Posts tagged ‘China’

Taiwan, Get Your Ass Home For Dinner

September 27th, 2009

The internet is like a giant compost heap — constantly absorbing new bits and pieces and growing them into something new.

Boasting some 300 million users, the Chinese language internet is no different. Everyday more crap is shoveled on: mind numbing press releases/reports which crush readers under statistic after statistic about the square meterage of an upcoming mall and it’s “theme.” Sometimes it seems like every festival, every holiday, every sale, no matter how slight, needs to have some theme attached to it. For example, the upcoming 13th Fashion Ningbo (Ningbo International Fashion Festival) rather needlessly, it seems to me, has the theme of “Innovation, Promotion, Integration, Development.”

http://image.club.china.com/1011/2009/9/7/1252292279157.jpg

The internet is too cool for themes, it has memes. A word I still feel silly using, perhaps because it was invented by Richard ...READ MORE

Posted in Generale by fred dintenfass | 1 Comment »

NO I AM NOT PREGNANT

August 16th, 2009

It pains me greatly that I’m having to right a sort of followup post to NO I AM NOT GETTING MARRIED which still, two years later, boggles my mind. Here’s a snippet from that (an email from one of my wretched kin) and why, although I often maintain I birthed myself, I still wish I’d been raised by wolves.

“when i was in MKE, (a certain person) told me she heard a rumor that you were getting
married. i assumed (a certain sibling!) had started this rumor but he hadn’t heard bout
it, though he said he could see you getting involved in some sort of scam,
and we all kept meaning to email you to ask about it but i don’t think
anyone did. are you getting married?”

Well, I have a new shocking disclosure that seems to fly in the face of prevailing public opinion. I AM NOT PREGNANT goddamnit. I may have a gut and chesticles/man boobs/be a proud member of the Busty Boys but I AM NOT PREGNANT.

...READ MORE

Posted in Generale by fred dintenfass | 2 Comments »

PicOTD: Watching Beijing’s Only Male Belly Dancer

August 9th, 2009
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The opening of some sort of design store we got invited to by a woman that showed us a couple of apartments. What these guys are staring at with such interest is Beijing’s only male belly dancer. Actually, he may not be Beijing’s only male belly dancer but he’s definitely one of the few. A skinny Chinese guy with pointy hips and long beaded extensions which he would whip around dramatically while peeling his lycra-ed self off the ground from various bridges and executing various frightening pelvic maneuvers. If you managed to duck the helicopter rotor-like beads you would definitely get damaged by the jutting hip bones. It’s at least equally possible that they are staring at the belly dancer’s backup crew who are in fact female and, although Chinese, have much more going on in the hip section. Another classic ...READ MORE

Posted in PicOTD by fred dintenfass | No Comments »

PicOTD: Unfortunate Photo Ops

August 1st, 2009

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At least a year back now in a class trip to Shaoxing. Outside the liquor ‘factory’ where I sat out the tastings with the two serious muslims on the trip. I spent a lot of time talking to one of them, a stout guy from Tajikistan who had the entire Qur’an in audio form on his cell phone and suddenly started playing a section for me outside a cave full of Buddha’s until the teacher told him to give it a rest for a while. He didn’t actually speak Arabic himself. In the parking lot groups of Chinese tourists took turns taking ultra-embarassed photos with some of us laowai. Herds of them would push one of their friends into the frame with us and then snap away until their friend managed to escape. It was like trying to force a bunch of 9 year olds to dance with each other at a school dance. Cooties galore. Giggles for days. Glorious cross-culture ...READ MORE

Posted in PicOTD by fred dintenfass | 1 Comment »

PicOTD: Shanghai Aquarium/Don’t Taze Me Chou

July 23rd, 2009
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In almost three years in China, I have never been as frustrated with the Chinese masses as I was at the Shanghai aquarium. Steph and I went there before a flight back to Beijing. A flight that turned into a multi-hour riot at the airport, culminating with us all being locked on the plane. And then forced to get off.
The kids pounded on the tanks containing rare species, emblazoned with bilingual warnings + pictograms beseeching visitors not to pound their fat, greasy litte palms all over the goddamn glass. Parents shooed kids under barriers so they could photo them near the shark tanks. Children stuck their hands into the tanks, which, unfortunately, were not full of pirahnas. The world’s longest underground sea tunnel, 155 meters underground and 50 or so meteres long, apparently required No Smoking signs.
...READ MORE

Posted in PicOTD by fred dintenfass | No Comments »

Mmm, Blood Curd.

July 20th, 2009
Maoxuewang 
...READ MORE

Posted in Generale by fred dintenfass | No Comments »

MMMmm Meat!

June 21st, 2009

delicious duck's blood -- my favorite

That’s right tweeeple, couldn’t help but hit you with my favorite line from Clueless in that title therrre. After some serious template meddling/quasi-arguing with tweeps about whether or not people are actually tweeting out of Iran (are they?) I’m packing it in and heading home for some one-pot noodle. However, I’d rather be eating this no doubt delicious dish just up above in that pic: Poached jellied duck blood & eel & pigs intestines in pungent sauce. I mean seriously, wouldn’t you? ...READ MORE

Posted in Generale by fred dintenfass | No Comments »

reassuring words for tough times

May 13th, 2009
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...READ MORE

Posted in PicOTD by fred dintenfass | No Comments »

Staring at the sun

May 3rd, 2009

staring at the sun

You can check websites, or even get the daily air pollution numberes twittered to you, but if you really need further confirmation of how bad the air is – if the heavy gray cloud and slightly smoky taste in your mouth aren’t enougth – try staring at the sun. Yup, on extremely smoggy days in Beijing you can do what your parents and teachers always warned you not to, stare directly at the sun. It’s not as cool as it sounds, because while your eyes may not be burning, your throat is.
...READ MORE

Posted in Generale by fred dintenfass | No Comments »

best post

February 16th, 2009

the joys of participating in the ultra-participatory world that is the internets. i have some completely not-based-in-reality-or-knowledge thoughts about marxism, the internet, and intellectual property/capital – 3(and a half) things i know nothing about.

but instead i will spare the sod and just hit you with this gem of a comment that turned up on eChinacities.com in response (?) to an article I wrote.

...READ MORE

Posted in Generale by fred dintenfass | No Comments »

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