Blogs

DaPod.  A podcast in Dalian.  We've added the ability to upload Audio and embed 3rd party audio, video and pictures (for example, videos from YouTube, photos from Flickr) directly in blog posts.

This was done for the DaPod podcast by Devon, Adam, Rick and Alex.  If you'd like to be able to do something on the site that you're currently not able to do just contact us and we'll try to sort something out.

If you'd like to use this as a platform for your own Podcast, band recordings, or anything else that might be audio or video feel free to try it out!

***Cross-posted on PandaPassport.com

First it was Xianzai.com who was stealing our Dalian content and reprinting it verbatim on their website.

Now it's ChinaExpat.com. I was a little disappointed to see that, especially since I had written a pretty hefty Dalian piece for them a while back. Maybe they figured that if I did one piece pro-bono, that I wouldn't mind if they lifted all the stuff I'd written about Dalian? I don't know...  They do link to DalianDalian.com on one of their pages, but I really don't think that's gonna cut it on their listings pages.  Especially considering that when users search for a Dalian bar or restaurant on Google, ChinaExpat will be right up there in the rankings thanks to the content they lifted (word-for-word) from us.

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To kick off, here’s a nicely provocative comment from a Chinese lady on the Dalian Xpat forum…

most of foreigners in china are rubbish(except those who are assigned to work here),they cant support themselves in their own countries and that is why most of them are english teachers (or other languages),coz they can do nothing but teaching their own languages. china is just like a dump(but i love it),so welcome those rubbish from different countries.

and this was followed by a comment from a Russian

Nice comment, I totally agree
(At least I’m not an English teacher)

Well, as I have written before, I am used to comments like this and I suppose there is some justification for them. There’s no smoke without fire, as the old adage has it, and some of the English “teachers” I have met over the years have been unqualified, psychotic, alcoholic, incompetent etc etc. But but but…the majority are normal, likable, interesting and decent people who are capable of teaching English very well. (Just like me! Shucks.)

It should also be said that some “English teaching” does verge on the pointless, particularly when teachers are stuck in, and then stuck with, a class of students who don’t want to be there and indeed often have no good reason to be there other than that the lessons are a parental or governmental requirement. I am lucky enough to be able to avoid teaching classes like these. I teach motivated university students, businesspeople, and adorable little kids.

I am an English teacher. It is my job and it is part of my identity. When people ask me what I do, I say I am an English teacher. I suppose I could, if I was feeling poncy, reply instead that “I teach literature and applied linguistics at a University” but that would be, well, poncy.

Anyways, a couple of weeks ago, via the wonderful haohao report, I came across an interesting article that both analysed and criticised that bally rotter the Chinabounder. In case you know him not, Chinabounder is (was) a young English teacher from the UK who wrote what became an infamous blog about his womanising in Shanghai. He then became the victim of a storm of indignation and media curiosity when a certain Dr Zhang, a university psychology lecturer, demanded he be hunted down and kicked out of China for humiliating and mistreating Chinese.

The article was from a site called The Middle Kingdom Life which has the subheading Perspectives on Living and Teaching in China. It is run by a few people but there is a Dr Greg (Gregory Mavrides, Ph.D.)who does most of the writing and moderating. In his own words… Dr. Mavrides is an American psychoanalyst who has been working in China as a professor and mental health consultant since August 2003.

I left a comment saying, more or less, that while Chinabounder is a prat he does have some insightful points to make about China and Chinese society. But that’s by the by, what I want to focus on is the Doc’s response and the point he made about English teachers in China. He said…

If Chinabounder’s situation was a relatively rare one, there wouldn’t have been any reason to write an article about it. In fact, he is a very common type of male foreign English teacher in China and I just used him as an example, as he decided to go public with his adventures.  read more »

  The Dalian Wolfhounds will not be competing at this year’s Asian Games in Penang, Malaysia in October. In the end, despite the generous support of friends both here in Dalian, in Ireland and around the world, we decided that it was just too much financially to ask people to pay just to go and play [...]  read more »

For those of you who may not have seen it yet, here's the 1st presidential debate in full.

Click here to view on MSNBC.com

 

At the moment all efforts are being directed towards trying to send a team to the Asian Games in Penang Malaysia on October 11th and 12th. If anyone would like to contribute, we would really appreciate it. Your money will be going to help grassroots GAA in northeast China.   The account details are  Bank of Ireland, University Branch, Galway. Account [...]  read more »

 

 

Dalian possesses China’s only Guide Dog Training Centre, located at the Dalian Medical Science University. The widespread use of guide dogs is in it’s embryonic stage in China, Dalian’s training centre a cutting edge in this aspect of China’s disability assistance programs. Large dogs are unusual in China’s cities – while they may be seen the official permitted height for many larger cities in China is just 35cm.

