Laowai Style

Much to the chagrin of my dear hubby, I've been watching at least one Gangnam Style parody video a day. Hey, it keeps me happy. A Gangnam Style a day keeps the bad China days away!

Here's my new favorite: Laowai Style!

On Youtube

On Youku

And a few comments from Youku:

哎呀我这个脑子啊 这哥们太有才了 -- Oh, my brain! This guy is really talented!

貌似心态不错~~真是羡慕~~ -- Attitude is not bad... really admire this!

快…

China Fingerprints

From Foreign Friends to Foreign Felons – new law wants your foreign fingerprints

Because living in China didn't feel uneasy enough, a new draft law currently under review will require any foreigners staying longer than 6 months in China to have their fingerprints taken by the Entry & Exit Bureau and kept on file.

China Daily: Foreigners who stay in China for more than six months will be required to give their fingerprints to local police when applying for residence certificates, according to a…

Laowai trapped in China and trying to leave

I caught this video on Hao Hao Report. Basically, Vahram Diehla is a 23-year-old American who is pleading for some advice on how to quickly raise some money to get the hell out of China.

According to his blog he's working up in Dalian as an English teacher, but the ESL racket has lost its luster and a woman on the other side of the ocean is pulling at his heart strings.

***I WILL DANCE AND SING ON CAMERA FO…

Peter Hessler - River Town

Review: River Town — Two Years on the Yangtze

I realize I'm about a decade late posting a review of Peter Hessler's River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, but it was only recently that I finally took the time to read it.

I can't be certain why it took me so long to pick up Hessler's seminal work, but I think it was due to the weight of it. Not the book itself mind you, though a bit weighty for a travelogue, it reads quick and handles well. Rather, because for …

wet alley (nong tang) © china.sixty4 on Flickr

The Outdoors Poetry Exercise

Keith, already suspicious of John, is doubly suspicious now that John missed their dinner appointment. On a rainy Friday, he wonders about John's motives for being in China, as he implements a fresh idea into the classroom: a poetry exercise, where the students go outside, and use English to write a poem about what they see.

Keith started class. He did Tongue Twisters. He had arranged them in such a manner tha…

Keep It Simple and Stupid

Our hero is John, who is wandering through life without purpose. This wandering led him to a humanities degree, then to unemployment, and finally, to the great refuge of unemployed humanities majors: ESL in China.

Though Wuhan later becomes an existential swamp for John, here at the beginning, everything is new and exciting.

This is John's first day of teaching, where the incumbent dancing laowai, Keith, school…

We’re looking for a few good Laowai

Like to write? Got something to say about being a foreigner in China? Why not contribute your thoughts and opinions to the Lost Laowai Blog?

We’re looking to stir some fresh expat pee into the writer pool here. If you’ve got a unique voice, a solid ability to write, and — most importantly — something to say, we’d love to feature your contributions here. Whether you're dredging out an existence as an ESL teacher, t…

Guangzhou laowai rolls out some high-level traffic justice

Should we get involved? A question that has plagued foreigners living in China since time immemorial. Do we step in when we see some gross injustice, or simply let it pass as "not our fight?"

It's a tough question, and one not easily answered -- unless you're a rollerblading laowai in southern China's Guangzhou. Being called "Rollerman", the foreigner has been caught on traffic cameras around the city animatedly p…

Are you affected with China Bore Syndrome?

Whenever I journey home for a visit, I'm certain that I push the limits of friendship and familial bonds with my constant weaseling of "in China..." into far too many conversations.

Out for dinner, I may casually mention how much cheaper dinning in China is. Walking down the street, I'll drop a remark about how clean and uncrowded it is, and how no one is j-walking or spitting. And god forbid that some well-intent…

The 7 Year Laowai: Part 8 – The Graveyard of all Ambition

Be sure to start at the beginning with "The 7-Year Laowai: Part 1 – Introduction", or see all posts in the series here.

After Tom, that was it for me. I decided not to "renew the contract". I applied for math-teaching jobs at international schools in many different cities, but come September, I was across Wuhan. In another university.

Teaching oral English.

I never cut down on my drinking. In this place, h…