http://jennyzhu.com Observations and Reflections on China Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:51:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you want to look into China's vibrant present and unpredictable future, 56minus1.com is worth a visit. It's a blog run by Adam Schokora, which centers around China's edgy, vibrant and creative youth culture. Adam is a good friend who spends his day at PR agency Edelman, but is also a keen observer of China's youth culture, subculture and digital culture. You might already ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/11/04/jenny-on-56minus1/ Albeit an economic slowdown and a series of food scares, there is also non-stop festivities in China. This time, it's a sports competition for farmers, i.e. 农运会/nong2 yun4 hui4. Not only are all the contestants farmers, the events are also inspired by agricultural life such as the planting race you see in the clip. Other events include shot put ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/10/30/olympics-for-farmers/ Three of my friends are getting married on the same day next month. I would have loved to wedding hop (albeit sounding a bit unseemly), but they happen to be in three different parts of the world. But they do have one thing in common: they are all Chinese. This happy clash of ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/10/16/refining-wedding-date-and-google-searc/ China's spacecraft Shenzhou VII,神州七号 blasted off last night, carrying 3 taikongnauts ( a term if I remember correctly was coined 5 years ago when China sent its first astronaut to space. Taikong/太空 means space). On this mission, one of the taikongnauts will conduct China's first space walk. Therefore, this mission ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/09/26/chinas-space-program-more-than-national-pride/ The shocking revelations about dairy products keep rolling out in China. The contaminated baby formula produced by a major local brand, 三鹿/San Lu has caused tens of thousands of babies to have liver stones, and resulted in three deaths. The chemical melamine which makes milk appear rich in protein during quality tests is the culprit. This week, nationwide tests ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/09/18/loss-of-faith/ The man in this interview has a fascinating story. Sidney Shapiro or 沙博理 has lived through Mao's China into Hu's China. Now in his 90's, he enjoys a quiet life in his adopted home in Beijing. He is one of the few hundreds of 'communist sympathisers' (for lack of a better term) who joined ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/09/09/an-american-communist-in-china/ shanghaiist_SH0003pb.mp3 In this week's Chinese Soundbites, Amber and I reveal some election vocab. While the media coverage is drowning many of you in the States, why not take a mini detour and see it in a Chinese light? I'm asked asked how the Chinese see the US election. I'd say first of ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/09/05/us-election-in-chinese/ While swear words are some people's introduction to a new language, I will never be caught dead swearing even if it's for educational purpose. However, a comment in today's ChinesePod lesson (about dogs)http://chinesepod.com/lessons/afraid-of-dogs/discussion#comments  was so mind boggling that I have to share in written form. A user wanted to confirm if 狗屁/gou3 pi4, literal meaning 'dog fart' is ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/09/04/what-is-bs-in-chinese/ http://chinesepod.com/lessons/traffic/discussion The tagline of the Bugle, a brilliant political satire podcast is 'audio newspaper for a visual world'. ChinesePod has been largely audio too. But beginning today, we are expanding into the visual world. This vocab tour is the first instalment. More and better to come with the help of your input. Enjoy! http://jennyzhu.com/2008/09/01/chinesepod-goes-video/ I received a gift from the Shanghai government yesterday. A small plastic spoon designed to help moderate people's salt intake for health benefits. The spoon holds 2 grams of salt. On the package it advises that 3 spoons of salt a day keeps the doctors away. (well, not the second ... http://jennyzhu.com/2008/08/29/chinas-new-style-of-public-policies/