Sprig.com
Friday, June 6th, 2008Here’s a little piece I did for Sprig.com. Yay!
Archive for the 'Articles' Category
Dealing with It
Sunday, June 1st, 2008Dealing with It
MNCs learn to cope with the Labor Law
By Megan Shank
Shanghai
Last year, several multinational corporations, such as Microsoft and General Electric, fought a clause of the Labor Law that made it difficult to fire workers. The Labor Law, which went into effect January 1 this year, shifts power and rights from the employer [...]
Mr. Green Jeans
Monday, May 5th, 2008Behind 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 [...]
Fighting For Her Face
Monday, May 5th, 2008International 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 [...]
Earth-Friendly, Olympics-Approved
Monday, May 5th, 2008By 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 [...]
Monologue 1: Dollface
Friday, April 25th, 2008I’m writing and editing others’ writing for a play– a compilation of monologues on a theme. Here’s one I’ve written:
Dollface
by Megan Shank
Even now their faces haunt me: round and cotton, oval and porcelain, square and plastic, mean, cute, shrewd. Blue eyes, brown, stitched or stuck in, lashes, bare, lids and lidless. Button noses. Quiet [...]
CSR: Where Do We Go Now?
Friday, April 4th, 2008I’ve been working with a talented intern who writes Chinese copy that I edit and tweak in Chinese before translating and rewriting in English. Then she modifies the final Chinese product. Below, I include the English version of a sidebar that ran in April’s Enterprise section.
CSR: Where Do We Go Now?
By Sarah Chen
Only two [...]
You Called For Me, Sir?
Friday, April 4th, 2008Again, this story originally ran in Newsweek International, and then I supplemented a Chinese angle for a March 2008 run. You’ll notice how this is definitely for the Chinese reader now — I’m even explaining common English phrases. I also took the portrait to illustrate this story, which I’ll link to later.
You Called For [...]
Brand New Nations
Friday, April 4th, 2008One of the things we do quite often at Newsweek Select is take Newsweek International content and then “localize” it. That is we supplement the article with a local angle and local people. In recent months, as I’ve been working on a lot of planning aspects for the magazine, we’ve been concentrating our efforts on [...]
Bring the Noise, Bring the Ad
Thursday, March 6th, 2008This was an interview I did with CEO of Focus Media, Jiang Nanchun, for our first edition of Enterprise. Each month, I’ll conduct an interview with a Chinese business leader. I did this interview in Chinese and then translated it into English. Below, find both versions.
Q&A with Megan Shank
Bring the Noise, Bring the AD
According [...]
Demystifying the U.S. Election
Saturday, March 1st, 2008I worked with writer Amy Sennett on this piece. Believe me when I say that explaining how the presidential election works to Chinese readers in 1,200 words is a true challenge, but Amy did brilliantly. It was fun to work with her on this piece.
Demystifying the U.S. Election
By Amy J. Sennett
With the U.S. presidential primaries [...]
Chinese Netizens, Rest Easy
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008BLOG for Huffpo
The Chinese can rest easy tonight. I should know. I saw it on the news.
Tonight, I flipped on the evening broadcast of CCTV1. The station is part of the China Central Television (CCTV) family, which also runs channels such as CCTV2, CCTV3, CCTV4, CCTV5, and, well, you get the gist. Not exactly creatively [...]
Q&A: Interrogating Inspector Chen
Monday, January 14th, 2008Q & A: Interrogating Inspector Chen
Crime novelist (and poet) Qiu Xiaolong dishes on Chinese censors and soup dumplings
By Megan Shank
Date posted: January 13, 2008
IN “RED MANDARIN DRESS,” the fifth installment of his Inspector Chen mystery series, Shanghai-born émigré Qiu Xiaolong intersperses the narrative of gritty murders with glorious descriptions of Chinese food and captivating asides [...]
A Carbon-friendly Stay
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008For Newsweek Select’s January 2008 edition; this copy was only printed in Chinese, but I post the English version.
A Carbon-friendly Stay
China is now the fastest growing emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide, but one new hotel in Shanghai wants to change that—with style. URBN Hotels Shanghai, the first carbon-neutral boutique hotel in China, is sure [...]
Sending out an SNS
Friday, January 4th, 2008FOR NEWSWEEK SELECT JAN. 2008
Sending out an SNS
Chinese and international social-networking services want to “friend” you.
By Megan Shank (Shanghai)
No other culture in the world emphasizes building guanxi (connections) as China’s does. Recently, the foreign powerhouse social networking sites (SNS) Facebook and Friendster have engendered themselves as part of that experience here. [...]
Tough to Swallow
Saturday, December 29th, 2007I edited this piece by Lauren Hilgers. It ran in our December edition.
Business
Tough to Swallow
Tightening regulations are changing the face of China’s pharmaceutical industry.
By Lauren Hilgers (Shanghai)
At the junction of three major rail lines outside of Beijing at Shijiazhuang, China’s pharmaceutical row, warehouses are pumping out antibiotics and pain medication. Assembly-line workers bottle endless [...]
How about a Facebook Race?
Sunday, December 23rd, 2007For The Huffington Post:
How about a Facebook Race?
By Megan Shank
Growing up a Nebraskan, I was taught to deeply distrust Iowans—particularly while driving. I have learned that although they are poky behind the wheel, Iowans have expertly navigated the American electoral system to their advantage, drumming up much hubbub and hard cash for the state with [...]
Last Word with Tian Haojiang
Friday, November 9th, 2007I INTERVIEWED TIAN HAOJIANG IN CHINESE FOR OUR NOV. 2007 LAST WORD. THEN I TRANSLATED THE CONTENT INTO ENGLISH.
LAST WORD
TIAN HAOJIANG
During the Cultural Revolution, 15-year-old Tian Haojiang furtively rooted through an underground Beijing bookshop and discovered his first book of poems – a collection authored by Li Bai. Covertly, he set about memorizing lines that [...]
Quit Drinking; Try Herb
Friday, November 9th, 2007I WROTE THIS FOR OUR NOV. 2007 EDITION.
HEALTH
Quit Drinking; Try Herb
By Megan Shank (Shanghai)
To date, the West has predominantly treated alcoholism with pharmaceuticals – many with nasty side effects – and complete abstinence from alcohol. Yet many alcoholics hesitate to seek treatment because they don’t want to completely stop drinking and are [...]
Fast Chat with Ken Carroll
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007WE RAN THIS FAST CHAT IN THE SEPTEMBER 2007 EDITION.
Fast Chat
Ken Carroll, co-founder of ChinesePod
At the eye of a perfect storm of torrential iPod sales and raging interest in Chinese study stands Ken Carroll, co-founder of the online Chinese language training service ChinesePod. After founding several traditional English language training schools in Shanghai, Carroll [...]