Author Archive > fiona

Pimp my ride, China-style!

Cars are a symbol of modernity and luxury, and particularly so in China, the largest car market in the world. Everyone is in on this: the government, auto companies, and of course, the sacred cow of the international economy, the rising Chinese middle class. As a country and a generation goes wheels up, one of [...]

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Did China invent the restaurant?

From Wikimedia Commons It’s hard to imagine nowadays, but restaurants as we know them today did not always exist. French Revolution Paris in the late 18th century is usually cited as the birthplace of the restaurant (the word itself is French), but many of the characteristics that define a modern restaurant were already in place [...]

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Chinese Retirees Cover Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance

If you have ever thought to yourself that you would really like to hear Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” covered in the Hunan dialect by Chinese retirees dancing with young women in miniskirts playing traditional Chinese instruments…then this amazing video will be your dream come true.

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Variations on a Theme: I Want Your Love

1950s Chinese actress, singer and superstar Grace Chang (葛兰 Ge Lan) really deserves a post that is devoted entirely to herself, but I’m going to start here with just one song. Recently, I spent a rather enjoyable morning watching Grace Chang clips on YouTube. My favourite is 我要你的爱 I Want Your Love. It’s a Chinese [...]

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An Ode to O2Sun

Welcome to book heaven! Like most book nerds, I can spend hours browsing a bookstore, and this is particularly true of the branches of the Fujianese bookstore chain O2Sun. Branches can be found all over China, and it is the kind of store that is definitely more oriented towards a younger, relatively hip reader with [...]

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我想谈说种种纯洁的事情 I wish to speak of all things pure

I keep receiving very kind comments on how much readers enjoyed this blog, so although I no longer live in Beijing, I’ll update it here and there with interesting things that I come across. As you can imagine, there is actually a huge backlog of things that I never posted on this blog. About a [...]

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Goodbye, Beijing

Dear Beijing, It’s been two weeks since I dumped you. I haven’t regretted that decision one bit. Even more than New York, we had a real love/hate relationship. quirkyBeijing started because I wanted to like you a little bit. Other people instantly fell in love with you, but I just couldn’t see it. I could [...]

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PaperTalk: Celebrating the Charm of Paper

PaperTalk is one of my favourite, favourite places in Beijing. Nestled in Fangjia Hutong (方家胡同), this adorable shop specializes in paper products and specialty papers from all around the world. It is all very fitting considering that paper was a Chinese invention. PaperTalk Proprietor Haiyi is passionate about paper, and PaperTalk is a perfect platform [...]

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Photos from the One A Day Photo Project

Last year, last year!, I started the One A Day Photo Project, which only made it to two posts before I went on another long, unintended hiatus. The sad thing is that I did take a considerable number of photographs, but never got around to editing and uploading them. But here are some of the [...]

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The Secret Boutique: Wuhao

Beijing is not a city particularly known for its fashion or its style, at least, not yet, but sometimes one stumbles across both. Hidden behind a door with only its street number, the stylish boutique Wuhao calls itself a “curated shop”. Situated in a gorgeous siheyuan–formerly occupied by Wanrong, the Last Empress, before she was [...]

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