I decide I’m going to Shanghai Fashion Week to try to get them to photograph me for my rad street style. From what I observed yesterday after I stumbled into the heart of Shanghai Fashion Week totally by accident, people like to take photos of you if you’re dressed in something crazy. Like a mink coat withContinue reading “Crashing Shanghai Fashion Week”
Tag Archives: Asia
Ad hoc tea in Shanghai
I went out to find an ATM, leaving behind my camera because ATMs are hardly film-worthy. On my way a Chinese guy flagged me down and asked me to take a photo of him and a smiling Chinese girl in front of a Chinese sign that apparently was film-worthy. I snapped the photo, handed backContinue reading “Ad hoc tea in Shanghai”
Wandering Shanghai
Shanghai is less terrible than I expected, since the air pollution seems to have lifted long enough to let in sunlight, but still, walking around by myself makes me want to be basically anywhere else. Especially when I wander into the minority art exhibit of the Shanghai Museum and stare at the traditional dresses ofContinue reading “Wandering Shanghai”
Sickness
I lie in my hostel bunk, surrounded by butterflies. Lovely things, with bright-colored plumage, skimming through the air and landing on top of their impossibly large and complex backpacks, strung with hiking boots, towels, beach mats. Their limbs are long, well-shaped, tanned. They speak together of their adventures, and make plans for the day. IContinue reading “Sickness”
Life on the roof
There appears to be a man living on the roof of the building directly opposite my hotel window. I’m on the fourth floor, and I went to open the drapes in the nude only to discover someone facing me across the narrow alleyway. He didn’t see me, and I shut them quickly, peering through theContinue reading “Life on the roof”
Haircut in pantomime
I need a haircut. My hair has always been a source of trouble: fine, flyaway, limp, straight. I’ve been experimenting with different short haircuts in an attempt to make the most of it. I haven’t been thrilled with the results I’ve gotten locally in North Idaho, so I figure, time to be crazy and goContinue reading “Haircut in pantomime”
A real Thai massage in Bangkok
I land in Bangkok just after midnight, and by the time I get to my hotel it’s after 2. I figure this is great news for getting my sleep on track: to recoup from my 28 hours of travel and the impending jetlag, I plan to sleep, eat, and relax until I don’t want toContinue reading “A real Thai massage in Bangkok”
Localization, Thailand and the global market
Sometimes I stop and think for awhile about my job, and about the long chain of assumptions that lead out into its final goal, which nine times out of ten is that people will purchase (or remain loyal to) a product that did not originate in their own culture. Localization is primarily about making theContinue reading “Localization, Thailand and the global market”
An expat in any country
One reason I love other cultures is the possibility that they will be more familiar than the one I’m currently living in. I grew up in a microculture, one with its own way of dressing and thinking, its own news services, textbooks, cultural heroes, way of speaking English. Since the moment I set foot inContinue reading “An expat in any country”
Orange Grove road to Silat avenue
I walk down Orange Grove road, past the lush gardens of opulent hotels, which are much the same in every country in the world, to Orchard road, which is lined with high-end shops and high-end shoppers who teeter along on their unusually frilly designer heels and look impossibly sleek in the humidity. I am wearingContinue reading “Orange Grove road to Silat avenue”
Botkin Creative 