– Or: “A celebration of atheism in China’s schools†On the walls of China’s public schools you might find Karl Marx and even Friedrich Engels (an overture to more weighty propaganda to follow in later life), but you will also find images of Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin along with detailed profiles of these great men … Read More »
– Skype, the internet telephony service and instant-messaging application, has been non-operational, globally, for the past 24 hours. It’s a massive outage: effectively crippling an entire company which was worth US$2.6 billion when eBay purchased it back in 2005. It also leaves the 8 million very regular users (though most newspapers are running with the “220 … Read More »
– Here’s a variation on the common “I spy†game, which might already be familiar to anyone who grew up in Britain and knows the ‘I-SPY’ children’s book series, such as ‘I-SPY in the Street’, ‘I-SPY Cars’, and the more curiously named ‘I-SPY People in Uniform’. These heart-warmingly innocent books encouraged children to keep their eyes … Read More »
– It’s been pretty hot today: a reported 30 degrees Celsius (that’s 86 Fahrenheit, if you prefer to count it that way), coupled with near 70% humidity that is tempered only slightly by a gentle, warm breeze. No complaints from me whatsoever. Being from the U.K., where the number of summer days can be counted on … Read More »
– A couple of weeks ago I saw something that I’ve been trying to make sense of ever since. Here’s what happened: I was on a bus here in Suzhou, which drew up to a set of traffic lights at an intersection. To my right, on the corner of the road, I noticed on old woman … Read More »
– An ex-pat can expect to field a great variety of questions in their host country, and here in China the questions follow a similar pattern of curiosity. Random characters that we run into every day – taxi-drivers, shop-assistants, etc. – tend to ask the most banal questions, such as “can you use chopsticks?†and “where … Read More »
– 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 … Read More »
– The fireworks have almost all fizzled out, and the red cardboard from exploded firecrackers has largely been swept up, leaving everyone in China facing the various flip-sides of Chinese new year, and the prospect of having pretty much nothing to do for the remaining four or five days of the holiday. I myself have found … Read More »
– Chinese new year, also known as Spring Festival (or as the lunar new year), is but six days away. Think: food, lanterns, rice wine, the colour red, and fireworks. Yes, nearly a ton of fireworks will be bought by every household, to the delight of family members both old and young, as they caress hand-held … Read More »
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