tihZ_hO wrote:

sophiejane wrote:If you had to describe your experience of living in China in five words....what would they be?

Oh God, kill me now

sophiejane wrote:Thank you all for your posts...I am writing a weekly column for SHEX and your stories are great material for my content. Please keep them coming. Remember, though...although it's funny to laugh at the insanity that is sure to ensue on any given day, this is the product of living in a city of 23 million amongst a culture extremely different from our own...and the language??! Good lord! So please keep your comments clean!! And don't stop posting...the more stories, the better!!

yes. thankso much sophie jane. can we see a picture of you.

regards.

I agree, the best thing about the AAHHHH CHIIINNNAAAA moments is the stories they produce. Please do keep them coming, your stories are providing me with great fuel for my weekly column and featured content. You can follow my section using this link: http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/blogs/colu ... ie-turton/. Every week I will choose my favourite story and use it in my featured content. This week I particularly enjoyed Vishay's cat in a bag story so you can read about that on Tuesday when my feature is published. Think you have a better tale to tell? POST IT HERE!! Also, since so many of you have obvious frustration tinged with a just a tad indignation, I put this to you for discussion: Considering how rapidly China has changed and expanded over the last twenty-thrity years, what effect do you think the Western influence is having on Shanghainese culture? How far do expats really try to culturally assimilate?

So you'll be mailing out the cheques soon, right?

So basically we write our stories here, and you copy paste them to another part of the website where we can read them again and that is your job?

Once I went for a massage and the masseuse offered me a handjob using the basest of hand symbols just before time was up. I was so shocked that I jumped and ran (nay sprinted) out wearing nothing but disposable paper underwear.

I have never been so upset in all of my 28 (approximately) years

boywonder wrote:Once I went for a massage and the masseuse offered me a handjob using the basest of hand symbols just before time was up. I was so shocked that I jumped and ran (nay sprinted) out wearing nothing but disposable paper underwear.

I have never been so upset in all of my 28 (approximately) years

You'll be more upset when she adds 30lbs to your ass for artistic license when she adds your story to her blaaaaaawg

I'm not 100% sure but I think Sophia might have been the masseuse

No, I'm 100% sure it was her

TIC wrote:So basically we write our stories here, and you copy paste them to another part of the website where we can read them again and that is your job?

No, the point is to gather stories which I use in my featured content along with interviews with experts, authors and journalists about Chinese culture. The whole idea behind the column is to explore cultural differences in a way which shows how, although these experiences are frustrating at times, they make for daily adventures. It is also looking at the effect of having so many different cultures living in one city. I don't want to hear out right China bashing, we're trying to celebrate cultural differences in an amusing way (or hopefully amusing) and to try and understand cultural nuances.

I just checked and my story still isn't there, how long does it normally take you to write the column???

TIC wrote:So basically we write our stories here, and you copy paste them to another part of the website where we can read them again and that is your job?

And since your story was the most relevant to the over all topic of this week's article, which is looking at the idea of 'it wasn't me' - Chinese people looking the other way - I featured your story but this is only a very small part of the feature. How is your cat now, by the way?

Wow, and I had a funny story about not just getting a handjob in an apparently 'reputable' massage parlour the other night, but also having the mamasan at some hostess bar flirt and grope me a while after. Dammit. Can I opt out of you taking any of these stories for your column. The only inches I want to fill are.... *ahem*

sophiejane wrote:

TIC wrote:So basically we write our stories here, and you copy paste them to another part of the website where we can read them again and that is your job?

And since your story was the most relevant to the over all topic of this week's article, which is looking at the idea of 'it wasn't me' - Chinese people looking the other way - I featured your story but this is only a very small part of the feature. How is your cat now, by the way?

Sorry if i sounded like i was bashing anyone, but i wasn't. Just wasn't sure how these articles work, and neve rread any of them actually. So to me they were just 'another part' of the website, I do however look forward to your next issue regarding our poor cat and hope it will be worth it!

Our cat is doing great actually, that mentioned morning i thought for a second that 'i will find him in the evening after work'. Thank god the guards were downstairs and something inside me told me to ask them! Otherwise our cat would've been crushed alltogether with the other garbage by now.

The cat is doing fine, he's out of the hospital for a while, i'll be out of money for a while (pet operations seem to be very expensive here) and all thats left is a limp because of a hairfracture in one of his back legs. We hope that will be healed soon so he can walk around normally again.

Note to self, never open windows again when cat is walking around alone. It is not cheap!

I hope it will be worth it too!! And I'm glad to hear ur cat's doing well!! The section is just begining so I'm really hoping it will take off!!

Brokentime wrote:Wow, and I had a funny story about not just getting a handjob in an apparently 'reputable' massage parlour the other night, but also having the mamasan at some hostess bar flirt and grope me a while after. Dammit. Can I opt out of you taking any of these stories for your column. The only inches I want to fill are.... *ahem*

Don't worry!!! It is funny and I'm not in anyway trying 2 demonise anyone or embarress anyone at all...all of your stories are great and I can't wait to hear more! We all have those *ahem* moments!!

sophiejane wrote:I hope it will be worth it too!! And I'm glad to hear ur cat's doing well!! The section is just begining so I'm really hoping it will take off!!

Yes, TIC is lucky his cat wasn't eaten as well

sophiejane wrote:

TIC wrote:So basically we write our stories here, and you copy paste them to another part of the website where we can read them again and that is your job?

