CHINAYOUREN

在2010年社会蓝皮书，公布由中国社会科学院去年12月，有一个很有趣的片之间的社会经济分析了330页的隐藏。 这篇题为“中国人口问题要注意2011年和2015年之间”，这篇文章包含了最新和最消极的一些数据[...]

我最近从重庆飞回来时，我是非常令人沮丧的阅读中的问题提醒。 有一对客舱电视电影，它有一个特殊性：它通过中，英文字幕在两平行线可比字体，在屏幕的底部。
当我看到我[...]

的事情，外国人在中国享有感叹，一个是建筑遗产的破坏。 这是可以理解的，现代的中国有一个可怕的遗产破坏纪录，今天有2000多年历史的地方，很难找到任何踪迹城市旧建筑。 但是最糟糕的是，你可以[...]

这是我答应后在天涯论坛分析了我们的朋友迈克尔的命运。迈克尔（卖抠）是在小华的故事，我写的最后一周的主要特征。 我没有特别为此写的故事，但一旦它在那里我认为这将是一个不错的主意[...]

作者：东方早报很少更新。 我知道没有人感兴趣，因为没有人真的会读取这个文件（即使是它的编辑），但为了一致性起见，我要告诉他们的新攻击。 按照这一新的篇章他们迷人的螺旋我打入地狱。
本周末的东方有以下突破：
阿[...]

这个星期我很少有时间做语文后，部分原因是因为我一直忙着写一个小故事，部分原因是我已经讨论了其他博客语言的好买卖。 我利用这一优势，与我在上海的最后意见后，长时间的讨论后，我们[...]

这是我第一次在中国短篇小说。 标题是“翻译”失落的，它说明了普通话发音的潜在不良后果。 如果你不懂中文，我离开了评论，小决或其他使用G翻译得到增强的体验。
更新：我有转贴在天涯这给它[...]

今天，我只想评论中标点符号的神秘世界。 正是在这个时候一个引人入胜的领域时，大家对我们的指责歧视中外文符号。 事实上，有一个外国的符号是在几乎每一个现代汉语句子使用：点，逗号，而这种[...]

星期六有一些在路上惊人的运动。 不明身份的人开始清晨集中群众路口附近，部分阻断了交通。 他们显然很紧张，但他们的表现是坚定的，明确他们打算持有的立场。 他们已经有将近2个小时，当我用相机来了。

当我[...]

今天，我只是想分享这张照片，由一个勇敢的记者在东方卫生纸，谁都是在第一时间赶赴现场的行动：

这是一个全新的雕塑被称为“沟通”，刚从美国到上海，纪念两国之间的关系，开放的30年。 它[...]

这个由香港Zhenkuai历史学家已经采取了从南方都市报的小片，但它设法逃避一些其他网站的封杀。 我喜欢淡淡地推广批评中共的统治王朝，和凉爽的“中国小仔教学语言渲染L'政变”的“朕即国家”。
因为我没有时间[...]

这里是对昨天的韩寒检讨更新，一些有关其他信息时代的提名，这可能是比它更重要的第一眼出现。
然后，如果你，直到本章结束期间，我们将穿上黄色的袜子，分析多一点，我们的[...]可怕的灾祸

韩寒被提名为当时最有影响力的人，以及数以百万计的中国网民推，他是一个有可能很快上升到1号。 绪军埃伯利做了很好的分析形势，特别是恶劣的方式，人民日报和上海日报正试图淡化和[...]

我从来没有想过在此之前，但是当有人问我这个星期在中国这是我最喜欢的省，浙江省，我当然回答。 我一直在那里再次俗旅游假期，我已经反映了什么地方，是一个了不起的。
浙江是在内地，只是有点大[...]最小的省

在本周的语言后我想谈谈语言保护主义。 我不知道这个词是我寻找，但如果你一直关注在过去几周的博客你大概知道我的意思。 这一切都开始使用这一提案的最后一个月，禁止英国[...]

在本周的语言后我要在书面审查中的性别影响和口头语言，对中国妇女的反应中使用的许多歧视性的表现今天。
鉴于大多数传统文化极为按照今天的标准性别歧视，这是很常见的在今天的语言嵌入式性别歧视的内容。 在[...]

中国档案正在寻找一个母语是英语基础的一部份时间在上海工作期间，2010年上海世博会发言。

最好是有新闻或媒体相关经验。
在视频和摄影的经验将是一个优势。

我们正在寻找的人聪明，活跃及良好的沟通技巧。此人将在新闻报道负责[...]

上周，我在那里我做了一个职位给了三个理由为什么我认为东方早报是要狗。 这个星期我读了关于从上海，使下面的观察DeluxZilla博客文章：
尽管是一党的报纸，我更是上海早报（新闻辰报）[...]风扇

所有在中国的发生令人惊叹的事情对我来说，我的短信我的手机中得到的是其中之一。
当我第一次到上海3年前，我还年轻，我的心是充满野心。 急于弥补自己在当地企业界的名字，我[...]

今天是新外滩开幕的日子。 经过与提升到这条街上流动的道路10年来，城市规划师终于认识到，一个5线高速公路是不是最好的东西已经在你的著名的长廊中。 这一年里，他们正忙于该环形路[...]

关于新媒体和报纸死亡的辩论已进行了多年的免费上网。 在中国的内部网，但是，这个问题并没有引起太多的兴趣，因为这里已经被谋杀的新闻长由检查员可怕的手前。 正是由于这个原因，中国[...]

这是在我的博客的新功能。 这是一个跟进的初始语言和文化的职位，去年，我从现在开始就承诺将继续该系列每星期四，我喜欢它的感觉。 这个想法是张贴有关这些语言的好奇心，我遇到我的[...]研究

有多少次我们看到了什么才算是中国软实力论坛讨论呢？ 这是白方神秘的力量，在国际政治中的绝地使用，把所有的论据，他们的优势？ 中国多年来一直觊觎这个武器，花了许多在追求一种宝贵的资源，但所有[...]

因此，谷歌已经做到了最后。 我最糟糕的预言已被证明是正确的，Google.cn是在流亡生活，挑战来自香港的我国政府权威。 发言燃烧的桥梁。
像往常一样，我们大部分的评论家那里都搞错了。 这不是谷歌提供一个[...]

我刚刚读完这本书蚁族（蚁族）是在中国互联网上的所有地方。 我很好奇，为什么它正在成为这里的天气太热而西方媒体报道，只简单。 我想我现在知道答案，但让我来介绍本书的第一，更在此之后。
蚁族[...]

我只看到这张照片我参加了今天上午的小巷。 其用意是为了说明如何奥林匹克精神终于来到了上海当地社区。 其结果是，我无意中把自己的一个很酷的肖像在公告板玻璃盖反映。

这是典型的中国动机消息[...]

我参观了作为一个孩子，当我把我所有的类学校共同塞维利亚'92世博会第一次。 西班牙是生活在疯狂的一年，奥运会在同一时间在那年夏天，和世博会的目的是要成为有史以来最大的一次发生。 现在在中国一样，有[...]

今天早上，我正在做的一些测试，看看谷歌有没有在搜索结果中的变化，我注意到一个细节，我以前没有想到的：虽然每个人都形容为“在中国举办”Google.cn，IP是美国，你可以看到的whois。
事实上，除了广告商的交易与[...]

免责声明：在科学的兴趣，这个帖子包含露骨的色情材料。 如果你是未成年人及/或敏感的人建议你不要向下滚动。 如果你不懂中文也没关系。
这是该系列中，我们在那里结束了散漫的关闭的主题并延续以前的职位[...]

在谷歌的新方法是中国移动的情况比预期的慢，但我的感觉是，我们可以看到的东西很快开拍。 新年过后，双会议是即将结束，我国政府可能会希望有此之前的下一个大项目清理的议程，[...]

最后，经过激烈的全国人大政协报道漫长的一周，在春天的最初迹象已经开始在上海开新闻。 东方早报打开一个新的推动纽约时代广场的大型广告牌世博会的照片，而其主要竞争对手，更保守的上海新闻晨报，显示了[...]

这个周末，我已采取了从我用尽研究进入中国保守派的性别界线，更新网站的旧零件，并完成执行一些最近我一直在尝试新的特点。
在版本2.0的变化是不相关的设计，所以他们可能不会立即显现出来的[...]

看来在新中国鸿沟博客的点击已经找到了新的来源，振兴中国博客的情景：辩论在中国打击色情像查尔斯以上。
虽然我通常不支持任何形式的检查，我必须说，我不能照顾色情事业在中国少。 从[...]

东方早报，上海正在做每年的全国人大，政协会议的好报道。 我喜欢今天的印刷版，其中带有可爱的羊驼夫妇旁边的胡图和男孩步行到人民政协沿着过道，他们刚刚宣誓就职。
这是一个漫长的故事，那些[...]

注意：对于那些谁一直在过去3天离线阅读器，这是一个关于谷歌口碑，新的谷歌服务，已渗入世界的邮箱本周一职。
但是否可以很容易，坚持几秒钟之内，不要急于桂枝茯苓丸的测试工具，这并没有发生过。 我只想[...]

圣烟！
事情是中国移动在谷歌。
我一直工作在过去的12小时与谷歌文档，我只是知道我是用易的电脑，一个不具有的VPN安装。文件，这是因为，谷歌昨天晚上最少。因此是畅通的手段谷歌论坛！ 这两个网站被封锁[...]

所有这一切的最后几天Ğ交谈给我带来了来自世界高科技的读者很多，我觉得现在对他们的责任报告的最新创新。 这就是为什么在我昨天星期天，我决定步行散步到当地的公共厕所，那里的最新发展总是[...]

回到了工作岗位。 关于重新阅读，我都觉得我可能过于乐观昨天的感觉。 诚然，谷歌宣布风格背叛亲自参与，一旦在谈判桌上是可以预料的是一个更加务实的气氛将占上风。 但是，即使如果G关闭了，不知道它是[...]

你也许会奇怪，为什么这个故事的谷歌正在否则在这个低科技博客这么大的空间。 我为好。 我觉得我着迷的是第一手的消息后，几乎完全缺席的G炸弹。 时间是投机，以及中国博客和茶叶读者[...]

回顾一下我说的最后一周，我知道，我努力保持清醒的头脑，分析的事件，我忘了说一个很重要的事情：我很尊重谷歌。 我从来没有任何关于他们的决定非经营性怀疑，在我们调查的结果，尽管，我[...]

作者：百度的首席技术主任黎一腩辞职的消息传来作为Chinayouren，在那里我仍然在与goggling张开眼睛CDT的冲击。
这将会使更多的噪音会比现在通常，人们会很快找到与谷歌中国事件和[...]连接

十年的战斗某些图片，非恶公司反对对中国政府的黑暗势力贬】共产主义者谷歌。 在Google.cn标志下方的今天。 显然，大G发出了一个信息，中国：我们尊重你，我们挖你的古代文化，它只是你的[...]恶心当局

我知道，有在世界其他新闻，我可能不会对他们给予足够的重视。 但我不能帮助它，我一直在试图了解谷歌的决定的最后48小时超频，我看了每一个文章出现在互联网络上。 而且我还是不明白这一点。
我想[...]

已经很少有新的信息和最今天的媒体和博客圈是扭转了同样的想法，其中许多人提到了已经在以前的2个职位的系列。
这里有一些有趣的我所知，我认为是值得评论新的观点：

有一种由[...]通话

随着中国对谷歌和以前的帖子，这里有我的思考关于这一切可预见的后果。 首先，一项重要的澄清：我不认为对检查的战斗是坏的。 在中国检查是非常真实的，它不仅是活跃分子，而是中国的耻辱最诚实的，它只是[...]

首先，请阅读这篇文章张贴在谷歌官方博客。 这是所有你需要阅读的时刻，因为没有更多的第一手资料在那里呢。
这是约5小时前公布。 它在一个相当含混的方式基本上是说：

，谷歌已检测到的攻击造成的[...]

哇。 Baidu.com被砍死今天上午9:30左右，并于下午三时就回来。 超过5:30小时的停机时间。
最糟糕的是，他们没有办法隐藏它是一劈，连人民日报刊登图片。 也许媒体不认为党作为中国的光辉业和部分网站[...]

顺便说一下，我观看了昨晚的电影头像。 这是一个了不起的中国观察员的经验，我得出这样的结论启发：电影已经完全与中国无关。
即使在互联网和年度韩寒认为文景对面，小区已[...]

老虎即将浮出水面。 新的十年，已经出现在西方，在中国，我们在这个无人太阳之间农历新年和土地再次，与公牛和老虎。 现在是时候回头看看我们的立场。
[...]在世界政治

告别2009年。 这里是另一个年终Chinayouren特别，第一次手术后满一年。 感谢所有为坚持围绕。
像往常一样，我们将开始同中国在新闻受欢迎。 今年，是比以往更有趣，因为2010年是一个整数，而早期的中国鸟类专家[...]

在哥本哈根首脑会议鼓舞了一些媒体的激烈辩论，在大多数情况下比气候变化更与国际政治。 像马克莱纳斯的卫士'已被一些较温和的意见后壮观的作品，似乎喜欢那些对单位内部和内而外，试图了解[...]的作用

我已经有一段时间了，因为我所有的假期时间由两名上海，其中一人是电视连续剧，另一个是小说引人入胜的故事吸收。
串行是握苴，蜗牛的家，愚蠢地翻译为窄Dwellingness，或英语什么的。 据中国红热自[...]

