Monthly Archives: May 2008

The Chatty Beijing Taxi Driver

May 29, 2008 – 8:27 am

It’s 6:30am when Wang Zhifeng steps out of his 14th floor 1200 RMB/month apartment in the Haidian district , waving goodbye to his wife as he closes the door behind him and lighting up a Double Happiness cigarette on the way to the elevator, elbowing-grabbing his fruit jar of green tea to do so. [...]

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The Chinese Classroom

May 21, 2008 – 3:05 pm

At first glance, it’s the picture of a certain ideal: a teacher standing at the head of a classroom with a piece of chalk in one hand, the students listening attentively and hanging on the teacher’s every word.  The students are quiet and reasonably well behaved, repeat like a chorus what the teacher asks them [...]

By admin | Posted in Politics and Diplomacy | Comments (9)

Surviving the Banquet

May 19, 2008 – 3:09 pm

“Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.”
- Robert Louis Stevenson
The art of the business deal here in China goes one step further than the boardroom, and it’s in the arena of the banquet hall that many a deal can be made or unmade. A banquet is a way of bestowing respect [...]

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The Earthquake

May 13, 2008 – 9:13 am

Letter Home, May 12, 6:44pm
Just wanted to let you know all is well here in Beijing. Of course, why wouldn’t it be? Well, I was sitting here this afternoon on my couch on the 18th floor when I started to feel like maybe I was a little drunk. Or dizzy. Or dreaming. [...]

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Do You Have the Tone, Please?

May 11, 2008 – 2:02 pm

One of the first challenges for the Western speaker of Chinese to overcome in learning to speak Mandarin Chinese is the introduction of tones to a language. In English, a rising or falling tone does little other than indicate emphasis: The whiny “What do you waaant?” as opposed to “What do you want!?” Not [...]

By admin | Posted in Pronunciation | Comments (4)

The Pace of China

May 8, 2008 – 11:54 am

Life in China is much as it is everywhere else in the world, but with a few subtle differences. Just as a proud culture of dog walkers exists in the West, China has its bird walkers. Old men out for a stroll carry with them their caged birds and congregate in the parks [...]

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