How to advertise Chinese dating sites on Youtube

You judge if this ad is good or not.

On one hand it is clearly amateurish, on another hand it exploits the social media channels which by itself is not bad.

By the way, if anyone saw other video-ads of Chinese dating sites, please let me know.

Excellent series on giving birth in China

These series comprise 10 excellent posts written by expat living in China (married to Chinese girl and father to a little boy) Sascha Matuszak.

There is no need in redundant descriptions - titles are self-explanatory. Just pick the one of interest and enjoy. Or even better bookmark the list and read them all one-by-one:

Giving Birth in Chengdu 

Selecting a Hospital

Cesarean Conspiracy

A New Life

Post-partum Recovery

Breastfeeding

Importing Baby Products

Nationality

In-laws

Mixed Blood

Miss Hong Kong gets married

Skye Chan - miss Hong Kong 2008 tied the knot.

Among the guests at her wedding were other pageants of Miss HK competition from previous years.

Can you imagine being invited to such party and being surrounded by bachelorettes, like the ones below?

Samantha Ko

Janet Chow

Katy Kung

Nadia Lun

Fake But Funny

Here is a video showing two Chinese girls fighting for a guy.

It's probably fake, but still funny.

Challenges of Intercultural Marriages

Here is another interesting article I want to share with you.

The Malaysian Chinese female married to a white American male discusses the challenges of inrecultural marriages, like:

- common language

- country of living

- food

- raising the kids and so on

 

Read it here:

http://www.hiseternalcompanion.com/2010/11/on-intercultural-marriage/

Why It Sucks To Be A Woman in Hong Kong

Watch this interesting video where a Chinese girl explain why it sucks to be a female in Hong Kong.

According to her observations there are 3 ways in which HK girl can develop herself:

1) The Sex Object

2) The Virgin Baby-Machine

3) The Career Woman

Wanted Fame and Paid With Her Life

Wang Bei was 24 years old.

5 years ago she participated in the popular singing contest - "Super Girl". However, she never became very popular and didn't feature in newspapers's headlines.

But finally she did.

Sadly, the reason was her death as a result of suffocation during the plastic surgery on her face.

Why did she make the surgery in first place? Possibly she hoped to make a break-through in her career.

This Chinese Teacher Is Indeed Beautiful

Chinasmackers might remember the recent post featuring the gallery of pictures of one Chinese teacher. She was even tagged as the "sexiest female teacher".

Well, I am not going to argue about it: tastes are different.

But I am sure that the teacher featured in another blog post will captivate more minds.

Not only she is beautiful. She is also smart. And that's why she is still "sheng nu". 

 

Guys! Hurry up!

Chinese Models Become More Popular?

Estee Lauder got Chinese face.

And also Maybelline.

Are we witnessing a new trend in fashion/beauty business? 

Most Widespread Chinese Surnames

According to a study published in 2006 the top 10 Chinese surnames are (in the order):

1) Lǐ (李)

2) Wáng (王)

3) Zhāng (张) 

 

4) Liú (刘)

5) Chén (陈)

6) Yáng (杨)

7) Huáng (黄)

8) Zhào (赵)

9) Zhōu (周)

10) Wú (吴)

My surname Tao 陶  - while it held position # 98 in 1990, dropped out of top-100 in 2006 :-(

Avoid Green Tea During Pregnancy

Some studies show that women should refrain from drinking green or oolong tea during pregnancy.

Here are the main cons:

1) Green tea contains substances that compete with folic acid. The latter is important for the development of fetus neural system.

2) Although less that coffee, green tea stil contains caffeine. Caffeine can increase the risk of miscarriage

3) As other sorts of teas, green tea makes it more difficult for body to absorb iron from food. This in turn can lead to anemia

As a bottom-line - avoid drinking green tea during the first trimester of the pregnancy. Don't drink tea together with meals. Don't drink more than 2 mugs of green tea per day.

How Chinese Predict Baby's Gender

I won't elaborate on the fact that Chinese families have a preference for sons.

Also most of you know that because of widely practised sex-selective abortions (aborting the female fetuses), the in-pregnancy screening for gender is outlawed in China.

So, what options does it leave to parents who still want to be "in control" of their only baby's sex?

