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Latest stories from China Expat 


06 Nov 09 visit Four Means More Than Death    Notice anything missing?       Most expats misinterpret the Chinese disinclination for the number four. Just because it's left out of elevators and hopefully phone numbers doesn't mean four commands taboo juju  power over ...
04 Nov 09 visit A Most Empowered Concubine           The older a fellow gets, the easier it becomes to condone, if not openly endorse, concubinage.  Especially in China. Back west, almost all taboos have fallen, but not our need for them. Hence the ongoing prejudice ther...
02 Nov 09 visit My First Chinese Wedding            ~ by Jeffrey Walsh         "Married couples who love each other tell each other a thousand things without talking". -  Chinese Proverb        The blushing young bride is a surge...
29 Oct 09 visit Chengdu's Old Towns: No Hurrying or Worrying             It still takes the more adventurous type of expat to go settle down in Chengdu. Despite reports of more bars than Shanghai with less than half the population, Chengdu is no hub of the WTO like Beijing or...
26 Oct 09 visit Old Shanghai Antiques: Genuine Copies               It's easy to forget that Shanghai had a great Opening Up long before the one currently transforming China. From the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 until WWII, Shanghai was the Chinese destination for making ...
16 Oct 09 visit The Many Moods of Chairman Mao           The men who have shaped history - Napoleon, Genghis Khan, et al - all had vision, endless energy, and indomitable will. We mere mortals like to believe they were two-dimensional overachievers. Had they felt, laughed,...
14 Oct 09 visit True Treasures of Hope               Written by Suzanne Miller     On a cold February day more than three years ago, two children accompanied by caregivers, arrived at a train station in Dongguan from an orphanage in Jiangxi Province...
11 Oct 09 visit Anshun: Water & Stone         Poorest province in China nothing. As though lack of coal mines or factories should cause Guizhou to feel shame. There's some ruckus in Guizhou's capital,  Guiyang, aimed at economic transformation, or at least a litt...
06 Oct 09 visit Three Faces of a Changing China        No stock photo, this: infopreneur Diane Wang      Ask someone from the West to name a Chinese person. Yao Ming and "that runner" will take more than half of the first responses. Mao, Deng Xiaoping, and "t...
30 Sep 09 visit China's Birthday Photo Album   Chairman Mao Zedong (center) proclaims the founding of the People's Republic of China on Tian'anmen Rostrum at 3 pm on Oct 1, 1949.       The PRC turns 60 tomorrow. All over China, anniversary celebrations are in the works...
28 Sep 09 visit Ancient Chinese Sex Advice         Besides creation of life and, depending on who you ask, the highest aim of life, sex also serves as a preserver of life. The sexual aspect of life force, qi, is qing essence. Cultivating and preserving qing essence isn't just ...
24 Sep 09 visit Chinese Fighting Crickets           They were plucked from the fields, the ones with the blackest faces, largest bodies, and loudest singing voices. And now they will fight, perhaps to a death by decapitation, quite possibly to a loss of limbs. They fight...
21 Sep 09 visit Ai Weiwei: Objecting Artist           It's grand to be Ai Weiwei. The true businessman lives for the deal; money is only a way of keeping score. The true artist, more than anything else, wants to be taken seriously, for his work and ideas to move...
17 Sep 09 visit Beijing's Holy Parks         Before the new order, Beijing's Tiantan, Ditan, Ritan, and Yuetan parks were as off limits to commoners as the Forbidden City. It was a matter of propriety, not imperial scorn.  These were holy places, temples not given over ...
16 Sep 09 visit Buying a Slave             Among the sellers with their ropes, cages, and water tanks were the sellers of little girls. Sometimes just one man would be standing by the side of the road selling one girl. There were fathers and mothers...
14 Sep 09 visit China's Ancient Law of Equality           In a few days China will celebrate the birthday of a republic based on, among other lofty ideals, the proposition that all Chinese are equal. Of course life in four dimensions can never be as pretty as dreams written on...
10 Sep 09 visit Xu Xing's Dinosaurs           Maybe the government should make our major life choices for us. Xu Xing originally wanted to study software design. Had he had his way, today he'd be one more sixty-hour a week jamoke in a white short-sleeve dress...
