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Monthly Archives December 2009

The Year in Review- Excursions

2009 was my third full year in Kunming and easily the best. One reason was the traveling I was able to do during the year, both within Yunnan Province and far beyond.
In October 2008 I discovered that the best way to avoid the Chinese travel-season crunch is to throw your bike on a bus, get [...]

Posted 31 December 2009 † matt_schiavenza § Year In Review 2009 ‡ Comments (1) °

The Year in Review- Books and Web

My next series of posts will be an attempt to wrap things up, and since the variety of topics covered in this blog reflect my own idiosyncratic style I’ve decided to split up these reviews into categories. I hope you enjoy them.
In our first installment I’ve presented my choices for the best books and websites [...]

Posted 29 December 2009 † matt_schiavenza § Year In Review 2009 ‡ Comments (1) °

Christmas

Between filling out grad school applications, hosting a good friend as part of his round-the-world tour, and preparing to move to a new apartment I haven’t had much time to contribute to this space. 对不起!
Christmas is four days away, and for the second year in a row I’ll be spending it here in China. Although [...]

Posted 21 December 2009 † matt_schiavenza § Me ‡ Comments (2) °

Random Fun

According to this quiz I just took- from the addictive sporcle.com- here are the 10 most-searched items on Wikipedia from January to October 2009:
1. Michael Jackson (musician)
2. Barack Obama (politician)
3. Eminem (musician)
4. Lil Wayne (musician)
5. Adolf Hitler (er, politician?)
6. Rihanna (musician)
7. Abraham Lincoln (politician)
8. Lady Gaga (musician)
9. Megan Fox (actress)
10. Martin Luther King (activist)
Odd bedfellows, [...]

Posted 12 December 2009 † matt_schiavenza § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (3) °

China Mythbusting

James Fallows points to a recent survey by Pew in which a shocking percentage of Americans believe that China is more of an economic superpower than the US. This is of course completely false, as Fallows goes on to explain and then illustrate with a photograph of dormitory conditions at Chinese universities.
I’ve discussed previously that [...]

Posted 10 December 2009 † matt_schiavenza § China and World § Chinese Internal Affairs ‡ Comments (4) °

Woman in Black: A Chinese Internet Tale

On November 16 US President Barack Obama held an American-style town hall meeting with a group of university students in Shanghai. During the event, the camera panned toward a pretty female student dressed stylishly in black who was seated near the president.
Naturally, the identity of this  girl elicited the attention of the Chinese internet community, [...]

Posted 04 December 2009 † matt_schiavenza § China Culture § Chinese Internal Affairs § Current Events ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: , , ,