MOJO IN CHINA

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NFL in China

admin | 27 August, 2007 08:45

American Olive Shaped Ball is coming to China!!

This post is not about cooking, not about what you should put in your martini's or nachos, but about my favorite sport in the world - Football, American Football. And the NFL (National Football League) is looking to make waves in China. (Like another American sports leaague we know and love, the NBA.)

Now this is a tough one. I agree that China's market is huge and that there's so much potential for football to grow out here, but I've talked with a lot of folks about American football in China and most say it's a very violent sport for very big people.

Now, Gong Fu (aka Kung Fu) isn't the most peaceful sport in the world either, but then again it is culturally rooted. There are thousand year-old stories that every student in China must learn about heroes and heroines that were experts in Kung Fu and they made China such a great place full of wonder and excitement...

Football heroes?... Only on ESPN...

I have to admit, The NFL isn't giving up. Check the Chinese site for the New England Patriots! I am shocked and amazed. It may not measure up to the site's English counterpart... but it's a start on impressing 1.3 billion people.

Personally, I would love to see NFL in China. I've seen some clips on subway station TV's and it's kind of a thrill. I played football for 4 years at Midwood and can only relate watching football in the US. I've been all over Asia, but China's the first country I've been in where I could check out the NFL with real Chinese commentary. (Great for my sports Chinese!)

But as a China scholar/lover/resident, it's going to be VERY difficult to get the NFL off the ground in China. This sport is deeply rooted in US culture. Sure, we can bring up the success of baseball in Korea and Japan, but in baseball, you don't have to run each other over and wear a ton of equipment - it's a bit less... violent... Also, football vocabulary can be a pain to translate... Mei Shi Gan Lan Qiu literally means American Style Olive Shaped Ball which means American Football... C'mon, we gotta do better than that?! This name HAS to change... it's goofy!

Anyway, all the best to the NFL on getting into the China market (like everyone and everything else in the world) My only request for the guys working the astroturf... do your homework before you make waves along the Yellow River!

Congrats to all Soulfire Champagne winners!

admin | 24 August, 2007 07:05

Happy Soulfire champagne winner Kinka Yang and MoJo. (He even got an autograph pic of host, Jenny Zhu!)

I along with several Soulfire colleagues took a trip to Hangzhou last Wednesday to meet and greet the winners of Soulfire's champagne sweepstakes: Kinka Yang, Zong Yin and Jin Lei (who was away on a business trip, hope we'll meet again sometime soon!).

Shocked and amazed Zong Yin is wondering: "Can I actually drink all of this?"

It was great to head to sunny Hangzhou where we met up with two out of three friendly winners offering us plates of fruit and letting us relax in their luxurious spots while we gave them a free case of champagne covered in beautiful wrapping and all.

Ater this trip, I realized how great it is to travel, even if it's only about 30 minutes outside of your door. It's good to move around and see how people outside your own neighborhood live.

Hey Peter, where's MY free champagne???

Hangzhou, as a beautiful city (With Xi Hu -- The West Lake!), has beautiful people both friendly and kind. I look forward to my next trip there! Thanks for listening to Soulfire and keep on listening!

Survivor: China

admin | 22 August, 2007 17:01

The Americans are coming!! And they brought cameras too!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!

For all the Westerners (mainly those wacky Americans) out there, you all probably know that Survivor is coming to China. For all the local Chinese out there, check out the clip above. This is Survivor, ya'll.

Ten contestants (or some number, I don't know I watched maybe three full shows of Survivor in my entire life) go to an "exotic" part of the world, live off of the little resources they have in the wild and not get booted off the show by the TV watching audience...

HARDCORE!!! IN CHINA!! WHAT?!?!?!?

Wait a sec... China...

I LIVE IN CHINA!! CHINA IS HARDCORE???

I guess when I think of Survivor: China, I think of this:

"- Can you survive rush hour through People's Square?

- Avoid spit balls from oncoming bus windows in Tiananmen?