It seems that besides paying extra-money to perform illegal screening, and using some dubious baby gender predictors - Chinese parents can look for hints from a doctor who makes the ultrasound.

According to a theory, your ultrasound examiner will be likely to impart subtle hints. For example, "take care of the baby" means that you have a boy, while "boys and girls are all the same" implies that you'd better prepare for a girl. 

Beautiful Chinese girl explains you how to eat crabs

Let's say you bought the crabs from one of those vending machines (advertised in ChinaHush).

But now you don't know what to do with them? No problem.

Watch this video which:

1) teaches you how to cook and eat the crabs

2) is good to practise your Chinese

3) features a beautiful Chinese girl

What else do you need?  ;-)

 

Another Guy Scammed in Beijing

Andy is a nice guy from Australia who currently lives in China.

I guess, however, that he regrets now not to be the reader of my blog ;-) .

Otherwise - after reading about the "classic" Beijing tea scam , he wouldn't fall a victim to the same line. 

As for the second scam that happened to him on the same unlucky day - well... nothing is new in this world.

One guy already made the whole videotutorial on this topic.

Here is the relevant part (it's loading slowly - so pause and wait for a while before playing again):

 

Think That Reading In Chinese Is Difficult? Think again!

Yes, learning to reading in Chinese is not easy.

But I have a very inspiring example for you!

Watch the little girl reading Chinese characters. She is just 27 months old!!!

 

You are still not amazed? Then watch the same girl reading in English :-)

http://www.youtube.com/user/aiangeles#p/a/u/1/-ednk0ivAK0 

 

Videolesson: How to date a girl in China

This is yet another Chinese language lesson explaining how to date Chinese girls.

However, this is indeed a good quality video.

Spoiler ;-)  What are the standards of Chinese beauty for girls?

1) watermelon-seed face

2) white skin (reminder from my blog --> Why Chinese girls want to be whiter)

3) high nose bridge

4) big eyes

5) small mouth

 

Chinese Song - Army Girls

One More Time About Chinese Leftover Women

If you haven't heard the term "sheng nu" (leftover women) - read my previous post on this topic.

I bring it up here because recently I founf two interesting follow-ups.

First one - recommended by one of LoveLoveChina's readers - is the news about one Shanghai girl who organized the Singles Club (online community for "sheng nu").

The second is an interesting analysis regarding the same phenomenon in Taiwan.

P.S. I think I have to get in touch with the founder of "Singles Club" and maybe get an interview  :-) 

Domestic Violence In China

If you believe in reincarnation - pray not to become a woman in rural China in your next life.

Status of females in Chinese villages is not enviable from birth to death: three evidences to it are reflected in 1) statistics of infant mortality breakup by gender, 2) statistics of females suicides and 3) statistics of domestic violence.

The latter - violence in family only recently came into public light. The term "domestic violence" was included in Chinese Law for the first time only in 2001. And the first court decision protecting woman's safety from family abuse was made in 2008.

All that on the background of figures showing that domestic violence occurs in about 30% of Chinese families...

Unfortunately most of the victims prefer to live with it in fear of losing their face or being retaliated by their own family members.   

Guru of Chinese Blogosphere

If you have a blog in English language which is somehow related to China, most chances are that you have registered it in Chinalyst directory (which aggregates different blogs about China). 

And as with any site there is a person behind Chinalyst as well. His name is Gilad but he is better known to fellow bloggers as Fili (not coincidentally he is that same Fili who runs Fili's world).

Few months ago I had a pleasure to meet Fili in face in Tel-Aviv. He came back to Israel for summer holidays from Hong Kong (where he pursues his PhD in management).

I was very happy to meet someone whom I already "knew" before in a virtual way. As I expected Fili appeared to be a lively and pleasant guy. I, however, couldn't know that he is also a very humble and kind person who is always ready to help others. 

Actually, when one month ago I had a problem with my blog being suspended for technical problems - he didn't spare his time to give me some very helpful advices. Thanks!

If you visit Fili's world you will pay attention that its author runs not less than 15 other internet projects - most of which are community websites. Many of them are related to mainland China, Taiwan and HongKong.

