Retro 80s:
Via the NeochaEDGE newsletter.
Chinayouthology has a piece over on their blog explaining who the Chinese hipsters are. The term of “hipsters” in Chinese is 潮人, which literally translates to “trendy/hip person” and sounds a bit like 超人 (“super man”). The term is more straightforward than the American word “hipster” and not as unique a classifier. (Arguably, the term [...]
I found this many months ago but it is still relevant. From a Reuters article on the one-child policy:
China’s famous “one child” policy is actually less rigorous than its name suggests, and allows urban parents to have two offspring if they are both only children. Rural couples are allowed a second child if their first [...]
Leung Chun-ying writes in the Hong Kong Journal about Hong Kong’s future as “Asia’s world city” and the two key problems it faces:
Local income disparity: “Restaurant workers today earn 4% less than they did 17 years ago. Workers in fast food outlets earn 19% less. Those driving container lorries earn 30% less.” + “Barely a [...]
He is singing about Chinese New Year. It is awesome.
Via Adri.
招财童子 (the wealth-bringing-seeking children) are a suite of Chinese-themed, adorable, cartoon characters. For example:
Since I profiled their Opera-themed siblings in 2007 (here), they’ve become famous enough to appear on T-shirts, silly Flash animations and phone cards:
Happy preemptive Chinese New Year folks!
Go to their site now to watch a short, download a wallpaper…
According to CNNGo:
“Live like the pleasant goat, and marry someone like the big big wolf.” That’s one of China’s most well-known catchphrases since the cartoon “The Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf” (喜羊羊灰太狼), the first domestically produced Chinese cartoon, was broadcast in 2005. The characters starring in nearly 600 episodes, broadcast by 65 TV stations, [...]
Frog in a Well has an interesting article about print culture and publishing in historic China:
Happily, China had a thriving printing culture for a good thousand years before the introduction of western-style printing machinery in the late 19th century created a modern publishing industry, so we know something about this. The Chinese reluctance to adopt [...]
Ice scupltures by Joseph Ellis
Alfredo Martinez at work
The New York Times has an interesting article about various artists who have chosen to go to China to maximize their creativity. Reasons include the cheap costs of materials and (other people’s) labor, an escape from the spotlight of the New York art scene, and China’s gritty lawless [...]
The Financial Times has a narrated slideshow that speaks about the displacement of migrant workers during the ongoing rapid expansion of the city of Beijing.
While none of the facts are spectacular, the narration is low-key and subtle (in a good way) and the photographs do tell a rich emotional story.
See it here.
(Via Mani Pande’s twitter [...]