not a china blog

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[notachinablog]

It's not clear that yesterday's correlation is a helpful predictor of whether an applicant will be a high performer tomorrow.

Catherine Rampell, Resume E.R.A, New York Times Magazine

[instagram]

Exploring Harbin, China’s Spectacular Ice Sculpture Festival (哈尔滨国际冰雪节)

To view more photos and videos of the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival as it unfolds over the next month, visit the 冰雪大世界 | Ice & Snow World and 太阳岛 | Sun Island location pages.

Each winter, thousands flock to frigid Northeast China for the spectacular Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival (哈尔滨国际冰雪节).

The festival officially began on January 5 and lasts for one month, but construction on the massive snow and ice sculptures started months ago. The structures—which range in form from animals to full-scale buildings—are just as impressive after dark as they are during the day thanks to colorful lighting embedded within the ice.

Festival spectators face temperatures as low as -35º Celsius (-31º Fahrenheit), but people from around world can explore the striking sculptures through photos and videos shared to Instagram.

[notachinablog]

How Alibaba Could Underprice Amazon, and Other Things You Should Know

Here's an SAT analogy test for you: Alibaba is to China as [blank] is to the U.S.

DRAMA!! Is Alibaba (and it's little sexier, smarter and more athletic little brother, Taobao) going to come after Amazon? Considering Amazon just opened a massive launch in China last year (and is still advertising all across Seattle for jobs in China ("You don't need to learn Chinese!") I wonder how Amazon would feel about this. Keep an eye out for Alibaba. Since the export industry is starting to slow down (we all saw it coming, thanks NYT for the official confirmation) and Alibaba's original platform was to connect factories in China to foreign re-sellers, Alibabe might be more involved in taking over other platforms now in order to keep up their market share.

Fun - fun - fun. Just like as WeChat is taking over Sina Weibo (slowly, though! Weibo still has an amazing stream of revenue coming in and better ways of capitalizing their source than WeChat at the moment)...we'll see if there's another upset soon. I don't have a firm opinion on this yet, however, since Amazon (z.cn) and PayPal in China aren't doing too awful, last time I checked. Just something to look out for in the future. Keep a eye on this one, folks.

[bucksbucky]

godfrey gao

[notachinablog]

Xiaomi sold 7.2m handsets last year, in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, earning revenues of 12.6 billion yuan ($2.1 billion). Apple sold 125m smartphones globally, earning about $80 billion of its $157 billion sales. But since it was founded in 2010, Xiaomi has grown fast. A recent funding round valued it at $10 billion, more than Microsoft just paid for Nokia’s handset unit. That made Xiaomi one of the 15 most heavily venture-backed mobile start-ups ever, says Rajeev Chand of Rutberg, an investment bank. In the second quarter of 2013 Xiaomi’s market share in China was 5%, says Canalys, a research firm—more than Apple’s (4.8%) for the first time.

I've heard of some serious converts with the Xiaomi smartphone. Nice to see the Economist making a realistic commentary about the state of the Apple smartphone trend in China -- meanwhile Business Week is still trying to promote the iPhone as a contender by talking about pricing strategies. Problematic, because only now is there a product launch in China (really? Apple never "treated China with respect" and gave them their own product launch before?) In my opinion, it's too little too late. So many more phones have flooded the market these days and it's starting to show. And if you want to talk pricing strategies, if you haven't partnered up with Tencent in a major way (which Xiaomi has, while Apple still restricts many of Tencent's many other various apps across different Chinese iTunes stores (Mainland vs. HK vs. Taiwan), then you will be losing a large part of the game. Once any Taiwanese film/Hong Kong TVB show does a product placement in their romantic comedies that features a Xiaomi phone, that'll be a major gamechanger for Apple. And adding another product launch in Shanghai (wow? 2 product launches in the largest country on the planet? *gasp) won't do anything to stop the flow of money to change towards a locally grown, Amazon-type online retailer in this land of tomorrow. 

