PandaPassport.com – China Blog

Fact 1:

If you ever wanted to know how to write Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in Chinese characters, here you go:
????????
I’ve put it in a text box, in case you want to cut and paste it somewhere.

Fact 2:

Here are a couple of Chinese youtube clones, where I hear you can search for all kinds of media:

www.youku.com
www.tudou.com

It’s the World’s Biggest RSS Button!

Click on the button and/or copy and paste link to subscribe.

I swear ta gawd I need some new hobbies…

I touched on this once before, hence the “revisited.” And here’s an update of sorts.

Plan A

Here’s a neat new plugin which, though apparently designed for providing dictionary definitions, can be used as a neat way to footnote all the non-English words in your blog posts. For anyone in the China blogosphere who enters any great amount of Chinese words in your text, this may be a cool method to list definitions at the end of your posts.

From Web tools Collection:

WP-Definitions is an easy way to bring clarity to your blog by adding double square brackets around any word like this: [[word]]. The definition of that word will then be included at the bottom of your post and the word itself will become a named anchor linking to the definition.

Plan B

If that plugin doesn’t meet your needs, you might try this one which (as I said) I previously wrote about:

How to Annotate Chinese Characters with Pinyin Tone Markers

Though I spoke of it in a China-specific context, it could be applied to any second language words – Japanese, Spanish, French, what have you… Or essentially any situation where you want to annotate a certain word or phrase. Just hover your mouse over the word, and you get your annotation pop-up.

Ryan just did really neato and thought-provoking post entitled “Am I Racist?” Now, I assure you Ryan is far from a racist, and anyone accusing him of such deserves to be tarred, feathered, and kicked in the nut-sack until their ancestors feel it.

I don’t know about you guys, but I like my free speech. But one drawback about living in China is that sometimes you just gotta dilute your criticisms.

Otherwise, you may very well be told — like Ryan was — “If you don’t like it, why don’t you go home?”

Sometimes this feedback comes from local Chinese. China’s not a place where anyone can openly criticize whatever they want about the country. And it’s certainly not a place where non-Chinese guests can criticize. It’s usually met with a “Not-in-my-house-you-don’t!” response. And I think anyone with half a brain in their head can see the silliness behind that knee-jerk reaction.

Sometimes the “If-you-don’t-like-it-go-home” comes from, as Ryan calls them “Sensitive Sally” expats. I prefer to call them dumb-shit fuckwits.

On a bit of a side note, I feel fucking proud to have come from a culture where people can get away with stuff like the following.

Here are a few t-shirts which seem to be popular in the Asian-American community. One says, “Bai ren kanbudong” essentially meaning “White People can’t read this.” The other, a play on the Chinese words “Na ge” or “Nei ge” (pronounced almost as “nigga”), reads “Nigga Please!.”

Personally I think anyone who takes offense to those needs (yet again) a good swift kick in the sack. Now of course most people who would take offense likely cannot read it, as the shirt says. So they are kinda flying under the P.C. radar.

Sure, I’m white and I’m the butt of the t-shirt’s joke. But the Asian laowai have made a damn good funny, and good on ‘em for doing so.

All the same I can’t help but think about wearing a similar shirt in China. Though I’m not sure how long I’d last wearing this:

Single White Male Pekinese Dog, enjoys long walks on the beach and books about fire hydrants.

Seeking female for romantic evenings on the town, and/or quiet escapades behind the noodle shop.

Name: Pepe Q-tip.
Age: 1 and a quarter.
Height: 8 inches tall, but don’t let that mislead you.
Hobbies: Wiping my face on things, chewing on MacDonalds straws, peeing in places I’m not supposed to (as befits my rebellious nature).
Currently resides in: Dalian China, Shahekou District. Kaifaqu Bitches need not apply.
See more at my UnitedDogs.com Profile.

Seeking fun-loving female pekinese dog with similar interests and philosophies, but open to inter-breed relationships as well (with the exception of Chihuahuas – sorry girls, you just can’t accomodate).

Interested parties please contact me at:

pepe_and_the_funk_train@yahoo.com

Correspondences will be treated with the utmost discretion.

You know, I always thought the life of a farmer would be pretty neat. Aside from all that waking-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn crap, it seems like a pretty quiet and peaceful lifestyle.

Screw the urban rat-race, screw technology and all that jazz, right?

Well, here’s one Chinese farmer who doesn’t quite fit the bill.
The man learned how to build robots all on his own!

See more:
Boing Boing
Gizmodo

Sega just released a trailer for a very interesting looking game, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. It does look kinda cool, and I have to say I’m very tempted to go out and buy a Nintendo Wii because all these sport games look like a lot of fun.

I mean really… All these first-person shooters had to get old sometime, right?

Here’s the announcement at E3:

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