In 1955, Ding Jitang, then a young cadre, was sent to Huxian County on the outskirts of Xi'an to teach art. Ding went everywhere with his brush and paints in his pocket and drawing board slung over his shoulder, painting whenever he felt moved by the scenes of country ... Read More
Zhang Renqing sits idly on her footstool eagerly eyeing the feet of those passing by. "Business is slow today," she says as she leans back from beneath her tree and into the sunshine, her shoe repair kit prepped and dusted to her left. "But that's why I like this ... Read More
Name: Josephine Charles
Job: Builder of schools and educator of women
London-trained psychotherapist Josephine Charles can't quite figure out how she found herself in the Yi minority region of Liangshan, Yunnan. "I knew nothing about the minority group," she recalls, "but the area sounded interesting."
What she encountered was ... Read More
On the morning of October 30, music fans learned that Xiao Suo, guitarist and lead singer with the folk-rock band Wild Children, had died at the age of 34, from stomach cancer.
Suo Wenjun's rustic folk sound was taken from the Yellow River region, and like Suo himself, the ... Read More
Gray hair usually has a tendency to make a person look inspiring, and that is certainly the case with Wang Xingjuan. Although over 70 years of age, the elderly lady's train of thought is clear and fast, as she looks back on a long and impressive life.
Wang's ... Read More
Kitted out in gloves, facemasks, white coats, and antiseptic spray, Wang and Zhou are happy with their new jobs. As community disinfectors (xiaodu yuan), the ongoing SARS crisis has a sliver lining for the 43-year-old laid off women.
Both women had been jobless for one year after being laid off ... Read More
After an education that stopped with middle school, Yang Jiaming embarked on his own Long March to become possibly the most highly respected specialist and researcher into Tibetan culture in China.
Talk to Yang, however, and he speaks in modest terms of his life and his sizeable achievements that include ... Read More
Is Shanghai slowly sliding into the Huangpu River?
When an access tunnel for the new RT 4 subway line in Shanghai collapsed on July 1, the question on everyone's lips was whether the tides were gradually rolling in to reclaim the land. As the unfortunate eight-story office building that ... Read More
Even those with only a nodding acquaintance with Beijing's bar street in Sanlitun will have encountered Lao Xiao - the man who earns his living selling woven grass animals around the area.
In case you haven't seen him, the people's hero has been given a bit part in ... Read More
"There was a whole string of characters I played in which I would fall in love with a girl, but in the end the Chinese guy would always get her!" says actor Matt Trusch.
Trusch, a bearded Jewish American, has been battling stereotypical portrayals of Westerners in Chinese theater and ... Read More
Ask Lao Wang about philosophy and belief, and he talks about words.
Sitting on a rock in the shadows of willow trees, he opens his eight-language dictionary - Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese. Words in Korean are penciled in the margins.
As a park-side philosopher and linguist ... Read More
It's just after 5pm on the second day of Ramadan, in the Hekim family's Beijing dining room. On a near nightly basis, Kilara Hekim, leader and mother of this musical troupe, brings her Central Asian dancing and culture to the people of Beijing. Right now, though, she's ... Read More
Struck by the difficulty foreign students have learning Chinese characters, Da Shiping has created a totally new method of teaching reading and writing Chinese that is not only simple, but fun as well.
Instead of having to memorize a complete character, the senior editor for the Shanghai Chinese Classics publishing ... Read More
Five years ago, Sun Jinya made a decision that changed his life when he quit his government job to devote his time and energy to society's needy - in particular, the elderly and abandoned children. Today, as the founder of the Shanghai Huge Grace Welfare Center, Sun and his wife ... Read More
Linda Liu visits the old folk's home at least twice a week. "She views it as part of her life rather than her work," says her colleague in admiration. "It's amazing how comfortable she looks, wiping the food from around the old people's mouths, as if they ... Read More
At the formal opening of the Asia Art Archive (AAA) in Hong Kong in March, the gathered champagne-quaffing luminaries all had one word on their lips: "important". The problem is, those things considered socially and culturally "important" tend to get sidelined as great ideas that just never quite happen.
The ... Read More
During a lull in the frosty 1999 WTO bilateral talks, the Iranian-British MC Ghaffar Pourazar slunk off the stage after introducing a performance of Beijing Opera. When Pourazar returned to the stage - clad as the Monkey King from Journey to the West - nobody realized it was the same person. "They ... Read More
Working his craft from behind a small card table set up beside of the Li River in Yangshuo, Guangxi province, Liaoning native Meng Hui is not your average calligrapher. One thing that sets him apart is his work itself: the characters that he scribes on scrolls and fans are old ... Read More
She's known to most as a flaming redhead, and (forgive the crassness) she's given many a guy a ride, only to be completely wiped from his mind until the next time.
Sound familiar? Well, not wanting to drag those skeletons too far out of the closet, the lady ... Read More
His opening gambit was a strange one: "I once studied reflexology disguised as a blind man," said the clearly sighted Emmanuel José Moreno González (or Manu to his friends) sounding slightly embarrassed. "In my second year of studying traditional medicine. I was taken to study with this teacher by a ... Read More
The couple sat crowded around a small table in their shop. Life's hard knocks have taken a toll on them; Sun Xianbing and Sun Faqun (they happen to have the same surname) look older than their years. They tell the family story in bits and pieces, interrupting each other ... Read More
"I've been a regular at this spot for about five years - since I was laid off - but I started coming here in the early 1980s. I was a driver for a grain-processing factory that was closed down, just to the north of here.
"That was alright - I would drive ... Read More
Three-in-one Phone, Fax, Email
A new integrated email, telephone and fax machine has been unveiled by Shanghai Telecom.
The new service, called Yishengtong, provides users with one number capable of receiving voice messages, faxes and emails.
The system works by allowing a message to first enter the Yishengtong mailbox. Users ... Read More
Hello-ing throngs are gathered for the tourist feeding-frenzy outside Prince Gong's Palace, offering hutong (alley) tours. "Just ignore them", says Wu. "Most of them are from Anhui." Ah, Anhui. Clearly not to be trusted.
Despite a touch of xenophobia, a dreadful comb-over, and a Beijing accent thick enough to ... Read More
China -- a country of 1.295 billion people, a nation on the move, an estimated 13 million cars and 540 million bicycles streaming over roads, which in Beijing's urban sector alone total 4,125.8 kilometers in length, occupying a surface area of 49.214 million square meters.
The ... Read More
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Middle 8th: The New Sanlitun Village Location Has Creative Zest
By JPDM
I tried the new Middle 8 location last night. We tried to make a reservation... >>