Megan Shank is an editor, writer and translator living in Shanghai, China.
Since June last year, I’ve been working to cultivate inner peace, as it increasingly seems to be the only thing worth having. To this end, I do several things, including regular morning and evening meditation, meetings with likeminded people to discuss the idea of relinquishing the ego and grasping a more spiritual (NOT religious!) way [...]
When Adam, my fiancé, and I first met, I also had the pleasure of getting to know his best friend Ari Sznajder, who is simply one of the most talented people I know and who is writing an excellent blog about his MBA without Borders stint in Nigeria. Check it out.
A Chinese friend who has become increasingly less friendly in recent months again sent me silly nationalist propaganda the other day. After reading a story by Mary Hennock and Melinda Liu, which very lightly mentions that the Sichuan earthquake might eventually shake things up politically as well, the individual became incensed and scrolled the Newsweek [...]
Today at approximately 2:30pm, a swell of horns surged outside of my 19th floor office window. We are located at Yandang Road and Nanchang Road, at the northeastern entrance of Fuxing Park, and have a clear view of major roads such as Huaihai Middle Road, as well as the Chongqing Expressway. Outside, cars on the [...]
Watching CCTV Xinwen (news channel) tonight, I witnessed something that touched me to the core.
A trapped woman waiting for rescue workers to dig her out told cameras poking down into her hole (in Chinese):
“I knew you would come to save me. When I heard voices nearby, I would call for help. When I [...]
Around 2:30 yesterday, in my 19th floor Shanghai office, a wave of nausea overtook me. I felt dizzy and my stomach looped. Later I found out it was the Sichuan 7.8 earthquake. Growing up in Nebraska, I became accustomed to hiding in the basement several times each spring when tornados struck, but this was something [...]
The poem pasted below has been circulating around in e-mail forwards for weeks, and I’ve just one question. Who are YOU? Are YOU the British opium pushers of the mid-1880s or are YOU reps from today’s Human Rights Watch or Greenpeace or Reporters Without Borders? Or are YOU Joseph McCarthy railing against Red China?
The [...]
Recently I’ve begun studying Spanish. This has been a long-standing desire, and my goal is to eventually achieve decent proficiency. A few nights ago, I made a late-night iTunes buy that has proved alternately amusing and effective.
First, let me explain: I’m a musical person and find that using music has always been an effective [...]
Behind Tom Cook’s placid Midwest American countenance beats a heart that quickens for silicone innovation. As Greater China President of Dow Corning, the U.S.-based silicone company that’s been in China for 35 years, Cook has overseen projects such as producing rust-proofing material for support pillars on the Hangzhou Bay Bridge—the world’s longest trans-oceanic bridge. He [...]
International cosmetics companies cream the market.
by Megan Shank (Shanghai)
On a recent sunny day, 26-year-old Anne Li and 27-year-old Amy Lei browse Shanghai’s Huaihai Middle Road Sephora store during their lunch break. The two epitomize the Chinese cosmetic market’s coveted consumer—both are highly educated only children born into China’s affluent modern era, products of homes where [...]
By Megan Shank (Shanghai)
No one wants rain at the games this summer, but should it pour, GE has provided Beijing’s National Stadium with China’s first rainwater recycling system to process the downfall for landscaping, fire-fighting and cleaning—that’s saving water that otherwise would have come from traditional sources. The company is also supplying filtration technology for [...]