That Time I Moved To Beijing

That time we went to INTRO attired in the best the Zoo Market...

Tue, 29 May 2012 00:37:01 +0800

That time we went to INTRO attired in the best the Zoo Market had to offer. Yes, those are Angry Birds visors with solar-powered fans. And retractable sunglasses.

That time we went to INTRO attired in the best the Zoo Market...

Tue, 29 May 2012 00:36:26 +0800

That time we went to INTRO attired in the best the Zoo Market had to offer. Yes, those are Angry Birds visors with solar-powered fans. And retractable sunglasses.

Spotted on the Beijing subway: Do you think they’re Helen...

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:13:00 +0800

Spotted on the Beijing subway: Do you think they’re Helen Kellers? Bonus points for wearing them upside down.

That Time I Moved to Beijing and saw at least one wedding photo...

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:10:51 +0800

That Time I Moved to Beijing and saw at least one wedding photo shoot in progress every single day. This one gets props for being edgy. Or maybe it’s not a wedding photo shoot and veils are just in style right now. Now I guess I’ll never know.

Season of the Panda

Wed, 02 May 2012 15:42:58 +0800

Season of the Panda

Chinese street style. Ubiquitous, ridiculous.

Wed, 02 May 2012 14:12:01 +0800

Chinese street style. Ubiquitous, ridiculous.

Never gets old. Past four months of my life have given 3:00-3:10...

Wed, 02 May 2012 14:10:29 +0800

Never gets old. Past four months of my life have given 3:00-3:10 a whole new perspective.

NOWNESS launches their Chinese language site with this feature...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:42:00 +0800

NOWNESS launches their Chinese language site with this feature on Feng Fanzhi.

Stopping for pedestrians: winning hearts and minds all over the world

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:31:00 +0800

This afternoon’s commute pleasantly turned out to be culture exchange thinly disguised as a taxi-share. As temperatures increase in Beijing, so does the difficulty of finding a taxi. Kou Xiansheng (Mr. Kou) was happy to drop me at work on his way to the train station. Our chat eventually moved on to the topic of his first and only trip to Canada, at which point he couldn’t stress enough his surprise that in Vancouver cars always stopped for pedestrians. Yes, Kou Xiansheng - we keep it classy in the Couv. It’s been no surprise to be that the Chinese are pretty bullish Vancouver - even the ones who haven’t seen it with their own eyes , bought a multi-million dollar house on the West Side, nor even felt the gentle kindness of a Vancouver driver slowly bring their Toyota Prius to a halt, smiling serenely having just come from a Vinyasa-Flow class and reaching for their tumbler to take a small sip of organic, fair-trade Salt Spring coffee.

On another hilarious note, one of the laoshis at my school was invited to attend the stagette of a former student (also Canadian). As the apparent expert-in-resident on gifts appropriate for this type of occasion, I was asked for my suggestions on what would be appropriate. The look of slight shock and horror on laoshi’s face when I jokingly replied that 内衣 (undergarments) were a typical stagette gift was, needless to say, priceless. I revised my final answer and assured her that a gift relating to Chinese language or culture would be fine, given that the basis of their relationship is, well, based on Chinese language and culture. Interesting how we discover the more obtuse aspects of Western (read: North American) traditions.

Oh and yes, you heard me mention work. Work you say? As of late I’ve been giving a cool little company named Catalai a hand with their marketing. They run an internship, language and culture programme for young folks that want to go about doing this “China thing”. Take a peek and throw us a thumbs up if you like what you see - http://www.facebook.com/CatalaiChinaProgramme.

Faster than you can say “Big Mac” - Anja...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:53:00 +0800

Faster than you can say “Big Mac” - Anja Hitzenberger’s “Take Out: Chinese Fast Food Photographs“

加拿大最有名的小吃 I just wrote a recipe for poutine in Chinese. Yes, yes...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:56:14 +0800

加拿大最有名的小吃 I just wrote a recipe for poutine in Chinese. Yes, yes I did. Cultural exchange at a whole new level.

车到山前必有路 On letting things run their course

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:59:02 +0800

The trainers at my gym are also great Chinese teachers. They never fail to catch me red-faced and sweaty after a 45-minute run on the treadmill, and never fail to ask me how I’m liking Beijing and how the Chinese is coming along. Yesterday, Wang Nan offered me this little tidbit regarding taking on things that appear challenging at the outset:

车到山前必有路

che1 dao4 shan1 qian2 bi1 you3 lu4.
Translation: When we get to the mountain, there’ll be a way through.

