Shanghaiist: Know your pats

shangpudi

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 12:23:11 +0800

How about F.O.P. for "Fresh Off the Plane". I've mentioned this a few times to friends, with quite a pleasant response, and what a better time to throw it out there for the public. Just keep me in the credits though. Parents were FOB's back the the 70's.

Chinkerfly

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:19:32 +0800

Hmm.. "halfpat" has such a boring ring to it. Open the boards for new suggestions. I'd suggest Xpats, but I may be on the tail end of the "Generation X" category and a lot of the recent grads out here may feel like they belong more to whatever generation comes after X. Fussell used "X" to describe a group of people who want to pull away from class, status and money in society. Because the characters in Coupland's book fit that description, he decided on the title "Generation X." The media found elements of Coupland's characters' lives in America's youth and labeled them Generation X. This stereotypical definition leads society to believe that Generation X is made up of cynical, hopeless, frustrated and unmotivated slackers who wear grunge clothing, listen to alternative music and still live at home because they cannot get real jobs. It is a label that has stuck, stereotypes and all. (Outpost) And then the Xers escaped to China.

nanheyangrouchuan

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:19:38 +0800

And those are the expats that are the first to spout off how much they know about China, though few if any have ever ordered ma la tang from a street vendor.

James Creegan

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:44:21 +0800

"a hermetically-sealed Jinqiao gated community" aah, I like that