Rolling into Shanghai’s People’s Square last Sunday, New Zealander Rob Thomson was met with surprisingly little fanfare. No media to greet him, no friends or family to congratulate him. A lonesome end to an amazing journey.
The random Chinese man he asked to take his photo to mark the moment had no idea that Thomson has just completed a world record breaking odyssey. He had, in the course of 462 days, travelled an amazing 12,000 km solo and unassisted across Europe, North America, and China on a longboard skateboard.
Now relaxing for a few days in Shanghai before heading back to his native New Zealand, Rob was kind enough to field some questions for Lost Laowai.
A report released on Wednesday exposed the fact that the Chinese version of Skype has been snooping and storing the full text chat messages of TOM-Skype users (along with regular Skype users who have communicated with TOM-Skype users) on publicly-accessible servers.
The report, BREACHING TRUST: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China’s TOM-Skype platform, was authored by Canadian Nart Villeneuve, of the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary research and development lab that performs research at the intersection of technology, civic networks, and human rights (and whose site is seemingly blocked in China).
The key findings of the report:
Taken by Jaune d’eau at the Kunshan Beerfest this September. I just love this photo - for the lighting, for the unique subject, for the expressions in the crowd - and for the fact that it has this very reminiscent revolutionary feel to it; sort of a Great Leap Forward meets drunken carnival. I had intended to go to this beer festival, I now regret missing it.
Whenever I become too cocky about my Chinese skills I seem to have a humbling experience: The latest took place the other week at my university. After a class where I actually understood all the major points of the newspaper articles we were reading, I headed for the book store to buy myself a ruler.
Just ten minutes before, I had managed to figure out what the word for beta carotene is in Chinese, but now I realize I don’t know how to say “ruler”. Well, here’s a chance to add another word to my vocabulary. I look “ruler” up …
***Cross-posted on PandaPassport.com. Re-posting here, in an effort to help out some fellow Laowai in China.
Yeah, you heard me. A gaelic football team in China. If you don’t know what gaelic/Irish football is, that doesn’t really matter so much. Just check it out below in the video. Long story short, there’s a team here in Dalian, China — not a likely place to find that brand of football either. The Dalian Wolfhounds, as they’re called, have quite a few Chinese starters this year, more than any other team I’m told. That’s great to see. It’s almost like the Jamaican bobsled team, in a way — only without the bobsled and stuff.
Just a quick note to let everyone know that the Lost Laowai blog’s address has changed ever so slightly.
Though all the old links and feed will be automatically redirected, should you wish to update your bookmarks and RSS readers, the new addresses are:
http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog
http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/feed/rss
UPDATE: http://www.lostlaowai.com/blog/feed
Again, all links should automatically redirect even if you enter an old link, however if you notice a broken link, please let us know.
Every few months the media seems to dig up a new quality control issue with Chinese products. Many of these are largely just typical media fear factoring, but the recent “melamine in milk” debacle is very real and very wide-spanning.
If you’re like me, you probably gasped in horror when it was reported that all the major milk distributors in China had milk tainted with melamine. You heard about the babies dying and started looking ominously at your fridge.
Then, again assuming you’re like me, you stopped and said, “wait, WTF is melamine?”
Not boring anyone with the chemical details, essentially it is an organic compound that in one form or another is likely all over your house. …
In the people of the United-States of America and the People’s Republic of China we have two examples of a citizenry brazenly immune to the betrayals visited upon them by their political leaders. After 8 years of Bush chaos, death and destruction, a Republican candidate still stands a good chance of seceding him at the helm of what has effectively become a gravity bound deathstar.
In China, the vandals made off with the body and soul of the nation during the great leap forward and the cultural revolution, only to steal history itself and throw themselves an early anniversary party on the buck of the people. Talk about gettin’ away with murder. The red flags rise taller than ever, hearts prouder than …
The US Department of Commerce is hosting a free webinar to discuss Sichuan earthquake reconstruction activities and how American businesses can best help China rebuild. “Learn about current recovery and reconstruction priorities, how architecture, construction and engineering firms can best approach the market, and how a Design Team is making headway in helping China Rebuild Schools Sustainably. Submit questions to the presenters in advance to ensure your concerns are raised. Join live or watch a recording of the program later at your convenience.” The program is free, but you must register in advance. Registration will close Sept. 19, 10:00 pm ET.
Because Chinese can be Lost Laowai too, can’t they?
Three men - one of whom is surnamed Liu, while the other two are surnamed Wang - purchased a glittering “treasure” for $2,000 in Kyrgyzstan. They brought it back to Xinjiang, hoping to make a fortune by selling it.
Because they knew nothing about the 274-kg stone, they sliced off a piece to bring to Beijing for expert analysis last January.
Last September, geologists at Tsinghua University concluded it was depleted uranium and called police.
Prosecutors in Aksu decided against arresting the men, because they obviously had no idea what they had purchased. The men have undergone medical examinations and appear to be in good health. China Daily via Digg.com
As the de facto editorial desk for Lost Laowai, I tend to get a lot of e-mail touting all the amazing things that “YOUR READERS WANT TO KNOW ABOUT”. I, perhaps overly liberally, trash the majority of them.
However, having just received notice that the 1st World Mind Sports Games is coming to Beijing, I figured I better post about it - these are clever folks, and there’s no telling what they’d do to me if I didn’t.
I mean, any dumbass can run a track or swim a few laps, but even in women’s beach volleyball (the epitome Olympic sport in my opinion) you don’t get to say shit like “won with …
I look...
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