Thanks Wang Nan, I guess sometimes you just have to trust.

“Red China" through the lens of Henri Cartier-Bresson, father of photojournalism

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:32:52 +0800

“Red China" through the lens of Henri Cartier-Bresson, father of photojournalism

A Chengyu a day keeps the despair at bay.

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:28:13 +0800

Probably one of the highlights of this whole learning Chinese thing (which, as the title of this post indicates, can on occasion spur a bit of despair) is the delight in discovering a new Chengyu completely by accident. For the unfamiliar, a Chengyu is a traditional Chinese idiomatic expression usually consisting of four characters. Chengyus are common in ancient Chinese as well as modern written/spoken Chinese. These are set expressions that native Chinese speakers just inherently know from speaking their mother tongue, and thus are harder for non-native speakers to pick up on and use fluently. I suppose my experience to be the rough equivalent of teaching a non-English speaker the meaning of phrases like “a watched pot never boils” or “no rest for the wicked”.

Often times when I’m looking up a word in my dictionary, it will list a bunch of Chengyus containing the word at the bottom. While looking up the numerous variations of the character “刀“ I came across this especially tasty (no pun intended) Chengyu.

”刀子嘴巴豆腐心“

Pinyin: dao1 zi zui3 ba dou4 fu xin1

Translation: Knife mouth but heart of bean curd, i.e. a sharp tongue concealing a caring heart.

So next time someone mouths off to you, take heart and smile smugly to yourself: his or her heart is probably made of bean curd.

“The Chinese people”

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:41:21 +0800

“The Chinese people are frank yet tactful, honest yet sophisticated, suspicious yet gullible, stubborn yet flexible, unscrupulous yet loyal, advocate etiquette yet often appear unmannered, stand for the golden mean yet are extreme, value the quality of being thrifty yet like to parade their wealth, maintain traditions when convenient yet love to chase modern fashion, believe contentment brings happiness yet often daydream about becoming overnight millionaires, believe the word of the fortune teller yet lack affiliation to any religion, like to form groups yet often fight, love to be controversial yet know how to smooth things over, do not like to be meddlesome yet love to gossip, know how to “seize the day” yet always talk about taking life easy…”

- 易教授，2009 年

That Time I Went to Seoul and Caught Some Nanta, and took...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:04:00 +0800

That Time I Went to Seoul and Caught Some Nanta, and took “audience participation” to a whole new level.

That Time I Went to Da DMZ and discovered my footwear triplets...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:45:43 +0800

That Time I Went to Da DMZ and discovered my footwear triplets i.e. a couple of young Korean men doing their military service.

Men in Muggs Vol. 3: Faceless Man in Muggs. Cuffed jeans and a...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:53:01 +0800

Men in Muggs Vol. 3: Faceless Man in Muggs.
Cuffed jeans and a few flashes of fur give Faceless Man in Muggs a certain je ne sais quois (or maybe it’s just because you can’t see his face…)

Men in Muggs Vol. 2: Colour-Coordinated Man in Muggs. Matching...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:49:28 +0800

Men in Muggs Vol. 2: Colour-Coordinated Man in Muggs.
Matching grey ear muffs and muggs are an on-point ensemble for a cold winter’s day in BJ.

Chunjie is over, boo. My days of lounging around watching CCTV...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:40:00 +0800

Chunjie is over, boo. My days of lounging around watching CCTV and eating 大白兔 couldn’t continue forever. But on the bright side I am slightly richer, slightly rounder and slightly more enlightened as to what it means to celebrate Chinese New Year here in China (I left out slightly deafer from the omnipotent fireworks that have been going off constantly for a week….although seeing them lit in the middle of an intersection is pretty cool).

See above for a snapshot of NYE dinner goodtimes in Tianjin (where my auntie is from, that’s her on my left - and yes for those wondering, this is a “family friend” auntie not a blood relative!) I was blessed to experience the new year the way a lot of day-to-day Beijingers celebrate it: in their home towns, surrounded by family. The coming and going of relatives and old friends gave my Chinese listening skills a proper sharpening, and I even earned myself a new nickname: “小龙女” - AKA Little Dragon Girl. It’s my year, apparently.