So Much Chinglish In China [#11]
Hello!
Back from a whirlwind week in Beijing, where I hopped VPNs like crazy just to get a decent connection outside the Great Firewall, ate delicious duck and picked up a persistent cough.
Me, to friend Ben in Beijing: Do I have a cold?
Ben: No, it’s just a cough from all the toxic chemicals you’re breathing.
Me: Why don’t YOU have a cough?
Ben: The part of me that was sensitive to that has just gone numb.
What I Read
How to keep your city weird. Inside Marriott’s hotel room laboratory. On secondary (or accidental) abstinence. Why Japanese kids are so independent. Harvard’s debate team lost to New York prison inmates. Lots of folks say Twitter’s dying; here’s one argument for why. Buzzfeed’s not dying, it’s taking over the world. This video cracked me up: if parents talked to each other the way they talk to their kids. And we should change the way we talk about working parents in America.
This is too meta for my own good but a piece on why more women are turning to email newsletters, like the one you’re reading right here. My long-read recommendation of the week is the New York Times Magazine’s opening statement for its culture issue — The Year We Obsessed Over Identity.
What I Wrote
A little scene-setter on the U.S.-Korea alliance in advance of S. Korean President Park’s visit to the White House. Why Japan’s controversial security changes may not mean much, practically speaking. A goodbye to Tokyo’s iconic Hotel Okura. And Happy 100 Days, Isabel.
As the Chinese say, "take you belongs,"
Elise