China’s “Golden Week” National Day holiday is right around the corner, and this year I’ve managed to arrange a rather unusual and exciting adventure. I’ll be heading to Jinggu, a small town in southern Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna region, to work as a translator and gofer at an off-road rally organized by a friend here in Kunming. [...]
On Tuesday I wondered whether China would stick its nose in the current uprising in Burma to help its business partner, the ruling military junta. China’s largest constraint, I felt, is its very public non-interventionist policy, a position popular throughout the globe. As the junta has begun violently dispersing peaceful protests, China has thus far [...]
Just to clear up any confusion, here is a legend for deciphering my references to money. As an American who lives in China, I think in two currencies: the US dollar and the Chinese yuan. Currently, the US dollar is worth about 7.5 yuan, down from 8.2 when I moved to China in 2004. Most [...]
Yesterday I rented a movie in China for the first time. Instead of being given a set number of days to keep the film and paying a standard price, I put a 10 RMB deposit on the film and was told that each day I held onto it would set me back an addition 1 [...]
While Burma’s* recent uprising is a purely internal affair sparked by rising fuel prices, some Asia observers have begun wondering if, or when, China will involve itself in the affairs of its neighbor. Should Beijing decide to intervene, we might see the first chinks in what has been China’s successful international relations philosophy. In the [...]
In college my roommates and I had a running joke that Survivor would get really interesting if they relocated their show in some of the world’s trouble spots. Instead of the Australian outback or some Pacific island, why not have Survivor: Chechnya? Or why not Iraq, or Afghanistan? In fact, perhaps the producers of the [...]
First, a disclaimer. As an intermediary student, I’m by no means an expert in the Chinese language. Those of you who speak and read at a higher level are encouraged to correct any mistakes I make in this post. I do, however, feel familiar enough with the language to correct some basic misconceptions common among [...]
Several influential people, including a US Congressman and presidential candidate Bill Richardson, have recently floated the idea that the US ought to boycott the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games if China doesn’t apply more pressure on the government of Sudan to halt the ethnic cleansing in Darfur. The logic behind this idea is as follows: the [...]
One of the first things I learned as a newbie in China was to stop thinking in terms of US dollars. After all, most expats are paid in Chinese currency at a salary that, while high by Chinese standards, would barely qualify as minimum wage in most Western countries. The 30 RMB beer you shrugged [...]
I’ve always been fascinated with China’s Cultural Revolution, particularly its iconography. A Flickr commenter translated the Chinese on the left as: “conduct yourself like this!” and the bottom as “promote revolution to the end!”, and while I’m too lazy to double-check, a quick glance says this translation is about right. (photo by Flickr user chinamatic)