- Recent
- Popular
- Tags (0)
- Subscribers (3)
- Farewell…November 20 2008
-
This picture is a not related to the post. (Photo credit: n0r)When Lyn and I started the Virtual China blog back in February 2006, it served as an online notebook and promotion vehicle for an Institute for the Future program of the same name. And indeed, some of what we posted did make its way into that year’s Virtual China program. But there were also many posts that did not make it.
Fast forward two and a half years, this blog remains our online notebook. But it is no longer the blog vehicle for an IFTF program; nor are our posts exclusively focused on artifacts from “virtual” China anymore.
Virtual China (the blog) was becoming much more a reflection of how Lyn and I view the latest, often strange, Chinese objects or events. Yet, we were always struck by the uneasy feeling that we were betraying the “Virtual China” name and original mission.
So we put our heads together and reframed what we were doing (a brand refresh if you will).
If you’ve read this far then, please, follow us to our next endeavor, to the
- find english manuals for your chinese phoneOctober 1 2008
-
Last October I posted on the ongoing scroll of commentary on ChinaTechNews and pointed out the need for a blog to help non-Chinese speaking users figure out their Chinese-made phones. Today, almost a year later, Jeff posted a link to a site called chinamanuals.com, where you can buy English manuals in pdfs and pay via PayPal. Chinamanuals’ contact person is Dirk Schneider, Australia. I don’t know about the logo (!) but it seems like a great service if it does what it says it will.
- A brilliant approach to P2P lendingSeptember 19 2008
-
Qifang and PPDai are both online peer-to-peer lending systems, where you can donate small amounts to people who are often poorer and from rural areas (it is a form of microfinancing).
But where PPDai focuses on the fast and high returns, Qifang takes it a step further:
Translation of left side:
An open style scholarship platform: Need help? Want to help?
Get in now > Safe, Simple, Free.
By focusing on loans for people who can’t afford education, they’re appealing to a belief in the power education, which may just have enough altruistic sway to sidestep people’s distrust of others, and is certainly a much better story than empowering petty village commerce that does who-knows-what.
Think of donating to education as the China equivalent of people in the US donating to small entrepreneurs in the developing world (e.g. Kiva: Loans that change lives).
And as proof of their social mission, the right block on the screenshot above says:
Post-disaster reconstruction communication platform: Enter now.
- American dude’s video diary of ChinaSeptember 15 2008
-
Aricsqueen. He’s from America, but living in China. He video blogs a “Shanghai Diary.” His mission is to give an alternative and honest view on China. The news and views typically take a critical position on China; stories include how an American got jailed in China for, a watchdog piece on pre-Olympic changes, and a preview of five Chinese rock bands.
The citizen journalist format is interesting , but in this case, sometimes the white American dude point of view has its limits.
I’m late to the show, and Aric’s currently on a break from Shanghai/China.
Luckily, it’s still all online and hosted by Current TV: See episodes from the series here.
(Thank you Parisa from CurrentTV for sending this over, and Micah for correcting me on some details!)
- HK Wellcome adAugust 20 2008
-
An ad for Wellcome (one of the big supermarket chains in Hong Kong) based on the premise that if the little daughter saves enough, one dollar at a time, that she can buy back some of her father’s time spent at work.
