China Segment

The news in China is a complete joke. The main nightly news just finished Shanghai TV. Let me summarize it.
First, fifteen minutes of self-congratulatory pats on the back for how great Shanghai is. Report after report on how the city has made so many improvements for the 2010 Expo, such as new [...]

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It’s no secret that China is strong in manufacturing, engineering and massive infrastructure projects. India is better at information technology and services. Google has effectively left China, whereas it has a strong presence in Hyderabad. Now, Facebook too, is setting up shop in India. China should take note. Facebook came [...]

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Gifts during Spring Festival usually consist of alcohol, cigarettes, chocolates or other candy, fruit, etc. This year my wife had the great idea to take her grandparents to Shanghai Circus World. We invited Rachel’s parents as well - partly to be nice, but also because we needed someone to drive the grandparents into [...]

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So I finally went to see a crosstalk (相声) performance a couple weekends ago. Let’s just say it was entertaining for those in the audience who are native Mandarin speakers, hilarious for those who understand Shandongnese (山东话), and not so hot for the dumb laowai who got dragged there by his wife.
I did understand [...]

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My wife and I went to 越剧, Shaoxing Opera, tonight at Yifu Theater in Shanghai. I’d never been to any Chinese opera before, save for the Sichuan Opera mask show at a local restaurant. The story was fairly easy to follow, basically a romantic triangle deal, and I was surprised to find that [...]

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I’m pumped about my 2009 calendar. It’s a combo of the traditional Chinese lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar. There’s a lot of color and though it was produced with a kind of corporate art with ads, any corporate material is minimal and the only odd part is the recipes for dishes that [...]

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I’m actually pretty disappointed with the coverage of the Beijing Olympics in China. I’ve been watching them on the Chinese stations, thankful that my Chinese has progressed enough in the last four years to be able to understand a heck of a lot more than during Athens. However, despite a decent amount of [...]

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I’ve been silent for a long time about the quake.  I should write something but I suppose I’ve been soaking it in. People outside of China may have a difficult time understanding the impact this disaster is having here. It’s more or less equivalent to a Katrina or 9/11. Canadians don’t really [...]

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This is how fucked up China is right now.
The first two news stories on tonight’s prime time news on 东方电视台 (Oriental TV Channel):
A) a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 2:28 p.m. local time, 90 kilometers northwest of Chengdu, one of China’s largest cities, and was felt throughout almost the entire country. Surely entire villages [...]

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So the Houston Rockets were playing in a playoff elimination game today against the Utah Jazz… which they happened to win. Or rather it was yesterday, technically, according to local game time in Houston - which is about 14 hours ahead of Shanghai. So it should have been on TV live, [...]

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