| This has absolutely nothing to do with Asia, but it’s too entertaining not to post. It’s an adorable little three-year-old girl sort of giving a synopsis of Episode IV of Star Wars (that’s the original Star Wars for you non-geeks). Comments from the author below: |
From www.fistofblog.com |
| I’ve joked before about how many things the Chinese invented, but I didn’t really know what all they had invented. I mean, a few things I knew, but for the most part, I was clueless as to what all we use in our lives that the Chinese came up with. So I did a little searching and found that Wikipedia has an incomplete but pretty good list. Here it is, for better or for worse… |
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| And here are some inventions that, according to Wikipedia, “are considered by various authors to have been first discovered, discovered contemporaneously with other civilizations, discovered separately after other civilizations, or simply used by the Chinese:” |
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| That’s a lot of stuff… |
| How did China get the monopoly on cool acrobatics? I have no idea, but I’ve never seen another country come up with acrobats even remotely as talented as China’s. Check out the video above, and I’m sure you’ll agree that China just needs to go ahead and send out a letter to the rest of the world: |
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| I have a non hotdrink. Where’s my sucker? |
| Check out this beast of a motorcycle available in Japan. It looks like it was taken straight out of a Japanese manga, which is cool enough in itself. But even cooler is that it’s street-legal (Japan only). The company’s website doesn’t give any English specs, so I have no idea how fast it goes or anything like that. But they DO give the price in American dollars: $21,500. Even if it were legal, at that price I wouldn’t buy it. Still, it’s another example of how cool stuff in Asia is compared to stuff in America. |
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So I was checking the stats on the site and saw that the search query that has brought the most visitors is one word: Magibon
Apparently, the whole world is either smitten by or disgusted with her, and somehow my site managed to become (as of this posting) the #2 link on Google when you search for her name. I have no idea how that happened, but it’s kinda cool. The only site above mine is Buzzfeed.com, which actually references my site. So in a way, I’m kind of number 1. Sweet!
Yes, it’s the little, completely unimportant things that excite me…If I had any business sense whatsoever, I’d find a way to capitalize on this. I’ll have to comment more on her videos until I can figure something out.
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| Dorks of China, rejoice! According to a survey sponsored by China Matchmaker and the Chinese Academy of Marriage and Family, as long as you don’t mind marrying a woman over the ripe old age of 30, you’ve got a pretty good field to choose from. Stats from the article: |
On the other hand…
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So there you have it, my socially-awkward Chinese friends. No matter what your age is, you’ve got a pretty good chance of being able to find a woman to marry you once all the rich, good-looking, socially-aware guys have had their pick. Unfortunately for you, Chinese men still largely outnumber Chinese women. So you’d better quit playing WoW and get busy wooing some woman before the dork down the street gets her first. | Link to article |
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| Ni Hao, Kai-Lan finally premiered yesterday on the Nick Jr. TV network, and Tim Goodman over at the San Francisco Chronicle has posted a review on SFGate.com. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read the excerpt below from the review: |
“Ni Hao, Kai-lan” takes the “play along, think along” concept that was popularized by “Blues Clues” and adds the ethnic element that helped fuel “Dora” as a major hit with kids. Like those shows, Kai-lan (who is 5 “and three-quarters,” if you must know) goes on a variety of adventures and asks children viewing at home a string of questions. (This interactive trick has proved quite successful in the children’s programming arena. Kids love to shout out their answers.) Along the way, everybody learns a valuable lesson. |
His review is pretty helpful and points out some interesting aspects of the show that are pretty different from the way Dora does things. It sounds as if it’s a pretty quality show. Of course, that’s only one review. If you want more information on it, click here to go to its official site. |
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| Neil Woodburn over at Gadling.com posted a lengthy and fascinating article chronicling his five-day stay in North Korea. It’s amazing just how applicable the nickname “the hermit kingdom” is, even once you’re actually allowed inside the country. Below is an except from the article: |
It was very strange. I’ve never been anywhere where I couldn’t communicate in some manner or another with the locals, thereby gaining insight into living conditions and culture that only can be gleamed from first hand experience. Nor have my movements ever been completely controlled; we could only go where they wanted us to go in North Korea and see only what they wanted us to see. We couldn’t wander into a neighborhood store or market or anywhere off the carefully choreographed itinerary. In fact, after we pushed too hard one evening to visit somewhere off the itinerary, I was surprised to hear our frustrated guide quote Shakespeare in telling us that it wasn’t possible, “It doesn’t mean I love Caesar any less, it just means that I love Rome more.” |
It’s extremely interesting, so I highly recommend reading the whole thing. |
| Please tell me this is a joke. His Chinese isn’t bad, but Tom Jones + Carlton Dance + Goofy smile = DORK. In spite of the fact that it has arguably twice the entertainment value of any of Magibon’s videos, this video gets a D minus. Unless it’s just a joke, in which case he gets a solid B. |