This week in neateating…

Myspace in China, coming soon… Naturally, the question on everyone’s mind is, who will be our Tila Tequila?

Hot super-girl-on-super-girl action?
Shanghai faces its biggest problem: “baggy cotton outfits which are often printed with flowers or small animals.”
World-record holder Liu Xiang will take on former Olympic champion Allen Johnson at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix tomorrow – hurdle on, hurdlers.
Can China Go Green? This mustachioed man says… he’s not sure.
Classic struggles - Man v. animal, beer v. judgement, etc.
Creepy link of the day!

Technology killed the cat.

The latest in doofuses (doofi?) doing stupid things with the help of technology.

Lee Siegel, a senior editor at The New Republic, used psuedonyms to praise himself on his own blog and slander his opponents. He tries to explain things.
Netease asked its reader whether or not they would choose to be Chinese in a future life and more than a majority of them said something along the lines of “Oh heeelllz no.” Two editors have since been dismissed and the powers that be threw a fit and took the poll off the ‘net. Ho-hum.
A thief in Italy loses his cell phone while robbing an elderly lady. He arranges to meet up with the finder of said phone and – surprise!- is met with police and cuffs. When asked how he could be so dumb, he wistfully confessed, “I chocolated it.”
Straight from the Reuters newswire: according to a poll conducted by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the Shanghai Women’s Federation, citizens in the city think the most ‘uncivilized’ part of Shanghai life is – no, not the blatant disregard for the environment or public health, or the seeming absence of traffic laws, or the rudeness of strangers – but PAJAMAS! In public! Thanks, reuters.com, for this breaking news (and msnbc.com for recycling it) – with the infinite space the internet provides, ground-breaking reportage like this will never go unheard.
Me, engaging in at least two pointless gchat fights a day, simply because… I can. While being one of the internet’s most useful and practical features, gchat has proven itself time and time again as a recipe for disaster. Tonal ambiguity, hypersensitive/aloof chat partners, type-speed disparity, lack of emoticons, the unstability of the chat client itself- just too much that can go wrong.

SH’s Guide to the Ugliest Buildings in Shanghai (… and one in Beijing)

Thanks to some gentle ribbing, I’ve realized my ‘Ugliest Buildings in China’ list was a bit undercooked and misrepresentative. So I’ve limited it to Shanghai, and in no way promise it to be comprehensive. And I’ve also included my personal choice, the stadium in Beijing. Just because that’s the kinda list I wanna make, ok? Please feel free to comment with any glaring oversights.

The National Stadium in Beijing – 42,000 tons of pure steel fugliness. What Batman’s nest would look like if he were really a bat, and if bats made nests.

Sophie’s choice. I seem to be the only non-tourist in Shanghai who thinks the Pearl Tower isn’t that offensive. I have a peculiar weakness for the bulbuous, though.


“You could make a coffee table book, ‘China’s 1000 Ugliest Buildings,’ and you’d still have plenty of material for another one,” offers Jarrett. Here is his choice, the Radisson in Shanghai – another lollipoppy beacon, this one pointing the way to some first-rate hospitality, with an unbeatable view of the neon Samsung sign.

I don’t really feel one way or the other about the Jinmao, but sweet Glori, who has never said a nasty thing about anything or anyone her whole life, thinks its a heap of steaming crap. Well, not really – her exact words were that “it looks like a prison; it looks so heavy that it might fall down.” Hmm.. a Chinese ‘Oz’ set in Jinmao Tower, starring Wang Lee-Hom and Takeshi Kaneshiro…


The Shanghai International Convention Center in Pudong. According to Renee, “Two globes – very ugly, very stupid.” Word up, especially with the Pearl Tower’s bouncing around in the background, too.

Blog it, to the limit…one more time.

Let’s talk about blogs, baby. Let’s talk about you and me. Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be. Let’s talk aaabooouuut blogs.
I’m embarrassingly late on the sex blogger train. I know this. But at least I saved you from the ridic back and forth (who is this ‘immoral foreigner?’ where can we find him? is he really just a multi-ethnic group of randoms playing a joke? will a local psychology professor lose tenure for his irate, xenophobic blabber on the matter? etc etc) B.S. Currently, the mystery behind this laowai libertine is … still pretty trivial, and still a mystery. Despite the most valiant journalistic efforts of the BBC, the AP, and the bevy of bemused bloggers (like myself) who love that one of ours made it to the headlines, Chinabounder, the English teacher who seduced more than a classroom full of Chinese women, is still faceless and nameless.

(Link to the litany against Chinabounder, written by a psychology professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences; One of my favorite analyses of the whole scandal.)
So until any headway is made on that story, I bring you other blogs offering thoughts on life in China that might make you cringe, laugh, I don’t really know.
The blog of a self-proclaimed ‘pasty white guy’ in which he muses on the ‘baffling actions of the Chinese.’ How novel!
The disappointingly tepid tales of a Belgium-born Chinese woman (who calls herself ABC?), self-christened as the Chinabounderess. An excerpt: “I met a really good-looking guy in Starbucks on NanJing Xi Road, you know the Starbucks very close to Plaza 66. I was sitting there by myself just enjoying being on this luxury and exclusive street, when a guy just popped out from nowhere… So after our short conversation, we decided to meet again in a bar this coming friday. From what I hear, foreigners who come here are just playing around. But I will still give it a shot…” Good f’in LUCK!
Still can’t figure out if I like this blog or sort of hate it. I think it depends on the humidity.
And finally, an interesting article on the rise of satire in China.

Baby, I’m only trying to help.

Linese, learn Chinese. Clever, clever…

Lots of helpful tools here, including pinyin/character/English translators, as well as zhuyin fuhao to pinyin conversion, for those of you who get down with it bopomofo style.
One of the most popular Chinese language-learning sites, very easy to use and includes character trees (explaining radical derivations) and Chinese readings, like the Tao Te Ching (in Eng and Chinese).

Preetty comprehensive and simple Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionary.
Use pinyin to type characters from any computer. You can get the definitions of characters, too.
A short but nice introduction to Shanghainese. Useful!

And last but not least, the famed ChinesePod, one of the first podcasts I ever downloaded. Offers many free language podcasts for various levels, though you have to be a premium member to get the full range of lessons.