New friend
Yesterday I made a special appearance on China Daily’s weekly news show “The Week.” In the short segment, I explore Beijing’s markets and seek out the creepiest Christmas decorations I can find. The segment is based on a Hot Pot column I wrote for China Daily on experiencing Christmas in China.
Embedding China Daily videos isn’t possible, so check out the full clip here.
Happy Holidays!
Cartoon that accompanied the column. I'm not a blonde this time.
My second Hot Pot column for China Daily ran earlier today. As you may recall, I wrote one back in July on awkward experiences sunbathing in China.
Today’s column is on Chinglish shirts — those amazingly hilarious pieces of clothing I’m kind of obsessed with here. In the column I mention a Chinglish shirt shopping extravaganza in Shenzhen; I posted photos of some of those purchases here earlier last year.
For more hilarious misuses of the English language in China, check out my Chinglish photoset on Flickr. Or Engrish.com.
Just last week, my very first interactive narrative was published on China Daily’s website. The story was about an American born Chinese high school student who went to volunteer in a poor village in China’s Sichuan province. He wrote a diary chronicling the first five days of the trip and the story came with over 300 photos! Unfortunately, many of them didn’t make it in the presentation.
The narrative was built in Flash. Check it out here.
I am apparently now a blonde.
A few weeks ago, I submitted a piece for China Daily’s Hot Pot column. It’s a column that runs every few days featuring stories from expats reflecting on their cultural experiences in China.
Well, I’m happy to report it ran in the paper on Thursday! The column is about sunbathing in China, and how you rarely see it happening here. Part of it is because Chinese women prefer their skin to be white, but part of it is also because women’s bathing suits here are so modest. (Exhibit A).
The column even comes with this neat-o illustration of me, which is a sort of dramatic reenactment of my time at the beach in Qingdao last month. But if it were a truly accurate depiction, the men would all be wearing skintight speedos. (True story).
China Daily turned 30 years old on June 1. To celebrate, the entire staff was bussed off to Tiananmen Square to hear a series of speeches in the Great Hall of the People, aka the Chinese parliament building.
The China Daily expat staff in front of the Great Hall of the People
It was pretty sweet. After all, how often do you get to go inside the building where the People’s Congress of China meets? (Answer: not often. My Chinese tutor told me “commoners” aren’t typically allowed in, not even tourists.)
We listened to a series of speeches from current and former editors, including Editor-in-Chief Zhu Ling and Design Director Bill Gaspard, the sole international staffer to speak. There were a few speeches from government officials as well, including one from Liu Yunshan, head of the CPC Central Committee’s Publicity Department, and another from Wang Chen, minister of the State Council Information Office.
Find more extensive coverage of the anniversary here.
Listening to speeches. Spot the Bridget.
Last week, I appeared in another China Daily video. This one’s about parasols — in China you’ll often find more umbrellas out on a sunny day than you will on a rainy one.
But you have to be careful on days like this — sometimes umbrella density here gets so thick that you nearly get your eye poked out on every corner you turn.
Find the video here. I appear in another sketch as well!
Idyllic strolling.
Be careful where you put those umbrellas. You could start an umbrella war.
I’ve been really bad at writing What-I’ve-Been-Up-To-Lately posts, but today that changes. Let’s rewind back to a few months ago, when I participated in a some cheesy video sketches for the China Daily.
The first video from mid-January finds me ice-biking on Houhai lake in Beijing. I came back to life a few weeks later to make snow angels and slap a man on Valentine’s Day.
I couldn’t embed the videos, but here are screenshots.
Next up: IMDb profile?
SPOILER ALERT: I die at the end. No, really.
This took about 3 takes.
I’m excited to announce that starting next week, I will be joining the China Daily staff as a designer. It’s an incredible opportunity and I can’t wait to see what the job has in store for me. The China Daily launched a redesign a little over two months ago.
My flight from Shenzhen to Beijing departs later today.
(And for those of you fearing my return to the States: Relax. You have at least another 6 months until I come home again.)
Update: Charles Apple blogged about it.
Bridget O'Donnell is a designer for Ataway in Shanghai, China. She previously worked for the China Daily and graduated from the University of Michigan in 2009. More »
