Apr 11, 2024
Foreigners have a reputation for clumsiness in China. The litany of knocks, breaks and injuries accumulated by my expat friends is truly alarming. Excluding digestive disagreements, simply for brevity’s sake, here are some of the most common expat injuries in China. Read more>>
Aug 07, 2012 Comments(11)
Photo: economist.com It doesn't really matter how you got here. Maybe you were itching to travel, have an adventure, get away from it all. Or maybe your job offered you a really great package that you just couldn't turn down. In any case, you're here, ...... Read More>>
Jul 27, 2012 Comments(2)
Guanxi (关系), which means ‘relationships’ in Chinese (and is roughly the equivalent of ‘networking’ in the West) is a staple of Chinese life. In business, social and even friendship circles, guanxi is the oil that keeps the cogs of ...... Read More>>
Jul 20, 2012 Comments(11)
Photo: daqi.com When you live in another country, you are going to learn some of the language even if you aren't linguistically inclined. Unless you stay within a small-knit community where everyone from the apartment manager to the shopkeeper speaks your ...... Read More>>
Jul 18, 2012 Comments(1)
Editor's Note: This piece was translated and edited from a photo essay that appeared on the ChinaGate website. The author presents photographs of himself and 14 of his fellow 2012 graduating college seniors, along with short blurbs outlining their current ...... Read More>>
Jul 09, 2012 Comments(2)
Public space in Chinese cities—parks, public squares, etc.—are few and far between. Restricted by small apartments, lack of privacy and few public areas, Chinese people have begun taking to commercial spaces as their new social hubs, ...... Read More>>
Jun 29, 2012 Comments(7)
Whenever you live in a culture that's not your own you can run into sticky etiquette situations. In China, these vary from how to use your chopsticks without getting black bean sauce all over your favourite shirt to selecting the proper title to give ...... Read More>>
Jun 27, 2012 Comments(1)
Editor's note: This article was translated and edited from an article which appeared in the Changjiang Daily. The article concerns a new study which is the first official report on members of the "fuerdai" (富二代) generation, which is the popular ...... Read More>>
May 21, 2012 Comments(2)
Photo: achive.glimpse.org My mother and my alma mater taught me that travelling is like reading—it's one of the best ways to "expand your horizons" and to learn about the "wider world." With this in mind, I came to China intending ...... Read More>>
May 16, 2012 Comments(0)
Editor’s note: The following article was translated and edited from an op-ed article which first appeared on the Chinese financial times website in late 2009. In the article, the author asks the basic questions of "who is wealthy in China" ...... Read More>>
May 14, 2012 Comments(3)
Forget about the pre-conceived notion that dating sites are 'out'. If trends in popular culture are anything to go by, then turning to the world wide web to meet potential matches has never been as popular and socially accepted as now. Just take a look at ...... Read More>>
May 13, 2012 Comments(3)
Editor's note: For parents everywhere, the death of a child is one of life's greatest misfortunes. Nowhere is this truer than in China, where 30-plus years of the One Child Policy has brought about a new "childless" parents phenomenon ( ...... Read More>>
May 10, 2012 Comments(6)
Photo: shardsofchina.wordpress.com Odds are, if you've been out to dinner in China, you've been offered cigarette after cigarette from a dizzying array of brands and boxes. Whether or not you accept them, each one has a specific meaning and makes a ...... Read More>>
May 08, 2012 Comments(3)
Being an expat can be best explained as the definition of change. New language, customs, culture, food, home, school/employment and more can be an amazing adventure. Something else that changes with becoming an expat is how money is spent. After four months ...... Read More>>
May 07, 2012 Comments(11)
On a Saturday night in Kunming's Kundu bar district, music throbs from the clubs. A neon sign flashes advertisements for Tsingtao and Carlsberg Chill. Two women stumble past arm in arm, giggling as they totter in their heels. This is where many of the ...... Read More>>
Apr 22, 2012 Comments(12)
Editor's note: The following article is translated and edited from a story that first appeared on China News Service. The article discusses a women's psychological counselling hotline that is celebrating its 20-year anniversary, and discusses the primary ...... Read More>>
Apr 15, 2012
Editor's note: The following article was translated and edited from an article that appeared in China Economic Weekly. The article analyses several findings from the 2011-2012 CCTV Economic Life Survey, in particular the dichotomy between northern and ...... Read More>>
Apr 09, 2012 Comments(1)
Photo: wgbh.com Call it the downfall of Chinese society or call it harmless materialism. If you like, you can call it a corrosive consumerism gnawing away at the root of an already decaying morality. But some call it the rise of the Chinese woman in her ...... Read More>>
Mar 29, 2012 Comments(1)
Editor’s note: The following article was edited and translated from a brief article that appeared on Renmin.com and from the original Hurun Report white paper. This article discusses the number of wealthy Chinese and tracks their recent consumer ...... Read More>>
Mar 25, 2012 Comments(0)
Editor's note: Brother Sharp, eat you heart out – there's a new beggar sensation in China and his name is Zhou Fei (周飞). Over the last month or so, Zhou Fei, the self described "most niu beggar in China" (henceforth referred to in this ...... Read More>>
Mar 18, 2012 Comments(3)
Editor's note: The following article first appeared in the Guangzhou Daily Newspaper. The article discusses the recent wave of foreign entertainers who have come to China to pursue their dreams as actors, television personalities and singers. Last July, ...... Read More>>
Mar 15, 2012 Comments(0)
Editor’s note: The following article was first published by World Journal, a Chinese-language newspaper based out of North America. The article introduces Shenzhen’s infamous "Mistress Villages" and discusses how China’s ...... Read More>>
Mar 10, 2012 Comments(3)
Coming to China seemed like a no-brainer. In spring 2010, after four years of comfortable shelter at a small private liberal arts college, I wasn't mentally prepared to enter the economic storm that was and still is the post-recession job market. So as an ...... Read More>>
Mar 05, 2012 Comments(3)
Earlier this month, debate raged over China Whisper's article positing the "new standards" of what it means to be a "white collar" worker in China. According to People's Daily, this term was brought from the West in the early 1990's to ...... Read More>>
Feb 26, 2012 Comments(2)
Editor’s note: Reflecting on foreign press’s coverage of China during the past few years, it's been interesting to see that so many articles – no doubt in an effort to be more figurative and create more eye-catching descriptions of ...... Read More>>
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