Cup of Cha
This is China

If I had thought of this first I would have written it as satire. But it occurred in Guangdong first.
You know those flags that have become the ire of most Chinese citizens advocating the breaking off of one of China’s biggest provinces? Many were made in China, unbeknownst to factory owners and workers. If the [...]

Continue reading ““Free Tibet” Flags Chinese Made” »

Normally, the safest place in the world is in front of the police station. You know, normally. Yet one of the only crimes committed against me since I’ve been in China happened directly in front of my local PSB. As in four meters away. It wasn’t violent, and it wasn’t terrible, but it is a [...]

Continue reading “Robbed in Front of the Police” »

How did a group of foreigners out for a late night jog end up in Beijing police custody on Tuesday? This is the odd story of the Hash House Harriers. Olympic marathoners be warned.
A Beijing groups of Hash House Harriers, known amongst themselves as “The Harsh,” decided that there would be no better wasy to [...]

Continue reading “Running for Fun…and from the Beijing Police” »

I’m going to list several insults with the author and target deleted, and you decide which is the most offensive. Let’s call it a test of perspective:

war criminal
the Devil
a wolf with a human face
goons and thugs
Satan
someone who makes junk
son of a motherless goat

I’m going to go out on a limb here, but “goons and [...]

Continue reading “The Meaning of China and the Press Blame Game” »

We all know there is enough smoking in China to give a Parisian a coughing fit. Yet the recent push to make sure that fewer people are smoking in day care centers and primary schools boggles the mind. Did China really need the Olympics to discover that smoking around toddlers is a bad idea? [full [...]

Continue reading “China Tightens Smoking Ban…In Day Care Centers” »

Last week I wrote about Celine Dion’s concert being canceled and made a joke about how annoying she is. And I got hate mail! Hate mail about politics I can understand, but Canadian entertainers? Some Celine Dion fan website linked to me (Yes!) and a guy (a male Celine Dion fan!) sent me this:
o your [...]

Continue reading “Celine Dion Hate Mail” »

Conflicting claims about why Celine Dion’s Beijing concerts have been canceled are emerging, adding intrigue and mystery to the career of arguably the most irritating female singing act sing Ace of Base. The confusion stems from conflicting reports about why the show will not go on. Chinese media outlets are insisting that the singer chose [...]

Continue reading “Mystery Shrouds Celine Dion’s Beijing Cancellation” »

From the land of the credible, but extremely bizarre, a lawsuit in Hawaii by two scientists contends that a project in Europe could potentially create a black hole that would eat the earth. This isn’t as crackpot as it sounds as the international project has an eight billion dollar budget, and the story appeared in [...]

Continue reading “Black Hole to Eat the Earth, Suit Claims” »

Once you’ve been in China a while, few things catch you quite as off-guard as what I found in the refrigerator of my new apartment. I’ve been in a bus that hit a van, [seen] men hanging out of windows attached to ropes (cleaning windows), a car in Xinjiang that was such a poor knock-off [...]

Continue reading “Chinese Blood Liquor” »

It’s amazing the things you learn from your old landlords. For example, did you know that the 103 square meters that are officially included in the floor space in my old apartment included the hallway and the lobby on the first floor? It’s true. It may even have included the courtyard for my complex. Of [...]

Continue reading “Put Your Guests in the Hallway” »