and uh, more falling housing prices
http://shanghaiist.com/2011/10/26/is_the_bubble_finally_bursting_shan.php
― dayo, Monday, 31 October 2011 12:37 (twelve years ago) link
i love the beautiful soft focus tea/tarts kfc commercial that's running at the start of every youku video right now, dunno if you guys get it out there
― dylannn, Monday, 31 October 2011 13:15 (twelve years ago) link
http://shanghaiist.com/2011/10/31/photos_fog_descends_on_beijing_othe.php
i just got home and i could see my breath, despite it being 16 degrees. inhaling and exhaling fine brown dust.
― dylannn, Monday, 31 October 2011 13:19 (twelve years ago) link
global times says:
Nobody likes air pollution, but China cannot singly pursue improving air quality.
― dylannn, Monday, 31 October 2011 13:20 (twelve years ago) link
paul merton isn't a bad sort really, he used to do this sort of wounded idiot savant routine on british tv and was sometimes witty
i guess he is still going, i saw a bit some programme of his on india which was really bad
― Nigel Farage is a fucking hero (nakhchivan), Monday, 31 October 2011 13:30 (twelve years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Yunhui
had no idea about this guy O_O what a horrible way to go
― dayo, Monday, 31 October 2011 23:04 (twelve years ago) link
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/Jessica%20Colwell/ai-weiwei-tax-bill-tweet.jpg
ai wei wei's tax bill is 15 million yuan or 2.3 million dollars, or as he says 1 year's profit for the ministry of rails
― dayo, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 10:58 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/10/is_jon_huntsman_fluent_in_chinese_.html
1. from what i've seen, he's a clown (thinking of the jasmine revolution incident).2. the answer seems to be that no, he isn't fluent in chinese.3. but i'd like to hear his taiwanese!4. but is geoffrey sant fluent in chinese and what's his deal?5. but does it even matter?
― dylannn, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 11:05 (twelve years ago) link
fluency in chinese is overrated
― dayo, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 11:47 (twelve years ago) link
if youre a white guy in china you just need to say like 3 words and everybody will cheer and guffaw and bring you wine to drink
― dayo, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 11:48 (twelve years ago) link
idk what can be said about this, but china sure seems fond of small-number sets like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Furnaceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Classical_Novelshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Books_of_Songhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Great_Kung_Fu_Masters
this is a thing, right?
― Nigel Farage is a fucking hero (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 1 November 2011 20:46 (twelve years ago) link
yeah dont underestimate the penchant for grouping things together
― dayo, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 21:20 (twelve years ago) link
also the idea that if you take a bunch of good things and combine them you get a super thing
or if you take something and make it bigger it becomes better
or the idea that if you build a replica of something that implies superiority
or the idea that the more expensive something is the better it is
― dayo, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 21:21 (twelve years ago) link
sorry, just ranting
what are the other four great taxonomic penchants?
― Nigel Farage is a fucking hero (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 1 November 2011 21:22 (twelve years ago) link
http://gizmodo.com/5852973/350kg-stainless-steel-fake-leicas-arent-fooling-anybody
this piece of hubris, for example, I'm sure was justified by the idea "it contains elements of the the leica m3-m9, it must be great!" and completely misses the point of a leica
smh
― dayo, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 21:24 (twelve years ago) link
the idea that the more expensive something is the better it is
this is a classic 'nouveau riche' trait right? which makes sense, in context
― Nigel Farage is a fucking hero (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 1 November 2011 21:25 (twelve years ago) link
where's the hubris? it's just a crappy sculpture. if it misses the point of a leica, then leica themselves are missing the point. they paid for them.
― dylannn, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 04:09 (twelve years ago) link
i think the blame is all on leica for commissioning that piece of garbage.
see also:
http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/shop/only-china-leicas-24carat-camera-154867
― dylannn, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 04:19 (twelve years ago) link
Grouping stuff actually helps retention for a learner, e.g. 10 heavenly stems, 12 属相. Probably does sod-all for a native speaker though.
― dayo, Tuesday, 1 November 2011 22:48 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
This principle elevated our previous (and probably next) PM to Chinese stardom. I don't know precisely how good he is at Chinese but the Chinese carry on like he's a genius. Saw his Chinese biography in a shop the other day, it seemed to cast him in a better light than anything written about him here.
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 04:21 (twelve years ago) link
there is a leica shop opening the next block up from where i live, the first one outside shanghai/beijing/guangzhou, i think. hope it features a giant stainless steel homer simpson car leica.
― dylannn, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 04:22 (twelve years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-anti_and_Five-anti_Campaignshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Representshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Four
― dylannn, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 04:25 (twelve years ago) link
"homer simpson car" is the guiding design principle for china
― dayo, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 10:22 (twelve years ago) link
http://asiancorrespondent.com/59851/chinese-man-builds-home-made-ipad/
it's like cool, you spent all that time building a... windows tablet
― dayo, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 10:23 (twelve years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/9FTPk.jpg
two trucks carrying 72 tons of dynamite explode at a gas station
like, really?
― dayo, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 11:08 (twelve years ago) link
nakh, is this football with chinese characteristics
http://shanghaiist.com/2011/11/01/shenhua_coach_invades_pitch_to_lift.php
― dayo, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 11:18 (twelve years ago) link
there was a story many years ago about china taking its best football prodigies to some outback location in brazil where they were to be intensively coached by native talent, ready to explode onto the world stage about.....now, i guess
lol at homemade tablet w/ apple logo
― Nigel Farage is a fucking hero (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 12:17 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4yW6Y54168&feature=player_embedded#!