Life's Taiwanderful

iTainan 

It's HongKong and other

So - if you consider to create some kind of community website related to China - don't forget to contact the guru of Chinese blogosphere - Fili.

 

 

 

 

Funny cartoon about Chinese size clothes

Here is a funny cartoon "explaining" why Western nations don't breed nowadays :-)

I hope things changed since 1995

Yesterday I watched these videos on YouTube.

No words are enough to describe this horror.

I just hope that in 2010 - the year of Expo - things got better.

Movie is less that 40 minutes - consists of 4 parts.

 

Part I

 

Part II

 

Part III

 

Part IV

 

Learning Chinese With Cute Tingting

There are many online resources to learn Chinese language.

Among them you can find also nice videos with short lessons on different topics.

And often they are led by pretty Chinese girls. But you wouldn't complain about that, right?

For example, if you make a search on Google for "Chinese girls" the first result will be unfortunately not my blog LoveLoveChina :-( , but the Youtube video "How To Pickup Chinese Girls". Go and watch it - it could be useful ;-) .

However, it's very difficult to find a full-blown video-course that would cover most of the topics for beginner's (or intermediate) level.

It seems that most of people creating such courses struggle with difficulties in producing the video-content and have to quit in the middle. Here you can find a first-hand experience of Peggy who ran "Peggy Teaches Chinese" and eventually stopped.

Today I found another interesting series of videos. Unfortunately, it also seems incomplete.

But I am sure that you will enjoy few lessons available with the cute and pretty Tingting.

Introduction

 

Shenzhen Transportation

 

Sichuan Spicy Cuisine

 

Nail Salons

Sometimes Statistics Just Doesn't Make Sense

By taking some numbers and applying to them the four basic arithmetic operations people produce bunch of statistical indices.

Someone in UNDP (United Nations Development Program) decided to take GDI (gender-related development index) and divide it by HDI (human development index).   

The result is supposed to reflect the gender imbalance inside HDI and it features under the headline "Building the capabilities of women".

China is number 10 in the world! I really don't get it: how can we achieve such result when China is the only country in the world where female commit suicide more often than men? And when the gender imbalance is one of the most worrying demographical issues?  

Well... anyway number 9 is Russia and the overall winner is Mongolia!  

 

Egyptian Guys Got It Right - Chinese Brides Are The Best Value For Money!

Stop complaining that Chinese girls are gold-diggers, and the cost of marriage in China is high !!!

Better read why Egyptian men think that Chinese brides is a good deal.

The following extract is reposted from Al Arabiya News Channel article:

Egyptian young men have recently been seeking to marry Chinese women in an attempt to escape the hefty costs of a traditional Egyptian marriage as well as have partners well known for their loyalty as wives.

A considerable number of Egyptian men, mostly over the age of 35, contacted the Chinese embassy in Cairo to inquire about the possibility of marrying Chinese women. Others have been seeking Chinese brides through matchmaking websites.

Despite confirming receiving requests from Egyptian men, the embassy denied any involvement in the arrangement or facilitation of marriage. 

In fact, the embassy expressed its reservations on the way Chinese women were treated as merchandise by the Egyptian media.

“Our government promotes freedom of choice in marriage and a Chinese woman can marry a foreigner,” embassy spokesman said in a statement. “This does not mean we have brides for sale. The Chinese law prohibits treating marriage as trade.”

Chinese are better

The financial condition of Egyptian youths is the major reason behind their preference of Chinese brides. In a traditional Egyptian marriage, the groom is required to pay dowry, buy an apartment, and give the bride a diamond ring or a gold gift. On the other hand, Chinese women do not have any conditions when it comes to money.In addition, many Egyptian men view Chinese women as perfect wives since because they are pretty, active, and smart as well as very skilled in cooking and other household chores. They are also well trained in martial arts, thus capable of defending themselves as well as their husbands.Obedience and loyalty are also among the most distinguished features of Chinese women as, according to Egyptian males, their culture dictates their subordination to their husbands.For Egyptian men, the Chinese woman has a very important advantage: her mother will not accompany her, which means the husband will be spared the trouble the mother-in-law’s interference in the couple’s life. The phenomenon of seeking Chinese brides did not stop at major cities like Cairo and Alexandria, but extended to small towns in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta and Egyptian families who have unmarried girls started expressing their concerns over the Chinese invasion.

