people

Mrs. Shǐ is December’s Regular Zhou. The magazine seems to share similar feelings with one other critic who doesn’t appreciate having China’s blue collar folks telling their stories in foreigners’ magazines. So I guess from now on they’ll be “above-average Joe’s,” or at least for the next few months while we’re in Canada [...]
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I stopped by the bike repair corner for lunch yesterday. I brought my own lunch, and figured I’d better bring something to share, since that’s usually how things work. Mandarin oranges — the kind we eat during Christmas in Vancouver — are really cheap right now, so I brought a bag.
Last time I [...]
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This morning it dawned on me that I could alter my daily routine and make time to have lunch on the corner with the bike repair crowd in our neighbourhood. The weeks are counting down until we take a hiatus in Canada for a few months, and recently I’ve been feeling more and more [...]
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Cultural understanding; it’s a lot of what this fine multi-authored blog is all about. So, in my latest missive for Lost Laowai, I’ll get straight to the point in trying to help you understand the sociological signage and semiology of contemporary Chinese male fashion.
All right, I’ll come clean, that’s just an excuse for a new [...]
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Zafka Zhang (from 56minus1 on Flickr)

This interview is re-published on Danwei from 56minus1.
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Of course, the day you teach a lesson to foreigners about dealing with culture stress and not withdrawing from the culture and people even when you feel like it is the day one of your local friends will inadvertently push a whole bunch of your cultural-annoyance buttons.
The NGO that we’re with in China has “culture [...]
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It’s a slow week around here. At least one fun little project I had planned — to spend an afternoon walking down the canal asking all the old fishermen why they do it and what they think about while they sit there by themselves all day every day — has been canceled on [...]
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From New York Times
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I have been living in China three years now. During this time I have had the opportunity to observe the Chinese people going about their daily lives. I am struggling with the fact that I don’t yet speak Chinese. For some people, learning a language is like learning any subject. Unfortunately for me, learning [...]