My plan was to move to Beijing and score a home in one of the hutongs, the densely packed laneways in the center of the city that contain clusters of traditional courtyard dwellings. They’re known in Chinese as siheyuan (四合院). The idea of being able to hang in the private courtyard during summer with a […]
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They say February is the most depressing month of the year. More people are driven to eat their babies and go harry carry at this time than any other, with the exception of when Jersey Shore is on TV. So I thought, better make like a banana and get the shit out of town, China […]
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It’s been hard not to write anything about the whole shebang of the big G going toe to toe with the big C. I think there’s still a few more rounds left, but while I was reading about the latest roundhouse kick by the Chinese government, I came across a brilliant comment on the NYT […]
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I was going to title this post “Ten Predictions for China in the Tens” but I quickly realized that no one calls the group of numbers from 10 to 19 the tens. I’m left with the problem that teens only describes the numbers from 13-19 and that thirteen is unlucky so I will probably be […]
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For this installment of terrific trips to popular places, my destination was the District of Columbia. The first leg of the journey was covered by car all the way to the greatest city on the planet: NYC. Once there, I boarded Amtrak for a little taste of rust belt life served up bullet train style […]
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For the 1970’s I have two full series of stamps, one from 1978 reppin’ the steel industry, and another from 1979 commemorating the 30th anniversary of the PRC, but I will simply call it “Weird Science”.
THE STEEL INDUSTRY
This set of stamps is a commemoration of the steel industry. But what isn’t so obvious is what […]
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1960 “The Birds of Communist Paradise” 中苏反好同盟互助条约签订十周年
This stamp is a glorious contradiction, making it not so different from the concept of communism itself. It actually commemorates 10 years since the signing of an alliance between China and the Soviet Union. If I may, allow me to transcribe what the Chinese are really saying to the […]
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When it comes to mail, you can’t just be a taker, you gotta be a giver too, and both roles are fine by me. So the other day when I was at the post office sending some of my stuff to myself, and coating the box with the required postage stamps, I remembered just how […]
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My time in Qingdao has come to an end. Instead of pissing and moaning about the unending stupidity that flows like draft Tsingtao, I’ve made a laundry list of things I’ll miss, but not necessarily enough to pull me back into its slimy black tentacles. This would also make an excellent PowerPoint presentation, except that […]
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Ahh yeah…can you smell that? That’s the smell of the Chinese Internets tearing the government’s censors a new asshole. It’s one thing to try and purge all memory of a certain incident that happened 20 years ago today from the national consciousness that for the most part has been successful. It’s another to go overboard […]
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Besides the once ironic but now overly clichéd soviet socialist realism often used in propaganda, post Cultural Revolution China has had a dearth of decent art. Only in the past decade or so have people started to rock out with their cocks out when it comes to art. Still, innovation and artistic ability are not […]
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I recently got back from Italy for work purposes. Not much touring was done, but several stereotypes were done away with.
Stereotype:
Italians eat pasta everyday.
Veracity:
TRUE mostly
Observations:
Italians do eat pasta everyday, sometimes twice a day depending on the phase of the moon and the direction of the wind. Unless it’s risotto. And comparing these foods to the […]
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In the world, there’s a handful of places you must visit before you die. The Great Wall, The Pyramids, Angkorwat, Machu Pichhu, The Playboy Mansion Grotto, etc. Yet there is one dusty field full of relics that deserves to be on the list that most people have never even seen a postcard of.
About an […]
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Had no idea what this massive inaccessible colonial complex in downtown Rangoon was
Rangoon is the former capital of Burma and sits right on the Indian Ocean. It’s rumored that because of this, the xenophobic and paranoid generals moved the capital hundreds of miles inland to Naypyidaw to avoid a possible invasion against a country like […]
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Other than those ass-eating generals who run rape the country, the only other thing I loathe about the place is what’s going on with the money. We’ve already established that the government is made up a subset of the human species that is about as nice as genital herpes. The western nations have thus placed […]
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I made it to one of the last frontiers I’ve wanted to travel to over the tail end of the Chinese New Years break. The place? Burma or as it calls itself: Myanmar. What follows are a bunch of incoherent ramblings concerning this enigmatic military playground.
So is it Burma, Myanmar or Pyi-daung-zu Myan-ma Naing-ngan-daw? In […]
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The historic city of Lijiang is one of those places that look so amazing in post cards, no matter how much money you drain on Canon L glass, no matter how well your Photoshop skills can edit Jessica Alba’s head on some porno model’s body, no matter how many grams of mushrooms you eat, you’ll […]
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Celebrated Chinese New Year’s Eve by doing the same as everyone else here…trying to blow a hole in space time with fireworks.
*
牛 = ox = cow = this year‘s new zodiac.
牛 = niú = sounds like English word ”new“
牛逼 = cow vagina = Chinese slang for ”awesome“.
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The first year I came to China, I got an agent that specializes in helping expats to hook me up. I went that route because I couldn’t communicate in Chinese to save my life, and I didn’t want to be signing any contracts that had hidden clauses allowing a group of senior citizens to practice […]
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It’s about that time of year again, where my rent is nearing expiration and I have to find a new home to live. I never bother resigning a new contract because I always feel like I can do better than what I’ve got, which so far, I have. Not to mention I quite enjoy […]
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