Shanghai Pod

Considering how few foreigners speak really good Chinese, isn’t the media’s Chinglish coverage a little excessive? True, occasionally phrases on signs are extremely funny, so it makes sense that the subject gets some attention. However, after dozens of stories on the topic, it definitely begins to feel a bit mean-spirited. Now you might doubt that the coverage is as ubiquitous as I claim, but it only took a peek around the internet to prove the point. There were prominent Chinglish stories on the news websites of ABC, NBC, and CBS (I thought CBS had eliminated their news division!). If you include all of the podcast reports, the number goes up several fold. Out of all of the stories, only one from PBS’s NewsHour, which focused on a former American army officer who is helping the government clean up its act, seemed to focus on anything other than laughing at poor translations. The tipping point for me was listening to a BBC reporter (via podcast) who, from what I could tell, had fairly ...

Yes it's that time of year again (Golden week in China) where the masses of immigrants who came to find work in this ever growing city return back to their homes in the other parts of China i've never even heard of. Golden week is a 4 day long national holiday, begining October 1, the locals here may travel somewhere in China if they can bear the crowds or they may stay at home and stay with the family or perhaps go shopping. Over the national holiday Shanghai will be busy the local metro company Shanghai Metro is already gearing itself up for a record National Day holiday season, with about 1.2 million extra tickets already printed. Most people living here know that it will be a nightmare for those that need to move around here as the current estimate of shanghai's massive population stands at about 18 - 20 million. I'll just stay at home with the wife i think. Picture from Shanghaiist.com

A Manchester (U.K) lad living in Shanghai with his Shanghai inlaws. I guess to everyone who has and hasn't been to Shaghai Shanghai will appear to be modern metropolis and yes it is the face of modern mainland China. And is without a doubt a city of wealth, vibrance and mystery it is also the gateway to the land of opportunity and culture shocks. Above all Shanghai is a city of contrasts: Modern yet Ancient, Bright Lights Beam but don't penetrate the Dark Alleys. Futuristic yet Backwards, Obscene Wealth faces Abject Poverty every day. And to many Shanghai is the 'Paris of the East', 'the Pearl of the Orient', 'the Whore of Asia' - in the first half of the 20th century, Shanghai was the playground for a globe-trotting elite. But after the Second World War and China's Revolution, Shanghai's glory faded, and it became a city stored in mothballs, dusty and preserved. But no longer. Shanghai has burst open it's red doors upon the world stage, look...