- Run away from homless men and women on the subway with their cute and dirty three year-old daughter begging you for money and telling you "Uncle, uncle... I am hungry!"?

OR (My favorite!):

- Block airplane company business cards from being dropped into your bag by adolecent boys going through puberty?

If so, join: SURVIVOR: CHINA!!!

Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping built it... But can you survive it???"

That's my show and I would get sponsors like Haier and Lenovo. Get rich, make a billion from loyalties and finally get that yacht I've always wanted...

Survivor says that this is the first American series filmed in China, but I beg to differ. What about The Amazing Race, first season? They were in the nation's capital, Beijing. Not very memorable, what they did in China... Ping-pong against a kid? C'mon... I got one for them... Put up with 50 QUESTIONS!!!

But the characters on this series of Survivor all seem quite interesting and they all balance each other out quite well. I look at this clip and wonder if they choose actors, cause these people can't be real... But, in fact, they are. Kudos to Survivor for lasting so long and making great programming... Now I'm waiting for...

Survivor: NANTONG!!!

China V-day weekend at Shanghai's Jin Jiang Amusemnt Park

admin | 21 August, 2007 09:07

Life's a carousel at Jin Jiang Amusement Park

This past weekend was China Valentine's Day, so (once again) I showered the wife (and myself, hehe) with gifts and fun activites the entire weekend. We saw Cirque du Soleil's Quidam in Pudong, did some shopping in Esprit (Old school for the states, but extremely popular here for their sales), and went to the amusement park.

Now I've been separate amusement rides in China (bumper cars and a ferris wheel or two) but never an entire amusement park. But you have to rememeber, an amusement park is more than the rides: it's the food, the sounds, the people and the culture, so last Saturday, Zoe and I took a trip to Jin Jiang Amusemnt Park.

First of all, the place was packed (like everywhere else in China). Secondly, we were near a bus station, which means there's a lot of wai di (outside of the city) people coming in from out of town for a day trip to Shanghai, to check out one of the city's hot spots (besides The Bund), the amusement park.

Enough of the general stuff. Let's get specific, firstly... and this is for all my Mei Guo Ren (US folks) out there. No burgers and fries (chips?) at this park folks. You better go to McDonald's (main page song on this site with Wang Li Hom is actually not bad) first! You can, however, pick up squid tentacles on a stick, stinky tofu ("Chou Dou Fu", Chou means stinky), and sweet popcorn. Very popular out here.

About ride safety, things ran well over there and they perform daily check ups on all the rides between 5pm-6pm, a very good thing. My wife was more concerned about safety than yours truly, the lao wai. Then again, she hasn't been to an this park in about 18 years and my wife gets spooked out when I wake up in the morning... man... I really need to shave.

Lastly, you can't end off your day at the amusemnt park without your local friendly Filipino band (This is just a general example of a Filipino band in China, not the show I saw.) playing the top 20 in Chinese tunes over the last 10 years. They did pretty well. Oh yeah, there was also a beer drinking competition going on and winners could win more tickets for games in the park. Not bad... I should've tried my luck! I've been practicing at home!

Overall, our day at the amusement park was fun and enjoyable. Definitely the highlight was sitting in the ferris wheel, checking out the view of early-evening Shanghai with my wife, enjoying that moment in time when you're high up there above all the craziness below, and you feel like you are on top of the world.

Priceless. Happy China Valentine's Day.

What questions do YOU get asked in China?

admin | 20 August, 2007 08:45

Cool song by XIV called 50 Questions.

I was just checking out this video by my man XIV up in Beijing (representing Beijing first hip-hop group, Yin Tsang), and I found some inspiration to get up a post this Monday morning. Here's the top 10 questions I get asked almost everyday in China:

1. Where are you from? (Standard question... I get this from foreigners too, except Europeans, they can smell the "American" on me.)

2. Wow, America, that's a great country! What are you doing in China then? (This one makes me feel like I made a mistake living here!)

