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snide year’s greetings
it’s that time of year when the snide texts fly… this last one, summarizes thirty years of reform and opening not with a bang, but whimper whimper sigh…...
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why text messages?
As the Christmas decorations have been quickly swept away, Shenzhen has entered Chinese New Year mode. Rabbits are popping up everywhere and every type of text message from year in review to greetings...
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revenge of the grandparents
Grandparents do the work of raising the next generation. Here’s a joke making the rounds. Go granny go! 「喂！現在我們不在家，請在聽到「嗶」聲後留言……… “Good morning. . . . At present we are not at home but, please leave a...
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Life lessons
Chinese politics confound me because they seem complicated and redundant. Fortunately, text messages simplify the problem. Of interest is the way that “family” operates as a metaphor to explain and...
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80s nostalgia
More text message fun; this time 80s nostalgia We miss the 80s, when medicine still cured illnesses; doctors took care of the sick and dying; people wore clothing for photographs; borrowed money was...
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if we are what we eat, what are we becoming?
养生 (yǎng shēng) or taking care of one’s health is a Shenzhen obsession. However, the difficulty of living a healthy life has given rise to cynical takes on the preventative measures of traditional...
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poor but honest farmers? that’s the buzz…
乡下人三句话培养好孩子：1。孩子，爸妈没本事，你要靠自己；2。孩子，做事先做人，一定不能做伤害别人的事；3。孩子，撒开手闯吧，实在不行，回家还有饭吃。 城里人三句话害孩子：1。宝贝，好好学习就行，其他爸爸妈妈来办；2。宝贝，记住不能吃亏；3。我告诉你，再不好好学习，长大没饭吃！ Country people raise their children on three sentences: 1....
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B; it’s more than a letter, much less than love
Couplets and rhymes circulate as text messages on Chinese cell phones and as scratched graffiti on walls. Although economic class and levels of education may separate texters from scratchers,...
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the 5.12 beichuan incident, nuclear war games, and why the party fears...
The Party’s refusal to either share power or make political decision making transparent and open to public debate creates mistrust: just what have they got to hide anyway, inquiring minds want to know....
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winners of the “dare to upset” china prize
Today, I received a list of 10 winners for the ”dares to upset China (敢动中国)” Awards. The Awards are a snarky spoof on the Annual “Touches China’s Heart Awards (感动中国奖)”, punning the words “dares to...
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carry the purse, gentlemen!
Meme du jour: Even the most impressive have to carry their wife’s purse (在牛逼的爷们也得帮媳妇拎包). Yes, it’s true. Xi Jinping carryies wife, Peng Liyuan (彭丽媛)’s purse and the Chinese internet is gleefully...
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gentle reminder from the folks at tencent
Like many population questions in China, the actual population of We Chat users is guestimated but unconfirmed. According to its app page, We Chat boasts over 300 million users or the population of the...
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how chinese is weixin?
This past year, I have noticed that the age of text messages seems already over. Instead, the sarcastic couplets and stories that used to come by text, now come by weixin groups. On the face of it, it...
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as chongqing turns: the trial of bo xilai (abridged)
Bo Xilai. Gu Kailai. Wang Lijun. These are the main characters in China’s ongoing soap opera As Chongqing Turns or “The Bo Drama (薄剧)” as it is known in Mandarin. Bo Xilai, of course is the disgraced...
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updates…
Yesterday, Baishizhou Superhero opened at Handshake 302. Impressions from the opening, below: Click to view slideshow. Also, the latest weixin meme: the next US Ambassador to China, Max Baucus is...
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identity card politics
So today a return to a theme near and dear to my heart: satirical text messages, or as we have now stopped texting and use WeChat, satirical blog posts that are forwarded via WeChat. This time, the...
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just what aren’t we seeing?
Currently circulating on WeChat news that apparently on May 20, 2015 China blocked Chinese Wikipedia, begging question du jour: just what triggered the block? (This is a serious question, if you know,...
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who upholds the peace?
You may be aware that many in China are protesting Christmas because the country has its own traditions. In turn, the nativist logic behind the protests has shown up all sorts of contradictions....
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how do shenzheners map covid elsewhere?
A friend from northern China once said (and I’m paraphrasing a long ago memory of Shenzhen, circa 1995), “If you want to see Chinese culture, go to Beijing, Xi’an or Shanghai. Even Tibet has more...
View Articleshenzhen covid update for inquiring minds
“What’s up in Shenzhen?” You and other inquiring minds want to know. Well, for starters, we have a new conspiracy theory about how Shenzhen’s successfully prevented a massive omicron outbreak on the...
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