Egyptian scholars for and against

The remarkable increase on the demand for Chinese wives drove Egyptian MP Salah al-Sayegh to submit a questioning to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. The phenomenon, Sayegh argued, is aggravating the spinsterhood problem in Egypt, especially that recent statistics by National Center for Social and Criminological Research revealed that 28.4% of Egyptian women are unmarried and that more than 2,700 try to commit suicide because of spinsterhood. Contrary to the MP’s view, sociology professor Dr. Samia al-Saati views the Chinese invasion as a healthy trend as it teaches Egyptian girls and their families a lesson.“Men’s preference of Chinese wives will teach girls and their families to stop draining the groom financially,” she said. “In Egypt, marriage is all about fake appearances. The Chinese bride is the magical solution.”Saati added that experience proved that such marriages are, in most cases, successful since Chinese women proved to be better wives.“Chinese women manage the house and raises children in a much better way than Egyptian girls who are very spoilt and allow their families to interfere in her affairs, which contributed to the rising divorce rates.”

Sociology professor Dr. Suhair Sanad begs to differ. She argues that seeking this kind of marriages is nothing more than a form of delinquency like unofficial (urfi) marriage, in which the couple writes their own marriage contract, or blood marriages, in which they mix their blood together as a sign of creating an eternal bond.“These marriages indicate the deterioration of values in society and the extreme lack of trust between Egyptian men and women.”This lack of trust, she explained, is largely because the girl feels insecure about the man she is about to marry, so her family starts burdening him with exaggerated financial demands. This, in turn, makes him feel exploited.Sanad also argues that the marriage between an Egyptian man and a Chinese is not likely to be successful.“There is a huge gap as far as culture and values are concerned, and there is also the language barrier.”Dr. Mustafa Ghalwash, professor of theology at al-Azhar University, stated that marriage with a Chinese woman is not valid.“A Muslim man should basically marry a Muslim woman, but if he has to marry a non-Muslim then she has to belong to one of the religions endorsed by Islam, not a pagan religion.”Ghalwash called upon parents to go easy on suitors and not to drain them financially. He cited a saying in which prophet Mohamed advises parents to accept the suitor as long he is religious and well-mannered.‘The prophet also said that the bride with the lesser dowry is more blessed.” (Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).

 

 

Proposed Syllabus For "Dating and Sex in China" Course

Well... I don't think that such course would make its way to the academic institutions.

But there are, for sure, many people who are intrigued by the cultural differences when it comes to the topic of dating and sex in China.

Here is the string of 5 posts which can serve as the introduction into this "minefield" ;-)

First, you might read the following post from the blog of American expatriate who discovered that her Chinese friend has very vague ideas about sex.  

The second stop in our syllabus would be the guest post from my blog written by a British Chinese who was puzzled by contradicting signals he was getting from a Chinese female student. 

Now it's time to get some answers, and first it will be dome in graphic form. Read this humorous article from ChinaHush explaining the courtship dynamics in China.  

Then you can proceed to the in-depth report about dating etiquette and the consequences of virginity loss in Chinese society. 

And before making your own field trials" you might want to check few more examples about sex in Chinese countryside.

Congratulations! You are promoted to advanced level now :-)

Body Language (by Example of Edison Chen)

The photo scandal of Edison Chen - prominent figure in Hong Kong entertainment industry -is old "news". If, however, you don't know this juicy story - check it here. And for those who don't want to waste their time to read it - the summary is: Edison Chen had a private collection of intimate pictures of himself with different celebrity women. These pictures leaked to internet in 2008 and became a source of police investigation.

I am posting the video below not because of the content. My purpose is totally different. It so happened that today I stumbled upon this link and the video itself played for a while without sound.  

And it was quite entertaining to see the mimics of the actor(!) who couldn't help displaying so many signals of someone who is embarrassed (and possibly lying). If you want to watch a good "lab" on body language course - go no further and play this video with sound off (later you can repeat it with sound on - and compare your feeling when you watch the person and hear him simultaneously).   

The action starts at 0:20

Who Of These Beautiful Girls Are Chinese?