3. How much do you make per month? (I just met you, man!)

4. You are black? (Me:Yes.) But you don't look very Black. (What does black look like???)

5. You are American? (Me: Yes.) But you don't look American. (Assuming I should look, ahem - white... thanks, media!)

6. Do you watch the NBA? (White people get this too, it's ok. NBA is big out here.)

7. What cities have you been to in China? (I hate this questions because it takes me about ten minutes to answer this one! See all my travel related posts)

8. Is your hair real? (Imagine the questions I was asked when I had dreadlocks!!)

9. So you are married... How many kinds do you have? (Wow, it's obvious I have kids, so let's just go into how many, shall we?)

10. You studied Chinese in America? You can learn Chinese in America? (Yes, how do you think McDonald's and KFC made it here???)

That's it for my top ten. LEARN CHINESE, WHAT?!?!

Buses to and from Nantong suck.

admin | 17 August, 2007 07:14

China buses are quite gangster.

Like I said the other day, I took a little trip to Nantong. The show went well and Dj Mick ripped it up. The Nantong Scarlet crowd is pretty good, even for a Wednesday.

BUT the bus over was one crazy ride and so was the bus back, so I'm making this post into two parts dedicated to my fun trip, both conveniently named: The Bus Over and The Bus Back.

The Bus Over

Got on the bus and luckily I could fit into my seat cause there was no space between my knees and the seat in front of me. I thought the folks in front of me had their chairs in the reclined position... NOPE!!! All the bus seats were like this.

The glass on the windsheid looked like they had bulletholes. Now China doens't allow folks to have guns unless you are the police or your in the mafia, and the mafia won't make their guns so obvious to the public... So this leads me to believe that this bus was used during World War II and it caught a couple of strays picking up folks.

Next up, there was a point on the bus ride where we had to get on a boat to pass over a river. (Not Yellow River, but the water was sickly yellow...) Being on the boat was kind of cool with the breeze and all and lack of gas smell, except for the sales people that kept coming in and out of all the buses along the boat selling all kinds of crap. Almanacs, socks, corn... All you need in China!! And you can't avoid the sales people! What are you going to do? Walk away and swim off the boat? You just gotta deal with the sales pitches and all.

Lastly, the driver passed every red light in every small town on the way to Nantong. My goodness... I feared for my life at a certain point. I did get insurance from the ticket.

The Bus Back

Two words: COLD and HOT. The bus was freezing inside, luckily, I could fit both my arms inside of my short sleeve shirt (like a 5 year-old) for warmth. I fell asleep through the first half of the trip.

Then it got hot, and why? Cause the air conditioner shut down... In the middle of a traffic jam... You see, with The Bus Over, the driver toatlly avoided the roads under construction and ran all the red lights, so he knew how to get pass all the mess of the traffic. But most people go through the construction cause it's a more direct route to Shanghai.

Whatever... The traffic was atrocious and the air con was out. You could feel everyone's body heat, breath and sweat all of a sudden. Not sexy. Lucikily we were only about 20 mins from People's Square. And I made it to Soulfire in more than enough time!

Barganing in China, Le Sportsac, and Blind Foreigners... OH MY!!!

admin | 16 August, 2007 20:19

Hey! I thought it was real!!!

Heard a great story today via my wife and some of her clients on Le Sportsac, fake goods and not so smart foreigners in China.

A lady heads to West Nanjing Road and Chengdu Road to check out the fake market, it's a building full of fake goods: t-shirts, jackets, watches, belts, shoes -- and especially BAGS. This one lady was in for it and here's how laowai (foreigners) screw up the barganing process in China.

Lady gets a Le Sportsac bag (like the one above, I'm not really into these bags, but apparently, some people are.). If you know anything about Le Sportsac bags, then you know they are expensive (Like 150 USD -- about 1,600 RMB). Lady gets a Le Sportsac for 30 USD (350 RMB) at the fake market and thinks she makes a steal. Of course, like any real sales person/hustler at the fake market, the sales person says: IT'S REAL!! NO LIE!! Lady belives hustler... ahem -- sales person.

