Digital murals of Cantonese proverbs and profanity… translated

Posted on 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

Posted on 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

Posted on 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

Posted on 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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Interesting Times’ recommendations of Chinese indie rock

Posted on 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

Posted on 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

Posted on 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

Posted on 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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