Category > popular culture

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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thumbgirl: the aesthetic of cute

卜算子 陌生的尘埃MV from ThumbGirl’s latest album, 伤花怒放 Based in Beijing but tracing its influences back to the UK’s Sarah Records, ThumbGirl (拇指姑娘) is China’s first tweepop band.  Like their name – a translation of Thumbelina – their sweet and gentle music evokes a child’s sense of wonder. This is a band that makes Belle and [...]

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beijing in vintage postcards from images of asia

Street cleaners wash down a city street in old Beijing. Chinese Lunch Counter on the Streets of Beijing   Chinese Water Carrier The Images of Asia stock image website combines two of my favorite things: vintage postcards and historic China. These evocative postcards, some with their original stamps, are organized by cities and by studios.  [...]

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what’s in and what’s out in chinese popular culture

A few months ago in my spoken Chinese class, my teacher displayed this fascinating list of what was in and out in Chinese popular culture as part of her lesson about the internet and slang. Through the miracle of Baidu, I managed to track down the original list to the June 1st edtion of The [...]

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