Remember that time back in 2010 when Norway — I mean, the Nobel Committee — awarded Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights activist, the Nobel Peace Prize? And China reacted by canceling high-level meetings, calling off a Norwegian musical, and denying visas to visiting dignitaries. It stopped buying Norwegian salmon. It excluded Norwegians from their […]
Now that it’s a new year, we can look back on the old year! The main question is, of course, how many blue sky days did we have? According to statistics for the year released by the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, which ranks each day from 1 to 6 (highest level of pollution), 176 days […]
A normal rape case has become a social and entertainment event in 2013. A normal rape case has become a social and entertainment event in 2013. A normal rape case has become a social and entertainment event in 2013. More info here: NYT, WSJ, and for good measure, Daily Mail. (Obviously the writer did not […]
So this past weekend, I went down to Singapore all by myself, and if there were ever a place for a small young woman to to go by herself for the first time, it’s Singapore. I’ll admit: Before I went, I was nervous at the thought of being lonely and alone in a place I’d […]
Was your Thanksgiving missing a little something this year? Was that something a pecan pie? Well, apparently you can blame it on China! According to the New York Times, it’s a bit difficult and more expensive to get your hands on pecans this year in the U.S., not least of all because of the Chinese […]
In China, street-side hawkers are ubiquitous, selling everything under the sun — Tibetan jewelry, notebooks, phone cases, socks, stuffed animals, candles, candy. There are the usual items, but every once in a while, something new will pop up, everywhere at once. You’d think there was some central management directing all of these sellers to go […]
It’s been a busy month, guys, from planning a visa run and planning a trip home to planning what to wear to Boyfriend’s first fight and planning Thanksgiving dinner. Now that all of that is over with, I can tell you what happened! For my next visa run, I’m going to Singapore! I found a […]
Is it time to write this post? The recent Bloomberg News controversy — that reporters in China have had their stories spiked because it would mean bad news / loss of money for Bloomberg LP — is making waves because it reneges on two of the most important tenets of Western journalism: Maintaining independence: “Independence” […]
Or so this survey says. The Wall Street Journal reports: [China] ranked No. 1 overall among 37 countries as a destination for expats in an HSBC Holdings PLC survey released earlier this week, edging out Germany, Singapore and the Cayman Islands. Its surveys ranked China No. 2 out of 37 countries in terms of beneficial […]