started to think about it in a new way.

I love history and I have been reading Chinese and Russian history for years. One thing that stands out is that China and Russia have been made the bogy man by Western Europe and the US for the most part of the last two hundred years. From the great game …

Staying positive in China is a topic that has been making the rounds through expat circles of late. Whether it be John’s generally always upbeat blog (except when it comes to Spring Festival), the well-written “10 Reasons Why Living In China Is Great” or Rick’s soon-to-be-published post about Chinese do-gooders.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I dig this (or, rather, hao hao it). I think we all need a bit of the warm-and-fuzzy living here in the cold and concrete. Little lights in the dark, reminders not to stray too far down the path of negativity, lest all be lost.

The thing that does get on my nerves a bit are the expats that take a stoical “it’s …

I’m generally the first to admit I’m lazy. Perhaps it’s not lazy so much as being part of the Goldfish Attention Span Generation (GASG). I just can’t be bothered to focus on something for too long. This, perhaps, is why when I first heard of Active Chinese I was a little concerned it was a bit too… well… active for me.

You see, I study Chinese passively. I use the Dutrochet method of learning - which basically involves purchasing a lot of cleverly titled Chinese learning books (such as Learn Chinese and Chinese Learning) and waiting for their contained knowledge to osmose itself through the …

One of the (few) benefits of moving into an apartment inherited from a fellow expat is that occasionally they leave books behind. English-language reading material is not difficult to find in China, but stories that delve into the Chinese condition more than the State-approved classics are absent in the bookstores and often guarded by their owners - who know full well their coveted value.

Such a find was mine several months ago, when I stumbled across War Trash, the fictional memoir of a Chinese soldier in the Korean war penned by Ha Jin.

The story follows a young Nationalists-trained soldier, Yu Yuan, as he is ordered …

China’s economy got off to a shaky lunar new year with Tuesday’s stock market plunge in Shanghai, which saw a fall of 9%, which then triggered the worst trading day in the US since 9/11.

Although yesterday’s (Wednesday) activity saw ‘Shanghai A shares’ gain some of their previously lost value (as well as the important ‘Shenzhen A’s), the incident showed how the tail can wag the dog - or, how China increasingly drives international economic sentiment.

Furthermore, with the US economy not exactly looking like a spring chicken - with higher oil prices, weak consumer spending, and …