There are days living in China, particularly in a relatively affluent city like Shanghai, when life can seem very normal to someone who grew up in the United States. This weekend was sunny and pleasant (the autumn is by far the nicest time of the year here), and I watched my daughter play outside with one of her best friends—a …

I forgot to add this picture to those in the previous post. Some of you may remember the non-controversy stirred up on the Chinese internet over the presence of the Starbucks in a corner of the Forbidden City. After years trying to look inconspicuous, the Seattle company was finally booted out earlier this year. Quite absurd in my …

It rained heavily Saturday and the smog vanished and was replaced by glorious, clear blue skies and sunshine. I went for a stroll in the north eastern end of the Forbidden City. In the interests of fairness, I am posting a couple of pictures to offset the fog-bound image below. Middle-aged Chinese friends say they recall many days like …

With reference to the last post about air quality, here’s a link to an interesting piece in Slate that explains how the pollution might not only cause events to be delayed as the IOC has repeatedly warned and affect athletes’ health, it could also impact their performance, something that had never occurred to me before. That explains …

As I remarked earlier this week, the Olympics Inspectors are in town. This Beijing style pea-souper is what they get to see. When the fog descends, pollution concentrates, the air stinks and instead of actually doing something about it, officials tell us –once again– that the elderly and the young shouldn’t go outside. And we haven’t …

Comment by a reader on my post about how China selects its leaders:

I do not think any political system is designed to select the most competent leaders. The best they can get is the most accepted leaders by ALL PARTIES who has a say at the time. Look at Bush. It is pretty hard to find a more incompetent leader than him. AND he got

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CCTV

This from my colleague in Beijing Lin Yang:

I have become a TV fan at a very unlikely time. When all channels are playing the 17th Party Congress materials during prime time, there is one channel that stands out. Instead of playing hard-core propaganda, it is playing a “dramaganda,” as I call it, about the People’s Liberation

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One last thought on the just concluded Party Congress and the new faces on the all-important Standing Committee of the Politburo. Amidst all the discussion of names and factions, Princelings and the Youth League, it’s easy to lose sight of what the results mean for two critical areas: policy and competence. The policy differences between …

At the shaved noodle shop tonight, China’s latest space launch barely got a notice. As the guy next to me tested every possible ring tone option on his phone, the waitress flipped through the tv channels. First it was a talent contest, and then, for a few seconds, a digital recreation of a satellite orbiting the moon. Then it was onto …

Some interesting comments by guiyang laoshi on the millionaires vs. “thousandaires (see post below; it is an ugly coinage. my apologies) issue. First on the danger to social stability he (she?) says:

China’s economy is a case of a rising tide lifts most boats. While the number of absolutely poor has declined by breathtaking levels the

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The international Olympic committee is in town for one of their periodic inspections. Last time around, IOC President Jacques Rogge said that if pollution was bad enough they might have to move some events, which would be a pretty big loss of face. Anyway, this is familiar territory which I won’t g over again. I did notice in the story …

A last word on the previous couple of posts. Readers in China will wonder at my technical skills as all they see where the embedded video is supposed to be is a blank patch. That’s because of the youtube block by the China censors, which apparently may have been caused by the launch of a new Chinese version (www.tw.youtube.com, …