大家圣诞快乐。 伤心的圣诞中国，和我们大家谁爱这个国家，谁相信自由，尊严和真理。
整整一年前，在圣诞节那天，我发表了这项有关刘宪章职务。 我是至关重要的原因是多方面的倡议：它包含的矛盾，这是被动而不是主动，[...]

看看我今天发现在我的信箱。 一种为“露齿兔儿童情商训练营广告！”
那些你谁有足够的耐心坚持此博客可能还记得过去后我对在中国普及self-help/business书籍一样，特别是那些情商（EQ）的关系。 毫不奇怪[...]

阅读这对韩寒对中国日报咆哮。 我必须说，我不喜欢的调子，它读起来就像是由一个羡慕失败者写的。 但它是一种智能化的输家，他的头部打钉好几次。
他是绝对的主要论点正确的[...]

我摆弄一些统计数字昨晚，考虑到了中国的互联网上，我们一直在讨论最近心胸狭窄奇怪的想法。 表达式本身是奇数，因为“网络”和“与世隔绝”的形式，一种矛盾的说法，但你很难注意到这些东西当你住在这里。 这是正常的例行在社会主义市场[...]土地

有很多东西一直是在即将来临的“媒体”灭亡场最近。 特别是我们在中国看到了由詹姆斯法洛斯和其他职位的壮观系列，铸造对奥巴马访问中国的结果有一些启发。 对于新旧媒体辩论不能指望[...]

您可能听说过这个词Laobaixing（老百姓），字面上的“百家姓”，对中国老百姓。 他们也被称为LBX在这个网站专门给他们。
Laobaixing是一个伟大的词，不仅因为其明显的词源，而且也因为它的内涵是完全不同于我们的“”百姓不同。 从我[...]

在本系列前两职位，我们看到，中国是世界上最后的语言，保持一个独立的词汇根和非语音一套完整的脚本来代表他们，我们可以称之为一个单独的词系统。 基于这个原因，我认为，中国可能是最困难的[...]

上周五我写了很长的职位，包括在我结束了太多的想法。 最主要的一点是得到了一个模糊的结果，但它只是这一点：词汇次在学习语言的重要作用，这是因为这个中国是不是只有在非常困难的一种先进的[...]

还有一次是在普通话的每一个学生的生活问题时，他觉得写的调用的语言困难。 时间终于来到了我，我将追随主人的路径。 事实上，我打算更进一步。 我着手证明[...]

我刚刚收到一封电子邮件，提醒这对中国博客有趣的帖子我的传闻。 在博客，他说，温家宝：
这家伙从来没有停止给我带来惊喜。 当他从政治退休后，他应该真正开始了自己的公关公司。 在“平民化”的东西是完美的处理。 谁拥有的只是人们超越[...]

我看见ESWN这个韩寒时代杂志采访，因为我以前写的关于他，我认为这是值得评论。 这也是有趣，因为它说明了东方与西方的凯撒国对最近警告可怕的误解。 这是在我看来，关键的一段话：
...尽管他[...]

不要错过A.对中国经济评论加尔布雷斯这个故事。 在中国的反应病毒漫长的辩论，这是最合理的意见我已经在很长一段时间看到的，也是最了解情况。
这个故事令我想起，我的朋友，早在西班牙医生告诉我，我当我[...]

有一些，虽然不是来自中国，本来是中国所接受如此彻底，他们成为当地文化的一部分信仰。 其中一个例子是佛教从印度进口的，在远古时代。 一个又一个，我发现，是现代管理大师的教学，从美国进口。
这是[...]

因此，奥巴马在中国，即使他不是我的总统，他仍然是我最喜欢的总统。 这是我第一次亲身访问分析。
最重要的新闻，竟然走了所有的观察员被忽视，是奥巴马想成为欧洲在中国的巴马。 这是我阅读了新的拼写[...]

最近，我已经意识到，由于我的训练方法在某些不平衡，我的中文阅读能力可能是我走在前面的发言，我被迫采取严厉的纠正措施。 在变为1平方米博客这个风险，我会谈论今天的可怕忏悔[...]

这在四川出差真是充满了惊奇。 今天我们去参观项目，一个巨大的产业园区将建成后，在世界最大的工厂，生产的长江银行十一个典型的中国大型项目。
但令人感到惊讶，当我们出去吃午饭，到城里[...]

它是我的幸运日。 今天的马拉松式的会议是在重庆中止中期会议，我们已经为自己的整个下午，探讨在雾中的城市。
这个地方像中国所有的精力集中在一个很小的感觉半岛。 其结果是不漂亮，也许，但它是激烈的。通过晚餐[...]

我知道，我现在应该是学习，而不是写文章。 但我只是呼吸间的模拟考试会稍，我就学习一种新语言迷人的过程中得到反映，并就如何，当你通过它已几次，你最终开发自己的[秘密的方法。 ..]

我回上海与一些有趣的轶事和日本一些轻度有趣的图片。 不幸的是，我将不能张贴任何，因为这个星期我很忙，在中国工作旅行，尤其是因为这是汉语水平考试周。 这是一样好，我猜，后[...]

现在，我在免费的互联网国家时，我已经有机会看看CDT的网站，我发现这个有趣的问题，从人贾兹拉未来：会发生什么，如果毛泽东曾失去了什么？
我原则上并不反对反事实的历史，它可以在很多情况下有用，看看[...]

第一印象通常是错误的，但他们也很有趣，因为眼睛是警觉，任何新颖性和文化冲突与思想丰富。 警告：这篇文章包含一概而论。 就以它是什么，如果你对日本的了解你可能想看看其他地方严重。

我来[...]

我很惊喜，当我订我的最后一分钟的飞行到日本，我得到了10月1日国庆非常合理的价格。 当我去浦东机场我明白了原因：在上海的街头空的，没有人飞抵当时是因为他们在与胶合[...]家所有的眼睛

阿中在一黑色西服中年男子离开这辆车。 他不看在最不尴尬。 他是一个恋童癖？ 干部的影响下，使这家亲爱的？ 或者仅仅是一个正常的上海女孩的父亲辞职？
我没有停下来问。 但是，我赞赏定制猫咪方向盘，[...]

我发现很难把精力集中在同一个spidermen挂在窗外的工作服带工作。 这是塔清洗每年一样，今天，我再次发现自己的恐慌瘫痪。 我知道，这是一个在上海一个垂直大都市司空见惯。 问题是，通过[...]

昨天我去南京路步行上，我看到一个奇怪的现象，我从来没有见过的：经纪人的月饼。 这是上周六的月饼采收季节，所以他们都忙着走来走去的街道，扫描潜在的买家和卖家的人群。
一点背景：每隔几个[...]

有一天我看到一个来自南京的旅游公交车引起了我的眼睛。 一方面对香港的旅游公司的名称写汉字，并在它下面有一个神秘的语言编写的文本：
“ISGNOG NAIXUOY EHCIQ UOYVL NAITGNEH GNIJ南”
起初我想这一定是维吾尔语，但随后[...]

我学到的东西之一是，今年夏天，当我可以离开欧洲假期，中国并没有真正离开我了。 不仅仅是一个国家，更是一种自然的力量，人类现在是我生活的一部分的另一面。 中国总是存在的，她是无处不在，[...]

关于中国种族主义的讨论中不断回来每一次的同时，每一次都引起了强烈的激情。 这是一个后我一直在想这样做了一段时间之后，我们在3月份曾有趣的评论，并作为对新疆的一系列结论。
的故事，引起了辩论[...]

这是一个，而自从我上次说，现在我觉得典型的Blogger的内疚，同样是推动一些较弱的灵魂，他们开始与所有博客文章，而是未提出道歉。 但不担心，我们不是那种博客。 我们这里不要求宽恕，这是因为我们已经[...]

还有一个来自中国移动的奇妙世界。
这些我都遇到了什么是政治运动有史以来最怪异的形式在中国受审的最后几个星期。 它已经发生了两次，每个周日下午的时间。它在一个不存在从一个电话号码的形式出现。 一个非常专业的录音，与[...]

你有没有看到一个城市，直到你已经到了动物园。 我知道这个事实，因为我是5岁，之后我突然想起上周日再次多年，我决定现在是时候我去了上海动物园。

When you grow up you realize zoos have [...]

很多博客已经写了这个已经，但我仍希望尽我徐致用，谁是3周前被捕的职位。 I have no new information to offer here – info will be forthcoming only when the police decides it – but if you are reading this please do not let [...]

I just learn from Reuters that US is testing system to break foreign Web censorship. This is the first news I have that the US government is trying to outsmart the GFW. Fantastic, after the anonymous hackers now it is the most powerful state in the World that will confront the dreaded wall. The war [...]

Following last week's posts about Xinjiang conflict, I see this AFP dispatch: China promotes Xinjiang armed police chief. Mr. Dai,  the man at the top of the armed police has been promoted. Which means that the first of the failures I noted in the last post (ie failed to protect the citizens on 5th July) [...]

One of the essential purposes of a government is to ensure the safety of the citizens and, from this point of view, the Chinese government has failed spectacularly in Urumqi.
首先，它没有足够能力保护受害人的韩期间，7月5日晚上。 Some wrong decisions were most likely [...]

I was not there and I do not know more than what is in the press. But in the light of the available information, I think it's worth it to have another look at the events, and see what we make of it. Refer to the NYT diagram linked on the illustration, this paper is [...]

Have you been watching Xinjiang TV these days? I am a fan. It's the new Love TV, a 24-7 concentrate of all the corniest efforts by the Chinese official media to promote harmony after the events of 5th July. Smiling kids, flowery dances, long meetings of interethnic neighbour associations discussing love and togetherness. Best [...]

I have written a lot recently about the Great Firewall of China (GFW). I had my site blocked for two weeks and this inspired some frustrated posts until eventually I worked my way through the Wall. The good news is I learnt a lot in the process, and now I can write some tips to [...]

After a terrible weekend in front of the computer I have managed to re-open my site on a new URL. I am fed up of the internet right now and I am going out to enjoy the Shanghai Sun for a few hours.
I will try not to write more about this for a while, one [...]

It is common knowledge that studying a foreign language involves studying a culture. Consciously or not, that is the main reason why people enjoy it. If it weren't for its cultural content, a language would be little more than an empty set of code-words and rules designed with an exasperatingly faulty logic. And learning languages would be just [...]

This week I had some interesting conversations on other blogs, mostly regarding my state of internet blockdom and the possible actions that a webmaster can take to solve this problem. I will share here some conclusions that might be of interest.
Just to make sure we don't forget anything, I will go first over the most [...]

So there you are. July 1st passed without any major incident and the famous Anonymous Netizens didn't show up. I am as blocked as ever and the Nutty Nannies of China are still running loose on the web, unimpressed by the headless suit .
I cannot say it is a surprise, frankly the chances of anything [...]

It was about time Mozilla issued their new revision. Ever since Firefox emerged as the big challenger of Explorer many of us switched to this swift browser with the unlimited add-ons.
As time passed, we grew so used to all the fox capabilities that it became normal for an internet browser to perform the most various [...]

Last night I went to the evening organized by Earnshaw to launch their two latest books: “I sailed with Chinese Pirates” and “Shanghai Story Walks”. I have been a fan of Earnshaw Books since they published the first of their series of reprints, Carl Crow's “Foreign Devils in the Flowery Kingdom“, my favourite China read [...]

This is the imposing main entrance of my favourite university campus in Shanghai: HuaShiDa. I like this entrance because it is very green and very complete, and it has everything from a roundabout sign to a saluting giant Mao, to a construction crane in the background. But what I like most is the inscription:
SEEK TRUTH, [...]

I enjoyed reading this article by Evelyn Chan on the Carter Center blog. It is clear and well written and in my opinion it is right on the money. It's the article I would have liked to write on the stimulus package (h/t  CDT)
When it comes to Chinese economy I have always been a bit of [...]

So OK, I am censored, but why NOW?
I mean, I haven't been writing anything for ages, is the Propaganda Department punishing me for being lazy? Has some big Chinese BBS  linked to me recently, is Uln hot now? As I was looking around for an answer, I found out that the Peking Duck blog was blocked [...]

So guess what now:  I am blocked.
I am banned, prohibited, harmonized, river-crabbed. Censored, in short, by the Great FireWall of China. If you are reading my blog now and have not noticed anything strange, it is because either:
1- You are reading the blog from outside China and therefore you are not going through the GFW [...]

In the afternoon of the World Environment Day, the sky in Shanghai has gone almost completely black (brown?) at 3pm, and these little babies have fallen from the sky.

In the same time,  many “Environment Day” squadrons were busy in the parks and beaches for the 1 hour long volunteer cleaning up activity. I hope they [...]

Last year I wrote a post about foreign entrepreneurs in Shanghai that included a Big Question with a link:  Who gets rich in China? 该网页的搜索引擎吸引了点击量考虑其荒谬愚蠢的内容，这证明它确实是一个热点问题。 Time passed and I never got around to [...]

The mysterious ways of computer science.
Today for example, I completely panicked when I stumbled into one of the bugs of wordpress. For some reason, when you add a “click to read more” tag next to a section in bold, it goes and turns the whole blog to bold, including sidebar, titles and header. So yes, [...]

I was a bit reluctant to read “Chinese Gods”. I never had much of a taste for the mystical, and the rows of whiskered statues staring in the temples fail to arouse in me more than a cautious curiosity. But when I received the latest publications of Blacksmith, the promise of a book that “makes sense” [...]

