Comics
- Sorry I’m new to this! Notices for novice expats
- Mortification at the Mechanic’s
- The Nian Monster: A Chinese New Year Story (Part I)
- The Nian Monster: A Chinese New Year Story (Part II)
- My Accidental Chinese Language Partner the Telemarketer
- The Horror! Of Chinese Mainlanders right here in Repulse Bay! A look at an ugly side of the expat mind. With comic!
- My Cantonese is improving thanks to the NRA
- “Gangnam Style” medicine, or 20 dancing kids as my “Personal Jesus”
- View from Queen’s Road in Hong Kong. Tongue-in-cheek comic-look at the narrow-view of a certain class of expats.
- Current Hong Kong Weather: dank, gray gym sock
- Independent Hong Kong Flag
- 冰水人: The loud American wants ice. Story with a small comic.
- “Lord of the Flies” in mid-air, or: “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.” Story with a small comic.
- Expat Bar to Grassland Yurt: One Stolen Phone’s Journey. Comic based on an article in the South China Morning Post.
- Smuggling Mooncakes to China. Comic inspired by articles in the South China Morning Post.
- Do expats judge their “own” more harshly?
- “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?”
- “You can’t go home again”
- Across the Pacific by Air with Two Kids
- Trying (desperately) to get around Hong Kong on a very rainy Saturday
- No movement on the expat to-do list
- Macau for the weekend? My thoughts on “House of the Dancing Water”
- Hot and humid in Hong Kong
- “Plagues” of the first days in a new place
- Channeling “The Jerk”: moving into an empty house
- Hong Kong: pock-marked with shopping malls, but still awesome
- East vs. West: A Child’s View
- Relocation Insurance: pirates-yes, terrorists-no
- Time zones matter
- HR Explains Relocation Package for Expat Employees
- Wild and Brave Expectations of the Expat Child
- Revenge of the Serial Expat
- The Retrograde Chinese Lesson
- Oranges: the Chinese Godfather’s dilemma. Only I seem to think this one is funny.
Mainland China
- One to rule them all: Starbucks in China
- Merry Christmas Zhuhai Style
- Birthdays Abroad
- Revisiting old expat haunts: Returning to Zhuhai 珠海
- Mormons and Communists: old men who have influenced my life. In honor of the 18th Party Congress.
- “Low Expectations”: your guide to successful relocation to China
- Ten “Mainland Moments” in Hangzhou. Sweet: this post was “Freshly Pressed.”
- Shenzhen calling, but not for American me… China border visas for Americans.
- “China is the next superpower? Wake me when urban tap water is drinkable.” ”This American Life” story on American expats in China.
- “China is not dangerous,” but I have been known to be wrong-ish
- Guangzhou 广州 China: actually not quite as bad as “hell on earth”
- Zhuhai 珠海 China: romantic and only partially debased. Probably the best place to be an expat in China (in the author’s humble opinion).
- Shenzhen 深圳 China: the mythic “small fishing village”. The home of Apple-product-maker FoxConn is a boomtown, but was never “a small fishing village” though the idea is nice.
- Disappointing hotel rooms and stone-throwing mobs: 19th Century China travel. Isabella Bird’s “The Yangtze and Beyond.”
Hong Kong
- Heaven is Hong Kong junk trip
- Land Granny, the Heavenly Bureaucrat and other tiny deities. Explanations of some of the small idols spotted around Hong Kong.
- Buoyantly free in rule-bound Hong Kong. The M+ Inflation exhibit at the West Kowloon Cultural District
- Am I Bernstein or Woodward?: Censorship on Hong Kong airwaves?
- Imagine Hong Kong: 8 reasons it’s an (almost) perfect utopia
- Saturday Night Underachiever: skirting Earth Hour and The Sevens. Drunks and dimness in Central.
- Neon dogs and tiny gods: color on a grey day in Sai Kung. Photographs.
- Six amusing things spotted in Hong Kong yesterday.
- I lie to myself about pollution
- Shirtless in Hong Kong: the giant bodies of outdoor advertising
- Who is Kenneth Lau? And could Sean Connery sell foreign languages?
- Hong Kong Wishing Festival: “The Hope Will Be Real*” (*even if your house won’t actually fill with gold)
- Hong Kong Baby Milk Powder Wars: the only winners are the infant formula manufacturers
- Jack Palance in a Singlet: Hong Kong “Aunties” and “Uncles” Occupy the Playground
- No Frolicking! Searching for authentic old Hong Kong. Chi Lin Nunnery visit.
