I just got a call on our fixed phone.
I pickup, say my name and someone blurts.
“Is x there”, (x being my better half)
I say in Chinese, “No, she isn’t home”
About to ask whether I can take a message, I hear “oh oh, tuut, tuut, tuut, tuut, tuut”
He apparently hung up and stupefait I listened […]
A female friend once said that she doesn’t want to get married yet (she’s living together) as the pressure on becoming pregnant right away after the big day would be too big.
Chinese parents, especially the older generation, want their children to be secure. Relationships (boy/girl of course), marriage and a baby are the key […]
Do you have a kid that is under performing at school, or he/she always gets into fights in the schoolyard?
Here is a Chinese solution. Just change his/her name.
A new semester has just started for elementary and middle school students in Shanghai, and as always a number of parents are registering to change […]
A small Belgium Chocolate Workshop has opened in my neighbourhood. As it’s almost Christmas we bought a couple of Santa Clauses as a gift to spread some more western ideology.
The real news is though that they also sell the Chocolate version of Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas), a person who actually really existed and whose […]
One of the most interesting museums I went lately is the Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Centre. Hidden in a basement the world of Chinese Propaganda in the Mao era opens up to you.
I bought a comic book there from 1957. The cover shows an interesting view on the world at that time. […]
For some reason we ended up discussing the difference in address formats between China and the West.
In Chinese you write an address on an enveloppe in the following format
Country
Province,
City, Postal code
Street name
Name of Recipient
In the West (actually in almost any other country) you write an address like this
Name of Recipient
Street name
Postal code, City (In […]
Just a short inbetween. I know Chinese spit. It’s a medical thing according to them. Spit, once created by the “AHHRGGGGGG” scraping has only one way to go..OUT.
I also noticed that in general the amount of spitters decreased and honestly I don’t care so much if people spit as long as they do […]
Random thoughts on eating in China for more than 3 years now.
The Xinjiang restaurant in Shanghai offers sheep balls. Great food although no by effects
This spring snake was on the menu in Yangshuo. It was hunted when we ordered, showed to us alive and for the photo-op we held it for a while. The […]
The big October break is coming and today I read the official announcement.
For all those westerners with their fat holidays I wonder how they would react if they get 5 weekdays but have to hand back the weekend.
In the hard copy of the “New Weekly” 新周刊 (xīn zhōu kān) （a rather interesting Chinese publication) of 2005-09-01 there is nice phrase about the presumed higher status of Women in China.
男人的法定结婚年龄是22岁，
nán rén de fǎ dìng jiēhūn niánlíng shì 22 suì
Men’s legal age to marry is 22 years
法定当兵年龄是17岁，
fǎdìng dāng bīng niánlíng shì 17 […]
