china SMACK

Last week after a long nights work I had bought a new bicycle off of one of my coworkers, as my current beat up raleigh cruiser had been stolen off my front stoop (I don't know why, it was absolute junk). Anyways, instead of going straight home to go to bed (it was already 8 am at this point, I work overnight shifts) I felt like riding it around and getting to know the bike a bit.

I had ridden around for a few hours and finally decided to head over to chinatown to see if any of my buddies were there. I don't really know any of the guys at colombus park that hang out in the morning, as they are mostly guys stopping there before work and what not, but there were a few of my friends to say hello to and practice my crude cantonese skills with.

While I was watching a game of xiangqi a man had come up to me and asked if I knew how to play. I said yeah and asked him the same, to which he replied no, but that he knew mandarin. We began to talk and I found out his name was Scott and that he had recently returned from China, where he had been living for the last 6 years. He had up and moved there after 9/11, saying he was very near at the time and it had shocked him and made him want to experience living in a different country before it was too late.

We ended up talking for over 4 hours about China, Chinese people, various social stigmas there, etc. Very enjoyable and stimulating conversation that I have not had in a long time. I will not get into the whole china topic because it is very complex and multi-faceted, but I have lived, worked and become good friends with enough chinese immigrants in the last several years to find it interesting personally.

He directed me to a website, chinaSMACK.com, and it has since become my new favorite website. Basically it brings over top news stories from China along with Chinese peoples comments on them, translated for your enjoyment. This website is one of the funniest I have ever been on and is easy to appreciate if you've ever been close with anyone Chinese. It also helps you understand, appreciate and realize that they are all humans over there too, every last billion of them.

The creator says this to sum it up:

"So, what is chinaSMACK?

My western friend says it is “cultural voyeurism.”

I just think it is fun."


chinaSMACK.com