In this post: FIFA, NHL, Shanghai, summer reading, new camera (Xiaoyi), and the return of Google?
I’ve been having trouble publishing lately not because of the typical end-of-term workload but because I’ve sunk back into that desire for an “epic post”. Further, each post takes an hour or more to put up once I have the core written. That means all those images and links require an extra bit of time that I keep saying “I’ll do it later,” and then never do. I do know that I always feel better once I post rather than not.
I see that the Canadian Women’s FIFA soccer team was eliminated on the weekend, losing 2-1 to England. They had a good run and I’ve caught many of the replays here on Chinese TV.
Ah, and my NHL pool standing? I came 4th with a total of 22 points for my picks. Since Chicago won the Cup I was able to jump a few spots. I don’t think I’ve ever won the pool.
Shanghai
Took a trip to Shanghai last week. Was surprised to see that its pollution problem is even worse than Beijing. I didn’t think it could get any worse. But I didn’t let that stop me. Athough it rained a bit for the first day, it was hot and humid (and smoggy) the rest of the time I was there. I stayed for four days and I think that was just enough for me for this go round. My overall impression was of “Chinese grunge,” as in, if I had to pick one musical genre or even a rock band to symbolize Shanghai, it would be the grunge movement. Picking a band would be more difficult, but I think it’d be fair to say it would have to be Nirvana. I found that I didn’t do as much as in other cities. I must be slowing down. I took in two museums (Shanghai Museum and the recently re-opened Shanghai Natural History Museum) and, instead, spent much of my time walking around the city and taking pictures, notably of the Shanghai skyline, which includes the Oriental Pearl Tower. I’ll write more about it later.
Summer Reading
And so the semester’s teaching is done. Just exams. Any idea what I’ll do for the summer? No. But I do have a few books I’d like to get through, specifically Wolf Totem and Kafka on the Shore which you’ll know that I purchased a few months ago yet still have not made it through. Ah, and I every now and then flip through my copy of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse Tung which I picked up a few months ago while walking through Tiananmen Square. It’s called the Little Red Book and basically contains snippets from various speeches Mao delivered throughout his political life.
New Camera
Also, I finally bought an action cam. I had heard about Xiaomi, a Chinese technology company, releasing their version of the GoPro called the Xiaoyi (translated as “Little One”). Since the GoPro is kind of expensive (the cheapest on being 998RMB) I thought I’d have a go at the Xiaoyi since it only cost 500RMB with the selfie-stick included. First impressions? Neat little gadget and I kinda wish I had bought an action cam earlier. A nice, wide-angle lens with a fish-eye look to it. Easy to capture large, natural landscapes. Sound is decent, but I didn’t buy it for that. Anyway, I bought it so I didn’t have to lug around my larger DSLR camera when I want to do travelling vids. The downside, however, is that it’s good for either quick clips of places or longer form action videos. So far I’ve only had occasion to do the former and not the latter. I hope to post some clips on YouTube soon.
The Return of Google?
And it looks as though Google might be returning to China. The company left in 2010 because of disputes over censorship issues. I thought it was the government kicking them out but, instead, it was Google saying “no” to some of the requests the government was making. It’s an odd relationship since I have a Huawei phone that has the Google Play app on it but it simply doesn’t work, nor any workarounds with a VPN. Is this really a big deal? Not really. China has created it’s own version of a lot of this stuff already. For Instagram there’s PicArt, for Facebook there’s Weibo, for Whatsapp and Twitter there’s WeChat (which I’ve written about before), for dating there’s Tantan and Momo. In other words, it’s not as if China is suffering because of the lack of apps. Rather, it has quite a few of its own. Now, you might say that’s the entire point, that China is blocking foreign companies from entering its market. I’m sure that has something to do with it as there is demand for a lot of these New York and Silicon Valley apps. However, I’m wondering if Chinese end users will be disappointed if they’re ever given the chance to get those apps. Moreover, as far as I can tell, it’s not whether or not China will accept foreign apps, it’s whether or not foreigners will accept and use Chinese apps.