| Feature |
| There Goes the Neighborhood - will success rob Taikang Lu of its authenticity? |
| Along the shabby lanes that run off Taikang Lu, a bohemian jumble of creative industries – art shops, studies, galleries, workshops – meld creativity and authenticity. Several years ago, the government designated Taikang Lu an art quarter (a salve, after the original Moganshan Lu warehouse galleries were mandated to move), but then left it alone. The result has been organic growth, a ... |
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| Written by : Anna Thomas ( Jul 1, 2008 ) |
| The Country Girl - author Guo Xiaolu crosses the urban-rural divide |
| While "beauty writers" such as Wei Hui 卫慧 and Mian Mian 棉棉 earned their literary reputations writing about the excesses of China's urban youth, Guo Xiaolu 郭小橹 writes about city life from a far grittier perspective – that of a "brown skinned peasant girl, from the sandy provinces of China". Guo is best known for her second English novel The Chinese-Engli ... |
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| Written by : Rebecca Catching ( Jul 1, 2008 ) |
| Retro Revival - two generations reminisce about the 80s |
| We often associate the 80s with power-dressing, Reaganomics and the Wall Street mantra that "greed is good", but in China the decade has a whole different connotation. Up until the late 80s China was still using ration coupons, but what people lacked in material possessions they made up for in a rich cultural life. It's only now as China enters its own American-style 80s boom, that p ... |
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| Written by : Grace Zhang ( Jul 1, 2008 ) |
| Queen of the podwaves |
| ChinesePod's Jenny Zhu is undoubtedly the most listened to gal in laowai land. As co-host of the mega-popular Chinese-teaching podcast she blasts out to more than 350,000 listeners worldwide, including 25,000 registered users in Shanghai every day (treble that figure if you include unregistered freeloaders like us). Nevertheless, the 26-year-old remains a mystery. She reveals so little a ... |
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| Written by : JFK Miller ( Jul 1, 2008 ) |
| That's Summer Reading List - Shangha's literati goes Nick Hornby on us |
| Recommending reading for the summer months – it's a grand and longstanding tradition that's Shanghai isn't going to miss. It's just possible that people do read different books when they're lying on the beach or relaxing wherever they choose to relax. If nothing else, summer often means a long flight or two to get away and only the seriously sad would while away a boring flight wit ... |
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| Written by : Paul French ( Jul 1, 2008 ) |
