Humor on Danwei

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A head above the pack is still behind?

Posted by Ralph Jennings, August 20, 2009 9:04 PM

Model rises above the cookie cutter at Beijing auto show

Short. Heavy. Dark skinned. Over 30 without a spouse. Over 40 without a child. Your co-worker who eats lunch after 2 p.m. These mutants might as well start their own TV quiz shows for all the questions they've got coming in China. This woman’s complaint about her unusual height, for which she was looked up to like the recent solar eclipse, describes the deep fixation with looking alike.

Student letters to a foreign agony uncle

Dear Ralph,
I'm a really tall girl, 177 centimeters, far exceeding the average female height in China. As a result, I have lots of trouble almost every day. I have to struggle to get used to the strange light from the eyes of most people who I encounter. Everybody wants to know about my height to fulfill a curiosity. My roommates never give up kidding me by asking such questions as "what's the height of your boyfriend in the future?" What's more, sometimes a boy who is shorter than me may suddenly murmur behind my back, "it's too unfair." I don't know whether I want to laugh or cry. Would you give me some advice on how to deal with these embarrassing situations?
-Amy, Beijing
June 2001

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Xujun Eberlein's Apologies Forthcoming: Hong Kong's Blacksmith Books has published a short story collection by Xujun Eberlein.

Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.

Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine － 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.

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+ China's 50 Most Beautiful People (2005.03): The Beijing News borrows a picture of Maggie Cheung from Cosmo for the cover of today's Entertainment insert, "50 Most Beautiful People in China". Ms. Cheung takes the top spot, with Takeshi Kaneshiro, Little S, Zhang Ziyi, and Liu Ye rounding out the top five in this exercise that is a conscious imitation of People magazine's yearly rundown.

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A head above the pack is still behind?

Student letters to a foreign agony uncle