Key words: FAKE MARKET

Lady takes bag to REAL Le Sportsac store about 5 blocks west of the fake market. Again, she still thinks she made a steal, but takes this bag to the real store just to "make sure". Darwin Awards time...

Clerk at Le Sportsac tells lady that the bag is fake. (and in her mind is laughing her buns off) Our Le Sportsac winner is now at a loss and definitely got duped. But it doesn't end here folks!

Lady takes bag back to fake market, finds fake market clerk, and with anger her in her eyes complains and demands for her money back for selling her a fake bag! (ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?)

I don't know the rest of the story and don't need to know the rest of the story, but as a reasonably long time China resident and China lover, I know this lady never got her money back. Secondly, she's embarrassed herself in front of everyone in the fake market and proved that sometimes, it is very easy for clerks to make a reasonable amount of profit at a fake market, particularly off of (blind) foreigners.

Lastly, if I wanted to buy this bag, I would rememeber who I was dealing with here... This is the fake market, everything they make is really cheap. It probably cost them about 1 USD to make the bag (about 8 kuai). I would spend no more than 30 kuai on the bag, at most -- 50 kuai (5 USD).

SO BEFORE COMING TO CHINA, AND HITTING UP THE FAKE MARKET, LEARN HOW TO BARGAIN AND BARGAIN WELL!

The county of the 'Nan'S'. Next stop: Nantong.

admin | 15 August, 2007 07:04

Lately, I've been on this China 'Nan' thing. No, I'm not talking about 'Nan' bread, I'm talking about how there are so many cities in China that begin with 'Nan'!!!

Today I'm taking a tip with DJ Mick over to Nantong. This isn't my first time there. I actually went there while I was a student at Nanjing-Hopkins to open for Singaporean C-pop star Liang Jin Ru.

From what I rememeber, Nantong is a very industrial town in Jiangsu Province, just 2 1/2 hours away from Shanghai. Apparently, Nantong makes more money than Nanjing (capital of Jiangsu), but as I mentioned earlier, Nantong is heavy on industry, so I expect to see factory after factory and a bit of light smog in the air...

Xie xie, Li-Tong

admin | 14 August, 2007 07:57

Redstar performing 'Friends' featuring Shanghai's first REAL songstress, Li-Tong

I'm sure some of ya'll already heard of her, so I'll just cut to the chase. If you're lost, go check out Li-Tong's blog at alive not dead. She's makin' things happen. Trust me:

So I first met her at Soulfire hosting a show, saw her bust out a vocal on the show and was sold from that point on. Got her into the studio to work on a song with my group, Redstar. After all the lyrics were written and chorus was prepared (by yours truly and DJ Sickstar), we got all the info over to Li-Tong and made it happen. he recording was a success and so was our perfromance at the last Back to the Roots.

Many thanks to Li-Tong for working with on this. we'll be in touch. For all those that want to hear 'Friends' check it out on Redstar's myspace site at www.myspace.com/redstarhiphop. DON'T SLEEP! THIS IS CHINA!

CSBA - China Street Basketball Association

admin | 12 August, 2007 22:21

Trailer for 2006 CSBA.

Next to working the mic at yesterday's successful back To The Roots Program, I, along with Tangking from Redstar, mc'ed an event for the CSBA, also known as the China Street Basketball Association.

The CSBA does actually exist and it's growing strong. Lots of kids out here in China strap on thair sweatbands and hit the courts showing off their crossovers and fresh lay-up. You might even find an Allen Iverson look-a-like.

Anyway, yesterday's event was a game against New York's very own Mount Vernon Knights. They are all from NY and came to China excited and not really knowing to expect (well, playing basketball of course) Their flight was long, but they had fun playing agaist the Shanghai X-Battle team.

Here's the interesting I noticed between the two teams (besides the fact that The Knights won 98-50 something...): Organization. The Knights came out in all Nike jerseys and shorts with their numbers alrerady printed on, while the Shanghai Team got the cheapest outfits they could find and bought number stickers to put on their backs (which started to fall off during the game.)

