Dear Slate, yes there are chocolate bars in China
How AIDS in China is spreading
Shanghaiist Scrabble: We have a winner!
New sex change rules for China
Photo of the Day: Let it grow
Shanghaiist Reads returns—to the delight of some, to the dismay of others—with a blow-by-blow markup of the Oct. 20, 2006 issue of SH. Get your highlighters out, kiddies:
- FBC (Foreign-Born Chinese)—it’s a way of life, not an identity crisis. Mercifully, SH steers their coverage away from asking, “But do they truly fit in? Those poor, confused FBCs?,” by presenting a varied cast of entrepreneurs, talk-show programmers, and marketing consultants. Of course, dreaded buzzwords like “roots” and “integration” and “identity” are uttered, and we would’ve liked to see a couple more examples of those not in the world of business/finance. But we’ll leave the nitpicking to someone else, and leave you with this doozy from entrepreneur Phillip Man: “Being in the right place at the right time is what’s important. You have to seize the chance and not screw it up. Nobody here will be telling you what to do.” Our thoughts exactly. [Cover story]
- Now that Attica has officially been crowned as the big bully of the Bund, how come we’re still not convinced that it’ll ever be at full capacity? [Page 3]
- We don’t know much about beauty masks, which is why it’s good to have someone around who does. [Home]
- Certain combinations of food are apparently very bad for you. Like, gastrointestinal-discomfort, lose-your-hearing-bad. We applaud the moxie on the part of SH’s intrepid taste-testers, though we’re still scratching our heads as to what the point of the article is. That persimmon is a strange yet delicious fruit? [Dining feature]
- The Japanese restaurants on Yan’an Lu are like those three bears Goldilocks befriends: too hot, too cold, just right. [Restaurant reviews]
- The theme for the latest edition of Open Bar: dark, dank, swanky. Any club owners in Shanghai looking for a different business model? [Open Bar]
- 2006 Popularity Prize winner Shi Yang sure likes to spout off those clichés: “We’re all just ordinary people.” “Just be yourself! Show your true colors.” “Success becomes less important as you gain happiness and friends.” [First Person]
- Oh, and that bright orange bubble text on the cover: still an eyesore.
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Just a little reminder from the government for all of you who act, talk, think and dress like westerners but are actually %100 chinese and didn't know it. Time for you to use your good english and knowledge of western culture to help your motherland get more technology, money and improve everyone elses' english and stop eating western food and complaining about the pollution. Being chinese means taking abuse, living in supercrowded, super polluted conditions with few avenues of self expression and blaming the Japanese and Americans for it.
Thanks, i was confused about my mission in life, but no longer.
nanhey etc.clearly has an empty life.
Secondly - still summarising bad magazines: Lame lame lame.
I can't believe Mr. Washburn is allowing it.
Nick, I agree. Clearly quotas are being filled. I expect this kind of assignment from an elementary school teacher, not a site trying to establish some cred. But then again, the teacher would probably require a REAL periodical.
i still find it preposterous, after rereading nanhe's comments, that he could even come to the conclusion that people who "act, talk, think and dress like westerners but are actually %100 chinese and didn't know it," ought to do something for the motherland. Is it me or this an argument that blood is always thicker than water? Perhaps you ought to consider that people who act, talk, and think like westerners ARE westerners. I don't know how others look at me, but despite being fluent in Chinese i still consider myself 100% American -- i guess because i act, talk, and think like one. In any case, there is no moral obligation on an FBC's part to help "the motherland"--that's their individual choice.
Your comments would offer no succor or insight to anyone who IS interested in helping China, since you clearly have no economic, emotional, or other ties to China. It's easy for you to say do this or do that; you accuse every westerner working in china of complicity in continued CCP rule--if you want to tell the CEOs to pull out fine--but telling individuals like the ones that read this site to step up and do something--well, what would you have us to do that would NOT put us in danger?
Teaching English? That could be helpful without putting anyone in too much danger. What else?
Another problem that you might want to consider--what about improving your Chinese (or are you fluent in it already?) so that you can actually communicate with Chinese people--because believe it or not, what the few say to you in English might not be as representative or might not capture the entire social reality of China.
One other thing you ought to consider is that sometimes you could be wrong about things, and that you ought to reconsider the weaknesses in your arguments and positions.
But i know that's asking a lot.
Formerly a shy student of Dan in Shanghai University, now I work in a large state-owned company for a year and a half. Sometime act as tour guide for our distinguished foreign clients in Shanghai and Beijing.