Dalian News yesterday provided an interesting take on this and highlighted some especially perverse bureaucratic inefficiency:

In China, guide dogs were allowed in public places from July 20 to September 20 thanks to a temporary certificate issued by the authority for the Olympics.  read more »

Technology is moving fast, faster than I’m learning Chinese, and this is useful

I just saw forum topic asking “How Do I Make Da Pan Ji”. Da Pan Ji is a traditionally Xinjiang dish, slightly spicy, consisting large pieces of Chicken lightly fried with spices then stewed with potatos, carrots, tomatos and peppers, often served with thick flat noodles – the noodles soaking up the rich sauce. Whilst ignorant as to how it’s made I've been impressed by the dish ever since tasting it at my local Dalian Da Pan Ji vendor located in the dormitory area of Dalian Finance and Economics University.  Knowing exactly how to make it would be interesting.

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This is where technology comes in handy.

Perhaps a rant, perhaps really interesting, I'm not sure what I think about Dalian's 'creative' future.  We all create things, I create bad smells after eating baked beans, but 'creativity' in this sense perhaps means a shift in culture from a life of function and history to one of reflection and enjoyment.  Graeme said:

Of course the best coffee in Dalian is made by myself, at home, but Echo is probably the coolest place in town to chill out and drink other people's coffee...it's also becoming a key cultural hub for Dalian's small creative community, holding photo & art exhibitions, live performances, film nights etc. There are plenty other cafes which aspire to the same, but they seem to rely more on existing friends and a transient foreign community for their custom. Echo on the other hand is the only one run by local Chinese in their twenties, who are part of the Web 2.0 generation. It now has its own group on Douban.com, the Chinese social networking site for books, films, music etc. Membership is currently at several hundred. They've realised that to be a hub in the physical world these days, you need to be one in the virtual world too.

First, more on creative:  I get huge pleasure browsing Colour Lovers once a week, looking at patterns and colour combinations which are simply beautiful.  I could go to Dalian's shell museum and look at some shells which are also beautiful, perhaps it's staring at bland colours all day, I just something enjoyable about looking at patterns and colour schemes.  I also, and have always, enjoyed plants, as have many others for many millennia, so what's this sort of creative?  Echo Coffee has a small beer garden at the back, when there recently a friend pointed out two stickers on the door, they were placed roughly but not exactly half way up the door and on the inner-left.  Why put them there opposed to any other place?  It just made so much aesthetic sense to put them on the left rather than in the middle, or anywhere else - the colours and dimensions of the stickers complemented and conflicted with their surroundings no where else was as good.  Perhaps that's what I, and Graeme above, are talking about when we're using this term 'creative' - those that love the study and progress of art for a sake - understanding and completing the world around us.  Pre-amble over.

Will Dalian Ever Be A Creative Hub?  read more »

Maybe, for some niche areas, generally no, the race is already lost to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.  Again reverting to Graeme:

What are the advantages to logging in to this site?

Our privacy policy clearly states any email address submitted during the login process will not be distributed to third parties.  In addition, any passwords you use in association with this site are stored in an encrypted formfor which there is no key (nor any known method) to allow them to be decrypted.

First, as a non-logged in member what can you do, there is still quite a bit:

• You can view all published blogs, photos, listings, events, comments and the map,
• You can submit comments, either in text form or via Seesmic video.  BUT any comments submitted have to be pre-approved by a moderator,
• You can submit photos by uploading them to Flickr and taging them 'DalianDalian'.

That's quite a lot but there's much more missing:

• Any logged in member can actually make posts (blogs, forum posts, photos, events), rather than just comments.  Comments are automatically published, no need for approval,
• All blog posts, photos, forum posts, events and comments are editable even after publishing (useful for correcting typos).
• You can report something 'abuse' to get a moderator to look at it,
• You can 'favourite' something - adding it to a list of favourite posts,
• You can vote on stories to promote them to the front page and feature them on other pages,
• Get local:  By uploading your (or any) location you're alerted to new listings, reviews and other posts near and relevant to you (your location is not disclosed to other members),
• Use an editor where you can easily add text formatting, upload photos in posts and add smilies,
• Subscribe to and create groups.  What are groups?  The core forum addresses basic questions about Dalian.  If you're interested in any subject area you can create your own group!  Each group can be joined by site members, and has it's own forum.  In addition posts and replies posted to a group can be non-public, meaning only your group members will be able to see it,
• Use the shoutbox.  Not enough to waste time already?  Now you have a 24 hour shoutbox to chat live with other site members,
• Edit a user profile - connect with other site members that have similar interests or living in similar areas,
• Not have (Not Verified) appear next to your name on comments and reviews.  Is someone going to believe the opinion of "OMG the best food I've ever eaten.  by RaveMan (Not Verified)" or "A nice and reasonably priced bistro, recommend the grilled prawn. by BarryRapido" - reasonable words from a long term user.

This is all subject to random change.  If you're interested in a feature please <a href="/forum/suggestions">make a suggestion</a>, there's a good chance we can do it.