Lost Laowai China Blog
No-nonsense China Expat & Travel Community



Photo: Reality (Jan 27)
I was looking for a more upbeat photo that captured a bit of that Spring Festival snap, crackle and pop. But when I saw this photo it grabbed my attention and reminded me of the excesses of the season (which this year has been pretty much a month-long Western-Chinese celebration hybrid). The Nanning-based photographer, Sun [...]


Chinese Grammar Wiki: Learning Chinese grammar just got easier (Jan 22)
AllSet Learning, the Shanghai-based language learning consultancy founded by long-time China blogger John Pasden, has just released what is surely a boon for any mandarin learners who aspire to achieve better Chinese grammar -- the Chinese Grammar Wiki.


春节快乐 from Lost Laowai (Jan 22)
H/T Shanghaiist


Unemployed in China: A response to “Go East, Young Man” (Jan 12)
This is a response to Jonathan Levine’s article on working in China, “Go East, Young Man“, published on January 8. After writing this response, I found that someone had written an insightful blog post at the singularly named dontmovetochina.com (written about a month before Jonathan Levine’s). I highly recommend reading said post for more details [...]


Seventy Six Trombones Led the Big Parade (Jan 11)
Seventy six trombones led the big parade in the Music Man. One hundred and ten cornets were following right behind. All of them were delivered by the Wells Fargo man. It’s a shame that Wells Fargo doesn’t have their act together as well as they did back in River City. Maybe if they did, my [...]


Mark Rowswell explains why foreigners hate Dashan (Jan 10)
I find it unlikely that there could be a foreigner in China that doesn’t know the name Dashan, and there’s certainly no Canadians unaware of the mystical Big Mountain of Chinese. 大山 comparisons, jokes and CCTV9 Chinese lessons have been a formative staple over the course of my time in China. This past November the [...]


Trust me, I’m a laowai: Canadian scam man in Shanghai disappears with 300K (Jan 9)
A new year and a new douche bag to add to our “Bad Laowai” category. Ryan Fedoruk, a 40-year-old former part-time English teacher from Canada, sublet about 30 apartments to more than 100 foreigners in Shanghai before taking the money and running. Eva Gao, the Chinese lawyer representing his victims, sums things up on her [...]


Review: You are the Apple of My Eye (Jan 4)
Apparently it is movie week here at Lost Laowai, because I have another recent Chinese flick to review. In an effort to help learn Chinese I always ask my students about good recent movies. Let’s be honest, most Chinese movies us foreigners hear about are either political or kung-fu based. However, I’m interested in the [...]


Review: Flying Swords of Dragon Gate (Dec 31)
For the laowai who likes movies, there are certainly a number of offerings available this month to tempt you out to the movie theater instead of staying at home and watching pirated DVDs. While Nicki has just reviewed the “Flowers of War” with its serious historical plot line involving things few of us really want [...]


From Foreign Friends to Foreign Felons – new law wants your foreign fingerprints (Dec 26)
Because living in China didn’t feel uneasy enough, a new draft law currently under review will require any foreigners staying longer than 6 months in China to have their fingerprints taken by the Entry & Exit Bureau and kept on file. China Daily: Foreigners who stay in China for more than six months will be [...]