I bet that most of you have heard about the popular Korean girl-group "Wonder Girls": they made history in the last year by becoming the first Korean group whose single "Nobody" entered the "Billboard Hot 100".

JYP Entertaiment (the label which patronizes "Wonder Girls") recently created another girl band - "Miss A", and they seem to be on the right way to repeat their "elder sisters" success.

The zest of "Miss A" is in the fact that two of four members are Chinese and two - Koreans.

I suggest you to watch their debut single "Bad Girl Good Girl" and try to guess who of the girls are Chinese and who - Korean ;-) .

If you don't succeed - look for hints in Wikipedia's entry about the band. And if you do succeed - then maybe you can even try the harder quiz "Chinese or Not Chinese".

 

 

Planting Baby Corals With Beautiful Chinese Girls...

Strange title, right? What could it mean? 

I guess the same question asked himself Ben - the guy who last year won in the competition "Best Job In The World" - when he was reading the itinerary of his visit to Hainan island.

But there was no mistake...

Someone in China decided to follow the footsteps of Queensland Tourism and promote Hainan Island. However, the future "ambassador" of tourism in Hainan is chosen among Chinese girls only. Currently 6 finalists left (the winner will be announced in November).

Ben was invited as a guest for some promotional activity, and one of the items in his schedule was teaching 6 beauties to ‘plant’ baby corals to the bottom of the sea!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and make your guess who will be the winner ;-)

How To Get Massage in Chinese Brothel and In The End Receive Your Money Back!

Sounds unbelievable?

Well... five American women just did it!

But I am not sure you should repeat their adventure ;-)

Is Her Voice Really Irritating?

Hmm... maybe it's because I know Chinese - so when I hear someone talking/singing, I pay attention at WHAT they say rather than HOW they say? But here is something that happened yesterday and made me listen to one song in a different way.

I was listening to Guang Liang on laptop. My boyfriend (who doesn't speak Chinese) was sitting in another room. Then he came and stood behind my back looking at the laptop's screen. After the song finished I turned to him and was very surprised with his facial expression. It was an expression of strong displeasure.

I couldn't understand why. Actually, though he doesn't understand the lyrics - he likes Chinese music (and Guang Liang as well) very much. So I asked him what he was thinking about?

He said: "My god, how can the guy fall in love with that girl? It is such a torture to listen to her voice... Feels like nail scratching glass!"

???

Well... listen and decide yourself...

 

Beijing Tea Scam (Beware of Female Strangers)

A simple advice to guys who travel in China. Tip which can save you a lot of money.

Be careful and be afraid of ANY Chinese woman (that you don't know) who approaches you on her own initiative - especially if her English is good - and wants to help you, walks along with you under excuse of practicing her English etc.

Because at some point she will offer you to go to drink tea or eat some food at the nice place that she knows: and then you have to know - you are being scammed!

In any case, if you are adventurous and don't believe the first part of my warning - then at least remember to NEVER EVER go to the place that she offers and always choose the place YOURSELF!  

The classic Beijing tea scam almost happened to my boyfriend on his visit to China. After he finished walking around the Forbidden City in Beijing, a normally looking girl suddenly approached him and asked - "How are you?"

For some reason he immediately felt uncomfortable and - as he later told me - he thought that she was prostitute. So - although it sounded quite awkward - he answered: "I am sorry but I have a girlfriend".

"Oh", - laughed the girl - "It's OK. I just wanted to practice English. Can I walk with you?" He didn't mind and actually they walked for a while talking about his trip in China and her studies. Then she offered to go and drink some tea. 

She invited him to some teahouse but - and, gosh! how lucky he was! - for some reason he didn't like the teahouse and immediately went out. Then he said - "Let's go to another place", walked just few meters further and entered a little restaurant. The girl followed him. He occupied the table and began exploring the menu. But the girl "suddenly" got the telephone call and after finishing the conversation said "I am sorry, I got a phone form my friend - she wants to meet me. So I have to leave. Thank you very much. Bye bye".  

After that my boyfriend called me and told about what happened. He was quite sure that he ran into prostitute or scammer, and boasted how clever and cautious he was to get rid of her without any "damage". To say the truth, I was very naive - and reassured him that he was too suspicious and possibly it was just a friendly student who indeed wanted to practice her English.

