八八吧 · 88 Bar – Page 11 – A group blog about Chinese tech, media and design

Occupy Hong Kong one year later: the coming colonization of cyberspace

September 29, 2015 by Jason Li

Governments are increasingly playing catch-up and sometimes even leapfrogging ahead of social movements in the use of digital tactics.

A recent paper by Lokman Tsui, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and longtime member of Global Voices, offers a chilling look at how authorities in Hong Kong outdid…

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Digital murals of Cantonese proverbs and profanity… translated

September 15, 2015 by Jason Li

Digital mural of Cantonese profanity By Ahto

Graphic artist Ahto (阿塗) has just released his second digital mural documenting modern Cantonese in Hong Kong: this time, it features Cantonese profanity. Originally featured in City Magazine, Ahto has released an animated version online!

Kind commenters on the Cantonese subreddit have translated some of the terms depicted above. Here’s a selection of…

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Toy puzzle celebrating the Orochen, an ethnic minority in Northern China

September 2, 2015 by Jason Li

From their website:

Orochen Forest Family is a children’s wooden puzzle we designed after staying with one of the smallest remaining ethnic minority groups in Northern China, the Orochen. They shared with us stories about their cultural past, taught us the basics of their crafts, and took us into nature to fish and…

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Multi Entry

China loves the lingo of games

August 26, 2015 by Christina Xu

A few years ago, my mom called to ask for my advice on webcams. She explained (in the English-peppered Chinese that’s the official language of our Chinese-American household) that some of her friends had started sharing videos of themselves singing karaoke. She thought she could do better. “我想给她们PK一下,” she remarked: “I want to PK them a little.”

The term “PK” (or “Player Kill”)…

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Multi Entry

How to say “hipster” in Chinese and other internet slang goodness

August 17, 2015 by Christina Xu

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Christina’s Kickstarter campaign: Multi Entry – Telling the Stories of Young, Creative China:

Since a few of you responded enthusiastically to last week’s impromptu slang lesson, I thought we’d do another one! Today’s crop: 5 common slang words that are used a lot online and in texting. Figure out a…

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Multi Entry

Three ways of showing gratitude in Chinese

August 10, 2015 by Christina Xu

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Christina’s Kickstarter campaign: Multi Entry – Telling the Stories of Young, Creative China:

You know the (mostly untrue) saying about all the Eskimo words for snow? That’s kind of true for gratitude in Chinese. Here are a few, to thank you.

orz and …

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Interesting Times’ recommendations of Chinese indie rock

August 4, 2015 by Jason Li

Interesting Times is:

A podcast about songwriting in Asia, by Krish Raghav. Twice a month, we ask musicians and bands from across the continent to talk about one of their new songs, and how it came together.

They do a remarkable job of interviewing and featuring musicians from the region, which of course includes the Greater China…

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Hong Kong Anime-Game-Comic Con 2015: merch, toys, mobile games and a Chinese Hatsune Miku

July 27, 2015 by Jason Li

Panoramic photo of the entrance booths at ACGHK2015 — Gundam and PS4 dominated the main entrance at ACGHK 2015

ACGHK, Hong Kong’s closest equivalent to the San Diego Comic-Con, comes hot on the heels of the book fair every year in late July. Attended by a much younger (and more male) demographic, the “animation, comic & games expo” is, in reality, dominated by toys and comics-related…

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Ethnography of Tech

Your surrogate-cool-cousin guide to creativity and karaoke in China

July 23, 2015 by Jason Li

In case you haven’t noticed, organizational designer and ethnographer extraordinaire Christina Xu has joined us here at 88 Bar. She was responsible for our articles about Chinese people looking at QR codes, Chinese public mascots, amongst many others.

Just today, she’s announced her latest endeavor: Multi…

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Hong Kong Book Fair 2015: a hodgepodge of concepts, publishers and distributors

July 16, 2015 by Jason Li

Panoramic photo of entry way — The view upon entering the book fair from the main entrance

Unlike book fairs elsewhere, the Hong Kong Book Fair targets the general public. Instead of a fair where publishing companies to get together to negotiate rights and licenses, the Hong Kong Book Fair is a giant discount-books supermarket, where visitors are encouraged to buy in bulk. Many do by…

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