Also, the NY teamcameout with plays, schemes and everything agaist the Shanghai team which the Shanghai team, even ith their skilled shooters, passers and dribblers, had little team unity in terms of plays... It's going to take more than an Allen Iverson hairdo to really make a mark in basketball. It takes attitude and brains.

I think the Shanghai teams can do it, but they gotta work at it and do it. Great video above though.

What's On Tonight: Back To The Roots

admin | 11 August, 2007 10:50

For some good and origional Chinese hip-hop. Stop by 4Live and check out Back To The Roots. It's run by The Lab and it's got your boys, Redstar. Come through!

Looking for escape within the big city? Take a boat ride in Zhongshan Park!

admin | 07 August, 2007 07:35

Grandpa with the gray hair is gettin' down, yo!

I spend all day in a studio. I could be at SOULFIRE or rapping over beats from Redstar. While being behind the mic is a freeing experience, it can also be a tiring one.

Yesterday, my wife and I found a new way to relax while enjoying the great outdoors and not have to fly a plane, drive a car or even take a train (or subway or bus for that matter) to get there. The weather was decent, and I was with my wife looking for something romantic, new and fun to do so we decided to take a boat around Zhongshan Park.

It's a cool ride, you can see plenty of old dudes playing the erhu and flying kites and old ladies dancing and doing taichi. Also some young folks hanging out (and making out) with their girlfriends/boyfriends.

The boat was 30 kuai (about $3.50) including a 20 kuai deposit. (If you don't bust open the boat,You'll have enough to get a meal!) The water isn't the cleanest, but you can relax on the boat and do a ton of people watching. (Like above.)

(Speaking of a beautiful place, I want to dedicate this post to a beautiful person who passed away this week... This one's for my Godmommy Kay. Godmommy, I know you are watching us from up top. You fought strong and now you can rest. We love you and we feel your spirit around us, always!!!)

Gyms in China

admin | 05 August, 2007 13:45

Rain is the official spokesperson for my gym in China

So what if he's from Korea, Rain knows how to run the Asian market and Asia's biggest market, China, is moving towards one goal: To be the best in athletics.

Rain's got the body for it, tons of Chinese Olympic athletes are working their butts off to go for the gold (and they already are in international competition), now it's time to get the people off the couch and in the gym.

Contrary to popular belief (in the west), most Chinese DON'T know Kung Fu and any kind of martical arts for that matter. You might see a lot of old folks doing the waltz on the street or doing a bit of Tai Chi, or some white collars coming home from badminton practice with their colleagues, but more and more people out here are hitting the gym.

My wife Zoe and I recently joined a gym my my house at Cloud 9 Mall (Which is like a whole city in one building! It's got everything!) and at the very top, you got Weider-Terra Fitness. Lot's of dudes pumping iron like it's nobody's business and ladies buring off that last little bit of fat to fit into that evening dress on the step machine.

Once again, contrary to popular belief (in the west), Chinese men very much have the capacity to be very built. I saw some dudes whose arms literraly looked like sewer pipes and were taller than your's truly (I'm 6'1/1.83 m). Damn.

All this fuss about working out, getting healthy, losing weight and gaining muscle makes me think of one thing, Beijing 2008. The Olympics is coming and there are tons of commericals on the boob tube related to the event. Next to that, there are plenty of tv shows, music videos, and magazine pictures of half-naked studs and chicks (like Rain in the picture above, or Taiwaneese superstar/"Dancing Princess", Jolin Tsai), thus the trend of more Chinese hitting the gym to get leaner, tighter, stronger and hotter. Welcome to a more fit China.

"The Shanghai Show" with Aric Queen

admin | 01 August, 2007 06:26

Learn About Shanghai!

Aric Queen (mentioned in previous posts in MoJo In China) has once again created a fresh and enlightening show about the coolest city in the world (after NYC, hehe) called "The Shanghai Show". Check it out and learn more about Shanghai. If you like this (and you better like it...), check out Part 2!

BTW, is somebody's birthday coming up?...

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