And only today I stumbled upon this forum talking about Beijing "tea scam". It was like "WOW". 

For a more picturesque description watch this instructional video

    

When Rich (Non-Chinese) Guys Date Chinese Girls

It seems that when Chinese girl dates a rich non-Chinese guy - she will always be a target for gossips and nasty comments.

It was true for Zhang Ziyi who had a lot of haters in China (since playing a leading role in "Memoirs of a Geisha") and was accused in "betraying all Chinese men" simply because she chose a white boyfriend. The lucky man is an Israeli multi-millionaire Aviv Nevo. 

OK, so she is famous and beautiful... and I can understand that there is an amplified jealousy for her good looks, fame and the fat wallet of her fiance.

Maybe - if she would be just an average girl next door  - there would be more sympathy and understanding? 

Sigh... Seems not. The fresh example of Priscilla Chan - the girlfriend of Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) - proves that being a "normal" girl is not enough to avoid criticism. She is actually guilty for NOT being beautiful... 

 

Dating Game in China Takes No Prisoners

When I read through multiple posts about dating in China, I sometimes think that marriage is only for rich (and thus the small) part of Chinese population.

The material requirements for young lovers (and mainly for guys) who want to tie the knot are so high that one can only wonder whether there is a golden middle between "naked" wedding and the price tag calculated in this curious article.   

Today I found yet another post talking about the same problem. Its "hero" Qiang has a serious dilemma:

he can’t afford the expensive price tag on a new apartment... What’s Qiang supposed to do? He obviously loves his girl, but he’s faced with a true impasse. He can either borrow the money needed for the down payment on his future apartment, putting him in debt and causing him to lose face in front of his girlfriend’s family, or Qiang can abandon his love and his life plan for this young lady. He is between a rock and one helluva heartbreak.

This dating game in China takes no prisoners.

Wish that neither of my readers face such heart-breaking dilemmas.

Crystal Tao

 

 

Yellow Fever, Foreign Moons

This is the name of blog with a very promising subtitle - "A BLOG ABOUT TAIWANESE/WESTERN SEX AND ROMANCE"

Yesterday Gilad (the founder of Fili's world) sent me a link to this interesting site.

I really liked what I saw!

It's not some regurgitation of gossips that you can find everywhere else on Web, but collection of original articles written by different columnists. 

Not only that - the whole design of this site is very appealing and each article is accompanied with authentic drawings.

As for the content itself - you can judge about it from the list of the following links:

WHAT’S UP WITH THIS? Cross-cultural Confusion and Criticism

INTERVIEW: A Westerner’s View of More “Open” Taiwanese Girls

(“If a guy isn’t bad, a girl won’t love him.”) What’s your comment on this idea? 

Thursday August 12th 8月12日 星期四 Q&A : Building a Better Mousetrap? (You'll never guess what this post is about before you read it...)

Finding Mr Right (and Occasionally, Mr. Right Now) 

The Lady is a Tramp?

Top 10 Sexiest Cities in China

Survey undertaken by the Chinese consulting company Horizon China determined 10 Sexiest cities in China.

And the winners are:

1. Shanghai
2. Hong Kong
3. Chongqing
4. Beijing
5. Guangzhou
6. Shenzhen
7. Hangzhou
8. Sanya
9. Dalian
10. Macao

 

Kill A Sparrow and One Child Policy - Dejavu?

Last few days the Chinese blogosphere was full of articles speculating that China is going to gradually abolish its one-child policy starting the pilot in five provinces from the next year.

Others received these news more sceptically. Actually, it's not the first time that similar rumors are spread in media and quickly refuted by government officials.

Well - we will not have to wait for too long to see the results. Anyway, I wanted to look at the problem of one-child-policy from a different angle. 

Recently I stumbled upon a Wikipedia article about the "Kill a sparrow campaign" which took place in China during 1958-1962. Its goal was to exterminate sparrows in the countryside in order to decrease the losses of crops harvest.