I've lost Dan's website address for a rather long time, until last night, I put "Dave's Tailor, Shanghai" onto Google, the decent store I just hanged around with an American guy a week ago,and Dan's website appeared in front of my eyes again after about a year and a half. The world is so small!
Hope Dan and your colleagues are fine! And i will pay close attension to your brilliant website : )
For all the complaints about mag summaries, they get people commenting...and isn't that the point of a good blog? Keep it coming, I say...although more opinion on the different mags would be great too!
I will agree with Peijin...scary sometimes how blind devotion is an expectation of our background.
Perhaps long stays in China have robbed some native english speakers the ability to comprehend "sarcasm". So I'll spell it out for ya, I was mocking the message that seems to come from Beijing regarding Americans with Chinese faces. Feel better now that I've held your hand?
The point of a good blog is not to 'get people commenting' - many shite blogs can do that easily by saying something stupid.
Peijin - don't waste any of your time on people such as nanheyetc. - he is such a successful person that he has fun typing silly things about China that everyone heard in their first week of arriving in Shanghai from other dull expats.
long stays in China might have robbed me of my ability to comprehend sarcasm, but maybe you ought to consider that you're not the best writer of sarcasm either. I think if i had assumed that it was "the message that seems to come from Beijing" regarding FBC's perhaps it would have been more apparent. The problem is i've never detected or heard of such a message. THere are perhaps some expectations from certain people or groups within China as to what FBCs ought to or ought not to do, but what you mean by "message from Beijing" i'm not sure.
By the ways, long stays in China are conducive to comprehending China as well. You should try it some time.
Nick and Cliff,
It is good to know that you hold Shanghaiist up to a high standard, and I am sorry to learn that you do not like the new Shanghaiist Reads feature. It is still a work in progress, so perhaps you will grow to like it in the future.
I, personally, like the idea of the feature. I think we had in mind Slate's In Other Magazines and Today's Papers when we came up with the idea. And I realize we are not exactly dealing with the New Yorker or the New York Times here, but we are in Shanghai, and we deal with the publications we have. And the local English mags do indeed have their fine points and their fair share of readers -- I am one of them. I think Shanghaiist Reads would be even better if it covered local Chinese-language publications, as well, but we haven't had anyone step forward willing or able to do that.
We are largely a volunteer website -- we do what we can, when we can ... and no one is making money to live off of from this. So, I'm not sure what you were referring to with your "quotas" comment. Anyway, with limited resources we are trying to provide a service to Shanghai residents. All things considered I think we're doing an OK job, but there is definitely room to improve. That's why we truly appreciate your comments and suggestions -- please keep them coming.
Thanks,
Dan
Cheers Dan.
Maybe more (all) analysis and less (no) contents listing.
Personally I can't believe that SH magazine did something so stupid as to write about skin colours etc. Just because many idiots have an issue with this does not mean it should be discussed by anyone but idiots.
I mean lots of Chinese people also have an issue with other skin colours in various ways. Maybe the next issue of SH will be "Are white people really cool and should they be looked up to?" --- "Would YOU be angry if a black man was screwing your Chinese daughter?" and the like.
Dear Shanghaiist - some of us get it and enjoy your 'Reads posts. Chalk me up delighted, and thanks for sparing me the trouble of turning so many pages of ads for international schools, overpriced villas, and hokey sports bar party nights.
To all the haters - quit your laowhining or my ayi will come kick your ass...
what amazes me is the fact people such as nanheyangrouchuan thinks so highly of themselves that they refuse or more so conveniently have forgotten what their true selves are instead of just pointing fingers at others and accouse others of not satisfy the way they think life should be.
If the westerns are sooooo advances, and need to be the saviors of everyone in the world, then would you PLEASE answer who saved the world during the 800 years of dark ages ? May it be you?
Usagi, you are right that nanheyetc. is mundane - but your credibility is smashed by mentioning the dark ages and getting into some kind of historical racial one-upmanship.
well, my point is everything culture has to go through some kind of a reform
regardless if it's the westerns or easterns chinese or american
@peijin: been there done that
@usagi: who saved Europe from the Dark Ages? The rise of Protestantism, the Enlightenment and the Renaissance. Nothing about China was involved.
and that is exactly what i mean, Nanheyangrouchuan
only they can save themsleves, regardless of whom you point your fingers at, it wont help
so, why not just shut it, it's not like u are happying any
typo, sorry
meant , helping
:P