Street food, Shanghai-style

I love these photos of Shanghai street food stalls from nwoT eikgnoH Hongkie Town. You can almost smell the barbecue smoke...

Miss Hong Kong from the last 35 years

Despite falling out of favour here in the West (where they are considered politically incorrect and passé), beauty pageants are still going strong in Hong Kong.

This website has an interesting gallery of all the lucky winners since 1973. Dig around and you will see such famous names as Maggie Cheung Man Yuk (1983) and rising star Selena Li (2003) amongst the photographs. Strange to think how little has changed in the last 30 years or so.

via Butterboom.

The wedding where the earth shook

These will no doubt be all over the net soon but I thought they deserved a post. These extraordinary photos from the BBC are an unusual view of the devastating quake.

Earthquake fundraising in Chinatown

British Chinese associations have moved quickly to start fundraising in response to the Sichuan earthquake. Volunteers from the London Chinatown Chinese Association, the BC Project (British Chinese in politics), Dimsum and others were out in force on Sunday helping to raise money.

via Richard H's Blog

Sichuan Earthquake: Red Cross Appeal Info

Photo: Daily Mail

With every passing day, the reports of the devastation caused by the Sichuan earthquake just get worse and worse as more facts and images emerge.

A disaster appeal by the Red Cross is now up and running. For the details, please visit the official website here.

Goodbye, Oriental City (my last visit)

It's not closing until June 1st, but this was probably the last time I would ever see Oriental City.

Even though there are still a few weeks of trading left, there was an unmistakable air of 'the end is nigh' about the place. The mall seemed grubby and in need of renovation. There was more graffiti than usual and generally the place was in a bit of a state. However, I can confirm that standard of the food in China City and in the food court was as good as ever.

Discount signs were all over the place but how true they were I'm not sure. I wouldn't recommend going there to bargain hunt (not until the very last days of trading anyway).

One shop had a sign saying that it was going to move to the new Wing Yip 'superstore' opening further south on Edgware Road. I wonder if a lot of the OC businesses will be relocating there?

Sorry for the low quality of the photographs, they were taken on a camera phone.

Goodbye, Oriental City.
























Related: The bbc blog's coverage of Oriental City

China facing worst natural disaster in decades

The Sichuan earthquake is already getting lots of coverage in the UK media but i thought I'd post this article from xinhuanet.com.

It's a more detailed witness account from one of the affected villages:

"We were passing by the Jushui town, and we saw a huge landslide," a man from Mianzhu City, about 60 kilometers to quake center Wenchuan, told Xinhua over the phone. He was on his way to visit a friend in Anxian county in the northeast Monday afternoon.

"Rocks buried many houses down at the foot of the hill, and some of the vehicles on the road were buried too. I saw the rear of a car and the wheels of another. Several people were crying for help and some were bleeding," he said.

A nurse at the forestry center in the Aba prefecture asked reporters to take photos of a boy with scratches on his face to help find his relatives. The nurse said his parents were suspected to have died in the quake.

Sungha Jung - an amazing 11 year-old guitar prodigy

We are almost getting used to seeing young Asian piano and violin prodigies but this is the first time I've ever seen an Asian guitar prodigy. And gosh, is he good or what?

I love the fact that he seems genuinely into the music rather than just being excellent at playing a set, classical piece. This prodigy's got soul.

Apparently he has started touring and is already composing his own music. Expect to see more of this kid.

'All Along The Watchtower':


'With or Without You':


'Come Together':


Sungha's MySpace page is here.

Another bbc blog to add to the roster...

Madam Miaow, a name I recognise from both Dimsum and the (what used to be called) britishbornchinese.org.uk messageboards has her own blog:

Madam Miaow says ...

Embarrassingly, she has opted for the same Blogger template as me, which must be the blogging equivalent of turning up at a party in the same outfit. Luckily, I don't think the latter is ever going to happen!

Related: bbcs on the BBC: 'Chinese in Britain'