But it seems that people are punished when they are questioning the wisdom of Nature:

Initially, the campaign did improve the harvest. By April 1960 the National Academy of Science found that sparrows ate insects more than seeds. Mao declared "forget it", and ordered the end of the campaign against sparrows. By this time, however, it was too late. With no sparrows to eat them, locust populations ballooned, swarming the country and compounding the problems already caused by the Great Leap Forward and adverse weather conditions, leading to the Great Chinese Famine in which around 30 million people died of starvation.

Don't you think that One Child Policy is another "ambitious" attempt to put Mother Nature on her knees? If so - I really fear what kind of punishment we will get this time. Some problems already begin to surface: the gender imbalance when there are noticeably more males of marriageable age than females; and quickly ageing population which will become a heavy economical burden in the near future.

Fortunately, people are not so willing to cooperate as in the case of Great Sparrow Campaign. Parents hide babies to avoid heavy fines and other sanctions. This is the reason why in 1990, the national census recorded 23 million births. But by the 2000 census, there were 26 million ten-year-old children, an increase of three million. 

But Beijing officials don't give up. Babies that will not be registered by 1st of November face will be stripped of citizenship.

I don't know how long will the one child policy (with its forced sterilization and late-term abortion) continue - but I am sure that the sooner it ends the better. 

Ethnic Weddings of Chinese Minorities

Today I stumbled upon a cool site and want to share this finding with my readers.

The site itself is an online shop for wedding items but the interesting thing about it is that they have a collection of articles (with nice pictures) related to wedding customs of different Chinese minorities.

Unfortunately they didn't organize any archives to easily browse through their posts.

So you will have to start from this link about De'ang Ethnic Minority Wedding and from here just follow navigation links to each subsequent post. 

 

Not Just For Buck and Bang

Not all English language teachers are coming to China for an easy buck and bang.

Meet Mark - a 27 years old guy living in China from 2005.

He is a... teacher of English in college. And he has a Chinese wife (whom he deeply loves). And recently he welcomed to this world their first baby.

Of course, all that wouldn't be enough to deserve a post :-)

Mark is running a blog "Laowai Wen Shen" where he writes about tattoos (this is his hobby), life in China and Chinese girls. Well... after getting married both the number of posts about girls and number of posts generally went into decline - but I am sure that you will enjoy reading through some of his archives.

And here are my favorite posts:

A Chinese Girl's Heart: Tread Softly

The Pros and Cons of Dating a Small-City Chinese Girl

The Laowai Rock Star Complex

In Defense of The Old Foreign Dudes with The Hot Asian Girls - Cut 'Em Some Slack... 

Temptations

The Power of Softness

That (In)famous Abortion Ad

About a year ago many blogs writing about China (and not only) reported about the advertisement of abortions provided by a Chongqing hospital.

This ad had a picture of a cute and innocent Chinese female student accompanied by the following text:

"Students are our future, but when something happens to them, who will help and protect them? Chongqing Huaxi Women's Hospital has started Students Care Month, where those students who come to get an abortion can get 50% off if they show their student ids. Abortion surgeries are the most advanced in the world, won't stretch (your womb), won't hurt, it's quick, and you can do what you want afterward, it won't affect your studies or your work."

One of the sites where these news were published has accumulated more than two hundreds comments and some of them are really worth reading! 

 

Chinese girls vs. Russian girls

Well... sometimes besides talking about serious topics, it's important to have a little bit of fun.

It took me a long time to compile something entertaining after the quiz "Chinese or Not Chinese?". But today I am proud to have finished writing two short posts titled "Russian Girls Are More Popular Than Chinese Girls". Not sure, however, if my readers will enjoy them as much as I myself. 

Anyway, try them out:

Part I

Part II

 

Books for White Guys Who Like Chinese Girls

And once again Asian Fetish.
This time I want to share the list of books that I found on Amazon. And no... it wasn't me who made this list.
I'll just give you the link of the compilation and the credit to its author Thomas Carter who also has a wonderful site featuring the photographs that he took while traveling for 2 years in all 33 provinces of China.
Enjoy!

RedFlava - Future Star of Asian Blogosphere?

Chinasmack and Chinahush seem to have a new contender!

Although not specializing in news about China only, RedFlava is going to become a noteworthy "player" in Chinese blogosphere.

