In the urbanizing Chinese mainland, thousands of years of unimpeded, highly idiosyncratic traits are being forced to conform under the weight of rapid social development. The result is a cultural rift that befuddles some, while making snobs of others. Since moving to Shanghai, I have conditioned myself to no longer place things on the ground. The …
Author: Justin Calderón
Justin Calderón is the founder of Mint Position, an SEO-focused content marketing agency that produces and ranks web content using journalistic-quality research. He is also a veteran journalist, and his byline has appeared in the BBC, CNN, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, GlobalPost, the Bangkok Post and more. Justin speaks Mandarin and Spanish.
A Tale of Two Cities
Hawkers coax passerby to fruit wagons set up over dusty asphalt. Plumes of smoke are ejected over their heads from factories in monotonous wisps. Welders working in the womb of a skyscraper’s foundation toil heedlessly under the ashy blanket that shrouds the sky. Another day in the auspicious showpiece metropolis of Shanghai? No, not this time. …
Chinese Commuters Encouraged to be “Civilized” (文明)
Whistles blow as volunteers wearing blue visors and carrying placards instruct commuters in Shanghai’s hectic People’s Square station to let passengers out of trains first before jostling their way in. Shanghai, considered the world’s most populated city proper (Source: Wikipedia), will further stretch its population capacity when the city is bombarded with visitors of the 2010 …
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Asia’s Strangest Food
This week I published a top 10 list with theexpeditioner.com about the strangest food I've encountered in Asia. When it was published, however, my photos weren't used because they were deemed too graphic/disturbing. You've been warned. The following are the photos that were omitted. To read the entire article click here. 10. Bamboo Worms — Bangkok, …
Playing the ‘Big Nose,’ Zhejiang province
A portion of the following article was originally published in the Global Times. --- The coarse sweater was making him visibly uncomfortable, further forcing him to squirm in his chair like a student avoiding the questioning gaze of a professor. He paused, unsure of how to start the introduction -- more for linguistic reasons than …
Justin Calderón 