The demon dog of Songjiang, Shanghai’s “Red Bar”
Thursday, February 17th, 2011(9915 KB)
Watch on posterous
This dog is actually super-cute in real life.
Archive for February, 2011
This dog is actually super-cute in real life.
A bumper sticker for Chinese “Tiger Moms”
Friday, February 11th, 2011
Sometimes Chinese parents show how they really feel about their child with a carefully-chosen bumper sticker.1
When I saw this sticker I laughed aloud2, then reflected on the fact that if my parents had sported this on their Toyota station wagon when I was growing up, I’d probably have been a better student. Fear of unknown unknowns3 is a great motivator.
OK, so the bumper sticker has nothing really to do with the “Tiger Mom” meme, but that phrase is all over the net and the whole concept alternately interests me and cracks me up. My theory is that any truth to Mrs. Chua’s newly-named stereotype has little to do with being Asian4, and much to do with the fact that it wasn’t easy for people to immigrate to the US from China in the 1960s-80s and the process disproportionately selected for the hard-scrambling type. Many of those immigrants later decided5 to imbue in their kids the same drive that served them in getting through that filter. It’s just like the Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue“, but with the parental focus being toughness mental rather than physical.
But no need to be so serious; The best Tiger Mom jokes I’ve come across so far are the article “New Parenting Book Sparks Outrage” from The Onion, and Jen Kwok’s “Tiger Mom Rap!”.
- Yes, I smudged out the license number, just in case China’s “Human Flesh Search Engines” are on the lookout for people with unharmonious bumper stickers. [↩]
- …then I stopped laughing and wondered whether the driver could have purchased this sticker as a deliberate joke, which would still be funny but less so. Unlikely given that the median level of English literacy among locals of this area in nil. [↩]
- Rumsfeld, Donald, “I never promised you a WMD”, Press Briefing (Winter 2002 Edition), GWB (ed.), URL = <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns>. [↩]
- …except for the Orientalist-tinge to the naming of the meme. [↩]
- …or had less choice in the matter than that, since people may often just use the same parental behaviors that were modeled for them when young, or maybe their nature trumps nurture and the filter selected for genetically-driven type-A peeps. [↩]
China Fashion Show #1
Sunday, February 6th, 2011
The most stylish (yet very shy around foreigners with iPhones) girl on the subway. Her very fashionable parents saw me try to take her photo and approved, and then her Dad took my phone away and proved himself with this photo the better photographer of this particular subject.
 A sparkly owl coat, seen on the streets of Songjiang, Shanghai, China. If you’re ever curious if a given photo was shot in Shanghai, just look for guys carrying their girlfriends’ designer purses –it appears to be the local custom. |  My new sweater proclaims that I am "having a Fine Time with your Friends" and exhorts all that "You Must be a Eiffel Knit Life". Word. |
Photos; Shopping in Shanghai
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
A “Betty Boop” store.
The Table Tennis section of East Nanjing Road’s big Li-Ning store.
Pleasant Goat wishes you all a jittery, happy, new year.
