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“China is not dangerous,” but I have been known to be wrong-ish
Zhuhai. Taxis. Both usually rather safe (well except the driving bit, but that’s a thought for another day) I’m recalling snippets of a conversation I had recently with a group of Hong Kong expats...
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Shenzhen calling, but not for American me…
I see Shenzhen like Sarah Palin sees Russia. Squint through the smog and you can see building outlines. (No, I don’t really live in the Hong Kong Wetland Park where this photo was taken.) Shenzhen, a...
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View from Queen’s Road in Hong Kong
It has recently come to my attention that a certain class of Hong Kong expat refers to anything “off the island” as “the dark side.” As someone who currently lives “off the island” in Hong Kong’s New...
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I lie to myself about pollution
I spent a year deluding myself that the Tai Po District of Hong Kong was (relatively) wholesomely clean. Then I hiked up Cloudy Hill on a ‘clear’ day and fully realized that China’s industrial...
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Twice Lost in Translation
1. Why are Shenzhen pensioners arguing about a Canadian winter sports hero? For a short time everyday I tune into a radio station broadcast from across the border in Shenzhen, China. I understand a...
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“Get the Hell Out of Asia, American Bastards!” or when not to gather insider...
Scrolling through my Twitter feed this afternoon,” I stumbled across this incongruous pair of tweets: The first tweet relates to the American [foreign policy] “pivot to Asia” and China’s annoyance that...
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Dafen 大芬 Art Village: Mass Art for the Masses
Dreamt of owning Starry Night but too timid to pull off a heist at the Van Gogh Museum? Then Shenzhen, China’s Dafen Art Village is your (relatively) lawful solution. In this odd corner of the world,...
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Lo Wo, Shenzhen: shopping, spitting and savoring
Is that the long, loud, guttural sound of someone hacking up a giant wad of phlegm? I must have crossed the border into China! After receiving countless short-term China visas, I was delighted to...
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The picture that got away from us in Shenzhen
“Hey, take a look at that outfit,” my friend whispered over lunch at an outdoor cafe. I turned and saw a middle-aged woman wearing rainbow-splattered clothes from head to toe. “What’s written across...
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A tale of one real and one faux Uber
In recent weeks I enjoyed one fabulous Uber ride and one fake Uber ride. One was in Hong Kong with a worldly-cool Uber driver and the other was in Shenzhen with an enterprising, but dawdling, fake Uber...
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