Make-believe boyfriend

In China, young people, to avoid nagging from their parents, have resorted to ‘renting’ a boyfriend or girlfriend to take home during this new year period, Mr Lee observed.

‘It’s amusing, but it’s also sad,’ he said at a Chinese New Year dinner at his Teck Ghee constituency. ‘I’m relieved there’s no such reports in Singapore. I hope it doesn’t happen.’ Still, a little social pressure is useful but more importantly, parents and relatives need to encourage them and show them support.

Unmarried residents interviewed said they first needed to save enough and have a stable career before settling down and starting a family.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_493317.html

Christian the Lion

for Pip G.

with Love from Mummy and Elizabeth

Water-Splashing Festival of the Dai People

Water-Splashing Festival is the most ceremonious traditional festival of the Dai minority. It usually takes place in mid-April of the solar calendar, often ten days before or after the Tomb-sweeping Day, and lasts three to seven days.

 Water-Splashing Festival is the New Year in the Dai calendar, and also a festival with the largest influence and maximum participating population among lots of minority festivals in Yunnan Province. In this festival, the Dai People without reference to age and sex will get dressed up and shoulder clean water to the Buddhist Temple.

full article with more pics: http://traditions.cultural-china.com/en/115Traditions269.html

by robin and Elizabeth

The Paper Motorbike Factory for the Dead

Dong Ho village in Bac Ninh province, around 30km from Hanoi, which is famous for folk paintings, is very busy producing paper-made items, especially motorbikes, to serve the upcoming Ram Thang Gieng.

Besides motorbikes, Dong Ho villagers produce other things for the dead. A paper-made horse of 1.7m height is wholesaled at 200,000 dong at the village but it is up to one million dong at Hanoi’s Hang Ma street.

more pictures here: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/photogal/201002/The-paper-motorbike-factory-for-the-dead-896242/

by Arthur

Traveling Vietnam’s Beer Trail

THE setting could have been any typical Central European beer garden. There were long rows of wooden tables stained in dark, rich hues; half- and full-liter beer mugs hanging from metal racks; and two beautifully crafted brass decoction tanks used for mashing traditionally brewed beer. But on this warm afternoon in November, I wasn’t in Plzen, or Munich, or Bruges. I was at the Hoa Vien Bräuhaus in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The humid air buzzed with conversations in melodiously tonal Vietnamese. This, too, surprised me. Considering that Hoa Vien’s founder is an honorary consul of the Czech Republic (that is, a noncareer diplomat), I had envisioned throngs of expatriates knocking their glasses together. But the crowd was made up of young Vietnamese men in slacks and button-down shirts — lanyards with key cards still dangling around their necks — and couples chatting under large, shady trees. All part of Vietnam’s growing generation of hip, young professionals.

full article: http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/travel/21explorer.html

by Arthur

‘Why we can trust the Chinese’: by inventor Trevor Bayliss

A court in Beijing today fined two Chinese manufacturers for infringing the patent on a British company’s kettle design.

The ruling was welcomed by Trevor Bayliss, who thanked the Chinese judicial system for standing up for British inventors.

Mr Bayliss who is best known for inventing the wind-em-up radio, this week wrote to Madam “Fu Qing“, the Chinese Ambassadoress to the UK, to thank the country for the court’s decision.

via http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254083/It-means-trust-Chinese-Inventor-Trevor-Bayliss-thanks-Chinas-judicial-protecting-British-firms-patented-kettle-design.html

by Arthur

Hercules at Abbey Road

Hercules my Hero visits famous places in London

lots more pictures of My Hero here : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1246550/Hercules-900lb-liger-crosses-Abbey-Road-takes-Underground-goes-tour-London.html

by Pip G.

I’m a Lumberjack

Arden gets in training for the upcoming Woodchoppers Ball

by Arthur & Elizabeth

Japanese R2-D2 USB Humidifier

Droid powered soothing moist air

In the dry desert climate of Tatooine the Sand People have a real complexion problem.

They’ve tried coating their skin with Bantha blubber and experimented with Jawa dung. However in the end the Sand People were forced to wrap their faces with strips of corse burlap and call it a day. That was until these R2-D2 USB Humidifiers came along.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/c118/

Karl’s China Fantasy

 

Models: Shu Pei (Next) & Du Juan (IMG)
Editorial: Karl’s China Fantasy
Magazine: Vogue China, March 2010
Photographer: Karl Lagerfeld
Stylist: Ling Wu

via:   http://asianmodelsblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/du-juan-shu-pei-editorial-for-vogue.html

by A + E