No, the point is to gather stories which I use in my featured content along with interviews with experts, authors and journalists about Chinese culture. The whole idea behind the column is to explore cultural differences in a way which shows how, although these experiences are frustrating at times, they make for daily adventures. It is also looking at the effect of having so many different cultures living in one city. I don't want to hear out right China bashing, we're trying to celebrate cultural differences in an amusing way (or hopefully amusing) and to try and understand cultural nuances.

right. so copy and paste it is then.

tihZ_hO wrote:

sophiejane wrote:I hope it will be worth it too!! And I'm glad to hear ur cat's doing well!! The section is just begining so I'm really hoping it will take off!!

Yes, TIC is lucky his cat wasn't eaten as well

haha yeah i guess so... luckily we still have him (for christmas...)

mizuchi wrote:right. so copy and paste it is then.

uhuh

TIC wrote:

Verbal Kint wrote:You seem to miss the point. I am not doubting he is useful for putting otherwise uncivilized people in a line. What I don't understand is why he asks everyone's destination, as if the answer would change anything. Got it?

I've also always wondered... maybe the guy is just overly curious?

The coordinator at longyang road station does that as well. I hope they tell the tourist to not pay more than xx for their destination but i doubt it.

When they ask me, I usually keep my face straight and tell them i need to go to Spain.

I actually think i might know the answer to this!!

I was told it's cos if the taxi only goes within a certain km of the airport he can return to collect another fare that goes within the outer ring road? Otherwise he's been sitting there for ages thinking oh yeah i'm gonna get a big fare when someone only wants to go 2 minutes down the road.

So if you do give them a destination 2 minutes away they write the number down and this magically means they can return....or something.....

^Am I the only one who didn't understand this?

TIC wrote:

tihZ_hO wrote:

sophiejane wrote:I hope it will be worth it too!! And I'm glad to hear ur cat's doing well!! The section is just begining so I'm really hoping it will take off!!

Yes, TIC is lucky his cat wasn't eaten as well

haha yeah i guess so... luckily we still have him (for christmas...)

mizuchi wrote:right. so copy and paste it is then.

uhuh

You mean have him AROUND for Christmas, not have him FOR Christmas

remember

You're in China now, every living thing that walks, drives or squats in the street wants to kill you and eat your cat for dinner.

sophiejane wrote:

TIC wrote:So basically we write our stories here, and you copy paste them to another part of the website where we can read them again and that is your job?

No, the point is to gather stories which I use in my featured content along with interviews with experts, authors and journalists about Chinese culture. The whole idea behind the column is to explore cultural differences in a way which shows how, although these experiences are frustrating at times, they make for daily adventures. It is also looking at the effect of having so many different cultures living in one city. I don't want to hear out right China bashing, we're trying to celebrate cultural differences in an amusing way (or hopefully amusing) and to try and understand cultural nuances.

Do the "experts" (whatever that means???), "authors", and "journalists" you'll be in consultation with not have any stories of their own?

boywonder wrote:Once I went for a massage and the masseuse offered me a handjob using the basest of hand symbols just before time was up. I was so shocked that I jumped and ran (nay sprinted) out wearing nothing but disposable paper underwear.

I have never been so upset in all of my 28 (approximately) years

Next time insist on a female masseuse

Verbal Kint wrote:^Am I the only one who didn't understand this?

Lol ok let me try again - if the destination is within a certain proximity to the airport, the license plate gets taken down and they can re-queue the same day to get another customer to a downtown location (within the outer ring road i believe)

So if you get to the clip board bloke and say People's Square, he'll wave you on, but if you say the airport hotel, he'll take the number down and let the taxi join the queue again because other wise he will most likely have to drive back to a downtown location without a passenger, without a decent fare, because it's slim pickings for taxi customers in the area around the airport, and plus they might not know that part of Pudong all too well.

Does that make more sense?

It's basically to ensure the taxis can get back to a busier location downtown with a fare paying passenger, otherwise they'll waste their time taking people to the airport if they only get a return customer going two minutes down the road and then have to drive back to Puxi empty.

^ I understood that the first time

I used to live in Hongqiao and at Hongqiao Airport if the driver wasn't shitty about taking me home I always gave him at least 30RMB on top of the 12RMB fare (I know he queued for a long time). If he was shitty about it I would give him the exact amount.

Just wrote a post on another thread that, in hindsight, was pretty ridiculous. And cringeworthy from a Western perspective, too.

matreshka-what-a-mess-t138172-30.html#p1696405

sophiejane, are we to assume you're perusing the forums finding your own Ridiculous Moments in China for your column, or you are wanting us to re-write them all of them here for you?

If you ARE expecting us to re-write our Ridiculous Moments in China I would humbly suggest you get involved in the forums as a regular poster and get whatever you want by participation.

I say this because as of today you have 7 posts, hardly a user of the forums. Unless you have another persona in which I would also say you are not a regular user because you would already have all the stories you need as a natural result of participation.

Yes???

This is a very good point and you are absolutely right, I have started purusing other forums and will certainly take a more active role. I guess my thought process behind starting a specific one is so that people know the purpose of their comments and I'm not just stealing stories. Also, we are trying to generate as much interest in our editorial columns as possible. This is a new enterprise so we're still learning. I will get my post on right away!!