From the post left unfinished last week. 主要论点有读（或听）在中国危机的讨论：
The Time
Economies don't grow indefinitely. 高低压循环周期，按照30年后，是时候。 中国不能打破经济规律，因此经济衰退必然在未来若干年。 The [...]

It was exactly one year ago, almost to the minute. 这是星期一，我们已开始在客户端的总部下午2点22楼的会议。 约一小时后，在激烈的谈判中，有一个尴尬的沉默。 It took a long moment before we understood what was making [...]

It's been half a year since the first announcement of the Chinese stimulus package, and the time has come to look back and ask ourselves: how is the Crisis doing to-day? Well, we don't need to surf very far to find some hints. Judging by the attention she gets  in the media, the Crisis is still [...]

Last Saturday we went down to Anar to watch the Lions of Puxi. This is a reggae band recently formed in Shanghai, with some familiar faces of the expat music scene, including some of the guys we usually see at JZ.
I am not much of a music critic, but I can say this band sounds good [...]

Chinese ultra-blogger Han Han is starting a magazine. He announced it previously on his blog, and his last post is already giving the details to send in article drafts and job applications. I learned this last night from my friend 2Ting, who was eagerly preparing her CV and intro letter. The literati of the post-80s [...]

一些在山西和陕西我最近旅行的照片。一如以往的版本，每张图片5个字。

The Shanxis have solid history

There are some alarming Gods

And alarming fire fighting equipment

Guanyu deserved better than polystyrene

The council should buy benches

The way of The Way

is a rather steep Way

No, I kid you not

Stairs are out of spec

Instant Noodles for [...]

哦，亲爱的。 这是一场灾难。 I haven't written anything for a month!
Now is when I have to come up with some good excuse. Like:  Spring has finally come to China; I have been travelling a bit in the dusty real-sphere of Shanxi; a band of homeland friends cheerfully invaded Shanghai, bringing with them some [...]

Today it was a calm morning, the perfect Sunny day to take a long lunch break like we do back in homeland. So at midday sharp I took my bike and rode over to my new favourite reading spot. It is a bright, silent cafe, where reading is the main part of the menu.  I [...]

“The country is changing so fast!” , this is one of the things I usually say back home  to explain why I find living in China so exciting. Today my street has changed very fast indeed.   Linder was lucky enough to spend the night in the garden, but other bikes where not so lucky. Inexorably [...]

This discussion on China Geeks caught my eye, mostly because it is one of the few that has managed to engage the real Chinese blogosphere to interact with us foreign China blogs. And no less than hecaitou, a respected blogger in both the Chinese and Western communities. 不幸的是，结果是相当令人沮丧。
It all started [...]

I first read about  “China Underground” last Friday, during my daily browse of the China blogs. I had never heard the name of Zachary Mexico before, but the review on  China Beat made me feel curious, so after work I stopped by the Garden bookshop and got my copy. Only 24 hours later I had [...]

另一项手机骗局终结者之一。
请看图片看看。 这个婴儿插进我的生命有一天在凌晨4点，正如我正准备转进入深睡眠。 我知道这是垃圾邮件，但我不能帮助反射。 I stretched out one arm, opened one eye and mentally [...]

My anonymous friend N. has sent in this picture recently taken in an underground station in Shanghai Xuhui. It is a poster depicting a (Kazakh?) horseman riding with a baby just at the moment when a Shanghai policeman has engaged him in a vicious exchange of toothiness.
Government slogans are some of the phrases that I [...]

NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS – Let's admit it. We've been watching closely the NPC, we read all the material available and we have written about it. And yet, this year again, we have no clue what the NPC is for. According to their own website, the NPC has legislative functions, so we tend to compare it [...]

我将我的香料提供有关我对Sinosphere每周参观一些博客的第一手意见。 这些大多是我做了以前在其他论坛上，我在这里收集的意见。 I will try to do this every week, subject to the rate at which my brain can churn out [...]

There was some buzz last week on the Chinese internet about this supposedly new concept of  Online Democracy. The excitement started with the weird “elude the cat” story, and then continued when Premier Wen JiaBao chatted online with “internet friends” .  David Bandurski of the China Media Project, who has been watching these things for [...]

Oh, thank you, thank you Xinhua and thank you editor Yan.

Thank you for adding now pictures to your yesterday's article :  China's “scientific development” works to counter economic downturn. And thank you for choosing the most beautiful of the slides you published last week, the one which I call:  “La vie en rosy”
Now it has [...]

Xinhua has come up with the most brilliant in-depth analysis of the economic crisis that we've read to date.
BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) — China's relatively fast economic growth has caught the eye of the world at a time when most of the countries are experiencing the full wrath of a raging economic slowdown.
As [...]

哇，有一些活动在这里这个星期。 这是将在耗尽了风头，我渴望找回我的互联网地位切碎肝脏。
不过不用担心，我想我只知道该怎么做：
Everybody knows that serious China bloggers don't do Chinglish. That's for newbies, and we are past [...]

Ever since I opened this blog the problem of credibility has been in the back of my mind. These days, the comments of a tenacious part-time troll, as well as some recent events that shook the Chinosphere have brought back the subject to the top of my agenda.
It is well known that Chinablogs* (defined as [...]

Today I am starting my review section with one of the books on Chinese economy that has impressed me most in the last year, “Capitalism with Chinese characteristics”, by MIT professor Huang Yasheng. It is a book that clearly stands out from the recent China books, and it might be destined to become one of [...]

The AFP dispatch says it all:
Seventy-four workers were confirmed dead and dozens trapped underground after a gas blast early on Sunday at a colliery in northern China, the worst accident to hit the nation's mines in over 14 months.
There is something very wrong with these news.  The paragraph should end with “the worst since the [...]

Finally, we have a new blogger in the community who has moved all the way to South America to bridge-blog about the Chinese expansion there and other interesting stuff.
Tom Pellman is Double Handshake. He was an editor in a well known economics magazine in Shanghai, he is almost trilingual in Chinese and he is now [...]

I just came across this picture on Hecaitou's Blog.  Brilliant:

I hate spoiling jokes, so those that can speak a bit of Chinese should figure it out by themselves.
For those who don't speak Chinese, see after the fold.

解决方案：
By now you should have noticed that the large Mao portrait is missing on the Tiananmen Gate. Mao in [...]

Over the weekend I read this post on zompist that creates a new writing system for English called  “Yingzi”: how would English look if it was written with characters. h/t FOARP
It is an enjoyable read and it is useful to explain to those back home that don't study Chinese how characters work. In Europe, when [...]

I have a bunch of friends back in Spain who are always quick to send me the juiciest China news coming up over there, and to supervise that I'm fulfilling my duties as a bridge blogger.
This time I have received a couple of links from Spanish newspapers El Pais and El Mundo where there is [...]

Last night I was going to stay in and write a long, thoughtful post. Instead I went out and took some pictures.
The first full moon marks the end of the New Year celebrations. It is called 元宵节, usually known in English as the Night of the Lanterns. Apart from the lanterns, there are also fireworks. And [...]

This is a bit of a silly post, I know, and I'm sure it has been done before. But I had to do it anyway. Yesterday I finally remembered to take a picture of my favourite sign in Shanghai, the Rules of the Green Administration Bureau.
It is the one that prohibits feudal behaviours, expects visitors [...]

More bad news about the Crisis. Yesterday All Roads had another of those worrying posts: 3 Announcements and 2 Rumours, and not one of them good.
Still, on our return from the double New Year's season, many of us are suprised to see the sky is not falling on our heads, and the dire predictions we [...]

Here is the illustrated report of our Fujian trip. Today I present some clear symptoms of blogorrhea after my 5 day internet abstinence. So we'll try to keep it ruly and live up to my Bull Year's resolutions. I am applying the special astringent potion: Max 5 words per picture. The rest in your imagination: [...]

What is the meaning of life and work? How can it possibly be so cold in the same latitude as the Sahara desert? Where did you put the camera's battery charger? What do you mean “where did YOU put”?
These and many others are the fundamental questions you ask when back to Shanghai after a [...]

今天是鼠年天。 Happy 牛 Year to all! 和byebye，我也不会围绕在未来数天：我到过那里的天气适合我的衣服，下到福建南部迷人的海岸。
I will take the chance before I pack up to write my little roundup [...]

Since I started posting about censorship I've noticed that the basics of the system are not clearly understood by many readers outside China. 这个职位分类和解释是在最简单的方法可能的系统。 It is largely drawn from my own experience as a user in China and from the studies [...]

我通常不会在本网站直接的指责，因为我知道比寻找冲突，我知道没有人是十全十美的，我们都会犯错误。
But this one I cannot let pass, it is too low and too gratuitous. It is sad: why does it have to be  China who tells the first Lies [...]

The guests just left, what a night! 在上海的公寓在我的最后一场比赛的紧张气氛，有很高的期望和历史感。 朋友们，不同国籍的一切，分享我的酒，并观看了奥巴马总统第一次演讲。 在18分钟的沉默已经完成。
Is it only me, or the first [...]

I can't wait to see the speech tonight. I have spent the whole midday lunch hour (and a bit more) tinkering with the NYT and others speech analysis sites. I have learnt more about the speeches of previous American presidents that I ever knew before. And in particular I have learnt one surprising detail.
Those who [...]

I was wondering lately why do I get so many people coming into my “Learning Chinese” category, which I haven't updated for ages. It struck me just now: of course, New Years Resolutions!
How many expat readers have made the firm resolution to improve their Chinese this year? I for one. Why do we do the [...]

我们正处在一个历史性的一周开始，我只是不能没有写关于奥巴马的就职典礼。 此博客还对不断变化的世界，这是一个机会，这将是周二的日子之一，改变了一切。 Call me a dreamer, but I want to believe that this new [...]

For those who are following the developments around Chrter 08:
I have discovered a website containing the full original Chinese Charter (+ translations) that is still not blocked by the censors. It is also open to comments, apparently not manipulated:
https://knol.google.com/k/-/-/3jhi1zdzvxj3f/9
Thanks to heroic advocate of freedom of speech David Ferguson who, by introducing himself as an editor [...]

Some strange things happening in this blog:
Post unpunned?
It is hard to resist when you are writing a post and you see the chance to put in one of your puns, but lately I've been pretty good at it. It's been more than a month, for example, that I don't refer to the Leadership of the [...]

You know how Wen Jia Bao asked us this week to have “faith and determination“, and added that the “nation will be the first to recover” from the crisis and grasp the opportunities available. Then come the experts of the World Economic Forum, who are getting ready for their yearly skiing holiday, and they publish [...]

上星期天，我做了一个关于中国互联网审查制度后，在不同的地方我的想法不一，恐怕最终的结果对于搜索引擎检查没有出来那样清楚，我并不介意。 I think it is an important subject, so here are the complete results:
We will be looking at [...]

哇！ The People's Daily (AKA the Mouthpiece Newspaper) is getting state-of-the-art technology for its online English edition: you can now listen to the articles at the same time as you read them. I'm just back from their website where I have heard these words of Grandpa Wen pronounced by HAL 9000:
“We must have faith and [...]

你会原谅写两行严重的职位我。 它的年龄已经不这样做，我们面临的危机任何东西，这几天在那里一直是一个关于这个问题的文章，我不能就这样放过系列。
Two of them have to do with the growth projections for 2009. Yawn. We've been seeing [...]

When I started my article about the Chrter 08 last month I couldn't help wondering if it was well worth the effort. Most of the English speaking blogs and media had been very quiet about this issue, and in China nobody seemed to know anything about it.  Two weeks after the Charter's publication, I thought [...]

I know I shouldn't be linking the same source all the time, but since I got my new coded connection I have rediscovered the Time China Blog and I just can't get my eyes off it. Check out this picture of the rich corn fields in Ningxia in their last post by Lin Yang. After [...]

I got a bit excited last night with my new VPN connection. For a few hours I thought I'd found Democracy in a Box, neatly packaged in a 40$ yearly subscription. I have been since exploring new horizons.
Today, second day using VPN I've had 2 surprises, one good and one bad:

The good one was to [...]

我不得不这样做，真的，我受不了了1秒多，这是我心烦。 这一切都非常好，显示团结和受苦的人，但我有我的极限。 This time back in Europe I got used to the advantages of an adult life and I can't [...]

As I was answering to a comment on the Chrter 08 post, I felt a sudden urge to find the original context for one of my favourite quotes, which stands on Instructions as a principle of this blog.
That is how I found again this beautiful passage which I can't resist copying here, although I know [...]

When I left China for the holidays I was pretty sure I would not manage to write a single line on the blog until my return. 中国就是这样一个刺激的地方，每一天我记下笔记，和我的博客我背后运行20个职位。 In Europe the stimulus would stop – [...]

I got a few email greetings today with this title and I found it particularly funny and adapted to year 2009.
For those who don't do Chinese, 牛 means “Ox” or “Cow”, and in mandarin it is pronounced “Niu”, which sounds similar to the English “New”.  So Happy 牛Year is basically what Chinese picture when they [...]

由于我写这篇条目，2008年已完成在中国。 Fortunately, we still have a few hours in Home Country to fit in my last 08 post before the evening aperitif. 我借此机会获得在行动回来后，这个星期的假期，并在2008年做我的小综述。
It has been a [...]

Barely two weeks after the publication of the Chrter 08, it has already become old news, lost in the indifference of Western media (with notable exceptions), and erased in China by the cold intervention of the censors. I want to examine here the importance of this document and give some more thought to it and [...]

