China quietly scolds Burmese junta

With a bunch of people having been killed, this situation in Burma is fast turning into a nightmare, but it might be one that yet has a positive outcome. Not at all to marginalize the deaths of those unfortunate to get in the way of the Burmese security forces’ “warning” shots (incl. Japanese journalist Kenji …

In Love & Hate of Chinese Supermarkets

Hey, so I’ve started a new Group Writing Project over at Lost Laowai called China: Love It Hate It. Essentially I’m asking China bloggers (not at all limited to English-speaking bloggers) to chime in and sound off on what they both love and hate about China. The post can be written in any form or …

Why I support MMP, and what the heck is it anyway?

On October 10th a provincial election is being held in my home province of Ontario, Canada. In conjunction, a referendum is also being voted on – the subject of which is Ontario’s (and by future extension, Canada’s) voting process. Generally it’s being hailed as the most important electoral reform of “our” lifetime, and the most …

Wipha! Hit me baby one more time

Back two years ago I posted about being a bit let down that typhoon Matsa never quite hit Dalian as promised. Well, looks like the (ahem) winds of fortune are changing and I might get my wish to finally experience a full-on typhoon (which is fancy Pacifician terminology for ‘hurricane’). Typhoon Wipha, possibly the coolest …

Has anyone seen my face?

One of the things I like about Chinese is that it tends to be quite module-like. There are lots of little structures that you can just modify with new nouns, adjectives or what have you, to create entirely new meanings. A couple examples: 越 … 越 … 越(来)越(好) | yuè lái yuè hÇŽo | better …

Soochow University, here I come

So, I’m registered. As of yesterday afternoon I am officially a student of Mandarin at Suzhou University (cue hollers and hats thrown in a random and celebratory fashion). The whole process was pretty straight forward, and I have to admit that I’ve little clue as to what is actually going on (mantra – follow the …

The Long-needed Lost Laowai Facelift

Hey all, as most know I run another little site called Lost Laowai. It’s a community site dedicated to demystifying China with a no-nonsense approach. On top of the core site – featuring message boards, job listings, classifieds, and a number of other things – the site also plays host to a nifty little collaborative …

The Laowai Psychological Street Fight

I’ve always been a lousy liar. Remembering whom I’ve told what to is difficult for me when it’s the truth, but add in the complexity of deceit, well… forget it. About five years ago my buddies and I started up a weekly Texas Hold’em game, and this taught me the “bluff”. Now here was a …

Chávez’s War On “Democracy”

Big tip of the hat to my friend Tom for suggesting I give War On Democracy a watch. The fantastic film by award winner John Pilger aptly displays the American government’s involvement in manipulating Latin America’s leadership over the past 60 years or so. Nearly half of the film is spent exploring the topic of …

The Humanaught v3 Has Arrived

My eyes are cooked, my ass is numb, my fingers are cramped… the redesign is done! For anyone not reading this in their RSS feed reader or on a splog, the changes should be pretty apparent. But I’m going to run through some of them anyway 🙂 First, I should mention, I’m not a big …