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There's no excuse!

Ever been late? When you arrived did you blame it on traffic? Matt at LostLaowai.com recalls that while living in the United States his terrible lying skills would make it difficult for him to come up with excuses for missing class.

When missing high school classes in the US, "I had things to do" simply didn't work as an excuse, Matt writes in his blog titled Wo You Shi: Suuuuuure.

Now a much more serious student in China, Matt finds that he doesn't miss as many classes. When he does miss class however, making an excuse is much easier.

"One advantage of the Chinese, though, is the all purpose excuse: "Wo you shi". In Chinese, this typically translates as "I have things to do'," he writes.

He warns that if you're working in China don't try to slip this one by your boss, it really only works on his Chinese teachers.

Lone child, lonely parents

Once upon a time, Chinese families preferred male children over their female counterparts because males were able to work the fields and help the family earn income. This is no longer the case, writes Andrew Steen on his blog Lonely? Adopt A Middle-age Daughter (www. calpolymbatrip.com/).

"With the number of empty nesters in China rising, urban couples are becoming less in need of income, and more in need of companionship," Steen offers.

He attributes part of this phenomenon to the one-child policy, which has led parents to invest all their resources in a single child. With all the attention, the child gets a better education and becomes more self-oriented, making them more likely to leave the country for opportunities in the West or in the city, Steen says.

With children leaving for the city, older urban couples are left seeking companionship. Steen tells about an elderly family going to the extent of placing an ad in a local newspaper titled Elderly couple desperately seeking daughter.

China's classic taste

If you are from the United States, you might notice that the Coca-Cola in China tastes slightly different. What's the reason behind this difference? In China, Coca-Cola is made with real sugar as opposed to the high fructose corn syrup used in American Coke, Lee from www.leeinchina.com writes in his blog titled Have a Coke and a Smile. Lee reasons that Western nations choose to use high fructose corn syrup in their Coca-Cola because it's a cheaper alternative to sugar.

He also makes the observation that the reason sugar prices are so high is because sugar producers have been subsidized to make it worthwhile to produce sugar. While it may be a cheaper alternative, high fructose corn syrup can be considered one of the contributing factors to obesity in the West, Lee writes.

No worries, with Perapera

Ever get frustrated by your inability to read Chinese characters on websites? Luke from www.lukewrites.com offers a solution to this frustration in the form of a Firefox extension titled Perapera-kun. The nifty extension allows users to scroll their mouse over Chinese characters and instantly a window pops up and translates the word, offering the pinyin form as well.

(China Daily 03/28/2008 page19)