Last 10th December, a group of Chinese human right activists published a document called Chrter 08,  requiring political reform in the PRC. This document has had surprisingly little impact in the Western media/blogging scene.
There is no telling right now how influential this document is going to be looking into potentially conflictive 2009. In any case, [...]

I love the way Xinhua refers to the People's Daily as a “mouthpiece newspaper”, or “the mouthpiece of the ruling party”. For example, in this otherwise boring article that I just read. Recommended if you need to doze off for a quick siesta.
I find all this mouthpiece thing funny in 3 different ways, which I [...]

Busy week. Yesterday I had to cancel my Chinese lesson in the last minute due to an unexpected request from one of my hardcore Chinese clients. It made me feel miserable, partly because I always feel like a 9-to-5 bitch when I have to break my word for a client. But most importantly, because I [...]

It is Friday. It's a beautiful, beautiful day. I'm in an excellent mood this morning, pondering the unexpected turns of Fate and Fortune.
I mean, take the weather in Shanghai, for example. Did you ever imagine we would see these long weeks of clean blue skies? You lose faith in things and then they happen, and [...]

This week David Dollar has a very informative post: On exchange rates, think multilaterally. 这是对人民币汇率的分析和他们对时间的变化。 Using one of those useful trade-weighted indexes that the World Bank likes so much, David goes over the history of RMB exchange rates from the 90s to [...]

Hm, no comments. I wonder what the readers are thinking of all this. I can picture some scratching their heads and trying to type in lines of zeros in their office calculator. “RMBs to the Moon? 垃圾！ Show me the money!”
Here's my little math for the non believers:
4,000,000,000,000RMB * (0.015m/10,000RMB)  =  6,000,000 m = 6,000 [...]

I was thinking last night of the stimulus package and of how, since the beginning of the crisis, economy has invaded every conversation, and we all go about speaking of Billions and Trillions like nobody's business.
And I have decided to write this little post to explain to my readers what is a Billion and what [...]

After what I wrote last week in my sensationalistic post of the Tower of Babel, I have continued to follow as promised my Path to Enlightment. The results are modest for the moment, but I've found already five good links to get me closer to smelling Chinese politics. And I have added these 5 links [...]

I have been looking carefully at the Xinhua serial feeder today, and it's been as expected: no news from Beijing. At least now we know who and when (Hu and Wen) attended the conference, but that's about all they tell us from The Annual Meeting to Set the Tone for the Economic Development Next Year.
So [...]

This week the international observers are observing us with renewed interest: China's Annual Central Economic Work Conference is being held in Beijing Monday to Wednesday, where the country's leaders will decide how to maintain a stable economic growth that will “improve people's livelihood“.
关于这次会议的期望，将改变世界高。 The [...]

One more from the Bridge Blogger:
Lately I have received by email these pictures that are widely circulating on the Spanish speaking internet. They apparently originated in Colombia, so they are referred by some as Colombianadas.
Colombianadas are the Latin American equivalent of Chinglish: signs and other pieces of writing with a twist of unintended humour. What [...]

Now that inflation seems under control, unemployment has been identified by most as the real threat to Chinese stability in 2009. The risk of massive layoffs and social unrest is so obvious that you hardly need an economist to identify it. My blue taxi driver was telling me about it only a minute ago.
在[...]

Today was a pretty stressful day in the office, but in between meetings I was able to join a lively discussion on the Fool's Mountain about the latest Dalai incident.
To wit, the French President said he will meet the DL in Poland during a ceremony in honour of Lech Walesa. China immediately threatened EU with [...]

These last years we've seen many of the big newspapers scanning and digitizing their historic archives, and sometimes even allowing full access to non-subscriptors. Such is the case of the NYT, Atlantic Monthly, Guardian and many others. 这些档案的研究构成很大的工具，并提供像正常值上限不可阻挡的历史书呆子眼睛糖果。
But thanks [...]

The other day it was too cold to get my Linder started, so I had to go and flag a cab instead. I got one of the green chubby ones.
Green cabs are well known for being stubborn, having a true passion for History and polishing their nails 5 times a day. Remember: never never sit [...]

Yesterday I read the World Bank's Quarterly Update on China. It is the report where they forecast the 7.5% annual growth for 2009.
First of all, I should thank chinalawblog for showing me the way to it, and also the World Bank itself for doing a very useful report that can be understood by dummies. 这[...]

Finally Friday. It's been an exhausting week and I feel like I need a little break. Sometimes I wonder why I ever took up Crisis Watch as a hobby. Other China blogs watch cool things like Scandal, or even Shoes. But Crises are an awful thing to watch, believe me. You watch it for a [...]

The China blogosphere brought us some disturbing news again today. This time it's about Foxconn, aka the Hon Hai Precision Industry, based in Taiwan. The rumour has it that it's planning to lay off 100,000.
You might remember Foxconn from the funny episode of the IphoneGirl that became world famous for a day. It might also [...]

I am quite excited about the new 2009 Growth Forecast for China issued by the World Bank, because it gives exactly the same figure  I estimated 2 months ago on my Crisis Page.
OK, granted there is a bit of luck in there. But, if you think of it, it was an obvious number to come [...]

Last night I was out for a little dance with one of my Shanghai friends. My performance must have been pretty good, because as we were leaving she invited me to join Kaixinwang, and added that she would buy me straight away if I bought her.
Now, I didn't know what to make of all this. [...]

I was writing just yesterday my latest Crisis article when I realized that in Shanghai we have our own economic weak link, with quite a lot of companies that are suffering as much as the Pearl River Delta workshops. I am speaking of foreign startups in Shanghai.
One of the things that makes Shanghai such an [...]

One of the advantages of Crisis Watching in China is that there's such a large community of observers dedicated to this country that you are never short of ideas. The downside is that with so many voices it is difficult to make sense of the whole thing. To the question in the title, for example, [...]

If you've been around in Shanghai today you might have noticed there was a Beijing nip in the air. One could almost smell the 烤鸭 as the temperature got rapidly freezing by midday. In the same time, the air felt clean like it does in the clean Northern winters, and it's been a great day [...]

I have decided I can't really run a serious China blog without the corresponding “learn Chinese” section.
So here you go. This first post is about the HSK (汉语水平考试), which is giving me a lot of trouble these days. HSK is the official test for Chinese language organized by the Beijing Language University. Also known as [...]

This weekend the leaders of the most powerful countries in the world met up in Washington to discuss how they are going to pull us out of the big economic mess where we are stuck deeper day after day. After a refreshing dinner in the white house including quail, lamb and Vermont brie, the leaders [...]

Last weekend, as I was browsing the net for some material to get over my post electoral withdrawal, I came across this iconic Obama.
I didn't know exactly what it was, but something in it looked very familiar. Very Chinese. I saved it in my Obama bookmarks, and didn't think of it again until Sunday evening.
That [...]

Just as I was writing the previous entry, I came across this article on the NYT about the packet of fiscal measures that China is taking to the upcoming G20 meeting in Washington. The $586 Billion Stimulus Plan has been announced today on the government website. I was surprised I hadn't seen it come on [...]

Finally, it looks like the Chinese authorities are going to get serious about internet addiction. My favourite Xinhua reader on the sidebar just brought in the scoop, straight from the medical research labs.
Internet addiction in China is a well known problem, and it has been quite present on China blogs these last weeks, following this [...]

Today was the opening ceremony of the 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition of Zhuhai, the main fair of the industry in China. These last days, my Xinhua reader at the bottom of the page has been spitting some interesting news for the occasion, and international media have been quick to follow.
Everybody in China [...]

Hong Kong – It feels good to travel just for fun once in a while. I flew to HongKong this weekend to say goodbye to a good friend who is leaving Asia, with the firm intention to relax, enjoy the city, and not indulge in any sort of  China watching activity.
My only serious mission was [...]

You know that feeling in the morning sometimes. You wake up with the lark, full of optimism to face a new day, and, before you even had the chance to smell the first espresso, trouble is knocking at your door.
这是今天上午就这样时，我的手机哔哔声。
It was a message from [...]

Shanghai – Last night I took my new camera to the 拉面 (lamian) restaurant down the street.  Everyone was excited to see me with the new baby, and Mehmet's apprentice absolutely insisted that I take some pictures of him Pulling the Mian. The result is this beautiful parabola underlining his smile.

More details on possibly the [...]

The Chinese internet community is enthusiastically building up resources to buy crisis stricken Iceland at a bargain. The webste Douban has taken seriously the ebay auction for the Island, and offers the first 10,000 chinese to join the investment group privileged access to houses on the seaside and to government positions. As a +, the [...]

During my travels these last weeks in Europe and Asia, and on my return to China, I have observed some rather striking contrasts. So much that they made me think a lot about the present state of Chinese economy, and here is a word about it.
Two different ways of seeing the world
I was in Europe [...]

Finally, I got my blog in English. It's unbelievable how long time it has taken me to setup the baby. Wordpress is piece of cake they say, but when you try to change this font and rearrange that sidebar, and then you see some fancy pic you feel like using for your header. And you [...]

I got a few email greetings today with this title and I found it particularly funny and adapted to year 2009.
For those who don't do Chinese, 牛 means “Ox” or “Cow”, and in mandarin it is pronounced “Niu”, which sounds similar to the English “New”.  So Happy 牛Year is basically what Chinese picture when they [...]

This is a bit of a silly post, I know, and I'm sure it has been done before. But I had to do it anyway. Yesterday I finally remembered to take a picture of my favourite sign in Shanghai, the Rules of the Green Administration Bureau.
It is the one that prohibits feudal behaviours, expects visitors [...]

Last night I was going to stay in and write a long, thoughtful post. Instead I went out and took some pictures.
The first full moon marks the end of the New Year celebrations. It is called 元宵节, usually known in English as the Night of the Lanterns. Apart from the lanterns, there are also fireworks. And [...]

哇，有一些活动在这里这个星期。 这是将在耗尽了风头，我渴望找回我的互联网地位切碎肝脏。
不过不用担心，我想我只知道该怎么做：
Everybody knows that serious China bloggers don't do Chinglish. That's for newbies, and we are past [...]

It is common knowledge that studying a foreign language involves studying a culture. Consciously or not, that is the main reason why people enjoy it. If it weren't for its cultural content, a language would be little more than an empty set of code-words and rules designed with an exasperatingly faulty logic. And learning languages would be just [...]

Yesterday I went for a walk on Nanjing Lu and I witnessed a strange phenomenon I had not seen before: the mooncake brokers. It was last Saturday of mooncake picking season, so they were all busily walking up and down the street, scanning the crowds for potential buyers and sellers.
A bit of background: Every few [...]

There are some beliefs that, although not originally from China, were embraced so thoroughly by the Chinese that they became part of the local culture. One example is Buddhism, imported from India in ancient times. Another one, I have found out, is the teaching of the modern management gurus, imported from the USA.
这是[...]

Look what I found in my letterbox today. An advert for the "Toothy Rabbit's Children's EQ Camp!"
Those of you who are patient enough to stick to this blog might remember the last post I did about the popularity of self-help/business books in China, and in particular those related to Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Not surprising [...]

It looks like Charles over at the new China Divide blog has found a new source of clicks to revive the China blogging scene: debating the crackdown on pornography in China.
While I don't usually support any kind of censorship, I have to say I couldn't care less for the cause of porn in China. 从[...]

This is a new feature in my blog. It is a follow up of the initial Language and Culture posts last year, and I commit from now on to continue the series every Thursday that I feel like it. The idea is to post about those language curiosities that I encounter in my study of [...]

In this week's language post I want to examine the gender implications in the Chinese written and spoken language, and the reactions of the Chinese women to the many discriminatory expressions in use today.
Given that most traditional cultures were extremely sexist by today's standards, it is very common to have sexist elements embedded in today's languages. 在[...]

In this week's language post I want to speak about language protectionism. I am not sure this is the word I am looking for, but if you have been following the blogs for the last couple of weeks you probably know what I mean. It all started with this proposal last month to ban English [...]

I never thought of this before, but when I was asked this week which was my favourite province in China, I naturally answered Zhejiang. I have been travelling there again on QingMing holidays and I have been reflecting what a remarkable place it is.
Zhejiang is the smallest province in the mainland, just a bit larger [...]

Today I just wanted to comment on the mysterious world of Chinese punctuation. It is a fascinating field in these times when everyone accuses Chinese of discriminating against our foreign symbols. In fact, there is a kind of foreign symbols that are used in practically every sentence of modern Chinese: the points, the commas, and [...]

This week I have little time to do the Language post, partly because I have been busy writing a short story, partly because I have already discussed a good deal about language in other blogs. I take advantage of this to do the post with my final views on Shanghainese after the long discussion we [...]

One of the things that foreigners enjoy lamenting in China is the destruction of architectural heritage. It is understandable, modern China has a terrible record of heritage destruction, and today there are cities with 2,000 years of history where it is hard to find any trace of old construction. But the worst is that you can [...]

I was flying back from Chongqing recently when I was reminded of the very frustrating problem of reading Chinese. There was a movie on the cabin TV and it had a particularity: it carried subtitles in Chinese and English in parallel, in two lines of comparable font at the bottom of the screen.
As I watched I [...]

In the 2010 Social Blue Paper, published last December by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, there was a very interesting piece hidden among the 330 pages of socio-economic analysis. Under the title “Population problems China should pay attention to between 2011 and 2015″, this article contained some of the newest and most negative data [...]

During my travels these last weeks in Europe and Asia, and on my return to China, I have observed some rather striking contrasts. So much that they made me think a lot about the present state of Chinese economy, and here is a word about it.
Two different ways of seeing the world
I was in Europe [...]

