Several months ago I had the opportunity to travel to the notorious southern Chinese e-waste recycling hub of Guiyu. It was an interesting visit during which it became apparent that many assumptions currently held about e-waste processing in China are no longer current. Of these, perhaps the most important is the blanket assumption that foreign…
All posts in Et Cetera
Harmonious Families Inspire Class Warfare
Here in Shanghai, we are finally putting some distance between us and the concluded Chinese New Year. But, in microblogging terms, it feels to me like there’s still a bit of a holiday hangover. Only in the last two days, with all kinds of interesting political news, does one get the sense that things are…
If O.J. Simpson Confessed in Chinese … sort of.
If contemporary China had a national martyr, it would’ve been Peng Yu. In 2006 he was stepping off a Nanjing bus when he saw an old woman had fallen to the ground. While others passed her by, Peng not only helped her up, he took her to the hospital and even paid her bill. In…
At Shanghai Scrap, we speak, we read.
I’m very excited to announce that I am participating in the Innovation Policy Summit at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This is a first for me (both visiting and participating), and I have to think that – among the 100,000+ attendees – I must know somebody. So, if you’re there, look me…
Pregnancy, China, Privacy, er, boom.
Though little noted outside of China, pregnancy and contraception have been among the most commented upon topics on Chinese microblogs and newspaper editorial pages over the last month. The thread was kicked-off by a CCTV report on the anti-radiation clothes that many Chinese women wear during pregnancy, and hit a feverish pitch shortly after Fuzhou…
China: Where American Christmas tree lights go to die. And be recycled.
A few years ago I was walking through a Chinese scrap yard when I came across a small pile of Christmas tree lights. There weren’t many there, but the encounter stuck in my mind. How on Earth did those lights move to China? And why? Like many writers, I keep a mental file of questions…
How low will (the) Chinese (government allow) real estate prices go?
A few weeks ago I was in Foshan, a thriving city on the edge of Guangzhou, and I happened to ask one of my hosts about the cost of the apartment buildings going up all around the city. He gave me a number, which struck me as high, and then he told me that the…
Rich Gluttons Hold Extravagant Meal at US Embassy, Beijing, Congratulate Selves for Promoting Healthy Eating in China.
Bear with me, for a moment, as you read a passage from a dispatch now available on The Atlantic’s website: [Alice Waters] put me to work beside her, cutting grilled slices of locally Beijing-made sourdough bread (from a bakery with the jaunty name Boulangerie Nanda) already soaked in olive oil from the McEvoy Ranch, in…
The Primal (Online) Howl of the Chinese Soccer Fan.
Last week my Bloomberg View column took a look at the sustained howl of pain emitted by Chinese soccer fans at the failure of their national team to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. You can find it here. I had a lot of fun with that one. And a lot more material than I…
Kneeling Professors, and an Appearance.
For various reasons known to my long-term readers, I receive news alerts whenever “scrap metal” pops up in a news story somewhere in the world. So, a week ago, I was going through the list (it’s not long), and I came across an unusual story of a group of professors in China who knelt down…