Chinese Language Blog

Do People Celebrate Christmas in China? Posted by sasha on Dec 5, 2018

When I lived in China, I always got the same question from family and friends around this time of year – “Do people celebrate Christmas in China?” The short answer is “Yes,” but there’s a lot more to it than that. In this post, I’ll try to shed some light on what Christmas is like…

Huang Qi’s Fight for Human Rights in China Posted by Ayana on Dec 3, 2018

Huang Qi (黄琦) is a Chinese webmaster and human rights activist. In 1998 Huang Qi founded (创办chuàng bàn) the 64 Tianwang website to disseminate reports about Chinese citizens who had been trafficked and disappeared. He used his website to counter human trafficking (人口贩卖rén kŏu fàn mà) in China, and to help find missing people. Gradually his website expanded to object any human…

Being Direct in Chinese Posted by sasha on Nov 27, 2018

When you travel or move to China, a little bit of culture shock (文化冲击 – wén huà chōng jí) is inevitable. I know I certainly experienced it when I first moved there, whether it was trying different food (silk worm larvae, anyone?), drinking baijiu (白酒 – bái jiǔ) for the first time (gross), or learning…

Alibaba Breaks Singles’ Day Sales Record Posted by sasha on Nov 15, 2018

Singles’ Day (光棍节 – guāng gùn jié), China’s anti-Valentine’s Day, just happened on 11/11. While it started out as a day for single college students to go out to eat together, it has morphed into a massive day for online shopping (网上购物 – wǎng shàng gòu wù). China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba (阿里巴巴 – Ā lǐ bā…

The Disappearance of Fan Bingbing, China’s Most Famous Actress Posted by Ayana on Nov 13, 2018

A Chinese proverb says: 人怕出名猪怕壮 (rén pà chū míng zhū pà zhuàng). It means “people fear of getting famous just like pigs fear of getting fat”. Everyone wants to enjoy the benefits of fame like every pig wishes to enjoy unlimited food. But both publicity and binge eating are risky. Fan Bingbing (范冰冰), the number…