Today was the opening ceremony of the 7th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition of Zhuhai, the main fair of the industry in China. These last days, my Xinhua reader at the bottom of the page has been spitting some interesting news for the occasion, and international media have been quick to follow.
Everybody in China [...]

Just as I was writing the previous entry, I came across this article on the NYT about the packet of fiscal measures that China is taking to the upcoming G20 meeting in Washington. The $586 Billion Stimulus Plan has been announced today on the government website. I was surprised I hadn't seen it come on [...]

This weekend the leaders of the most powerful countries in the world met up in Washington to discuss how they are going to pull us out of the big economic mess where we are stuck deeper day after day. After a refreshing dinner in the white house including quail, lamb and Vermont brie, the leaders [...]

One of the advantages of Crisis Watching in China is that there's such a large community of observers dedicated to this country that you are never short of ideas. The downside is that with so many voices it is difficult to make sense of the whole thing. To the question in the title, for example, [...]

I was writing just yesterday my latest Crisis article when I realized that in Shanghai we have our own economic weak link, with quite a lot of companies that are suffering as much as the Pearl River Delta workshops. I am speaking of foreign startups in Shanghai.
One of the things that makes Shanghai such an [...]

I am quite excited about the new 2009 Growth Forecast for China issued by the World Bank, because it gives exactly the same figure  I estimated 2 months ago on my Crisis Page.
OK, granted there is a bit of luck in there. But, if you think of it, it was an obvious number to come [...]

The China blogosphere brought us some disturbing news again today. This time it's about Foxconn, aka the Hon Hai Precision Industry, based in Taiwan. The rumour has it that it's planning to lay off 100,000.
You might remember Foxconn from the funny episode of the IphoneGirl that became world famous for a day. It might also [...]

Yesterday I read the World Bank's Quarterly Update on China. It is the report where they forecast the 7.5% annual growth for 2009.
First of all, I should thank chinalawblog for showing me the way to it, and also the World Bank itself for doing a very useful report that can be understood by dummies. 这[...]

Now that inflation seems under control, unemployment has been identified by most as the real threat to Chinese stability in 2009. The risk of massive layoffs and social unrest is so obvious that you hardly need an economist to identify it. My blue taxi driver was telling me about it only a minute ago.
在[...]

This week the international observers are observing us with renewed interest: China's Annual Central Economic Work Conference is being held in Beijing Monday to Wednesday, where the country's leaders will decide how to maintain a stable economic growth that will “improve people's livelihood“.
关于这次会议的期望，将改变世界高。 The [...]

I have been looking carefully at the Xinhua serial feeder today, and it's been as expected: no news from Beijing. At least now we know who and when (Hu and Wen) attended the conference, but that's about all they tell us from The Annual Meeting to Set the Tone for the Economic Development Next Year.
So [...]

I was thinking last night of the stimulus package and of how, since the beginning of the crisis, economy has invaded every conversation, and we all go about speaking of Billions and Trillions like nobody's business.
And I have decided to write this little post to explain to my readers what is a Billion and what [...]

Hm, no comments. I wonder what the readers are thinking of all this. I can picture some scratching their heads and trying to type in lines of zeros in their office calculator. “RMBs to the Moon? 垃圾！ Show me the money!”
Here's my little math for the non believers:
4,000,000,000,000RMB * (0.015m/10,000RMB)  =  6,000,000 m = 6,000 [...]

This week David Dollar has a very informative post: On exchange rates, think multilaterally. 这是对人民币汇率的分析和他们对时间的变化。 Using one of those useful trade-weighted indexes that the World Bank likes so much, David goes over the history of RMB exchange rates from the 90s to [...]

当我离开中国的假日，我敢肯定我不会管理，直到我写的博客返回一行。 中国就是这样一个刺激的地方，每一天我记下笔记，和我的博客我背后运行20个职位。 In Europe the stimulus would stop – [...]

I know I shouldn't be linking the same source all the time, but since I got my new coded connection I have rediscovered the Time China Blog and I just can't get my eyes off it. Check out this picture of the rich corn fields in Ningxia in their last post by Lin Yang. After [...]

你会原谅写两行严重的职位我。 它的年龄已经不这样做，我们面临的危机任何东西，这几天在那里一直是一个关于这个问题的文章，我不能就这样放过系列。
Two of them have to do with the growth projections for 2009. Yawn. We've been seeing [...]

You know how Wen Jia Bao asked us this week to have “faith and determination“, and added that the “nation will be the first to recover” from the crisis and grasp the opportunities available. Then come the experts of the World Economic Forum, who are getting ready for their yearly skiing holiday, and they publish [...]

More bad news about the Crisis. Yesterday All Roads had another of those worrying posts: 3 Announcements and 2 Rumours, and not one of them good.
Still, on our return from the double New Year's season, many of us are suprised to see the sky is not falling on our heads, and the dire predictions we [...]

Finally, we have a new blogger in the community who has moved all the way to South America to bridge-blog about the Chinese expansion there and other interesting stuff.
Tom Pellman is Double Handshake. He was an editor in a well known economics magazine in Shanghai, he is almost trilingual in Chinese and he is now [...]

Today I am starting my review section with one of the books on Chinese economy that has impressed me most in the last year, “Capitalism with Chinese characteristics”, by MIT professor Huang Yasheng. It is a book that clearly stands out from the recent China books, and it might be destined to become one of [...]

Xinhua has come up with the most brilliant in-depth analysis of the economic crisis that we've read to date.
BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) — China's relatively fast economic growth has caught the eye of the world at a time when most of the countries are experiencing the full wrath of a raging economic slowdown.
As [...]

Oh, thank you, thank you Xinhua and thank you editor Yan.

Thank you for adding now pictures to your yesterday's article :  China's “scientific development” works to counter economic downturn. And thank you for choosing the most beautiful of the slides you published last week, the one which I call:  “La vie en rosy”
Now it has [...]

It's been half a year since the first announcement of the Chinese stimulus package, and the time has come to look back and ask ourselves: how is the Crisis doing to-day? Well, we don't need to surf very far to find some hints. Judging by the attention she gets  in the media, the Crisis is still [...]

From the post left unfinished last week. 主要论点有读（或听）在中国危机的讨论：
The Time
经济不发展下去。 高低压循环周期，按照30年后，是时候。 中国不能打破经济规律，因此经济衰退必然在未来若干年。 The [...]

Last year I wrote a post about foreign entrepreneurs in Shanghai that included a Big Question with a link:  Who gets rich in China? 该网页的搜索引擎吸引了点击量考虑其荒谬愚蠢的内容，这证明它确实是一个热点问题。 Time passed and I never got around to [...]

I enjoyed reading this article by Evelyn Chan on the Carter Center blog. It is clear and well written and in my opinion it is right on the money. It's the article I would have liked to write on the stimulus package (h/t  CDT)
When it comes to Chinese economy I have always been a bit of [...]

The Tiger is coming to the surface. The New decade has already come in the West, and in China we are again in this no man's land between the Solar and the Lunar New Year, between the Bull and the Tiger. It is time to look back and see where we stand.
In World politics [...]

I have written a lot recently about the Great Firewall of China (GFW). I had my site blocked for two weeks and this inspired some frustrated posts until eventually I worked my way through the Wall. The good news is I learnt a lot in the process, and now I can write some tips to [...]

Finally, I got my blog in English. It's unbelievable how long time it has taken me to setup the baby. Wordpress is piece of cake they say, but when you try to change this font and rearrange that sidebar, and then you see some fancy pic you feel like using for your header. And you [...]

The Chinese internet community is enthusiastically building up resources to buy crisis stricken Iceland at a bargain. The webste Douban has taken seriously the ebay auction for the Island, and offers the first 10,000 chinese to join the investment group privileged access to houses on the seaside and to government positions. As a +, the [...]

Finally, it looks like the Chinese authorities are going to get serious about internet addiction. My favourite Xinhua reader on the sidebar just brought in the scoop, straight from the medical research labs.
Internet addiction in China is a well known problem, and it has been quite present on China blogs these last weeks, following this [...]

Last night I was out for a little dance with one of my Shanghai friends. My performance must have been pretty good, because as we were leaving she invited me to join Kaixinwang, and added that she would buy me straight away if I bought her.
Now, I didn't know what to make of all this. [...]

这些年我们已经看到许多报纸大扫描和数字化的历史档案，有时甚至允许完全访问非subscriptors。 Such is the case of the NYT, Atlantic Monthly, Guardian and many others. 这些档案的研究构成很大的工具，并提供像正常值上限不可阻挡的历史书呆子眼睛糖果。
But thanks [...]

I love the way Xinhua refers to the People's Daily as a “mouthpiece newspaper”, or “the mouthpiece of the ruling party”. For example, in this otherwise boring article that I just read. Recommended if you need to doze off for a quick siesta.
I find all this mouthpiece thing funny in 3 different ways, which I [...]

I got a bit excited last night with my new VPN connection. For a few hours I thought I'd found Democracy in a Box, neatly packaged in a 40$ yearly subscription. I have been since exploring new horizons.
Today, second day using VPN I've had 2 surprises, one good and one bad:

The good one was to [...]

哇！ The People's Daily (AKA the Mouthpiece Newspaper) is getting state-of-the-art technology for its online English edition: you can now listen to the articles at the same time as you read them. I'm just back from their website where I have heard these words of Grandpa Wen pronounced by HAL 9000:
“We must have faith and [...]

上星期天，我做了一个关于中国互联网审查制度后，在不同的地方我的想法不一，恐怕最终的结果对于搜索引擎检查没有出来那样清楚，我并不介意。 我认为这是一个重要的课题，所以这里是完整的结果：
We will be looking at [...]

我通常不会在本网站直接的指责，因为我知道比寻找冲突，我知道没有人是十全十美的，我们都会犯错误。
But this one I cannot let pass, it is too low and too gratuitous. It is sad: why does it have to be  China who tells the first Lies [...]

Since I started posting about censorship I've noticed that the basics of the system are not clearly understood by many readers outside China. 这个职位分类和解释是在最简单的方法可能的系统。 It is largely drawn from my own experience as a user in China and from the studies [...]

There was some buzz last week on the Chinese internet about this supposedly new concept of  Online Democracy. The excitement started with the weird “elude the cat” story, and then continued when Premier Wen JiaBao chatted online with “internet friends” .  David Bandurski of the China Media Project, who has been watching these things for [...]

Chinese ultra-blogger Han Han is starting a magazine. He announced it previously on his blog, and his last post is already giving the details to send in article drafts and job applications. I learned this last night from my friend 2Ting, who was eagerly preparing her CV and intro letter. The literati of the post-80s [...]

正是一年前，几乎到了分钟。 这是星期一，我们已开始在客户端的总部下午2点22楼的会议。 约一小时后，在激烈的谈判中，有一个尴尬的沉默。 It took a long moment before we understood what was making [...]

So guess what now:  I am blocked.
I am banned, prohibited, harmonized, river-crabbed. Censored, in short, by the Great FireWall of China. If you are reading my blog now and have not noticed anything strange, it is because either:
1- You are reading the blog from outside China and therefore you are not going through the GFW [...]

So OK, I am censored, but why NOW?
I mean, I haven't been writing anything for ages, is the Propaganda Department punishing me for being lazy? Has some big Chinese BBS  linked to me recently, is Uln hot now? As I was looking around for an answer, I found out that the Peking Duck blog was blocked [...]

It was about time Mozilla issued their new revision. Ever since Firefox emerged as the big challenger of Explorer many of us switched to this swift browser with the unlimited add-ons.
As time passed, we grew so used to all the fox capabilities that it became normal for an internet browser to perform the most various [...]

So there you are. July 1st passed without any major incident and the famous Anonymous Netizens didn't show up. I am as blocked as ever and the Nutty Nannies of China are still running loose on the web, unimpressed by the headless suit .
I cannot say it is a surprise, frankly the chances of anything [...]

This week I had some interesting conversations on other blogs, mostly regarding my state of internet blockdom and the possible actions that a webmaster can take to solve this problem. I will share here some conclusions that might be of interest.
Just to make sure we don't forget anything, I will go first over the most [...]

I have written a lot recently about the Great Firewall of China (GFW). I had my site blocked for two weeks and this inspired some frustrated posts until eventually I worked my way through the Wall. The good news is I learnt a lot in the process, and now I can write some tips to [...]

Have you been watching Xinjiang TV these days? I am a fan. It's the new Love TV, a 24-7 concentrate of all the corniest efforts by the Chinese official media to promote harmony after the events of 5th July. Smiling kids, flowery dances, long meetings of interethnic neighbour associations discussing love and togetherness. Best [...]

I just learn from Reuters that US is testing system to break foreign Web censorship. This is the first news I have that the US government is trying to outsmart the GFW. Fantastic, after the anonymous hackers now it is the most powerful state in the World that will confront the dreaded wall. The war [...]

There's been a lot of things coming up lately in the field of “demise of the media“. In particular in China we have seen the spectacular series of posts by James Fallows and others, casting some light on the results of Obama's visit to China. For the Old vs. New media debate this cannot count [...]

I was tinkering with some statistics last night, considering that strange idea of the Insularity of the Chinese Internet that we've been discussing lately. The expression itself is odd, because “internet” and “insularity” form an oxymoron, but you hardly notice these things when you live here. It's normal routine in the land of socialist market [...]

Read this rant against Han Han on the China Daily. I have to say I didn't like the tone, it reads like it's written by an envious loser. But it is the intelligent kind of loser, and he hits the nail on the head several times.
He is absolutely right in the main thesis of the [...]

