I can’t always combine my love for China and games, but right now, I’m playing two different new Chinese releases. The first is RainBlood, an indie PC RPG from developer Soulframe. It’s technically not new, but the English translation is.  It’s a blend of mythic storytelling in fictionalized China, and hack-and-slash combat. I can’t tell yet if it’s a bit combat-heavy for my taste, or if the story is so intriguing that fighting bad guys is just a distraction.  RainBlood is beautiful, with hand-drawn greyscale backgrounds of curving Chinese village streets.

The second is Princess Fury, a classic combat RPG for the iPhone from Chinese developers Mo-Star. So far, this tends towards button-mashing, not my favorite gamestyle (I see button-mashers as the checkers of videogames — there’s nothing wrong with it, but wouldn’t you rather play something else?), but I’m really enjoying my adorable purple-haired princess with her giant sword and her male harem, er, adventuring party.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

RPGs With Chinese Characteristics

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I’ve noticed that Beijing is really low on graffiti. There are exceptions — names and dates scratched into the Great Wall or dust-signatures on cars — but there are almost no spray-painted tags or the type of graffiti I’d expect in a large city. TikiChris has noticed the same thing about Shanghai graffiti:

Generally speaking, graffiti in Shanghai is an extremely rare sight. Buildings come and go at such a rapid pace that, even if an intrepid artist had touched up a particular wall, there’s a good chance that said wall would have been demolished soon after …

In Shanghai’s art district, though, it seems that every available wall is decorated. TikiChris has some awesome examples of tags with Chinese characteristics here.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Graffiti With Chinese Characteristics

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I heard a rumor at school today that the Tous Les Jours bakery was picketed by anti-French groups (who apparently don’t know that Tous Les Jours is owned by a South Korean company). Anyone know if this is true?

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From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Freedom Fries With Chinese Characteristics

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“So Much Depends” with Chinese characteristics.

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So Much Depends…

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I thought that I was familiar with the demo class as a shady recruitment policy, but my current school’s plan for a demo class might actually be a record for sketchy Chinese ESL policies. Basically, the parents are going to be invited to watch a class in December. The reason we know about it now, and not 10 minutes before the parents arrive, is that everything we will “teach” is scripted, down to which students we call on in what order. The parents will then be evaluating the carefully rehearsed farce English lesson and then offering suggestions on “our” lesson plans, as if there would be any input from the foreign teachers in the planning of the class performance. I’m not entirely sure how any of this benefits anyone involved.

I thought I was just being grumpy about it but last night Stick got on the job boards and starting reading listings.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

…With Chinese Characteristics

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“Stick, I need to get on your computer to print my skit for class.” My skit is a brilliant adaptation of The Emperor’s New Clothes, with Chinese characteristics.

“Right now? I’m in an instance!” That means fighting WarCraft bad guys on a Very Important Mission. “Just connect the printer to your computer. Here’s the USB cable.”

“Ok.”

“NOOOOOOOOOO! That was my mouse! Give me that cable!”

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Daily Life With Stick

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Today I had my first lesson with my gifted kids. This was sprung on me in a typically Chinese fashion, it was once mentioned in passing that I’d be team-teaching English club with Christina. When I got the details a few hours before the class would begin, I found out there were actually 2 sections of the same class, and then one of the TAs asked me what I’d be doing for my class play. Class play? Oh yes, I’m meant to be writing one about some “traditional American folktales.”

Um.

The whole thing went a lot better than my last school surprise, because if there’s one thing I love doing with little kids, it’s public humiliation skits! We played some games today, because I had nothing prepared, not being told that I was meant to writing a school play. It went very well, the kids are pretty good at English. Poor Christina isn’t accustomed to the last-minute-ness of Chinese schools, so the whole thing was kind of an ordeal for her. The kids are a dream, though, very creative and excited. My assignment for Monday is convincing the rest of the English department that Peter Pan is a traditional American folktale.

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

Peter Pan With Chinese Characteristics

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When I took this photo, I was mentally composing a moving post about watching the change of seasons on the Yantai beach, and the weather returning to the winter weather that I saw when I arrived, and how I’ve had almost a year in China. I was going to tie it into the weird dual homesickness I’ve feeling as my time here draws to a close.

But Zorro saw what I was photographing and he called it:

From the blog Simpson's Paradox, please comment here:

….with Chinese characteristics.

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