[notachinablog]

“I never used Excel at work but I saw other people making pretty graphs and thought, ‘I could probably draw with that,’” says 73-year old Tatsuo Horiuchi. About 13 years ago, shortly before retiring, Horiuchi decide he needed a new challenge in his life. So he bought a computer and began experimenting with Excel. “Graphics software is expensive but Excel comes pre-installed in most computers,” explained Horiuchi. “And it has more functions and is easier to use than [Microsoft] Paint.”*

Effing genius! (And gorgeous)

[alicehu08]

#Spotted: #oldschool rip and tear advertisement… But a little different #Shanghai #latergram I dare you to scan the #QR code

[notachinablog]

Reverse racism. Nice. [Chinese man looking for "Western" woman]

[new-topia]

Beijing introduces recycling banks that pay subway credits for bottles. Read the story on The Guardian.

[royonthestreet]

这个路上遇到的男孩多半是个模特儿，眉间的一股气势令他看起来十分特别。格子衬衫配牛仔裤可以在SLP的天桥上大行其道，自然更多的是在路上遇见。我拍好想问问他是谁，抬头却已经不见了。

[notachinablog]

that old joke about british bankers in hong kong ---

they're called filth. Failed In London, Tried Hongkong

[notachinablog]

Authorities have opened a bribery investigation into whether JPMorgan Chase hired the children of powerful Chinese officials to help the bank win lucrative business in the booming nation.

Surprise, surprise.  Takeaways from this article:

Legal experts note that there is nothing inherently illicit about hiring well-connected people. To run afoul of the law, a company must act with “corrupt” intent, or with the expectation of offering a job in exchange for government business.

“While the hire of a son or daughter itself is not illegal, red flags would be raised if the person hired was not qualified for the position, or, for example, if a firm never received business before and then lo and behold, the hire brought in business,” said Michael Koehler, an expert on the corrupt practices act who is an assistant professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Law.

Two hires under investigation are two children of state-owned-enterprises (SOEs, for those of you who are old 'China-hands') magnates -- one in the railway industry (remember those corruption claims...) and one in a financial conglomerate. Both have left JPMorgan since...but there's still a story here. For those of you interested in finance, corruption, gossip, scandal, FCPA law, China - take a look at the Times article or this New Yorker article here.

[notachinablog]

I initially clicked this link because I thought it would detail some of my experiences being mistaken for a prostitute in Shanghai -- maybe some dress code faux pas that I've discovered. On the contrary, it was more of an anecdote -stroke- complaint about how the Chinese viewed White man-Asian female relationships. Sorry, honey, I ain't sorry. You've left China with your white husband, settled in SF with beaux and baby, I must admit I was a little disappointed by how far you didn't go with the piece.

Since I could not read an article that I really wanted to relate to, I figured I would write that I actually wanted to read so here it is -- How to REALLY Be Mistaken for a Prostitute in China

Be Asian. I don't care if you look like a Kazakstan prostitute (this is a real thing), a Filipina prostitute (also unfortunately horrifyingly true - but they do look the flyest, imho) or a Chinese prostitute (most of the article will be geared towards this). But you must have Asian features.

For gods' sake - do wear heels. You simply are not selling your goods unless you are doing so in 5-6 inch stilettos. And wear them in the daytime, because that's how you can distinguish the girls who are coming back from a night out at a cheap hotel and the ones who have to go to work in midtown. Stilettos in an unusual hue. Perfect.

Wear makeup. In the West, we all assume that the escort makeup is all about the smoky eye, falsies and tons of bronzer. In China, the only that translated were the fake eyelashes. There is no "come-hither" look or "bedroom eyes" makeup in China unless she's not a hooker - It's all about the glossy pink lips, pale white skin and light pink eyeshadow. [I believe back in the 90s, the baby blue eyeshadow might have been a big trend but I'm seeing much less of those these days]

Order a drink at the bar by yourself. Now, while it doesn't happen very often - every now and then I'll arrive early/on time and I'll be the first person at the designated meeting place. While I am wearing heels and makeup, this often is a signal to some men in the vicinity to come over and hit on me in Chinese. So - take care to note that sometimes the old Hitch trick with the glasses and the book does come in handy in throwing people off on whether or not you are a prostitute. Or just don't wear heels.