Goodbye 2009. Here is another Year-End Special of Chinayouren, the first after a full year of operation. Thanks all for sticking around.
As usual we will start with the popularity of China in the news. This year it is more interesting than ever, because 2010 is a round number, and the early-birds of the China Experts [...]

By the way, I watched the movie Avatar last night. It was an amazing experience for a China observer, and I draw this enlightening conclusion: the film has absolutely nothing to do with China.
Even if the king of the internet and man of the year Han Han thinks the opposite, the plot has [...]

哇。 Baidu.com has been hacked this morning around 9:30 and is just back on at 3pm. More than 5:30 hours downtime.
Worst of all, they have no way to hide it was a hack, even the People's Daily published the picture. Perhaps the party media does not consider websites as part of China's glorious industry and [...]

First of all, read this article posted on the Google official blog. It is all you need to read for the moment because there is no more first hand info out there yet.
It was published some 5 hours ago. What it says in a rather muddled way is essentially:

That Google has detected attacks resulting [...]

Following the previous post about Google and China, here are my reflections regarding the foreseeable consequences of all this. First of all, an important clarification: I don't think fighting against censorship is bad. Censorship in China is very real, it is a disgrace not only for activists but for most honest Chinese, and it only [...]

已经很少有新的信息今天大部分的媒体和博客是扭转了同样的想法，其中很多已经在前面提到的2系列的职位。
Here are a few interesting new points I have gathered that I think are worth commenting:

There has been a call by [...]

我知道，有在世界其他新闻，我可能不会对他们给予足够的重视。 但我不能帮助它，我一直在试图了解谷歌的决定的最后48小时超频，我看了每一个文章出现在互联网络上。 而且我还是不明白这一点。
I want to [...]

十年的战斗某些图片，非恶公司反对对中国政府的黑暗势力贬】共产主义者谷歌。 Below the logo on Google.cn today. Clearly, the big G is sending a message to the Chinese: we respect you, we dig your ancient culture, it is just the disgusting authorities of your [...]

The news of the resignation of Baidu's Chief Technical Officer Li Yinan came as a shock to Chinayouren, where I am still gaping at the CDT with goggling eyes.
This is going to make more noise now than it would normally, as people will be quick to find connections with the Google China affair and the [...]

Looking back to what I wrote last week I realize that, in my effort to keep a cool head and analyze the events, I forgot to say a very important thing: I Respect Google. I have never had any doubt of the non-business nature of their decision, and, in spite of our poll's results, I am [...]

You might be wondering why this story of Google is taking up so much space in this otherwise low-tech blog. 我为好。 我觉得我着迷的是第一手的消息后，几乎完全缺席的G炸弹。 The time is for speculation, and for China bloggers and tea leave readers [...]

回到了工作岗位。 关于重新阅读，我都觉得我可能过于乐观昨天的感觉。 Sure, the style of Google's announcement betrayed personal involvement, and once at the negotiation table it is to be expected that a more businesslike atmosphere will prevail. But even if G shuts up, it is not sure [...]

圣烟！
事情是中国移动在谷歌。
I have been working for the last 12 hours with Google docs, and I just realize I was using Yi's computer, the one that doesn't have the VPN installed. This means that Google Documents is unblocked since  yesterday evening at least.  And so is Google Groups! Both sites were blocked [...]

NOTE: For those readers who've been offline for the past 3 days, this is a post about Google Buzz, the new Google service that has invaded the World's mailboxes this week.
But take it easy, hold on a sec, don't rush to your GFW test tools, this has not happened yet. I just want to be [...]

Finally, after a long week of intense NPC-CPPCC coverage, the first signs of the spring are starting to bloom in the press of Shanghai. The Oriental Morning Post opens with a picture of the large billboards promoting the EXPO on New York's Times square, while its archrival, the more conservative Shanghai Morning Post, shows the [...]

The case of Google's new approach to China is moving slower than expected, but I have the feeling that we may see something happen pretty soon. After the New Year, the Double Meetings are almost over and the Chinese government will probably want to have this cleared before the next big item in the agenda, [...]

This morning I was doing some tests on Google to see if there was any change in the search results, and I noticed one detail I had not thought of before: although everyone is describing Google.cn as “hosted in China”, the IP is American, as you can see on whois.
In fact, other than the deals with advertisers [...]

So Google has done it finally. My worst predictions have turned out to be right, and Google.cn is living on in exile, challenging the authority of the Chinese government from Hong Kong. 发言燃烧的桥梁。
像往常一样，我们大部分的评论家那里都搞错了。 This is not about Google offering an [...]

有多少次我们看到了什么才算是中国软实力论坛讨论呢？ 这是白方神秘的力量，在国际政治中的绝地使用，把所有的论据，他们的优势？ China has coveted this weapon for years and spent many a valuable resource in its quest, but all [...]

The debate about the New Media and the Death of the Newspapers has been raging for years on the free internet. In the Chinese intranet [1], however, this question doesn't raise so much interest, because journalism here was already murdered long ago by the hideous hand of the censors. It is for this reason that [...]

Last week I did a post where I gave three reasons why I thought the Oriental Morning Post was going to the dogs. This week I read an article on the DeluxZilla blog from Shanghai that makes the following observation:
Despite being a party newspaper, I am more a fan of the Shanghai Morning Post (新闻辰报) [...]

China Files is looking for an English native speaker based in Shanghai for a part time job during the EXPO shanghai 2010.

Preferably with journalism or media related experience.
Experience in video and photography will be an advantage.

We're looking for someone clever, active and with excellent communication skills. This person will be in charge of the press coverage [...]

Here is an update to yesterday's review of Han Han, with some additional info about the Time nomination, which might be more important than it appears at first sight.
Then, if you stay till the end of this chapter, we will put on the yellow socks to analyze a bit more that terrible scourge of our [...]

This little piece by historian Hong Zhenkuai has been taken down from the Southern Metropolis, but it has managed to escape the censors on some other sites. I liked the subtle way Hong criticizes the reigning CCP dynasty, and the cool Chinese rendering of “L'Etat c'est moi” as “朕即国家“.
Since I don't have the time [...]

Today I just wanted to share this picture, taken by one of the brave reporters in the Oriental toilet paper, who were first on the scene:

This is a brand new sculpture called “communication”, just arrived from the US to Shanghai to commemorate the 30 years of the opening of relations between the two countries. 它[...]

A little update on the Oriental Morning Post. I know nobody is interested because nobody actually reads this paper (not even its editors), but for the sake of consistency I have to inform of their new exploits. Follow me in this new chapter of their fascinating spiral to hell.
The weekend's Oriental had the following breakthroughs:
A [...]

Here is the post I promised analyzing the fate of our friend Michael in the Tianya BBS.  Michael (卖抠) is the main character in the little Chinese story I wrote last week. I didn't write the story particularly for this purpose, but once it was there I thought it would be a good idea to [...]

I have decided I can't really run a serious China blog without the corresponding “learn Chinese” section.
So here you go. This first post is about the HSK (汉语水平考试), which is giving me a lot of trouble these days. HSK is the official test for Chinese language organized by the Beijing Language University. Also known as [...]

Finally Friday. It's been an exhausting week and I feel like I need a little break. Sometimes I wonder why I ever took up Crisis Watch as a hobby. Other China blogs watch cool things like Scandal, or even Shoes. But Crises are an awful thing to watch, believe me. You watch it for a [...]

Busy week. Yesterday I had to cancel my Chinese lesson in the last minute due to an unexpected request from one of my hardcore Chinese clients. It made me feel miserable, partly because I always feel like a 9-to-5 bitch when I have to break my word for a client. But most importantly, because I [...]

I got a few email greetings today with this title and I found it particularly funny and adapted to year 2009.
For those who don't do Chinese, 牛 means “Ox” or “Cow”, and in mandarin it is pronounced “Niu”, which sounds similar to the English “New”.  So Happy 牛Year is basically what Chinese picture when they [...]

I was wondering lately why do I get so many people coming into my “Learning Chinese” category, which I haven't updated for ages. It struck me just now: of course, New Years Resolutions!
How many expat readers have made the firm resolution to improve their Chinese this year? I for one. Why do we do the [...]

Over the weekend I read this post on zompist that creates a new writing system for English called  “Yingzi”: how would English look if it was written with characters. h/t FOARP
It is an enjoyable read and it is useful to explain to those back home that don't study Chinese how characters work. In Europe, when [...]

It is common knowledge that studying a foreign language involves studying a culture. Consciously or not, that is the main reason why people enjoy it. If it weren't for its cultural content, a language would be little more than an empty set of code-words and rules designed with an exasperatingly faulty logic. And learning languages would be just [...]

The other day I saw a tourist bus from Nanjing that caught my eye. On one side the name of the travel company was written in Chinese characters, and below it there was a text written in a mysterious language:
“ISGNOG NAIXUOY EHCIQ UOYVL NAITGNEH GNIJ NAN”
Initially I thought it must be Uyghur, but then [...]

I am back to Shanghai with some interesting anecdotes and some mildly funny pictures of Japan. Unfortunately, I will not be able to post any of that,  because this week I am busy with work trips in China, and especially because this is the HSK week. It is just as well, I guess, after [...]

I know, I should be studying right now, and not writing posts. But I was just breathing slightly between two sessions of 模拟考试, and I reflected on the fascinating process of learning a new language, and on how, when you have been through it a few times, you end up developing your own secret methods [...]

There comes a point in the life of every student of mandarin when he feels the call to write about the difficulty of the language. The time has finally come for me, and I will follow the path of the masters. In fact, I intend to go even further. I am set out to prove [...]

Last Friday I wrote a very long post where I ended up including too many ideas. The main point got a bit obscured as a result, but it was simply this: that vocabulary plays an essential role in learning a language, and that because of this Chinese is not only extremely difficult at an advanced [...]

In the first two posts of this series, we saw that Chinese is the last language in the World to maintain a complete set of independent vocabulary roots and a non-phonetic script to represent them, what we might call a separate Word System. For this reason I argued that Chinese may be the most difficult [...]

This is a new feature in my blog. It is a follow up of the initial Language and Culture posts last year, and I commit from now on to continue the series every Thursday that I feel like it. The idea is to post about those language curiosities that I encounter in my study of [...]

In this week's language post I want to examine the gender implications in the Chinese written and spoken language, and the reactions of the Chinese women to the many discriminatory expressions in use today.
Given that most traditional cultures were extremely sexist by today's standards, it is very common to have sexist elements embedded in today's languages. 在[...]

In this week's language post I want to speak about language protectionism. I am not sure this is the word I am looking for, but if you have been following the blogs for the last couple of weeks you probably know what I mean. It all started with this proposal last month to ban English [...]

Today I just wanted to comment on the mysterious world of Chinese punctuation. It is a fascinating field in these times when everyone accuses Chinese of discriminating against our foreign symbols. In fact, there is a kind of foreign symbols that are used in practically every sentence of modern Chinese: the points, the commas, and [...]

Here is my first short story in Chinese. The title is “Lost in Translation”, and it illustrates the potential consequences of bad mandarin pronunciation. If you don't read Chinese I left a little summary in comments, or else use G Translator to get the enhanced experience [1].
UPDATE: I have reposted this on Tianya to give [...]

This week I have little time to do the Language post, partly because I have been busy writing a short story, partly because I have already discussed a good deal about language in other blogs. I take advantage of this to do the post with my final views on Shanghainese after the long discussion we [...]

I was flying back from Chongqing recently when I was reminded of the very frustrating problem of reading Chinese. There was a movie on the cabin TV and it had a particularity: it carried subtitles in Chinese and English in parallel, in two lines of comparable font at the bottom of the screen.
As I watched I [...]

Shanghai – Last night I took my new camera to the 拉面 (lamian) restaurant down the street.  Everyone was excited to see me with the new baby, and Mehmet's apprentice absolutely insisted that I take some pictures of him Pulling the Mian. The result is this beautiful parabola underlining his smile.

More details on possibly the [...]

你知道，有时在早上感觉。 You wake up with the lark, full of optimism to face a new day, and, before you even had the chance to smell the first espresso, trouble is knocking at your door.
这是今天上午就这样时，我的手机哔哔声。
It was a message from [...]

Hong Kong – It feels good to travel just for fun once in a while. I flew to HongKong this weekend to say goodbye to a good friend who is leaving Asia, with the firm intention to relax, enjoy the city, and not indulge in any sort of  China watching activity.
My only serious mission was [...]

Last weekend, as I was browsing the net for some material to get over my post electoral withdrawal, I came across this iconic Obama.
I didn't know exactly what it was, but something in it looked very familiar. Very Chinese. I saved it in my Obama bookmarks, and didn't think of it again until Sunday evening.
That [...]

If you've been around in Shanghai today you might have noticed there was a Beijing nip in the air. One could almost smell the 烤鸭 as the temperature got rapidly freezing by midday. In the same time, the air felt clean like it does in the clean Northern winters, and it's been a great day [...]

I was writing just yesterday my latest Crisis article when I realized that in Shanghai we have our own economic weak link, with quite a lot of companies that are suffering as much as the Pearl River Delta workshops. I am speaking of foreign startups in Shanghai.
One of the things that makes Shanghai such an [...]

The other day it was too cold to get my Linder started, so I had to go and flag a cab instead. I got one of the green chubby ones.
Green cabs are well known for being stubborn, having a true passion for History and polishing their nails 5 times a day. Remember: never never sit [...]