09 Sep 09 visit Qiantong Town - No River, No Worries         There's usually not much historical authenticity near highways, even in China. But an hour out of Ningbo, a stone's throw from the expressway to Wenzhou, lies a town laid back, spring fresh, and blessedly oblivious to...
07 Sep 09 visit Weihsien Compound - A Prison Camp for Expats         Everything's such a nuisance: supermarket lines, slow traffic, nothing good to watch. You know what would help a lot? A few years in an internment camp. Not one of those horrific ones from history we see so much of in movies, o...
03 Sep 09 visit Tao Yuanming - No Time to Be Busy         Busy-ness is a universal faith. The first article of busyness proclaims that the more busy you are, the more justified your existence. The second, only busyness will bring you enough money and status to calm the raging ego, to...
01 Sep 09 visit Bagou - a Town Turned Back to Nature         On any other track, the Chinese term for train, huo che, fire cart, would be a misnomer. But in a sleepy corner of southwestern Sichuan, coal still fires the steam engine of the only train on the lonely Bashi line. Boarding require...
27 Aug 09 visit Tales from the Mogao Grottoes    Amitabha's Paradise       Technically, Dunhuang is an oasis. But for those who don't regularly lead camel caravans through the Taklimakan desert to China, Dunhuang is anything but. Modern travelers looking for a paradise in t...
25 Aug 09 visit The Cross-Cultural Wit of Lin Yutang           It doesn't take long for a China expat to become a self-styled expert on the many idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies of his host culture. Not one such expert has the insight or brio of expat Lin Yutang. Born in...
23 Aug 09 visit Final Arrangements in Old China           Life in old China could certainly be trying, but then it didn't end with death, or at least you didn't believe so. Depending where you were on the Daoist/Buddhist belief matrix, death was either a ticket to...
19 Aug 09 visit Midsummer Lotus           - By Liu Liying     The bright moon appeared in the sky, covering Lotus's courtyard with a layer of frost. It was at this time that Lotus, entering her courtyard, heard a loud cough from Dad.    "Fooling around...
17 Aug 09 visit The Incredible (and Filmable) Di Renjie         Hollywood is now run by twelve- year- olds. Twelve- year- olds with underactive imaginations.  Aside from guinea pigs solving international crimes, we’ve had the umpteenth installation of wiz-kid Larry Porter and a remake...
13 Aug 09 visit Veiled Mountain, Hidden Valley         Namcha Barwa, Mountain of Burning Thunder, still guards the heart of the world, as he was sent by the gods to do. As kings, he and his brother Gyala Peri watched over southeastern Tibet, a land of mystery to this day. But Namch...
12 Aug 09 visit Six Chinese Tea Mixes         Pills don't heal, nature does. Alright, we're not saying pills are useless, but it should be acknowledged that even the cleverest medicine, say Viagra, is a synthetic compound mimicking more natural substances. Becaus...
10 Aug 09 visit Wudang, the other Kung Fu         Now we can say, with great relief, that kung fu is not the deadliest martial art. The UFC and Pride League have proven that, like any art, combat is performed best by those with international perspective. Now we can put to rest ...
06 Aug 09 visit Rites to Build in Old China           To expats and the growing nomadic horde, place comes before house. Job opportunities, a swirling international scene, the city outside the apartment door justify a washing machine in the kitchen and lack of bathtub....
04 Aug 09 visit The Forgotten Dynasty  The new steps to the old tomb of an ancient king     June 9th, 1983: on Xianggan Mountain in Guangdong Province, a government dormitory is undergoing repairs.  Suddenly, a shovel hits something hard enough to raise sparks. The workers assu...
02 Aug 09 visit Haitan, not Hainan       Let's say you've already been to Hainan, China's version of tropical paradise. Or even better, you've been to Thailand, or Goa, any of the international hotspots known for sun and fun, average Joe tourist style. You...
29 Jul 09 visit A Second Life for Cao Fei         If Michelangelo were alive today, you wouldn't find paintbrushes or sculpting knives in his studio. Oil on canvas has given us countless windows into creative minds, but today's artist has so many options, and we're no...
