September 2009
27 posts
Fake phones in adundance
Just got back from the electronics market in Zhongguancun. Saw some hilarious fake phones - A miniaturised, but somewhat ill proportioned ‘iPhone’, a ‘Nokia’ that looked like a 90s camcorder with a ‘Cerl Zoiss’ lens, a ‘Vertu’ with extra Ferrari logo, and a Nokia-style phone with 2 pickup call buttons, 1 put down call, and a TV button - I’ve...
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'No Paint No Gains'
is the latest Chinglish slogan I’ve seen being worn on t-shirts around Beijing. But to be honest I don’t find the t-shirts funny anymore, they’re just crap. I mean, no paint no gains: is that a play on words or have they just got it wrong? - and if it is a play on words, its not funny, its not working on any level, and I’m pretty sure not in Chinese either.
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Taiwan Designer's Week 09
By pure coincidence, I was in Taipei for Taiwan Designer’s Week, which gave me an excellent opportunity to get an overview of what is going on in Taiwanese design at the moment. The most interesting thing about TDW was that there were several mini-exhibitions on various themes, in which, Taiwanese designers were invite to design around the chosen subject. The best of these was the Rain exhibition,...
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Taiwan
My 10 days in Taipei was a welcome break from Beijing life. Managed to mix plenty of activities with a few business meetings.
Took in Taiwan Designer’s Week on the first day (more in the next post) and then walked to Taipei 101 - the tallest building in the world (although I swear its not that big).
Taipei is a relatively small city, hemmed in by the surrounding mountains, where I went for a...
Back in the Big Smoke
Back in Beijing and have finally got an internet connection in my new apartment. The government (or some other authority) decided that I wasn’t allowed to stay on in my last apartment, so I’m no longer in the hutong, and now find myself in a motel-style building (like the ones in American movies, only shit). So now its time to blog about what I’ve been up to in the last couple of weeks.
Beitou Hot Springs
Took a visit to the hot springs today after my visit to Pega. Mostly full of pensioners, one of whom decided to tell me his daily routine. It is as follows: Wake up and shower, followed by a swim. Read the newspaper. Have lunch. Sleep (1 hour). Watch animals on the discovery channel. Come to the hot springs (which is where he found me). He started to talk about the war after that, so I did a...