One more from the Bridge Blogger:
Lately I have received by email these pictures that are widely circulating on the Spanish speaking internet. They apparently originated in Colombia, so they are referred by some as Colombianadas.
Colombianadas are the Latin American equivalent of Chinglish: signs and other pieces of writing with a twist of unintended humour. What [...]

After what I wrote last week in my sensationalistic post of the Tower of Babel, I have continued to follow as promised my Path to Enlightment. The results are modest for the moment, but I've found already five good links to get me closer to smelling Chinese politics. And I have added these 5 links [...]

I was thinking last night of the stimulus package and of how, since the beginning of the crisis, economy has invaded every conversation, and we all go about speaking of Billions and Trillions like nobody's business.
And I have decided to write this little post to explain to my readers what is a Billion and what [...]

Hm, no comments. I wonder what the readers are thinking of all this. I can picture some scratching their heads and trying to type in lines of zeros in their office calculator. “RMBs to the Moon? 垃圾！ Show me the money!”
Here's my little math for the non believers:
4,000,000,000,000RMB * (0.015m/10,000RMB)  =  6,000,000 m = 6,000 [...]

It is Friday. It's a beautiful, beautiful day. I'm in an excellent mood this morning, pondering the unexpected turns of Fate and Fortune.
I mean, take the weather in Shanghai, for example. Did you ever imagine we would see these long weeks of clean blue skies? You lose faith in things and then they happen, and [...]

由于我写这篇条目，2008年已完成在中国。 Fortunately, we still have a few hours in Home Country to fit in my last 08 post before the evening aperitif. 我借此机会获得在行动回来后，这个星期的假期，并在2008年做我的小综述。
It has been a [...]

我不得不这样做，真的，我受不了了1秒多，这是我心烦。 这一切都非常好，显示团结和受苦的人，但我有我的极限。 This time back in Europe I got used to the advantages of an adult life and I can't [...]

I know I shouldn't be linking the same source all the time, but since I got my new coded connection I have rediscovered the Time China Blog and I just can't get my eyes off it. Check out this picture of the rich corn fields in Ningxia in their last post by Lin Yang. After [...]

Some strange things happening in this blog:
Post unpunned?
It is hard to resist when you are writing a post and you see the chance to put in one of your puns, but lately I've been pretty good at it. It's been more than a month, for example, that I don't refer to the Leadership of the [...]

我们正处在一个历史性的一周开始，我只是不能没有写关于奥巴马的就职典礼。 此博客还对不断变化的世界，这是一个机会，这将是周二的日子之一，改变了一切。 Call me a dreamer, but I want to believe that this new [...]

I can't wait to see the speech tonight. I have spent the whole midday lunch hour (and a bit more) tinkering with the NYT and others speech analysis sites. I have learnt more about the speeches of previous American presidents that I ever knew before. And in particular I have learnt one surprising detail.
Those who [...]

今天是鼠年天。 Happy 牛 Year to all! 和byebye，我也不会围绕在未来数天：我到过那里的天气适合我的衣服，下到福建南部迷人的海岸。
I will take the chance before I pack up to write my little roundup [...]

What is the meaning of life and work? How can it possibly be so cold in the same latitude as the Sahara desert? Where did you put the camera's battery charger? What do you mean “where did YOU put”?
These and many others are the fundamental questions you ask when back to Shanghai after a [...]

Here is the illustrated report of our Fujian trip. Today I present some clear symptoms of blogorrhea after my 5 day internet abstinence. So we'll try to keep it ruly and live up to my Bull Year's resolutions. I am applying the special astringent potion: Max 5 words per picture. The rest in your imagination: [...]

This is a bit of a silly post, I know, and I'm sure it has been done before. But I had to do it anyway. Yesterday I finally remembered to take a picture of my favourite sign in Shanghai, the Rules of the Green Administration Bureau.
It is the one that prohibits feudal behaviours, expects visitors [...]

Last night I was going to stay in and write a long, thoughtful post. Instead I went out and took some pictures.
The first full moon marks the end of the New Year celebrations. It is called 元宵节, usually known in English as the Night of the Lanterns. Apart from the lanterns, there are also fireworks. And [...]

I have a bunch of friends back in Spain who are always quick to send me the juiciest China news coming up over there, and to supervise that I'm fulfilling my duties as a bridge blogger.
This time I have received a couple of links from Spanish newspapers El Pais and El Mundo where there is [...]

Finally, we have a new blogger in the community who has moved all the way to South America to bridge-blog about the Chinese expansion there and other interesting stuff.
Tom Pellman is Double Handshake. He was an editor in a well known economics magazine in Shanghai, he is almost trilingual in Chinese and he is now [...]

Ever since I opened this blog the problem of credibility has been in the back of my mind. These days, the comments of a tenacious part-time troll, as well as some recent events that shook the Chinosphere have brought back the subject to the top of my agenda.
It is well known that Chinablogs* (defined as [...]

哇，有一些活动在这里这个星期。 这是将在耗尽了风头，我渴望找回我的互联网地位切碎肝脏。
不过不用担心，我想我只知道该怎么做：
Everybody knows that serious China bloggers don't do Chinglish. That's for newbies, and we are past [...]

My anonymous friend N. has sent in this picture recently taken in an underground station in Shanghai Xuhui. It is a poster depicting a (Kazakh?) horseman riding with a baby just at the moment when a Shanghai policeman has engaged him in a vicious exchange of toothiness.
Government slogans are some of the phrases that I [...]

另一项手机骗局终结者之一。
请看图片看看。 这个婴儿插进我的生命有一天在凌晨4点，正如我正准备转进入深睡眠。 我知道这是垃圾邮件，但我不能帮助反射。 I stretched out one arm, opened one eye and mentally [...]

“The country is changing so fast!” , this is one of the things I usually say back home  to explain why I find living in China so exciting. Today my street has changed very fast indeed.   Linder was lucky enough to spend the night in the garden, but other bikes where not so lucky. Inexorably [...]

Today it was a calm morning, the perfect Sunny day to take a long lunch break like we do back in homeland. So at midday sharp I took my bike and rode over to my new favourite reading spot. It is a bright, silent cafe, where reading is the main part of the menu.  I [...]

哦，亲爱的。 This is a disaster. I haven't written anything for a month!
Now is when I have to come up with some good excuse. Like:  Spring has finally come to China; I have been travelling a bit in the dusty real-sphere of Shanxi; a band of homeland friends cheerfully invaded Shanghai, bringing with them some [...]

一些在山西和陕西我最近旅行的照片。一如以往的版本，每张图片5个字。

The Shanxis have solid history

There are some alarming Gods

And alarming fire fighting equipment

Guanyu deserved better than polystyrene

The council should buy benches

The way of The Way

is a rather steep Way

No, I kid you not

Stairs are out of spec

Instant Noodles for [...]

Last Saturday we went down to Anar to watch the Lions of Puxi. This is a reggae band recently formed in Shanghai, with some familiar faces of the expat music scene, including some of the guys we usually see at JZ.
I am not much of a music critic, but I can say this band sounds good [...]

正是一年前，几乎到了分钟。 这是星期一，我们已开始在客户端的总部下午2点22楼的会议。 约一小时后，在激烈的谈判中，有一个尴尬的沉默。 It took a long moment before we understood what was making [...]

The mysterious ways of computer science.
Today for example, I completely panicked when I stumbled into one of the bugs of wordpress. For some reason, when you add a “click to read more” tag next to a section in bold, it goes and turns the whole blog to bold, including sidebar, titles and header. So yes, [...]

In the afternoon of the World Environment Day, the sky in Shanghai has gone almost completely black (brown?) at 3pm, and these little babies have fallen from the sky.

In the same time,  many “Environment Day” squadrons were busy in the parks and beaches for the 1 hour long volunteer cleaning up activity. I hope they [...]

So guess what now:  I am blocked.
I am banned, prohibited, harmonized, river-crabbed. Censored, in short, by the Great FireWall of China. If you are reading my blog now and have not noticed anything strange, it is because either:
1- You are reading the blog from outside China and therefore you are not going through the GFW [...]

This is the imposing main entrance of my favourite university campus in Shanghai: HuaShiDa. I like this entrance because it is very green and very complete, and it has everything from a roundabout sign to a saluting giant Mao, to a construction crane in the background. But what I like most is the inscription:
SEEK TRUTH, [...]

After a terrible weekend in front of the computer I have managed to re-open my site on a new URL. I am fed up of the internet right now and I am going out to enjoy the Shanghai Sun for a few hours.
I will try not to write more about this for a while, one [...]

You haven't really seen a city until you have been to its zoo. I have known this fact since I was 5 years old, and after many years I suddenly remembered it again last Sunday, and I decided it was about time I went to the Shanghai zoo.

When you grow up you realize zoos have [...]

It has been a while since I last wrote, and now I feel the typical blogger's guilt, the same that drives some weaker souls to start all their blog posts with unasked apologies. But worry not, we are not that kind of blog. We don't ask for forgiveness here, and that is because we already [...]

A middle aged man in a dark suit left this car. He didn't look in the least embarrassed. Was he a pedophile? A cadre under the influence, bringing it home to sweetie? Or just the resigned father of a normal Shanghai girl?
I didn't stop to ask. But I appreciated the customized kitty steering wheel, [...]

First impressions are usually mistaken, but they are also interesting because the eye is alert to any novelty, and the culture clash is rich with ideas. Warning: this post contains sweeping generalizations. Take it for what it is, and if you are serious about understanding Japan you might want to look somewhere else.

I came [...]

It has to be my lucky day. Today's marathon meeting in Chongqing was aborted mid-session, and we had the whole afternoon for ourselves to explore the city in the mist.
The place feels like all the energies of China concentrated in one tiny peninsula. The result is not beautiful, perhaps, but it is intense.  By dinner [...]

Do not miss this story by A. Galbraith of the China Economic Review. In the long debate of China's reaction to virus, this is the most reasonable opinion I've seen in a long time, and also the best informed.
The story reminds me of what my friend, a doctor back in Spain, told me when I [...]

All this G talk of the last days has brought me a lot of readers from the tech world, and I feel a responsibility towards them now to report the latest innovations. That is why yesterday during my Sunday walk I decided to stroll into the local public lavatory, where the latest developments are always [...]

This weekend I have taken a break from my exhausting research into the the sex of Chinese conservatives, to update old parts of the site and finish implementing some new features I had been trying lately.
The changes in version 2.0 are not related to design, so they may not be immediately apparent to the [...]

I visited an Expo for the first time as a kid, when my school took all my class together to Seville '92. Spain was living a crazy year, the Olympics where happening at the same time that Summer, and the Expo was designed to be one of the largest ever. Like now in China, there [...]

I just noticed this picture I took this morning in the little lane. The intention was to illustrate how the Olympic spirit is finally coming to the Shanghai local communities. The result is I unwittingly took a cool portrait of myself reflected in the announcement board glass cover.

This is the typical Chinese motivational message that [...]

Today was the opening day of the new Bund. After a decade with the elevated road flowing into this street, the urban planners have finally realized that a 5 lane highway is not the best thing to have in the middle of your famous promenade. This year they have been busy getting that ring road [...]

Of all the amazing things that happen to me in China, the SMS messages I get in my cell phone are one of them.
当我第一次到上海3年前，我还年轻，我的心是充满野心。 Eager to make a name for myself in the local business circles, I [...]

I never thought of this before, but when I was asked this week which was my favourite province in China, I naturally answered Zhejiang. I have been travelling there again on QingMing holidays and I have been reflecting what a remarkable place it is.
Zhejiang is the smallest province in the mainland, just a bit larger [...]

Today I just wanted to share this picture, taken by one of the brave reporters in the Oriental toilet paper, who were first on the scene:

This is a brand new sculpture called “communication”, just arrived from the US to Shanghai to commemorate the 30 years of the opening of relations between the two countries. 它[...]

Saturday there was some alarming movement down the road. Starting early morning masses of unidentified individuals concentrated near the intersection, partially blocking the traffic. They were visibly nervous, but their expression was firm, clearly they intended to hold the position. They had been there for almost 2 hours when I arrived with the camera.

When I [...]

One of the things that foreigners enjoy lamenting in China is the destruction of architectural heritage. It is understandable, modern China has a terrible record of heritage destruction, and today there are cities with 2,000 years of history where it is hard to find any trace of old construction. But the worst is that you can [...]

Today was a pretty stressful day in the office, but in between meetings I was able to join a lively discussion on the Fool's Mountain about the latest Dalai incident.
To wit, the French President said he will meet the DL in Poland during a ceremony in honour of Lech Walesa. China immediately threatened EU with [...]

I love the way Xinhua refers to the People's Daily as a “mouthpiece newspaper”, or “the mouthpiece of the ruling party”. For example, in this otherwise boring article that I just read. Recommended if you need to doze off for a quick siesta.
I find all this mouthpiece thing funny in 3 different ways, which I [...]

Last 10th December, a group of Chinese human right activists published a document called Chrter 08,  requiring political reform in the PRC. This document has had surprisingly little impact in the Western media/blogging scene.
There is no telling right now how influential this document is going to be looking into potentially conflictive 2009. In any case, [...]

Barely two weeks after the publication of the Chrter 08, it has already become old news, lost in the indifference of Western media (with notable exceptions), and erased in China by the cold intervention of the censors. I want to examine here the importance of this document and give some more thought to it and [...]

As I was answering to a comment on the Chrter 08 post, I felt a sudden urge to find the original context for one of my favourite quotes, which stands on Instructions as a principle of this blog.
That is how I found again this beautiful passage which I can't resist copying here, although I know [...]