- Slingshots, Strawberries and Body Language. Winter berry picking in Tai Mei Tuk.
- The Horror! Of Chinese Mainlanders right here in Repulse Bay! A look at an ugly side of the expat mind. With comic!
- “Horse Urine”: Hong Kong place-name back stories
- Diamonds amongst the parked lorries: Ping Shan Heritage Trail. A great day out in Yuen Long District.
- Flanked by the phoenix and dragon: a lucky day in Fanling Wai. Bumping into Fanling Wai walled village.
- Wishing a better future for America in Lam Tsuen. A visit to the “Wishing Tree” thinking about Newton.
- View from Queen’s Road in Hong Kong. Tongue-in-cheek comic-look at the narrow-view of a certain class of expats.
- Current Hong Kong Weather: dank, gray gym sock
- Independent Hong Kong Flag
- Hong Kong as the “Great Chinese Experiment in Freedom”
- Pretentious Property Developers
- Phone Addicts: Hong Kong Welcomes You!
- Smuggling Mooncakes to China (with comic)
- Gun-toting, Cantonese hillbillies in the New Territories
- Hong Kong Juxtaposed (on-the-street photos)
- Chatting up Mainlanders on Hong Kong’s East Rail Line
- The bad-ass pedestrians of Hong Kong
- Hongkongers like rules and Americans are idiots: reading a people via its park signs
- Dragon Boat Fever: Hong Kong’s culture of contagion avoidance
- The unexpected joy of driving in Hong Kong (Honest. Fine print: I’m talking about the New Territories)
- Hong Kong’s food labeling contortions: “I really am worth the premium price, really.” Hong Kong milk from Australian cows on holiday in Indonesia.
- Vanity Plates of the wealthy in Hong Kong, or I’ll take “18″ for $2 million
- Loan Sharks at the Door?
- Threatening letters in Cantonese
- My own strange culture shock, or: the annoying “China-Lite” expat
- Life lessons at the “Tai Po Mega Mall”
- Piracy on the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry. Vivid piracy quote from Austin Coates’ “Myself a Mandarin.”
- Hong Kong 1950: the sky was high and the emperor far away. Quotes from Austin Coates’ “Myself a Mandarin.”
- Lucky: the lot of the interested expat. Martin Booth’s “Gweilo: Memoirs of a Hong Kong Childhood.
Other places
- Harmony in Phuket: we are all equal in our occupation of the sunbeds
- Ten Tiny Tales from Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Goodbye England: 10 quirky things that I love about you
- Vanished Places: Huambo (Nova Lisboa), Angola. Haunting.
Expat life, generally (most of the other posts also touch on expat life)
- Sorry I’m new to this! Notices for novice expats. With comic sample notice!
- Propaganda: North Korea is a “Socialist Fairyland” and all expat life is glamorous! How do you portray your life abroad?
- “Who Are You?” Watching Lawrence of Arabia through Expat Eyes
- You Only Live Twice. “International romanticism”
- Do expats judge their “own” more harshly? (with comic)
- Western-Asian, Spring-Autumn couple forces me to “eat crow.” (with comic)
- Taking flight in an age of glamour-less travel
- Voltage matters
- The chameleon-like accent of the expat child
- Sea shipment arrives: the awe of expat transitions
- Pandemic Preparedness: “there is no need to worry as we are burning vinegar.” (China, Hong Kong, Britain)
- Being an expat has taught be that Americans … Eight surprising, funny things.
- “If it weren’t for the booze we should all go mad and kill each other.” From George’ Orwell’s “Burmese Days.”
- Lucky: the lot of the interested expat. With great book recommendation. (Hong Kong)
- Short-timer. Six weeks left before another move. (Britain)
Travel, generally
- Damn smug Canadians … or where they Americans?
- Harmony in Phuket: we are all equal in our occupation of the sunbeds
- Ten Tiny Tales from Chiang Mai, Thailand
- On cruise ships through Asia, the self-hatred is free*
- Ugly Americans, Ugly Chinese: the tourist trap
- I blame James Bond
- Inspiration: tales of sleeping in haystacks with backpacks
- Pictures of Strangers (India, China, Angola, Vietnam) Taking pictures of captivating people while on-the-road.