Started less than 3 months ago by two artistic souls (as they call themselves), RedFlava has a goal to entertain and provide the readers with the most discussed and up to date news stories, topics and pictures mainly from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Their focus is more on gossip related to new generation celebrities, culture trends and internet phenomena.  

Of course, the idea itself is far from being new but the consistent rate in which their posts are published and appealing design of the site hint that it is going to shine in the near future. Hope I am not wrong in my predictions.

Yellow fever - Alternative View

Yellow fever (or Asian fetish) is a slang name of that special attraction that some guys feel towards Asian (and Chinese among them) girls.

I am not going to enter sociological discussions about the nature of this phenomenon. Rather suggest you to watch this funny video in which two American Chinese guys try to understand why White guys are so successful in pursuing Chinese girls.

After watching it I feel a little bit guilty for writing a blog about Chinese girls for foreign men :-)  

Love Story Like in Fairy-Tales

Xu Chaoqing, an 80 years old Chinese woman, is sitting in the house slowly peeling potatoes. From time to time she raises her head and looks at her husband working outside. Liu Guojiang catches her glance and a happy smile lights his face. If someone would witness this scene – he would never doubt – this is LOVE! Actually, the China Women Weekly included their story into the list of 10 most remarkable love stories in China.

 

It all started 60 years ago. A  young boy from southern Chongqing, Liu Guojiang, broke his tooth. According to a local superstition, if some bride would touch the sore tooth it would soon grow again. And it was the first time when he saw her beautiful face – on the day of her wedding: he asked her to “heal” his tooth.

 

Ten years later, Xu Chaoqing’s husband died from illness. She left with 4 children. The family was so poor that sometimes she even didn’t have money to buy salt. 

 Liu Guojiang, by that time 19 years old guy, fell in love with the widow. He tried to help her in every possible way. People around began to spread gossips: it was unacceptable and shameful for a widow to have romantic relationship with a much younger single man. Hostility of neighbors made their life almost unbearable… one evening they took children, left their house and made their way to a big mountain. It became their new home.

 

Life wasn’t easy. For the first 8 years cave served them a shelter from wind and rains. Their ration consisted of herbs, mushrooms and roots. Crops which they tried to grow had been eaten by wild animals before they could consume them.  Animals also posed threat not only to their harvest but also to them. Like cavemen in ancient times, Liu had to use fire in order to repel the beasts. Xu was deeply grateful for his care but at the same time she felt guilty. “Do you regret? Do you want to go back to the village?” – she had been asking him. But he never showed regret: “Don’t worry, our life will be better.” 

 

Together Xu and Liu had four kids. It was obvious that they needed a bigger place for a big family with 8 children. Liu began producing clay tiles from the mud which he found about 2 kilometers away from their living place. 5 years, more than 30,000 tiles and they had their own house made of mud. In it they spent decades of quiet and happy life not being separated for even a single day.

 

The biggest inconvenience was the lack of road in the mountain. Possibly, Xu had bound feet or there was another reason but it was difficult for her to walk up and down the mountain. So, Liu began to build the ladder. With only hammer and iron stick he had carved more than 6,000 steps in the rock. It took half of century to finish this titanic job. 

 

Later these steps led a group of travelers to the discovery of their dwelling. Xu and Liu became famous overnight. Simple people and journalists were coming to visit the couple – all to seek the answer for the secret of their incredible love.

 

However, there was no secret to reveal. “I am happy. Since the moment I made the decision in my heart, I never regretted” – said Liu. “Do I treat you well?” asked he Xu in front of multiple witnesses. “Yes, very well”, - simply answered the old woman. But her shy and happy expression made everyone around feel so touched…  

 

In the end of 2007, at the age of 72 Liu died in the hands of his wife. Nobody could release Xu’s arms holding the body of her beloved husband… Xu was sitting besides the black coffin continuously repeating: ”You promised that you will be with me until the day I die. How will I live without you now?”

 

 

Long time ago they made a promise that both of them will be buried on the mountain near each other. Liu was buried there according to this request.    

The local government decided to preserve the “ladder of love” and in its place create a museum.

 

If you liked this story – visit my blog LoveLoveChina. There you will find more stories about love and Chinese girls.