3 minutes in Shanghai - Podcasting from Shanghai

Christmas and New Year in Shanghai. Generally, the Chinese don’t celebrate the way we do, but they do seem to enjoy the lights and decorations.

Listen to the show.

tek.

Going to the cinema in Shanghai. What’s that like? Today I take about three minutes to answer that question.

Overall, the experience isn’t too different from what you’re used to in the States. Perhaps a few more obnoxious theatre-goers having noisy conversations, but otherwise pretty similar. Nice screens, nice environment. Sweet popcorn.

Wish I could see something other than Harry Potter, though.

tek.

Here’s the video that goes with the previous show.

tek.

The rise of hip-hop in China is the topic of today’s show.

I’m working on a new website, which those of you who are interested can check out at http://3minutesinshanghai.com/wp

I spent the Thanksgiving weekend working with Wordpress, trying to figure it all out and customize the look, using all them templates and CSS and stuff. It took me hours and hours, and for most of the time it all seemed completely beyond me. Now I’ve got the thing up and kind of how I want it to look, but the scripts to import my LiveJournal posts don’t seem to work. Without that working, I’d have to import them all by hand before moving over the podcast, and that doesn’t sound so good. Nonetheless, it seems to me to be a good idea to move over to Wordpress to give myself a little more control over what I’m doing with the blog/podcast.

And a video is coming.

Enjoy.

tek.
3minutesinshanghai@gmail.com

In today’s podcast, I answer a listener question about the game mahjongg here in China. Yeah, they play it. Shanghai, the computer game that uses the same types of tiles, I’m not so sure about.

Oh, and the next edition of ‘hip hop in Shanghai’ is coming soon. I’m working on it.

More ideas from listeners about show topics would be greatly appreciated. Don’t be shy.

tek.

Video clip of hip-hop performers at Guandii, a club here in Shanghai. They have a rap competition every Thursday night, and included in the clip are performances by:

a Canadian, rapping in English
a Japanese, rapping in Chinese and Japanese
Chinese dancers

There are no Chinese rappers in this clip because on the night that I went, there were none. I hope to go back in the next few weeks and record some actual Chinese rap for this podcast about Shanghai. Would seem appropriate, I think.

Enjoy.

tek.

Today’s show should explain the whole video clip that came (or should have come) earlier in the feed. I outline the rules for future video content, which I’ll reiterate here.

I’m going to keep video content supplemental to the main audio show. I want it to be ‘bonus’ material that you can watch in iTunes, or on your new iPod video, but I’m such a fan of audio shows at this point that I don’t see any reason to switch format. And… y’know.. I don’t have an iPod video.

Since the video clip is of some hip-hop/rap performers here in Shanghai, I decided to talk for a few seconds about how difficult I think it is for the average Chinese to become interested in the hip-hop/rap world.

Oh, and I don’t know anything about hip-hop/rap, so I may not be using the terminology correctly… But what am I going to do? Research? Bah.

tek.

On today’s show, I take a second to answer a question I’ve received on more than one occasion: Why am I here in China? Why don’t I go back to America? It’s a simple answer, really.

Also, I take an additional second to answer a couple listener questions. Keep sending questions, and I’ll try and answer them in the show.

Thanks for listening, everyone!

tek.

It’s been a while, but here’s the new show. I’ve got to stop flaking out like that.

Some of what I’ve been occupied with lately is setting things up for the new semester, teaching at the High School Affiliated to Fudan University. Last year, I began having the students create a podcast as a graded oral English project. Although there were some hiccups, I got quite a few good shows out of the kids. This year, things should work out better. I have a new system worked out - the same system, more or less, that I’m using for this show.

So listen.

Find my students at http://podcast.fdfz.cn/

tek.

October 1st was Chinese National Day. I went to Tianjin to visit some friends, although that’s a poor excuse for not recording a show in almost three weeks.

China has two ‘Golden Weeks’ a year - one beginning October 1st, and another beginning May 1st. Everyone gets a week without work. What’s the deal with that? Some more info in today’s show.

Thanks, everyone, for listening. There’s almost 500 of you out there now, if my FeedBurner stats are correct, and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I’d love to answer some general Shanghai questions in future episodes, so send ‘em if you’ve got ‘em to 3minutesinshanghai@gmail.com.

Until next time…

tek.

P.S. Apologies for my cruddy math in the last episode. Somehow, I added 4 to 4 to 2 and came up with 12. Didn’t notice that until well after it was posted. Heh. Maybe I should spend more time editing.