Cup of Cha
This is China

Yi Jianlian, a basketball player between 6′7″ and 7′ tall, between 16 and 24 years of age, is everything good, and everything bad about China. I can’t imagine one person summarizing an entire nation’s potential and possible peril more than this man.
Mr. Yi was chosen as a high lottery pick in this year’s NBA’s draft [...]

Continue reading “Yi Jianlian Personifies China’s Contradiction” »

Apparently Neil Armstrong has some [cachet] in China. In some weird places. While I was, uh, standing at the urinal in a hot pot restaurant’s bathroom, I notice this slogan on the wall:
往前一小步
文明一大步
Literally it means “a little step forward is a big step toward being civilized.” It beat out the other option the restaurant [...]

Continue reading “Toward the Urinal, Man of Culture” »

If you’ve been reading my little mom and pop operation web site, you know that on occasion I have been mildly critical of Beijing’s preparation for the Olympics. You know, just constructive criticism, nothing crazy like saying 9 months before the Games they should uproot and move them to another country (I’m sure this would [...]

Continue reading “Who Knew the Olympics were about Sports? A Boxing Test Run” »

Just wanted to give you a heads up about an interview I heard with Jerry Seinfeld. Download The interviewer was Steve Somers, a sports radio host/hilarious curmudgeon. This is on the heels of the interview he did with Larry David (interview is 10-5) last month. The best part is about halfway through the podcast Jerry [...]

Continue reading “Jerry Seinfeld Podcast Interview” »

When I wrote my piece arguing that Beijing should lose the Olympics a couple of weeks back, Chris from Bezdomny Ex Patria countered that I was selectively pulling data and examples in an unscientific way:
Your photo is not typical. “Weather” like that happens often, but it is due as much to natural phenomena (still, humid [...]

Continue reading “Olympic Summer Air Likely to be as Bad as 2007” »

The longer I spend in China, and the faster the country grows, the more skeptical I have become it can really dominate the international economy. Keep in mind I say this as someone with quite a bit of time and money invested in the country’s future. However, I cannot help but think that much of [...]

Continue reading “China May Not Be An Economic Beast” »

I was down in Sanlitun today just behind 3.3 when I noticed a sign I had never seen before. It is right where the reported roundup and beat down of a number of black men took place about six weeks ago. Police (or paramilitary police as was reported) were supposedly trying to crack down on [...]

Continue reading “Slogan Reminds of Racist Incident” »

A few days ago I wrote about the possibilty of income inequality undermining Chinese stability since the gap is comparable now to what it was just before the Red Army overthrew the Guomindang. One interesting response was from a reader only identified as ‘Larry’ (although we know he’s a retired IT guy). He argued that [...]

Continue reading “Does China Really Control its Army?” »

There’s something a little weird about your last day of work. When I woke up this morning my first thought was “Don’t get shot—not today.” Then I remembered that I’m a desk jockey, not a policeman. Besides, it’s not like I’m retiring to go fishing or something. I guess I’ve seen too many cop movies. [...]

Continue reading “Just Don’t Get Shot–Not Today” »

Switching jobs this week has gotten me thinking about about just how short stints at one company tend to be in China. I always find it amazing the amount of job hopping people do, and how much it must cost in lost GDP. Rarely have I seen employees spend more than three years in a [...]

Continue reading “Changing Jobs in China, Losing Competitiveness” »