Dance by yourself. You know that quote, "blah blah blah, dance like no one is watching?" - Don't do it in China. Again, had I known that following my heart and dancing to the tune of Lady Gaga's Poker Face by myself on an elevated platform would mean it was okay for a man to grab my hand and pull me towards the exit of the club (and into his car) --- I would have thought twice about it.

Carry a little bag. I don't know why it is. I would have thought prostitutes would have carried large totes filled with daytime clothing, extra pairs of red leather heels with a pom-pom on the bace, some condoms and a fat wad of cash money would be de rigueur, for some reason, all prostitutes carry little mini-purses, large enough to carry one tube of lipstick and a condom. Is it because it makes them seem weak and unprepared? Where does the money go? Certainly not in their outfits...which leads me to

Skimpy outfits with a lot of leg. Ironically, the girls who dress like the prostitutes like we see on TV are usually just slutty girls trying to find a white guy. Or rich guy. [Sometimes it's the same thing.] It's not always a ton of cleavage or off-the-shoulder skimpy outfits that hint at one's profession - but the legs! Cute tank top and short shorts at the club? BINGO. It doesn't mean that one went to the beach in the morning and then left her big bag of things at a friend's house and then grabbed a mini purse with pale pink lip gloss and went to the bar! It means she's a prostitute!

I'm sure there are a ton more rules about being in the business but so far - as a 4 year veteran of clubbing in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong), these are the little nuggets of gold I have found. I hope you can appreciate that some of it was satire and I'm only half-joking about most of these stories. Enjoy, ladies (and gentlemen, though this article was not written about dressing like male prostitutes). I have NOTHING against sex workers - I just don't happen to be one and now know how not to go out dressed like one and thought I would share. May you all have a beautiful, fun-filled and a safe weekend.

[romachic]

China is in big trouble. We’re not talking about some minor setback along the way, but something more fundamental. The country’s whole way of doing business, the economic system that has driven three decades of incredible growth, has reached its limits. You could say that the Chinese model is about to hit its Great Wall, and the only question now is just how bad the crash will be.

Paul Krugman (via romachic)

[notachinablog]

Filipino Americans & Gumbo -- What is it with Asian cuisine infiltrating New Orleans cuisine? Fascinating!!

In 1763, (right at the end of the Great Upheaval of the Acadians) the first Filipinos to settle in Louisiana established a small fishing village known as St. Malo in what is now St. Bernard Parish.  These Filipinos deserted and escaped Spanish ships that were crossing the Pacific for the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade.  St. Malo was only the first of many Filipino communities that would soon sprout all around the Mississippi Delta.

The Filipino fisherman of St. Malo became known as “Manilamen” and began to make their living on shrimp boats.  As such, these Manilamen introduced their Filipino methods of drying shrimp to the local Cajuns, methods that Cajuns still use today.  And, like the Acadians before them, these Filipinos eventually intermarried with the local populace and a community of “Filipino Cajuns” arose. I won’t go so far as to say that Filipinos are responsible for shrimp being an ingredient in some Gumbos, but I will venture to say that Filipinos at least contributed to this fact.  We were, after all, alongside the Cajuns from the very start in Louisiana.

Recipe to be found in the link. Shrimp, okra, scallions? Please invite me when you make this.

[notachinablog]

Asia’s richest man is betting $1.26 billion on the trash crisis

Mr. Li, are you reading my blog? Because I put up this post a while back and now you're going to make this your next moneymaking venture? Well, give me some credit, please. kthanksbye. Trash to energy,  you heard it here first guyz!!!

[theatlantic]

How Memes Became the Best Weapon Against Chinese Internet Censorship

China’s censors are blocking words like “today” and “June 4” from social media as part of the country’s yearly chore to block any reference to the anniversary to the Tiananmen Square massacre 24 years ago. And though the Chinese are running a sophisticated and tight censorship ship, they’re having a bit harder time blocking memes. Yes memes. 

Read more. [Images: Weibo]

[texnessa]

Fact:  The only time that the image of the man standing in defiance of the line of tanks has been on Chinese television was during the halftime of Super Bowl XXXVIII, the wardrobe malfunction game.

[ippoddity]

What kind of Asian are You?