An exploration of virtual experiences and environments in and about China.
“Private kitchen” = 私房菜 = home-cooked or super-traditional meals that are fixed course depending on the day and the restaurant is usually set in a small apartment upstairs; was all the rage in Hong Kong some years ago.
If you’re in Hong Kong, why don’t you try a few set up by Mr. Lau Kin-Wai:
I went to the Yellow Door some years ago and both the setting and food were unique experiences 
Via Thomas Crampton.
UPDATE: I added my short analysis/reflection.
An ad for Wellcome (one of the big supermarket chains in Hong Kong) based on the premise that if the little daughter saves enough, one dollar at a time, that she can buy back some of her father’s time spent at work.
But why does it stir my emotions? Because Hong Kong people are famously overworked and their children are increasingly raised by housekeepers. A story that touches on both of those at the same time — excellent.
Aw Guo on IfGoGo:
This is a “panda shaoxiang” version. Shaoxiang, aka “烧香” in Chinese, means go to the temple for burning incense and offering up a sacrifice. The Shaoxiang Panda is a very famous computer virus (worm like) in China during 2007. Once you get infected, all the icons of your files will be a picture like this one.
Then of course, someone applied this image to a real photo and Photoshop:
“With music by Damon Albarn, and imagery by Jamie Hewlett — the duo that brought us the Gorillaz — I am loving BBC Sport’s marketing campaign for the Chinese Olympics.”
Via Drawn.
Two calls to sign this petition have been floating around my inbox recently:
Being from Hong Kong, I quickly submitted my name to support this cause. Thoughts stirred in my head: What was the UN doing? Is this a signal for Taiwan? Does this mean Hong Kong will switch to simplified Chinese soon?
Upon further research however, it seems have all been a hoax based upon a chain of sloppy journalism. According to Xiao Zhao who took the time to investigate the matter:
…the rumor was obviously started with a false message from a professor in China, named Chan, Zhang Tai who casually said UN will stop use Traditional Chinese in 2008 to a reporter with a Chinese newspaper in Hong Kong, Oriental Daily in March 2006. The reporter didn’t confirm with UN and just went ahead reporting what professor Chan said. Later on, UN had to announce that there is not abolishment of traditional Chinese in 2008 and UN has never used Traditional Chinese since 1971.
See the full exposee at Xiao Zhao’s blog: A Country Bumpkin Offering Sunshine.
Mafia is a decently well-known game within role-playing communities. To put it succinctly (see wikipedia for a more elaborate explanation of the game), it’s a game played by a group of people in a living room, where people are secretly assigned mafia or innocent roles.
During each turn the innocents have to suss out which people are mafia and vote to kill them. At the end of each turn, the mafia gets to choose to kill another innocent. The game ends when only mafia or innocents are left alive.
Sometimes this live-action game is played on a forum, or even through IM.
And then (according to press statements), the game was brought to China by a foreign student who was in Silicon Valley.
Exhibit A: http://killer.uland.com/
The game was transferred to forums/chatrooms in China and the avatars were dolled up. They also added a new cops role (making it cops, killers and innocents).
Exhibit B: http://www.ss911.cn
These people dolled it up some more, stole some graphics from existing games and created a spiffy GUI for it. They are currently setting up the ability to buy items for your character (making them look prettier or have new special weapons).
What’s interesting to me:
(Also: Is it unethical for them to use pirated graphics? I don’t think so — at this beta stage, they’re clearly placeholders for what’s to come. Even if they’re not: They’re using them so badly right now, it would be silly to penalize them.)
Thanks to Gamasutra writer Frank Yu for his help: Check out his new blog — Yum Yum Games.
(Original link to Killcity/SS911 via Dennis’ Blog.)
Presenting Hong Kong’s most famous graffiti artist and typographer…
And it’s true — I do see his work around town, when I am home. Unfortunately, he passed away in July.
See the Chinese Wikipedia entry about him for more details.
Photo taken by Frank Chan. Kudos to bad taste but smell good for reminding me about him.
Though to be fair, someone’s also done this in the US (in San Mateo):
Found at Paul Saffo’s journal.
Remember the "Numa Numa" song, originally performed by the Moldovan band O-Zone (actual title of song = Dragostea din tei)?
It’s been a while since the song, the MTV and its spoofs were circulated around the internet, but I found a witty animated version today on Tudou that transliterated the Romanian words into Chinese:
Kaiser Kuo has posted an online version of his recent column for local magazine That’s Beijing. The article is called: Provincial Poetry and delineates the various regional stereotypes within China in poetry.
Excerpts about the two regions most frequently cited:
"The Shanghainese are philistines, and this they’ll gladly own:
Commercial instincts permeate them to the very bone.
Their pride in Shanghai’s petit bourgeois ethos is immense
But what they lack in culture, they make up in common sense."
"Beiingers love to gab, and though they’re lazy and they’re slow,
There’s nothing about politics that they aren’t apt to know.
They may complain a lot about the traffic and the air
But scratch beneath the cynicism and you’ll find they care."
Read about the rest of China in the full post: Provincial Poetry.
LiLei and Han MeiMei were the two main characters from a series of middle-school English textbooks used by Mainland Chinese students in the early 80s. I’ve unearthed a small wave of nostalgia about them online, including speculations on their love triangle with Englishman Jim Green and an annotated cast of characters.
Then some artists converted retro nostalgia into modern art, kitsch and a roadshow:
Interestingly enough, they also gave named them 李磊 and 韩美美 as they described in one of their first blog posts:
"他们没有中文名，我就先这样叫他们。试试看反响如何？大家有新意见么？ (They don’t have Chinese names, let’s call them this for now and see what the reaction is? What do you think?)"
Via Bigik.cn.
Yellow Door
Kin’s Kitchen
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