November 2008 Entries
There's so much to be thankful for this year, and an upcoming vacation is definitely on my list. Since I won't be here to update the blog for a while, and you can't overuse the "picture is worth 1,000 words" cliche, I'll be leaving you all with daily images from the newly archived Life Magazine vault.
It's been over six months since the massive earthquake rocked China's Sichuan Province. Over seventy thousand lost their lives, including nineteen thousand students.
Life Magazine's impressive photo vault is now available to anyone via Google Images, and the results are quite stunning. Two million pictures have already been posted, and a total of ten million photos will be available online.
China still has a long way to go before it dominates the Country Brand Index, in the way it succeeded at the Olympics. According to the 2008 results, China only ranked 56 out of 78 countries in the coveted "Top Country Brand" ranking.
Any student of pop culture knows what Milli Vanilli, Ashlee Simpson, and China's Lin Maoke (the cute little girl who was "singing" at this year's Olympic opening ceremonies) have in common, and it's not just their common love of music. If any of them were to "perform" in China following the passage of a new regulation by China's Ministry of Culture, they would face severe penalties.
The global economic slowdown is hardly breaking news. This weekend President Bush has organized an economic summit with twenty world leaders to work together to fix the problem, and on a smaller scale, various governments have proposed new economic packages to stimulate growth.
In the U.S., it seems that the odds are stacked against those who are single. If someone is in a relationship, you get extra presents on Valentine's Day. If you're married, you get engagement, wedding and anniversary presents, and when the kids come along, your friends will even throw you a baby shower.
Most of the nation has focused on today's meeting of President Bush and President-Elect Obama, but Bush isn't the only world leader Obama's been talking to in recent days, among them is China's President Hu Jintao.
Over the past several months, I've seen many Obama-related items on the streets, like tee-shirts, bumper stickers, yard signs, posters, and pins. While all of these show some type of affection for Obama, they're pretty weak in terms of creativity, so it's only fitting that 16 different Chinese companies are filling the gap.
It seems that the demand to learn Mandarin Chinese has grown just as quickly than China's economy over the past few years. Now, thanks to the Internet, it's easier than ever to take Chinese classes or connect with native Chinese speakers. While some aspiring Chinese speakers might have the luxury of a Chinese teacher or friend, new websites make learning Chinese accessible to anyone who can log onto the Internet. At the same time, learning a new language can be pretty daunting, an
The long, hard-fought election cycle has finally come to an end, as Barack Obama defeated John McCain last night. While opinions of the election in the U.S. remain mixed, responses from the international community, including China, have been substantially positive.