I like spicy food. In fact, sometimes if soups or other asian foods are not spicy enough, I order “fresh chopped chili”. My friend Anoop introduced me to chopped chili and a little soy sauce years ago, and I’ve never looked back. In Beijing, restaurant staff I came across often couldn’t believe that I was [...]
White person orders chopped chili in china
August 27th, 2008 · 2 Comments
Tags: · Beijing, chili, china, cooking, cultural barrier, hurdles, làjiāo, language barrier, olympics, stereotypes
Category: Communication and connection
AC Neilson survey for Beijing 2008 Olympics
August 27th, 2008 · No Comments
Walking along the Olympic Green, Jigar and I were invited to complete a ‘quick survey’ for AC Neilson. We weren’t told who the survey was for or how it would be used, but I was interested in what questions were being asked, so I completed the survey. It’ll only take a minute There were only [...]
Tags: · ac neilson, air quality, Beijing, china, jigar mehta, olympics, survey
Category: Communication and connection
Speaking Mandarin Chinese like a local – nciku edition
August 15th, 2008 · 3 Comments
It’s my second week in Beijing and my Mandarin skills are slowly improving… I can now cheer for China or Australia in Mandarin; take a cab home completely in Mandarin (as long as we don’t chat and the driver can handle my accent) and explain on the phone to a cab driver how to get [...]
Tags: · Beijing, china, chinese, communication, language, mandarin, nciku, olympics
Category: Communication and connection
Stephanie Rice Bubbles, Anyone?
August 14th, 2008 · 3 Comments
Being a futurist is about anticipating trends, rather than making specific predictions, however, today I’ve decided to do both. First of all, after winning her THIRD gold medal in the pool today, Stephanie Rice is going to be in the public eye a lot more than before. Additionally, I predict a special edition box of [...]
Tags: · australia, australian swimming, futurist, olympics, predictions, stephanie rice, stephanie rice bubbles, stephanie rice golf clubs, stephanie rice merchandise
Category: From the frontlines of the future
Beijing Olympics: 21 edicts from the Chinese Government’s propaganda unit
August 14th, 2008 · 2 Comments
The Sydney Morning Herald has posted an article that purports to list 21 rules for covering the Olympics. Presumably these are written for Chinese journalists, but the article doesn’t actually explain the document, it just publishes it… The items (listed below) provide an insight into the international/domestic stories the Propaganda unit have anticipated in the [...]
Tags: · Beijing, china, key messages, media, messaging, olympics, propaganda, talking points
Category: Media Mayhem