― Sébastien, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 13:08 (twelve years ago) link
― dayo, Wednesday, November 2, 2011 11:08 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark
O_O
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
global times says:
Nobody likes trucks of dynamite exploding at a gas station, but China cannot singly pursue trucks of dynamite not exploding at gas stations.
― dylannn, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 17:44 (twelve years ago) link
ahaha
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 17:47 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-03/the-busiest-place-on-earth/3611032
I love the hell out of Mong Kok but I've never lived there (obv) and 4'11" 'er indoors couldn't see over the swarms of people. Didn't know until now that it's the densest human population on Earth but it's no surprise at all.
― Autumn Almanac (Schlafsack), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 23:29 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/world/asia/03iht-letter03.html?_r=3
interesting look at chinese historiography
― dayo, Thursday, 3 November 2011 11:53 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/the-china-conundrum.html
I think this has the potential to be a really good thing! I'm totally cool w/ the rest of the world using the american university system as a luxury good, if it means we pay less. and a chinese 20 something probably is getting more out of the university of delaware than most americans there.
― iatee, Thursday, 3 November 2011 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
http://v.youku.com/v_playlist/f12279621o1p0.html
― dylannn, Thursday, 3 November 2011 15:15 (twelve years ago) link
is that the woman falling from a bridge one? might need a warning.
― dayo, Thursday, 3 November 2011 15:17 (twelve years ago) link
― iatee, Thursday, November 3, 2011 10:29 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark
dunno if it's a 'luxury good' - a lot of times these kids are blowing through their parents + extended family savings. chinese families are willing to fork over a hell of a lot more for anything education related.
otoh, most universities in china outside of the top tier ones are frighteningly bad. and qinghua/beida barely crack the top 100 worldwide.
― dayo, Thursday, 3 November 2011 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/11/04/human-rights-watch-reports-abuses-in-chinese-run-mines-in-zambia/
surprise, surprise, but q: are conditions in zambian mines better or worse than conditions in chinese mines?
also remember stories about chinese bosses in africa opening fire with machine guns on the disgruntled local work force, and getting away with it
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Friday, 4 November 2011 17:25 (twelve years ago) link
yeah that's a good point I was looking at this from the 100% 'what's good for americans' perspective.
xp
― iatee, Friday, 4 November 2011 18:58 (twelve years ago) link
very cool
http://shanghaiist.com/2011/11/04/portraits-government-buildings.php
http://i.imgur.com/54JwN.jpg
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Saturday, 5 November 2011 13:34 (twelve years ago) link
― iatee, Friday, November 4, 2011 2:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
yeah. otoh I am pretty sure that the majority of these kids come from upper middle class and upper class families. after all they're renting apartments off campus! and I bet you'd see a lot of designer labels and luxury handbags if you could briefly survey them.
still though, it's a lot of money - $60k a year for four years = $240k, or about 1.5 million chinese yuan
the average college grad in shanghai makes 3300 yuan a month or about 6000 usd annually
let's assume that going to an american university triples your earning potential and you can land a 10000 yuan a month job or about 18000 usd annually
that's still not a very good return investment
but most of these kids probably go home to plush jobs in their father's factory, I bet, or maybe they just play a lot of ps3 and xbox
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Saturday, 5 November 2011 13:50 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/05/world/asia/the-privileges-of-chinas-elite-include-purified-air.html
lol - they don't even breathe the same air as the commoners
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Saturday, 5 November 2011 14:48 (twelve years ago) link
“They don’t have to eat gutter oil or drink poisoned milk powder and now they’re protected from filthy air,” said one posting on Sina Weibo, the country’s most popular microblog service. “This shows their indifference to the lives of ordinary people.”
the ccp hierarchs should take a lead from that japanese mp who drank fukushima water and publicly feast upon congealed poison milk deep fried in gutter oil
― Nigel Farage is a fucking hero (nakhchivan), Saturday, 5 November 2011 14:55 (twelve years ago) link
a big plate of thick sliced donkey dick tossed in congealed poison milk deep fried in gutter oil
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Saturday, 5 November 2011 14:59 (twelve years ago) link
there it is
― Nigel Farage is a fucking hero (nakhchivan), Saturday, 5 November 2011 15:02 (twelve years ago) link
http://images.buddytv.com/articles/Image/blinky-the-fish.jpg
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 5 November 2011 17:37 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-independents-20111106,0,3629826.story
innaresting barbara demick report, independent candidates for people's representatives
― dylannn, Sunday, 6 November 2011 11:59 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, surprise surprise
kind of lol'd at this in the sidebar
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-jews-20111016,0,1440710.story
― ASPIE Rocky (dayo), Sunday, 6 November 2011 12:40 (twelve years ago) link
okay. is this kaifeng jews thing for real or not? i guess it doesn't matter now, since they've decided to go to israel and get into it. but i think even sidney shapiro, famous jew in china and scholar of judeo-chinese things, concludes that there were very, very few jewish families a long, long time ago and that there are now probably very few little scraps of history, like a surname or two, a street name....
― dylannn, Sunday, 6 November 2011 12:58 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/china.htm
kaifeng is beautiful btw if u are ever nearby.even if it doesn't have jews, it has a huge christian populationa nd the little alleys are full on sundays of processions of people going off to chruches, official and house. it's like the appalachians of china:; it's mostly fucking poor and the henanese have their accents made fun of and are the subject of tons of jokes and discriminatd against by hr people at factories down south where they go en masse 4 work. but if it's possible to say that a place "has nice people" you can say it about henan. and about most of the forgottoen brutally poor parts of central/western china.
― dylannn, Sunday, 6 November 2011 13:10 (twelve years ago) link