A China Blog On Suzhou Expat Life

That’s Uncle The Humanaught to you!

So as of some yet undisclosed time today I officially became an uncle!

My sister gave birth to a whopping 9 lbs. 9 1/2 oz bouncing baby boy named Gabriel. I’ve yet to receive all the details, but was too excited to wait and post about it - I’m going to assume he’s got the appropriate number of appendages.

Despite endlessly meeting parents enthusiastically urging their kids to say “Hello Shu Shu” to me, I’ve never been an uncle before. I’m going to be a cool uncle. I’m gonna buy the kid ninja stars. That’s what uncles are supposed to do.

Huge congratulations to my sister and my brother-in-law. Truly wish I could have been there. Well, not there, but near there. Much love to all three of you.

Suzhou Bookworm’s East & West Music Fest

I swear, this town gets a little bit more livable every day.
I mean, we’ve got an Irish Pub that serves Guinness on tap, we’ve got one, two, three places that I can get a taco, we’ve a cafe/bookshop/lending library loaded to the rafters with English-language books, we’ve got an English-language movie cinema playing Iron Man, [...]

Technologically Superior Inferior

You ever have days when technology treats you as the weak new fish in a bad prison movie?
I bought a new computer last week from Dell, and am absolutely loving it. I’ve had the same computer, a Chinese-made Hasee laptop, since trading in my savings to move to Australia for it back in ‘05.
It’s a [...]

Carrefour-3-2-1 - Protest!

So, the fateful day has arrived - the day when Carrefour unleashes its anti-China, pride-taking, I-fart-in-your-general-direction May Holiday sale on the masses of Chinese willing to sell out their nation in order to save a few jiao.
The sale, of course, is backed by French members of the Eight-Nation Alliance, who were frozen more than 100 [...]

Humanaughtahaironmyhead

So, spring is in the air in lovely Suzhou. Yes - our two weeks of paradise have arrived, and just in time for the droves of tourists looking to capture a picture of the city’s tranquil gardens (which are overflowing with tourists looking to capture a picture of the city’s tranquil gardens).
Spring always stirs in [...]

The subtle speed of change in China

There’s nothing new about saying “China’s changing”. What isn’t changing? Life changes.
There’s nothing new about saying “China’s changing fast”. Every Sinophile for the last 25 years has been saying that, and they’re right.
But what gets me is that I’ve got this front-row seat to it all. And frankly, it’s a bit exciting.
Now, my generation - [...]

<3 Grace Wang

Alright, normally I would tackle Chinese current events commentary over at Lost Laowai, but as I just wrote a post there on the stupidity of the Carrefour boycott, I figured I’d spread the as it were.
It seems I’ve had nothing to say lately but for commenting on the waves of stupidity surging higher and [...]

A little acceptance we could all learn from

My mom sent me the following in an e-mail, and I couldn’t help but wonder: If the three of them can get along without killing one another, what are the Tibetans, Hans and Uighurs doing wrong? (or the Christians, Jews and Muslims for that matter).
This is a video of a homeless man in Santa Barbara [...]