http://www.meganshank.com Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:28:53 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I provide foreign-friendly recommendations for National Geographic Traveler. There is one error. I told the compiler in an e-mail September 2007 to erase the Yuyintang quote since they had moved location and things were looking tenuous, but apparently she kept it and the fact checker never mentioned it to me. ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/best-of-shanghai-places-of-a-lifetime/ I'm off to San Francisco to visit an old friend whom I haven't seen in six years before flying to Maui to spend a week with my four brothers and parents on the beach in celebration of my mother and father's 35th wedding anniversary. It will be the first family ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/off-i-go/ Two years ago, I gave up smoking cigarettes for good after an extended period of allowing myself to have one every now and again. One year ago today, I gave up drinking alcohol. This year, I'm going to give up worry. While it's the least pleasurable to indulge in, I ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/this-year/ Here's a little piece I did for Sprig.com. Yay! http://www.meganshank.com/articles/sprigcom/ Dealing 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/articles/dealing-with-it/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/finding-nirvanna/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/shout-out-to-sznajder/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/the-victims-vs-the-victimized/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/230-commemoration/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/amazing-and-courageous-words/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/it-wasnt-my-stomach/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/who-is-you/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/quisiera-un-cafe-con-leche/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/articles/mr-green-jeans/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/articles/fighting-for-her-face/ 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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/articles/show-me-the-green/ I'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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/articles/monologue-1-dollface/ Ok, ok. So in the advertisement for this t-shirt, I think they meant “a part” rather than “apart,” as it appears in the video from which the meme came. English is a complicated language, and these are complicated issues with vastly different opinions and interpretations that arise from looking at ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/%e2%80%9ctibet-was-is-and-always-will-be-%e2%80%98apart%e2%80%99-of-china%e2%80%9d/ Instead of trying to put out the Olympic torch, which admittedly possesses the thrill of self-righteousness but means absolutely nothing in the final analysis, buy less made-in-China crap, which is a less comfortable solution but has a stronger impact. Or call up a corporate sponsor of the Olympics -- say ... http://www.meganshank.com/blog/heres-an-idea-for-protesting-the-t-b-t-situation/ I'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 ... http://www.meganshank.com/articles/csr-where-do-we-go-now/