I got a bit excited last night with my new VPN connection. For a few hours I thought I'd found Democracy in a Box, neatly packaged in a 40$ yearly subscription. I have been since exploring new horizons.
Today, second day using VPN I've had 2 surprises, one good and one bad:

The good one was to [...]

When I started my article about the Chrter 08 last month I couldn't help wondering if it was well worth the effort. Most of the English speaking blogs and media had been very quiet about this issue, and in China nobody seemed to know anything about it.  Two weeks after the Charter's publication, I thought [...]

你会原谅写两行严重的职位我。 它的年龄已经不这样做，我们面临的危机任何东西，这几天在那里一直是一个关于这个问题的文章，我不能就这样放过系列。
Two of them have to do with the growth projections for 2009. Yawn. We've been seeing [...]

上星期天，我做了一个关于中国互联网审查制度后，在不同的地方我的想法不一，恐怕最终的结果对于搜索引擎检查没有出来那样清楚，我并不介意。 我认为这是一个重要的课题，所以这里是完整的结果：
We will be looking at [...]

For those who are following the developments around Chrter 08:
I have discovered a website containing the full original Chinese Charter (+ translations) that is still not blocked by the censors. It is also open to comments, apparently not manipulated:
https://knol.google.com/k/-/-/3jhi1zdzvxj3f/9
Thanks to heroic advocate of freedom of speech David Ferguson who, by introducing himself as an editor [...]

我们正处在一个历史性的一周开始，我只是不能没有写关于奥巴马的就职典礼。 此博客还对不断变化的世界，这是一个机会，这将是周二的日子之一，改变了一切。 Call me a dreamer, but I want to believe that this new [...]

The guests just left, what a night! 在上海的公寓在我的最后一场比赛的紧张气氛，有很高的期望和历史感。 朋友们，不同国籍的一切，分享我的酒，并观看了奥巴马总统第一次演讲。 在18分钟的沉默已经完成。
Is it only me, or the first [...]

我通常不会在本网站直接的指责，因为我知道比寻找冲突，我知道没有人是十全十美的，我们都会犯错误。
但是这一个我不能放过，它是太低，太无理。 It is sad: why does it have to be  China who tells the first Lies [...]

Since I started posting about censorship I've noticed that the basics of the system are not clearly understood by many readers outside China. 这个职位分类和解释是在最简单的方法可能的系统。 It is largely drawn from my own experience as a user in China and from the studies [...]

I just came across this picture on Hecaitou's Blog.  Brilliant:

I hate spoiling jokes, so those that can speak a bit of Chinese should figure it out by themselves.
For those who don't speak Chinese, see after the fold.

解决方案：
By now you should have noticed that the large Mao portrait is missing on the Tiananmen Gate. Mao in [...]

The AFP dispatch says it all:
Seventy-four workers were confirmed dead and dozens trapped underground after a gas blast early on Sunday at a colliery in northern China, the worst accident to hit the nation's mines in over 14 months.
There is something very wrong with these news.  The paragraph should end with “the worst since the [...]

There was some buzz last week on the Chinese internet about this supposedly new concept of  Online Democracy. The excitement started with the weird “elude the cat” story, and then continued when Premier Wen JiaBao chatted online with “internet friends” .  David Bandurski of the China Media Project, who has been watching these things for [...]

我将我的香料提供有关我对Sinosphere每周参观一些博客的第一手意见。 这些大多是我做了以前在其他论坛上，我在这里收集的意见。 I will try to do this every week, subject to the rate at which my brain can churn out [...]

NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS – Let's admit it. We've been watching closely the NPC, we read all the material available and we have written about it. And yet, this year again, we have no clue what the NPC is for. According to their own website, the NPC has legislative functions, so we tend to compare it [...]

This discussion on China Geeks caught my eye, mostly because it is one of the few that has managed to engage the real Chinese blogosphere to interact with us foreign China blogs. And no less than hecaitou, a respected blogger in both the Chinese and Western communities. 不幸的是，结果是相当令人沮丧。
It all started [...]

Have you been watching Xinjiang TV these days? I am a fan. It's the new Love TV, a 24-7 concentrate of all the corniest efforts by the Chinese official media to promote harmony after the events of 5th July. Smiling kids, flowery dances, long meetings of interethnic neighbour associations discussing love and togetherness. Best [...]

I was not there and I do not know more than what is in the press. But in the light of the available information, I think it's worth it to have another look at the events, and see what we make of it. Refer to the NYT diagram linked on the illustration, this paper is [...]

One of the essential purposes of a government is to ensure the safety of the citizens and, from this point of view, the Chinese government has failed spectacularly in Urumqi.
首先，它没有足够能力保护受害人的韩期间，7月5日晚上。 Some wrong decisions were most likely [...]

Following last week's posts about Xinjiang conflict, I see this AFP dispatch: China promotes Xinjiang armed police chief. Mr. Dai,  the man at the top of the armed police has been promoted. Which means that the first of the failures I noted in the last post (ie failed to protect the citizens on 5th July) [...]

很多博客已经写了这个已经，但我仍希望尽我徐致用，谁是3周前被捕的职位。 I have no new information to offer here – info will be forthcoming only when the police decides it – but if you are reading this please do not let [...]

One more from the fantastic world of China mobile.
这些我都遇到了什么是政治运动有史以来最怪异的形式在中国受审的最后几个星期。 它已经发生了两次，每个周日下午的时间。它在一个不存在从一个电话号码的形式出现。 A very professional recording, with [...]

The discussion about racism in China keeps coming back every once in a while, and each time it arouses the strongest passions. This is a post I've been wanting to do for some time, following the interesting comments we had in March, and as a conclusion to the Xinjiang series.
The story that sparked the debate [...]

我发现很难把精力集中在同一个spidermen挂在窗外的工作服带工作。 这是塔清洗每年一样，今天，我再次发现自己的恐慌瘫痪。 我知道，这是一个在上海一个垂直大都市司空见惯。 The problem is, through [...]

I was pleasantly surprised when I booked my last minute flight to Japan, I got a very reasonable price for the 1st October National Day. When I went to Pudong airport I understood why: the streets were empty in Shanghai, nobody flew at that time because they were all at home with the eyes glued [...]

Now that I am in a free internet country, I have taken the chance to look at the CDT website, and I have found this interesting question coming from al Jazira: what would have happened if Mao had lost?
I am not in principle against counterfactual history,  it can be useful in many cases to see [...]

I have realized lately that, due to a certain unbalance in my training methods, my Chinese reading skills might be running ahead of my speech, and I have been forced to take severe corrective measures. At the risk of turning this into an SM blog, I am going to speak today of the terrible penance [...]

So Obama is in China, and even if he is not my president he is still my favourite president. Here is my first-hand analysis of the visit.
The most important news, surprisingly gone unnoticed by all observers, is that Obama wants to become Euro-bama in Chinese. That is how I read the new spelling of [...]

Do not miss this story by A. Galbraith of the China Economic Review. In the long debate of China's reaction to virus, this is the most reasonable opinion I've seen in a long time, and also the best informed.
The story reminds me of what my friend, a doctor back in Spain, told me when I [...]

I saw on ESWN this Time magazine interview of Han Han, and since I have written before about him, I think it is worth a comment. It is also interesting because it illustrates the scary misunderstandings between East and West that Kaiser Kuo warned against recently. This is, in my opinion, the key passage:
…despite his [...]

I just received an email that reminded me of this funny post on the China Hearsay blog. In the blog, he says of Wen:
This guy never ceases to amaze me. When he retires from politics, he should really start his own PR firm. The “everyman” stuff is handled perfectly. The only folks who have surpassed [...]

In the first two posts of this series, we saw that Chinese is the last language in the World to maintain a complete set of independent vocabulary roots and a non-phonetic script to represent them, what we might call a separate Word System. For this reason I argued that Chinese may be the most difficult [...]

You might have heard the term Laobaixing (老百姓), literally “the hundred surnames”, the common people of China. They are also known as LBX in this website dedicated to them.
Laobaixing is a great word, not only because of its obvious etymology, but also because its connotations are quite different from our  “common people”. From what I [...]

Happy Christmas everyone. Sad Christmas for China, and for all of us who love that country and who believe in freedom, dignity and truth.
Exactly one year ago, on Christmas Day, I published this post about Liu's Charter. I was critical with the initiative for many reasons: it contained contradictions, it was reactive rather than active, [...]

The summit of Copenhagen has inspired some hot debate on the media, for the most part more related to international politics than to climate change. Some spectacular pieces like Mark Lynas' on the Guardian have been followed by more moderate opinions, like those appeared on Danwei and Inside Out, trying to understand the roles of [...]

The Tiger is coming to the surface. The New decade has already come in the West, and in China we are again in this no man's land between the Solar and the Lunar New Year, between the Bull and the Tiger. It is time to look back and see where we stand.
In World politics [...]

The Oriental Morning Post of Shanghai is doing a nice coverage of the annual NPC-CPPCC meetings. I liked today's paper edition, which carries a couple of cute alpacas right next to a picture of Hu and the boys walking down the aisle from the CPPCC they've just inaugurated.
It is a long story for those that [...]

It looks like Charles over at the new China Divide blog has found a new source of clicks to revive the China blogging scene: debating the crackdown on pornography in China.
While I don't usually support any kind of censorship, I have to say I couldn't care less for the cause of porn in China. 从[...]

Disclaimer: In the interest of science, this post contains sexually explicit material. If you are underage and/or a sensitive person you are advised not to scroll down. If you don't read Chinese it's OK.
This is the continuation of the previous post in the series, where we ended up rambling off the main topic and into [...]

有多少次我们看到了什么才算是中国软实力论坛讨论呢？ 这是白方神秘的力量，在国际政治中的绝地使用，把所有的论据，他们的优势？ China has coveted this weapon for years and spent many a valuable resource in its quest, but all [...]

Han Han has been nominated for the Time's most Influential People, and pushed by the millions of Chinese netizens, he is quickly ascending to a likely Number 1. Xujun Eberlein has done a good analysis of the situation, particularly the disgusting way that the People's Daily and the Shanghai Daily are trying to downplay and [...]

Here is an update to yesterday's review of Han Han, with some additional info about the Time nomination, which might be more important than it appears at first sight.
Then, if you stay till the end of this chapter, we will put on the yellow socks to analyze a bit more that terrible scourge of our [...]

This little piece by historian Hong Zhenkuai has been taken down from the Southern Metropolis, but it has managed to escape the censors on some other sites. I liked the subtle way Hong criticizes the reigning CCP dynasty, and the cool Chinese rendering of “L'Etat c'est moi” as “朕即国家“.
Since I don't have the time [...]

In the 2010 Social Blue Paper, published last December by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, there was a very interesting piece hidden among the 330 pages of socio-economic analysis. Under the title “Population problems China should pay attention to between 2011 and 2015″, this article contained some of the newest and most negative data [...]

Today I am starting my review section with one of the books on Chinese economy that has impressed me most in the last year, “Capitalism with Chinese characteristics”, by MIT professor Huang Yasheng. It is a book that clearly stands out from the recent China books, and it might be destined to become one of [...]

I first read about  “China Underground” last Friday, during my daily browse of the China blogs. I had never heard the name of Zachary Mexico before, but the review on  China Beat made me feel curious, so after work I stopped by the Garden bookshop and got my copy. Only 24 hours later I had [...]

I was a bit reluctant to read “Chinese Gods”. I never had much of a taste for the mystical, and the rows of whiskered statues staring in the temples fail to arouse in me more than a cautious curiosity. But when I received the latest publications of Blacksmith, the promise of a book that “makes sense” [...]

Last night I went to the evening organized by Earnshaw to launch their two latest books: “I sailed with Chinese Pirates” and “Shanghai Story Walks”. I have been a fan of Earnshaw Books since they published the first of their series of reprints, Carl Crow's “Foreign Devils in the Flowery Kingdom“, my favourite China read [...]

This business trip in Sichuan is really full of surprises. Today we went to visit the Project, a giant industrial complex which will be, upon completion, the largest factory in the World to produce X. A typically Chinese megaproject on the bank of the Yangtze.
But the surprise came when we went to town for lunch, [...]

I have realized lately that, due to a certain unbalance in my training methods, my Chinese reading skills might be running ahead of my speech, and I have been forced to take severe corrective measures. At the risk of turning this into an SM blog, I am going to speak today of the terrible penance [...]

I have been away for a while because all my holiday time has been absorbed by two fascinating stories of Shanghai, one of them a TV serial, the other a novel.
The serial is WoJu, the Snail's House, stupidly translated to English as Narrow Dwellingness, or whatever. It has been red hot in China since [...]

I just finished reading that book 蚁族 (Ant Tribe) that is all over the place on the Chinese internet. I was curious why it was becoming so hot here while Western media covered it only briefly. I think I know the answer now, but let me introduce the book first and more on this later.
蚁族 [...]

我学到的东西之一是，今年夏天，当我可以离开欧洲假期，中国并没有真正离开我了。 不仅仅是一个国家，更是一种自然的力量，人类现在是我生活的一部分的另一面。 China is always there, and she is everywhere, [...]

Here is my first short story in Chinese. The title is “Lost in Translation”, and it illustrates the potential consequences of bad mandarin pronunciation. If you don't read Chinese I left a little summary in comments, or else use G Translator to get the enhanced experience [1].
UPDATE: I have reposted this on Tianya to give [...]