When I went to Andy’s office today, I found the desktop of his computer was a girl’s picture which looked very familiar…
Mmmmm… that was weird! As I know, Andy is a very professional guy, why he uses a pretty girl’s picture as his computer desktop background and apparently the girl was not his current girlfriend because it was Michele Lee, a Hong Kong actress. Read More…
I didn’t know today (22 Jan 2010) is La Ba Jie until I watched the morning news.
La Bameans the eighth day of the 12thmonth in Chinese Lunar Calendar. The whole month is regarded as the coldest time in the year and in Chinese we put La in front of some other word to indicate this special time, for example La Yue is putting La in front of the Yue (month) means the coldest month. Read More…
Probably in western countries, after the Christmas and New Year, everything is gradually back to normal, party is getting to the end. But in China, no, no, no….. Christmas and New Year is just the warm up for the biggest event of the year, Chinese New Year!
Every year, Penny, my friend who is working in an American non-profit organisation feels like to have two months off at work. Read More…
According the Chinese Lunar Calendar, 22 December this year is the winter solstice (in Chinese pronounced as Dong Zhi), which marks the start of the coldest time of the year.
I believe Chinese Lunar Calendar and recent weather forecast also proved it as Shanghai is going to minus 3 - 4 degrees this weekend! Read More…
If you live Shanghai long enough (and you are able to read Chinese), you must know what KDS and Liba mean!
Both KDS and Liba are two well known BBS online forums in Shanghai.
KDS stands for Kuan Dai Shan which in Chinese means Broadband Mountain. And Liba in Chinese means fence or hedge. Because most users of these two forums are Shanghainese, both KDS and Liba are labeled as Shanghai local forums. Read More…
Today when I was passing a middle school in Pudong, I heard the famous saxophone Going Home by Kenny G. Aha, it was not a music class. The music does what the name said, telling all the children it was the time to go home!
And then when I was shopping in the Lianhua Supermarket, after the ‘That’s the end of our service today’ announced by the sweet lady, Kenny G’s famous Going Home was with us again! Read More…
Today when I was having dinner with two of my friends, suddenly one of them said: ‘check it out, that girl, 6 o’clock, is very Meng’. And the other said: ‘ Wow, she is Meng!’
Okay, both of them were talking in Chinese and I know every word they said. But I couldn’t understand it!
Then I asked:’What? What is Meng?’ Read More…
As I blogged before, Chinese is really creative to invent some new special occasions (click here for my previous blog). And today 11th November is Guang Gun Jie (Singles Day or One’s Day) in China, not acknowledged by the government but well received by the public. Guang Gun is the nick name in Chinese for a single.
Why is today? Simple, 11.11. Can you find another day with more 1? Read More…
While the arguments about Lou Jing, the Shanghai Black Girl is still hot in town (see my previous blog about Lou Jing), a 20 year old Shanghai girl gave a birth to a Black Baby whose father is still unknown this month Read More…
Drying clothes out of the windows in public might be one of the unique things made in Shanghai. Because of the limited living space, Shanghainese has invented lots of clothes drying ranks to allow them to make the best use of the space out of the window on the wall.
Whenever there is a nice shining day, bed sheets, quilt covers, clothes are everywhere in the air above your head especially in the old local residential blocks. The government has put a lot of efforts to educate people to give up this tradition because hanging clothes in public is considered as an uncivilised thing which should be abandoned. Read More…
Today, on my way to catch the train to Nanjing, I took this interesting photo. Read More…
There is a good tradition in my office that is after a business travel, we usually bring a local speciality back to the office for sharing.
David, who has just back from the trip to Europe, brought a box of Mint Chocolate. And then interesting things happend!
All the foreign colleagues just loved it and told David that they had wanted the mint chocolates for a long time. Read More…
Today during the lunch time, the mums in my office were talking about what gifts they gave to their children’s teachers for the Teachers’ Day.
Then I suddenly realised that today is Teachers’ Day in China (10th September). (Sorry that I haven’t been to schools for ages).
Then I asked why the parents have to give gifts to the teachers because I think cards or flowers are enough to do the job. I remember that I wrote a card to my teachers when I was in school. Read More…
Summer is always a hot season for various TV reality talent contests in China. Oriental Angel is one of them.
Basically Oriental Angel is a China’s Got Talent for girls only by Shanghai Media Group (SMG). Contestants not only have to bring their own special talent but also have to demonstrate some serious acting skills.
But Lou Jing, one of the five Shanghai finalists of Oriental Angel caused a controversial debate in Shanghai. Read More…
Tom, my friend from Beijing was with me in a taxi in Shanghai. At a junction, the driver asked ‘big turn or small turn’. I then said ’small turn’, please.
After getting off the taxi, Tom asked me what I meant by small turn?
OK, I actually spoke with the taxi driver in mandarin which is the standard spoken language in China. As a Beijinger, how come he couldn’t understand? Read More…
First of all, Valentine’s Day is not a tradition in China. But why we are talking about Qi Xi (pronounced as Chee Shee), Chinese Valentine’s day?
With the open door policy in China, young Chinese were influenced by western cultures, for example, celebrating the Christmas and the Valentine’s Day. Then there were some debates arguing why young Chinese were so keen on those imported cultures but ignoring the long and grand history of China? Read More…
The news said the Civil Affair Offices in Shanghai are expecting long queues for registration of marriage on 9th September this year again like last year 8th August. Why?
9th September 2009 - 2009 9.9
In Chinese, the numbers are pronounced similar with the words Love you forever! (2 = AI, means love, 9= JIU, means forever, count how many 9s in this date. Three!) Read More…
I took my friend Linda from Australia to Yu Garden, the Shanghai must-see last weekend. Then Linda asked me:
‘what’s the name of this place?’
‘Yu Garden. ‘
‘But I saw different signs with different names though they were very similar.’ Read More…
If you went to Nextage Department Store in Pudong last weekend, you must have experienced the big sale there because of the Men’s Day.
You might also notice that there were a group of men always near the Cashier holding a pile of vouchers in hand asked people if they need vouchers.
Those people are called Huang Niu (directly translated as yellow bull) in Shanghai, who are actually voucher scalpers. How they make money? Read More…
It seems that the global economic downturn didn’t affect China too much, at least from the surface, the stock market is booming, the house price is going rocket high, stores are packed with people, long queues in front of the restaurants etc. But I did find much more sales promotions this year in every shopping malls, department stores in Shanghai. The stores try to use every opportunity to sell stuffs, such as public holidays like Labour’s Day on 1st May, Dragon Boat Festival on 28th May, Children’s Day on 1st June etc, so for the customers, everyday is a big sale day!
In this week’s newspaper in Shanghai, big sale advertisements again everywhere, so what is the special occasion is coming? Men’s Day! and on which date? 3rd August! Read More…
