China constantly bullies Taiwan, threatening to invade, test firing missiles into the sea near Taiwanese harbors during elections on the democratic island to remind its voters of the consequences of voting the ‘wrong’ way, excluding Taiwan from international bodies like the World Health Organization, refusing  to allow the Taiwanese flag to be displayed at international sports events (sometimes even those held on Taiwanese soil!), and the list could go on practically forever.  It’s not all scowls and frowns though.  Militaristic nationalism has a cute side too.

When I lived in Shanghai I remember hearing an audio ad along similar lines that ran in Carrefour supermarkets.  From memory it involved a bunch of Chinese children celebrating because Taiwanese children from ‘our precious little island’ were coming to play and bringing a bunch of, presumably tributary, mangoes.

Too good not to share. . .

This is really just a rehash of a post I made over at E-Gullet.  If you saw my post already no need to read further.

So cute, but she can’t sing! So plain, but what a voice!  The unfortunate Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi.

There may be people out there who got all excited about the Beijing Olympics, purchased an extra big television, invited both of their friends over, then suddenly realized they had no idea what to mix up as their Chinese-themed Olympic cocktail.  Since this blog has featured a few Chinese-themed drinks, I thought I would dust them off and line them up for the world to appreciate.

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Not quite the Marco Polo Bridge Incident you may be thinking, but some of New Zealand’s Chinese netizens might beg to differ. We are hearing a lot about how the world needs to start listening to China more. So what are Chinese netizens in New Zealand saying? Well, while there are sane voices out there, many of these people appear to have a screw loose. How much of this online anger is going to be dished out physically? Will young patriots really track down a pregnant street person and deal to her with iron bars? (more…)

“Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” – William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Sunday afternoon saw Auckland subjected to a mass display of ugly Chinese nationalism. Thousands of Chinese gathered in Aotea Square for what was billed as a “celebration” to “support the Beijing Olympics” and promote “peace and harmony’. In reality the event was clearly a political rally. Olympic references were drowned out by nationalistic flag waving and chanting. The chauvinistic demeanor of the majority, coupled with a lack of policing, encouraged a large and hostile minority to indulge in physical intimidation and random violence. Within a few minutes of arriving at the event I was assaulted and abused, getting rescued from the hostile crowd by a protest marshal. The marshal then politely asked me to leave, because the event was, in his own words, “not safe for New Zealanders”.

So what exactly happened here? (more…)

There is nothing about cocktails here, so skip this post unless you are having trouble sleeping. . .

Following up on my earlier post on the Chinese protests in relation to Tibet, there have been some further developments in the whole Chinese protesters and Chinese online media saga. (more…)

Anyone who has been following the recent Tibet riots will be familiar with the story. Peaceful protests in Tibet somehow become violent riots. China closes Tibet to the foreign media and issues hard-line statements about ‘splittists’ and the ‘Dalai Lama clique’. The Chinese media report the story by dutifully repeating the government line. The foreign media report the story using the limited information and material available to them from both the Chinese and Tibetan sides. Chinese citizens are unhappy with the foreign media’s reporting of the story (or more specifically they have a gripe with the ‘western media’). A series of several cropped and incorrectly captioned photos and segments of news footage assumes enormous importance as a demonstration of western media bias. This material becomes ‘proof’ that the western media is attempting to ‘paint China black’. Chinese students around the world protest. Exciting days indeed!

Gentle readers, it was at that point that your good narrator became involved, with ironic and entertaining results. (more…)

Following up on my earlier experiment infusing Oolong tea in gin, I decided to do another Chinese tea inspired infusion. This time round I wanted to use a tea blend called Jupu (菊普), which is simply a mix of chrysanthemum flowers (菊花) and a black tea called Puer (普洱茶). (more…)

Disney designed the Flying Tigers decal.

I found this one on CocktailDB while looking around for drinks using grenadine. In my post on The Fogcutter I mentioned how small quantities of gin can make an interesting contribution to rum cocktails. Since this drink is another example of that idea I thought it would be worth a try. (more…)

I decided to give infusing gin with tea a try. I started by making the Earl Grey Martini as written up by Gary Regan in the San Francisco Chronicle. Earl Grey is possibly my least favorite tea. I don’t hate the stuff exactly. Oil of bergamont is an interesting flavor. Unfortunately, that taste just doesn’t work for me in tea. (more…)

So today marks a leap year meaning we get that rarest of experiences – February the 29^th. This may not seem hugely exciting. However, back in the 1920s, when Harry Craddock was mixing cocktails at the Savoy, leap year celebrations were quite the thing. Harry Craddock even created the Leap Year Cocktail to mark the 1928 celebrations at the Savoy. The Leap Year Cocktail isn’t a bad drink either, being sort of a lightweight cousin to the Burnt Fuselage. (more…)