Beijing State of Mind: Commie jungle where dreams are made of

There have been a lot of laowai-led China-tribute pastiche music videos circling the interwebs over the last year or so, which is why when “Beijing State of Mind” began buzzing through the tubes about a week ago, I only gave it a raised eyebrow and moved along. My bad. Filmed by one-time-laowai Mark Griffith, and starring Andrew Dougherty and …Read More

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Stealing umbrellas just for laughs in Chengdu

Youtube celebrity and prankster Andrew Hales, who makes awkwardly funny videos for his channel Losing All Hope Was Freedom (LAHWF), is currently in Chengdu, Sichuan, and messing with the locals. In his first video from the city, he randomly approaches people and takes their umbrella. Reactions range from confusion to tight-fisted objection to laughter. Watch …Read More

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China Daily foreigner photographer contest

The China Daily has announced a contest for foreigners interested in spending two weeks travelling around to some of China’s best tourist attractions — all expenses paid.Read More

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Lisa Brackmann discusses Hour of the Rat, her latest novel set in China

Novelist and some-time-Laowai Lisa Brackmann chats with us about her just-released follow-up to 2010’s Rock Paper Tiger, as well as how China and its expats have changed over the years.Read More

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Beijing rolls out criminal check for foreigners seeking employment in city

Beijing-based lawyer Gary Chodorow, on his blog Law and Border, has translated an announcement from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security (or BMBoHRaSS for short) that states that employment license applicants will be required to submit a “certificate of no criminal conviction” from their country of residence as of July 1, 2013.Read More

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French expat brutally assaulted by 7 Chinese in Shanghai [Updated]

Shanghaiist is reporting that a French man was attacked outside Bar 88 on Fumin Lu in Shanghai early last Monday morning (June 10th). The unprovoked assault took place as the victim was getting in a taxi after exiting the club shortly after 4 a.m.Read More

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Beijing Cream in your ear with The Creamcast

Popular Beijing-based blog Beijing Cream has just released the inaugural episode of The Creamcast, a weekly podcast hosted by John Artman and The Good Doctor. The podcast’s first guest is long-time China expat Frank Yu, founder of Chinese start-up Kwestr. The format is very much unstructured and conversational, and will remind most of a typical …Read More

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Video: China 1972 — Nicholas Platt’s Home Movies

I caught a link to this video in Bill Bishop’s excellent Sinocism newsletter today. The video was published back in 2010 by the Asia Society, and shows Nicholas Platt giving a voice over description of several minutes of home movies he shot in 1972 Beijing, just after the US and China resumed diplomatic relations.Read More

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The Quest for the Holy Flat

How I ventured into the depths of the low-cost real-estate market of Beijing. And survived. “Keyi nong yi nong.” “It can be fixed a bit.” So said the real-estate agent, as she finally managed to pull the front door open — in the little courtyard, the dead leaves had accumulated into a blanket of near-geological …Read More

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Paying Taxes in China – Reprised

I’m trying to be a good citizen or resident or businesswoman or whatever you want to call me. I figure I use the things that tax money buys. I use the roads and the street lights at night. I use the parks and the heavily subsidized public transportation. So I figure it’s only right that …Read More

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Video: The å…š Dynasty’s ‘We livin in Xi’an’

Credit to Beijing Cream for introducing me to the The å…š Dynasty, westside China’s latest laowai talent. Made up of friends Bro西来 (Matt Allen) and 他马特老外 (Matt Sheehan), the duo produced the following “We livin in Xi’an” video, which is as ridiculous as it is fun. Straight off the streets of Xi’an, bilingual rap duo …Read More

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Help preserve China’s disappearing dialects

Kellen Parker, who has both been featured on and contributed to Lost Laowai over the years, is spearheading a new project called Phonemica, which aims to “record spoken stories in every one of the thousands of varieties of Chinese in order to preserve both stories and language for future generations.”Read More

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