China Smack

One of my favorite sites is China Smack, there I can read in English the stories circulating around the Chinese language internet. I can relate to many of the posts that deal with eveyday life here and the tensions of a social formation rapidly undergoing urbanization, digitization, and global intergration within the stratjacket of global neoliberalism. Thses changes are solving some challenges but create new ones in the process. There are a whole heaping mass of sharp contradictions, but the portrayal of China that I see on Western sites and news portals rarely if ever captures the reality that I see and experience as an ex pat. I really enjoy the personal freedom here in China, things like no carding at bars, the street food, and such. With those personal freedoms comes the caveat that individuals have to take resposability-street food might not meet USDA standards for food purity, and getting wasted in a bar might land you in jail for driving while intoxicated. There is no nanny state here, as far as I can tell from diving behavior and jaywalking....lol,,,China smack however does capture the feel.....