27 Jul 09 visit Marco Polo's Hangzhou         Granted, Hangzhou is a great city today, plenty of commerce, touristic delights. But on the WTO scale of things, it's a second tier city, and that's just a shame. When Marco Polo passed through in the thirteenth...
24 Jul 09 visit Crosstalk           The only foreigners who get into it are youngsters looking to win Mandarin competitions. Xiangsheng, or crosstalk, reflects the soul of Chinese wit. It relies heavily on puns, allusions, and double entendres, so that...
22 Jul 09 visit Goodbye Dali, Hello Weishan           Dali, then Lijiang, or the other way around. It's a beautiful little Yunnan itinerary, showing more and more, and inevitably more tourists how beautifully sky, stone, and water came together in old China. You can...
20 Jul 09 visit Visiting in Ancient China         The common impression of ancient China suggests that there was little time for visiting friends.  Peasants were too busy staving off famine, and nobles were too busy currying court favor for something as frivolous as hanging out ...
17 Jul 09 visit A Zen Vacation         Those of us who get the chance go on our summer vacations with one thought in mind - to get away from it all. A week or so of big meals, nightlife, and general self-indulgence is a great recipe for relaxation, but not necessaril...
15 Jul 09 visit Yue Fei - A Real Chinese Hero         A hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world. -          Nathaniel Hawthorne       It's probably for the best that today's heroes are spandex-clad cyclists, or TV characters with superhuman abil...
13 Jul 09 visit The Oldest People in China     Born March, 31st 1899, Lu Pan Zhen is the first to warn others that smoking is bad for your health.     It's a vale of tears, a long and winding road, yet we still cling to life as though we'd live forever, given the...
10 Jul 09 visit The Tibetan Book of the Dead           - by Chris Devonshire Ellis     The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is more correctly referred to by its actual title, The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the In­termediate State (bar do thos grol chen mo)...
08 Jul 09 visit The Government's Assassin           - by Sun Fangyou     On Shangwu Street in south Chenzhou there lived a man by the name of Qiu Ying. Qiu was a well-known "government's" assassin, who would chase and kill only prominent political...
06 Jul 09 visit Kanas Lake, Another Side of Xinjiang         Poor Xinjiang.  As vast as the place is, it is currently doomed to association with burning deserts, endless vineyards, and restive Muslim minorities. Bad for government PR, but good for those in on a secret: sandwiched between t...
02 Jul 09 visit Living in Shenzhen           It's kind of like being the baddest boy on the block, but living next to Godzilla. A massive, bustling, international city, Shenzhen is smack dab next to the world's premiere metropolis, Hong Kong.  If i...
30 Jun 09 visit A Chinese Baby's First Birthday             The Chinese understand gratitude. After eons of the masses grinding for a daily bowl of rice, they know counting clouds is a waste of time, and counting blessings the only way to keep going.  In the West, baby'...
27 Jun 09 visit The Chinese Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ...
24 Jun 09 visit The Hidden Village of Guoliang         In the heart of Henan's Taihang Mountains lies forgotten Guoliang Cun.  Not entirely forgotten, of course, in China a "forgotten" destination can officially mean fewer than ten thousand visitors per day. But far few...
22 Jun 09 visit Getting to “I do”: The 6 Steps of Ancient Chinese Engagement         Wedding season is in full swing here in China, and how lucky the bride and groom. The degree of freedom they've enjoyed leading up to the nuptials would astound their forebearers. The biggest task they face is choosing the righ...
19 Jun 09 visit 3 Calligraphy Masterpieces    Zhao Mengfu's Autumn Colors on the QIao and Hua Mountains     Darn those Chinese characters. Pictures for words? Where’s the logic; where’s the system? Then again, that’s why Chinese calligraphy is an art far and be...
16 Jun 09 visit Foreigners Not So Welcome?         He had no clue he was in danger when the beer bottle smashed into his face. He had been about to step into another cab ride home after another night's drinking at Sanlitun, Beijing's infamous bar street. No posturing, n...

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