Every so often, a new music video for Beijing — from Shin’s One Night in Beijing, to the 2008 Olympics anthem Beijing Welcomes You, to last year’s Beijing State of Mind — crops up to showcase the culture and various lifestyles in our fair city. This latest one, by Stephy Chung, is by far my […]
So I figure by now, everyone has seen the second season of “House of Cards,” or at least enough that you know that China plays a big part in the season’s storyline (definitely more than Kate Mara did). And by big, I mean that Kevin Spacey had to deal with basically all of the issues […]
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 […]
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 […]
When I was a tiny little child, my parents instilled in me a strong love for ducks. Over the years, both friends and family have reinforced my love for ducks, and this past weekend I indulged in that love by making the trip all the way out to the Summer Palace to go see a […]
I went to Elements, a club on the west side of the Worker’s Stadium (where all the clubs are), on Friday night. A friend wanted to see Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, who was doing a DJ gig there. I had never heard of him, but clubbing after a long six-day week sounded fun. […]
Please watch this documentary. It was filmed by an independent husband-and-wife team (the husband being a venerable laowai) and helps to shed light on a Chinese issue that rarely gets any attention: the tens of thousands of Chinese children who are kidnapped each year and their parents who have next to no hope of them […]
As far as cities go, Beijing is very much a planned one, ever since Kublai Khan defeated the last Song dynasty emperor and established a new capital, Dadu (大都, Grand Capital), in 1271. Of course, Beijing’s history dates back further than that, but much of its modern-day layout has its origins here. Kublai Khan wanted […]
On one of my first weekends in Beijing, I was invited to go out to Sanlitun by someone else who was also new to the city. It was the first time I had heard about it, and needless to say, he gave me shitty directions: “It’s near the [subway] stop either before or either the […]
I’m still catching up on my China reading that I missed while I was in the U.S. Here are a few articles that stood out to me: “China’s Ethnic Song and Dance” in the Times, about China’s relationship with minorities: “Chinese officials like to paint a picture of China as one big happy multicultural family. […]