Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

SQUIINT - The World Through Asian Eyes

Looking at thing inside out!

Following in the footsteps of Cupid, St. Nick and the Easter Bunny

As we draw close to the next Hallmark holiday on the 14th February, a holiday to keep flower growers in business, I am heartened by the fact that for many years, firecracker manufacturers and factories churning out plastic moulded red lanterns have also been kept in business from the single largest holiday for the Chinese. That being the Spring Festival (春节）or Chinese New Year.

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I am however eager to see the creativity of Chinese Marketing Mavens make something more commercial out of this festival. Forget about the keeping the traditions or mythology of beginning of the Lunar calendar. We already know that to really allow business to profit from tradition, the public will gobble up anything. For instance we have seen Christmas move from being a celebration of the birth of the main protagonist of the New Testament to a celebration of the Coca-Cola red clad fat reverse-cat-burgler, candy canes and the culling of hundreds of acres of pine plantation. We have seen the resurrection of that same protagonist turn into an egg hunt led by a rabbit and living hell for diabetics and colour-blind chickens alike. From this example, there is not even a need to use the traditional "Lion" from the "dance" as the personification of this festival. In fact we could use some of the following;

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Any one of the mute characters from Walt's demented imagination.

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Perhaps an Asian Santa?

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But my favourite potential spokes character for the Spring Festival would have to be the Yao Ming Suicide Bomber.

The world through squiint coloured glasses.

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Greetings Earthlings. Welcome to my new blog. Hopefully some of you will actually read it. If you haven't come across my writings before, I have been an ad hoc blogger for about three years now, randomly writing about whatever tickles my fancy and generally hollering into the wind with the hope that my voice carries to someone who cares. What I have found over the years as a naturalised Australian in China is that the longer I stay in Shanghai, the more I have become sympathetic towards the Asian opinion towards international affairs. I don't mean the US vs. China rivalry or China's stance with North Korea but about things like the attraction of wearing ankle stockings with open toed shoes, the beauty of duck and chicken organs vacuum wrapped and sold in convenience stores as snacks or the growth of Chinglish as a dominant language.

So rather than put my ramblings in a blog which you can still read at dedlog.blogspot.com, this is my attempt to theme my writings to look at the world from Asian eyes and to give my slant (pun intended) on what's going on around the world. Hope you enjoy my rants.