Recently I've been fixated with totalitarian regimes, and it's beginning to show in my work. Today I published a piece titled "The odd reality behind Shanghai's Pyongyang restaurants" for CNNGo in which I discovered that waitresses of the three North Korean-government run Pyongyang restaurants in Shanghai have no clue of each others' existence. Like the …
Continue reading Who are the waitresses at Pyongyang restaurants in Shanghai?
With all the huffing, puffing, moaning and yelping about international debt crises, one has got ask how China is maintaining its frantic "building binge." Today, the GlobalPost published my analysis of the current infrastructure and property development problems in China, notably in urban centers such as Shanghai and Chongqing. This story began its life during …
Continue reading Overdeveloping China creates speculation and elitist markets
Disney is making headlines these days with the recent ground breaking of Shanghai Disneyland in Pudong. The iconic brand has actually been visibly seeding interest since '08 when the first Disney English school opened in Shanghai. Their glossy form of "edutainment" has done a formidable job of exposing all things Disney to the mainland, but how Mickey …
Continue reading Magic Kingdom Needs More than Allure to Win Mainland
When I first came to Shanghai last year the freeze of winter was just settling in. I remember I was pressing on through the wind in the French Concession one day when I came across a Disney English school. Disney had apparently set up shop in '08 to break into China's market through education; yet, …
Justin Calderón 