Back when I went to Chinese lessons, my small class included a Spaniard and a Russian. The class was taught mostly in Chinese, but we used an English textbook. I understand English is widely spoken all over the world, but it still impressed me how many expats learned Chinese through English, not necessarily their native […]
So by now, you must have heard about the airpocalypse that engulfed Beijing (and the rest of northern China) for most of January. Now that it’s well into the second month of the year, I obviously survived! Could I chew the air, as Jon Stewart claimed? I don’t think so. Then again, I don’t notice […]
“The party personnel system isn’t based on performance and competence. It’s based on loyalty and connections.” So says one Fred Hu about the CPC in a Wall Street Journal piece on how the head of the biggest bank in China (and world) got stepped over for promotion — when the heads of other state-owned banks […]
I’m ringing in the new Chinese year in Sanya, which is the opposite of Beijing. It is an extremely popular destination, especially in the winter, for Chinese (and Russians) since it is situated on the tropical island of Hainan and southernmost point of China. I learned from Wikipedia that it’s actually on the same latitude as […]