chinasticast: Recent Episodes
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Traveling does not automatically confer wisdom, or make you a better person. The only guarantee is new sensory experiences for the hedonist in all of us. If you’re hoping for something more meaningful, you’ll have to actively think about the whys of your new environment. Download this episode here(right-click, save as)
Boston? Korea? Maldives? We’ve been bouncing around a lot these past weeks, and Mai can’t keep track anymore. She’s lost in a world of sound…will you pay lots of sponsorship money to help get her back? (Even if she’s rude and talks with her mouth full?) Download this episode here(right-click, save as)
Pizza Hut in China reminds me of Taco Bell in “Demolition Man” (starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, and Sandra Bullock — anyone remember this movie?). Here, the American fast food restaurant has become a positively upscale dining establishment.
Pizza Hut Waitress Pizza Huts in China are great at keeping things new. Whenever an important holiday approaches, they bring out [...]
Mai takes an urban escape to New England to escape city life, and she finds herself wandering among the Ivy League…Harvard University and the legacy of American history can be found here in Boston, where the autumn leaves are beautiful and the ice creams are humongous. It’s also a bit windy–beware when listening! Download this episode [...]
Beijing has been hosting the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. Sure the results of what’s being agreed upon now could be huge. China and Africa are on the road toward becoming bosom buddies. But what do all these high-level meetings mean presently, for the everyday people of Beijing? Big signs everywhere!
Mai’s ponderings take her from Korea Town in Beijing to Korea Town in New York, and although the world is getting smaller every day, she feels a lot of limitations to our contemporary cultural jaunts into globalization. For one, try www.hanzismatter.com. Download this episode here(right-click, save as)
Beijing is a second home for thousands of Korean college students. They come to study Chinese, hoping for an edge in the competitive job market back home. There are so many Koreans, Wudaokou - an area smack in the middle of Beijing’s university district - has become an unoffical “Little Korea”. Here you can find kimbap, [...]
Mai is still learning lessons in Americana, but this time she’s left alone to ponder questions of why New Yorkers are so into keeping fit and eating healthy (but aren’t they still so overweight?). Her questions leave her a bit homesick for China, and she wonders where her next move will be… Download this episode here(right-click, [...]
In China’s larger cities, supermarket shopping means Carrefour. Wal-Mart / Sam’s Club, Lotus, Metro, etc. are too few and too far away. And Chinese supermarkets are too small. Carrefour is kicking butt by being both big and located where all the people are. In this episode, Billy navigates the Carrefour maze, a routine activity in [...]
Coming to New York from Kyoto and Beijing, Mai must reevaluate what it means to be American in a city where most people aren’t native. So she decides to join a lesson at an American English school in New York, and with the help of Lucy (our lovely native speaker), Jane (from Japan),Mary & Elena [...]