Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf

February 8th, 2010

200971154434909Much has been made about Chinese cinemas dropping Avatar to make way for the new film Confucius (see here and here ). My own experience of trying to go see Confucius (there were only 2 screenings both at awkward times) made it clear that – in Shanghai at least -   if Avatar was pushed aside for anything it was to make room for 喜羊羊与灰太狼  ‘Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf’ (which has screenings every 15 minutes).

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Preschool cramming

February 3rd, 2010

Shanghai Daily on the hectic schedules of toddlers. I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the  class for kids under 2 on ‘Western etiquette and table manners.’

Doing what you love

February 2nd, 2010

Amongst all the recent ipad news, this story on Steve Jobs and the ‘auteur model of innovation’ is probably the most relevant to China. Despite the fact that the shanzhai version of the ipad was on the market months before the original and that the Shenzhen company is, hilariously, said to be considering suing apple for copyright infringement, contemporary Chinese culture is agonizing over how to make the jump from ‘made in China to created in China’.

What Jobs, like Sony’s Akio Morita, who invented the walkman amidst widespread doubts that anyone would want a handheld stereo, or Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto (profiled here at NYT), who is behind practically all of the company’s creations,  make clear is the crucial role that individual genius plays in true innovation.

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Interesting Times and Great Writers

February 1st, 2010

From urbanatomy.com’s increasingly interesting series Why I Write? Peter Hessler on Chinese education and contemporary writers: Read the rest of this entry »

Some Links

January 27th, 2010

A harsh critique of the Chinese education system from the NYT

And at The Atlantic what we all already know – in the end the only thing that really matters is the teacher

Morning Rituals

January 23rd, 2010

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Like students in much of the world, kids in Shanghai start the day by singing the National Anthem. The other day, late for drop-off, I got to witness this daily ritual, and became curious about the lyrics. So – for those who don’t know – here is the English translation of  The March of the Volunteers.

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The new global language?

January 22nd, 2010

NYT on American schools teaching Chinese. Guess we are ahead of the curve.

Update: More here

China and Science

January 7th, 2010

Two recent articles  – the first from the New Yorker, the other from the NYT

Yuletide Greetings

December 24th, 2009

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Every year in Shanghai Christmas becomes a little more widespread. I am convinced that in a few more years it will seem almost indigenous. With its shopping, eating and brightly colored kitsch the holiday is made for Shanghai. Christmas decorations that were not long ago restricted to the big shopping malls have now spread almost everywhere (this really shouldn’t be surprising since almost all the world’s decorations come from the back room factories of neighboring Zhejiang province.) This year at our corner restaurant the waiters and waitresses all wore Santa hats, our housing community is decked out in Christmas lights and Zoe’s classroom at the local school now has hanging stockings, lots of images of Santa Lao ren (Old man Santa) and a Christmas tree.

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Winter Solstice

December 22nd, 2009

Its a bright and sunny day in Shanghai. Some pics of the light from the walk home from school:

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