According to Sioux legend, a man once relieved the Native Americans of the North American prairies from a lingering drought by inducing rain with a dance --- he was called the rainmaker. Today, in Northern China’s Shaanxi Province, you’ll find little rain dancing here. Instead, the rhythm created by rainmakers of this province is to the beat of …
Category: North Asia
Exploits in North Asia
Running a Red at your own Risk
Like a traffic light, the three-color coded health inspection notifications posted in Shanghai’s eateries direct diners when to go in and when to stop at the door. For tourists, these boards help to quickly settle the question of, “Do you think it’s safe to eat here?” For locals, this question isn’t answered by public notifications. On this …
Curiosity Crazed the Foreigner
In the kitchen doorway of a Harbin dumpling restaurant, a shy-eyed waitress gives me a flickering glance, steadily taking more strident pauses in my direction. Our eyes connect for one, two, three seconds --- more, before the inquiring grin of a pupil grows to fill her expressionless face. Laowai, or foreigners, in Shanghai tend to …
Water Under the Bridge
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 …
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. …
Justin Calderón 