An interview with Shanghai artist Banana

Together with art collective RunShi (润识), GoEast is exhibiting Banana Wang (王香蕉)’s colorful bulldog paintings. Here we sit down with Banana to ask her about her work. Jaap: Do you think art should have a higher meaning or purpose? 你认为你更高的艺术理想是什么? Banana: Hmmm. I want to put myself in the history books. As for the message, […]

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Description + telephone number

Description + telephone. In our increasingly complex society, I really like this type of simple advertising. Three numbers for a 船中介 (Shipping company) in Kunshan — all sorts of things in Beijing — and 有事买 & 打深井 & 卖空调 (Stuff to buy & dig deep & sell air conditioners) in Nantong.

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In Kunshan: I’ve seen the future of China

Kunshan is where the high-speed way train stops to unload passengers, where people refuel their car, or where an English teacher first starts working in China before realizing there’s nothing to do there and moves to a better place. Kunshan’s biggest benefit is often described as; “well, it’s close to Shanghai”, or; “yeah, there is […]

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Spitting on the ground

Most talk about cultural differences is pretty superficial. So in the Netherlands, it’s rude to keep your coat on while visiting people’s home, while Chinese people don’t like to shake hands as much as Dutch people do — let alone how French or Italian people touch cheeks. You should not wear a green hat in […]

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Three language poem

I was watching Scott & Ella from Fragrant Mandarin in this video where Ella speaks Mandarin and Scott simply replies in English. It felt so natural. I looked for multi-language poems but could find nothing. Then I used the article ‘Heem‘ because it’s short, simple sentences and the meaning fits this nicely. I tweaked it […]

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