Why is Nobody Kung Fu Fighting?

In the land of Shaolin, where’s the Wushu?
Published in Issue 9 of Chengdoo magazine, January 2008 | www.chengdoo.com
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When foreigners imagine traditionally Chinese “things,” one of the first things likely to jump to mind is the image of a fast-kicking, shirtless man with a penchant for lethal blows and high pitched battle cries.
Chinese kung fu, known [...]

On Australianness in China: an Australian-Chinese reflects

A close friend of mine considers me nationalistic. She points out that I often add things like: “Did you know that she’s Australian?” when some celebrity figure comes up, or that I often wear my national colours of green and gold.
She is from Canada, and is quick to surmise that Canadians are not nearly [...]

Yo Le Yuan: Amusement Parks in a time of speed fever

When hopping into a taxi in Chengdu to return to my apartment, I have come to rely on the same phrase, one that experience has proven far more reliable than street names or directions.
“Yo Le Yuan,” I tell the driver, meaning “Amusement Park.”
I live, quite fortunately, close to Chengdu’s most famous amusement park, located in [...]

Adapting Christmas Traditions in China

My family’s Christmas tradition provided a mobile adaptation to the broader ritual of spending quality time with one’s family members. Given that none of our extended family lived in the same country as us, we had no grandparents’ or aunts’ homes to visit; no large, chaotic hosting obligations to fulfill. Given all this precious vacation [...]

Fanning the Yellow Firestorm

> Western media and the oriental in orientalism, from the December 2007 issue of Chengdoo magazine (www.chengdoo.com)
By Mark Hiew
“Too many problems with China, they make cheap crap that everyone buys bulk and then they use the profits to build up a weapons force. China is very dangerous. We should buy American and keep our economy [...]

Chengdu Secondhand Crafts Bazaar

–Punk-style DIY anti-consumption meets Chinese frugality
This past Sunday, Chengdu’s first ever second hand crafts bazaar took place at the Jah Bar, one of the few reggae-themed bars in the city.
I helped to set up the event by hauling boxes of second hand goods from one of the organizer’s elevator-less apartment building down five stories and [...]

Jane Goodall in Chengdu, plus: thoughts on sustainability messaging in China

There were a couple of moments at the Jane Goodall lecture at Number 7 Middle School in Chengdu last week which served to remind me that it took place in China. This was, I assume, her stock speech, given at any of the other hundred or so countries Ms. Goodall speaks at during her 300 [...]

Springtime in Brazil

For my first party in China I could think of no better theme than Springtime in Brazil, whose Chinese phoneticization is “Brah-see.” The country’s national colors, green and gold, are identical to those of my native Australia, and it’s often a nation and culture that I perceive (in no doubt “grass is greener” fashion) to [...]

Bicycle thief, an ode to Vittoria De Sica

I am back on the roads of Chengdu.
Purchasing a bicycle is a game of smoke and mirrors, here in the world’s most populous bicycle market. Though electric bicycles, motorbikes and cars, at a rate of 1,000 per day, are all making noticeable forays into the transport market here, bikes still rule the roads.
Alas, my first [...]

Rediscovering the Pleasures of the Palate

Food poisoning, or Traveler’s Diarrhea, goes by a number of slightly witty, often geographical monikers among travelers and expats. Among the most common are “Delhi Belly” in India, “Montezuma’s Revenge” in Mexico, “Torremolinos trots” in…Torremolino. In China, I’ve seen it referred to as “Mao’s Revenge.” Given its frequency amongst those traveling from industrialized Western countries [...]