This is an astonishing book. On the one hand, it's the basic "Harry Potter" trope - a young orphan is gifted, gets sent to school to learn magic, becomes pals with the other weird kids, has adventures, and fights a monster. Except here, Harry is Chinese, is sent to Oxford University to learn magic, and faces up to the reality of colonialism and Empire. Oh, and the magic is based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. I lived in Oxford for several years (although, thankfully, I wasn't a scholar) and…
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Meet the three women who helped shape the course of modern Chinese history; a gripping story of sisterhood and betrayal from the bestselling author of Wild Swans. They were the most famous sisters in China. As the country battled seismic transformations these three women left an indelible mark on history. Red Sister rose to be Mao's vice-chair. Little Sister became first lady of pre-Communist Nationalist China. Big Sister made herself one of country's richest women. Big…
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I've had a long-held fascination with China. I took Mandarin at University and, a few years ago, I was lucky enough to go to Beijing. So I was excited to pick up this book of short stories about modern China. It is a mixed lot of tales about Chinese people both in and outside of China. But, with the exception of a couple of stories - they just fell flat for me. I found it hard to assess if the stories are intended to be realistic or allegorical. As the author is a journalist, I thought the…
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A few more photos from my trip to Beijing. During my trip, I took a quick excursion to the Temple of Heaven. I decided to take a selfie with this delightful water fountain. But there was something bothering me. I could hear... something... What's that? Zoom! Enhance! RUN AWAY! …
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I was incredibly fortunate that my new employer sent me to a conference in China recently. I can't discuss what I did out there - but I can report on all the delicious food I ate! (NB - I paid for all meals myself!) Being veggie in Beijing was relatively easy. I had a stock phrase "我吃素" (Wo Chi Su - I eat vegetables), and a smattering of tourist level Mandarin. I had recommendations from friends and - most importantly - I had the HappyCow app. An indispensable guide to veggie eating around …
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David Cameron wants to block certain "pornographic" search terms. He joins a long list of MPs who simply don't understand what they're talking about - like Claire Perry, Andy Burnham, and Helen Goodman. I've talked before about my time working as an "Adult Material Classifier" for Vodafone UK. In short, my team and I used to watch pornographic videos and classify whether they were suitable for inclusion on Vodafone live. There were the usual limitations (no more than two participants, all…
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I've written before about Dabr, the Twitter client I code for. Dabr helps people around the world and is used by some of Twitter's most influential users. Today, I am pleased to announce that Chinese artist, political prisoner, and sower of porcelain sunflower seed, Ai Weiwei uses dabr! On last night's Newsnight, as part of a package on Ai Weiwei's release, they showed him using Twitter. Here's a screenshot. Click for larger image That's Dabr! I'd recognise the orange colour scheme…
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