Clik here to view.
Scary Lamp
I’ve written a bit before about the slightly odd interior decoration in Chinese hotels. Here’s a Lovecraftian table lamp that sits on the check-in desk, inspiring cosmic dread, at the Relax hotel in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Restaurant Engrish
“Lie Fallow” means “in your spare time, without a prior appointment” in Engrish. Everybody loves Engrish, the surreal dialect of English found on signs, in menus, on clothing etc. in the Far East....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Not the Big Chinese Power Dam
The rivers run almost dry in Qingtian prefecture, Zhejiang province, China, because of recently built power dams. This particular dam on a tributary of the main river was completed three years ago....
View ArticleFailed Attempt To Use Aard For Anti-Cult Propaganda
I don’t like Falun Gong, which I regard as a crazy manipulative cult. And I don’t like the Chinese government, which I regard as a repressive capitalist dictatorship. These two organisations, in turn,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gobi Desert Romans Are Unfounded Speculation
I’ve written before (1 – 2 – 3) about the Kenyan village with a poorly supported and recently concocted origin myth involving Medieval Chinese sailors. Now my buddy Axel Andersson has alerted me to a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
People Messhall Pickled Cabbage
My wife’s from Zhejiang province, and so is this can of pickled cabbage that she bought yesterday. I like the label a lot. It’s not quite Engrish: of course, we would say “people’s mess hall”, but the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Beauty Is Not Luxurious Imagination
My wife just returned from Beijing where she’s been collecting interviews for a TV project. And I find that her beauty is not luxurious imagination.
View ArticleChina’s Tech Is Independent Of Its Ideology
I had a brief but interesting conversation with a distinguished Chinese art historian the other day. He’s my age but has been far more successful than me despite relocating to Sweden. We were talking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fazer Chinaman Gone, Leaves Hat
Fazer's old packaging Fazer has removed the cartoon East Asian from one of two versions of the packaging for their chocolate-covered puffed rice. Only the conical straw hat remains, an “abbreviated...
View ArticleDynamic Map of Chinese Unrest
The Chinese Twitter equivalent Weibo censors searches for the names of places where there are protests (currently Shenzhen). You could write a script that searches for the main Chinese cities on Weibo...
View Article