- Songs in all the wrong places. (Indonesia, Rwanda, Hong Kong)
- Cheating Death on Asian Highways. (China, Central Asia, India)
- I thought it would be different (mis-anticipating destinations). (China, Cambridge (UK), Europe, Australia, India)
- Sore-thumb: the other side of the lens. Beautiful, “romantic” off-the-beaten path travel photo. And then another with the author in it. (Angola)
Language study
- Gau go gaau gau gau ge! Song by The Police or Cantonese tongue-twister?
- 乐乐 Elmo: Can Sesame Street rescue your Mandarin tones?
- My accidental Chinese language partner the telemarketer. Comic.
- My Cantonese is improving thanks to the NRA
- Getting into language character, or: I’ll wear a half-shirt if it will help my Chinese
- Mini-bus language angst. To speak or not to speak…in Cantonese.
- Milestones in a Foreign Language: “I went from talking like an evil baby to talking like a hillbilly”
- Language Fails. My own failures of communication in French, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese.
- China’s Pearl River Delta = Woe for the Chinese Language Student. Cantonese? Mandarin? It’s a headache for the eager Chinese language student in the Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou region.
Thinking about America
- Ugly, Americans, Ugly Chinese: the tourist trap
- My Cantonese is improving thanks to the NRA
- Wishing at better future for America at Lam Tsuen
- English Panto and the American Prude
- Being an expat has taught be that Americans … Eight surprising, funny things.
Read/Heard/Seen (Wonderful quotes on expat life or foreign places)
- “Big in China.” Quotes and thoughts on Alan Paul’s book in which he goes from “trailing spouse” to musical star in Beijing.
- The Expat Dilemma: Longing to be everywhere at once. Quote’s from Arnold Lobel’s “Owl at Home.”
- “China is the next superpower? Wake me when urban tap water is drinkable.” ”This American Life” story on American expats in China.
- Expat Blog Love. Blog awards, seven random things about me and a great list of expat blogs written by funny women.
- Milestones in a Foreign Language: “I went from talking like an evil baby to talking like a hillbilly” David Sedaris’ “Me Talk Pretty One Day.”
- Julia Child: the ultimate reinvented “trailing spouse.” Quotes from her “My Life in France.”
- “If it weren’t for the booze we should all go mad and kill each other.” From George’ Orwell’s “Burmese Days.”
- Disappointing hotel rooms and stone-throwing mobs: 19th Century China travel. Isabella Bird’s “The Yangtze and Beyond.”
- Piracy on the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry. Vivid piracy quote from Austin Coates’ “Myself a Mandarin.”
- Hong Kong 1950: the sky was high and the emperor far away. Quotes from Austin Coates’ “Myself a Mandarin.”
- “Pink villas fifty yards apart … as far as the eye can see.” From George Orwell’s “Burmese Days.”
- Empire-Building Englishmen. Long, funny quote on “dotty” expats from Roald Dahl from his “Flying Solo.”
- Joseph Needham: lover of China, women, fast cars and Morris Dancing. Simon Winchester’s “The Man Who Loved China.”
- Lucky: the lot of the interested expat. Martin Booth’s “Gweilo: Memoirs of a Hong Kong Childhood.
Spotted (usually amusing cultural collisions of one kind or another)
- Keep your panties bright with “White Overlord.” Laundry detergent label spotted in Hong Kong.
- Fusion Food: “Jammin’ with Flava” (Britain)
- Double-Pretty Pajamas: China’s anti-fashion now in-style. (China, Britain)
- Fusion Food: “An innovative taste is frying your way!” (Hong Kong)
- Spinster: outdated bureaucratic language of the British Empire. (Hong Kong)
- English Panto and the American Prude. (Britain)
- Chinese Christmas Party and the American Prude. (China)
- Bureaucracy and the Bored Indian Clerk. (India)
- Corruption: One Man’s Cambridge Fiefdom. ”That which you call corruption, I call influence.” (Britain)
Happy Holidays!
- Merry Christmas Zhuhai Style
- On the first day of Christmas Hong Kong gave to me: a faux Swede in a faux tree
- Oxford Shoe on Ice!
- Chinese Christmas Party and the American Prude
Please note: the index is updated every week, so more recent posts may not be included.
