Thank you for keeping following this blog!
It was really an amazing experience of blogging on WordPress.com, where I have learned so much and made many friends beyond China.
I would go on writing on blogger.com and this is my new blog:
http://the-loser-ross.blogspot.com/
You are so welcome to comment on this blog. And if you want to know something about China, feel free to ask.
From right: Ai weiwei, Luo Yong-hao, Zuoxiao Zuzhou
Today, I came across this interesting photo online. From their looks and appearance, it is really difficult for people to believe that they are nice men or famous people. However, we can’t judge them by appearance. They are three idols of Chinese netizens.
Ai Weiwei (the first one from the right)
Ai Weiwei is an internationally famous artist and Chinese political critic and activist, who has strong influence among Chinese. He often urged Chinese government to release true statistics of some public events. Due to his international publicity and his influence, he is the last person Chinese government is willing to deal with.
Luo Yong-hao (the middle one)
Luo Yong-hao is an English teacher and now he is operating his own school and a site. His struggling experience is encouraging. He became popular among Chinese college students mainly due to his hilarious talk-shows during class, which were recorded by students and then spread widely on internet.
Chinese netizens would call him Lao Luo rather than his full name. He is really a person with strong sense of humor that his each class and lecture is filled with peals of laughter.
Recently, he hammered the refrigerators produced by Siemens because its refusal to admit the quality problems.
Zuoxiao Zuzou (the left one)
Zuoxiao Zuzou is a musician and temporary artist. His musical works are closely related with Chinese society issues.
All those three Chinese public figures share one feature: they don’t pretend to be men with high morals. They just display what they really are in front of people.
Long time no see and long time no update my blog!
Hi, I am John Cho (It takes me a long time to name me in English). From now on, just call me John. 😀
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Summary of Me in 2011
Christmas and 2012 are coming and I think that it is necessary to do a summary of this blog and me in 2011.
In the end of March, 2011, I got my current job and then I opened this English blog (really like to try all the different themes of wordpress). I am really a lazy guy and only have posted no more than 100 posts in 8 months. However, it is really a nice experience to blog on wordpress.com. I have learned so much from other bloggers and I have made many great foreign friends here in the community of wordpress.com.
Here, I want to extend my special thanks to Lorna, who pays much attention on my blog, and Renxren, who has helped me to correct my English.
One of objects of opening this blog is to practice my English. During the process of updating this blog, I find it difficult to determine what to write. At last, I decided to report what happened in China, which is a little frustrating when I find out that Washington Post and New York Times report China far better than me. However, I would insist on updating this blog.
The following is the last report of China from John Cho in 2011:
#1. Chinese netizens celebrate the death of Kim Jong-II
You may read from Chinese official media that N Korea and its leader Kim Jong-II is Chinese people’s great friend. Okay, it is just the statement of Chinese government. We don’t think so (at least me). We all know Kim Jong-II is a dictator, who makes N Korean people support him while they are suffering from starving.
2011 is really an important year for the development of democracy. From African countries to Arab world, to Russia, to some Asian countries, the wind of democracy spreads so fast and common people start to demand what they really want from the rulers. All the protesters, including people who took part in the Occupy Wall Street in America are all heroes of this year.
#2. Big surprise for the email spammers at the end of year
Recently, more than 10 millions of Chinese internet users’ registration information, including email addresses and passwords, have been published online. One main reason for this accident is that all these information are kept in an unencrypted way.
Many people joked that this is really a big Christmas gift for the email spammers. However, millions of Chinese netizens are busying changing their accounts password now, including me.
——————————————————————————————————————————–
The coming Christmas
In fact, many Chinese people don’t know what Christmas celebrate for. However, promoted by supermarkets and ads, more and more Chinese now start to celebrate Christmas.
In order to decorate for the Christmas, workers in a commercial center hang Santa head on the roof. What would you react in the night if you suddenly look at this? Yes, it is really scaring. Fortunately, it is the head of Santa. On behalf of Chinese, I say sorry to Santa Claus.
Due to the time zone difference, we in China would celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas earlier than you in America.
Here, wish all of us, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
#1. Monk released soul from suffering for the dead
On Nov, 25th, an old man was found dead at Taiyuan Railway Station in Shanxi Province. After being declared dead by doctors, a monk held the old man’s hand and tried to release his soul from suffering by chanting sutras. The monk was tagged “the good” by Chinese netizens.
#2. Humankind cannot resist temptation of free things
In primitive society, we humankind acquired resources from nature for free and I venture to guess that humankind then didn’t have the concepts of price and being free. Only when people began to exchange goods, we started to know the words price and free.
In the society dominated by consumption and enjoyment, we humankind never stop proving that we could not resist temptation of cheap goods not to mention free things, just to look what happened on each Black Friday.
Busy picking good radish
Free radishes are heavy too
I should drive a truck to harvest the free radish
Sweet potatoes are not free but WHO CARES
It is the same in China. Now, some Chinese farmers’ products such as potatoes and radishes are facing the poor market. In Henan Province, a farmer planted 13 acres of radish but the price is only about 0.017 US dollars per kilograms. Therefore, the farmer decided to present his radishes to the urban residents for free. After reported by the newspaper, more than 30,000 people came and harvested the free radishes. However, some people stole the farmer’s 10,000 kilograms sweet potatoes when picking the free radish, which led to tens of thousands of RMB loss.
I began my blogging on WordPress.com from March this year. Besides writing for this blog, visiting Freshly Pressed page becomes a routine for me. It is really an exciting thing each day to find what are new on Freshly Pressed, just like opening gift boxes on my birthday. Unlikely birthday, each day I can enjoy surprise from Freshly Pressed.
It is surely a difficult job to choose the posts worth being on Freshly Pressed from millions of blogs. However, one thing is certain that all these posts are the best of the best.
What can you get from the Freshly Pressed? In fact, we all don’t know what we are going to get.
#1. Amazing pictures
You may always be dreaming of traveling on the wild grassland of Africa but your time is not permitted. Maybe you are a photography enthusiast and want to know how to capture a splendid moment. FP can partly satisfy your hope. Millions of bloggers share millions of their photos taken while travelling and it is really enjoyable to viewing these pictures. Moreover, you may come across some amazing pictures just taken randomly. Till now, I still remember one photo on FP that really impressed me by its beauty:
Credit: naokomc.com
Some other pictures can give me more than just enjoyment. Just like the pictures on Stalking the Summit of Mt. Rainier, which show their ambitious to conquer the summit. I really could feel them just to see their photos.
#2. All kinds of lists
You may just ever have made shopping lists. However, making lists can really be a professional and creative work. I never imagined that we all could make lists of all kinds in some special perspective.
On FP page, I have read dozens of lists about books, movies, life and so on, which are all inspiring and some of them just make you LOL to read. Here just to name a few:
Top Ten Books That Were Out of My Comfort Zone
Top 10 Movies I am Embarrassed I Haven’t Seen
25 Films That Could Blow You Away in the Second Half of 2011
Top Twenty Horror Movies of All Time
#3. Life and experience
We have to admit that some people are really good at describing and recording what they feel and what they have learned from the common life and their words just flow onto the paper naturally.
We may sometimes be lost in the busy life and have missed some experience that worth remembering. Thanks to FP, we can find back some life experience that we overlooked.
When we go to travel or go to a new place, we all need to pack. However, do you have kind of special feeling when packing? Maybe there is but we just missed it. The feeling is exactly the sweet sorrow. I realized that the moment I read the title of one post: Packing is Such Sweet Sorrow. That post really got me to feel that special feeling of sweet sorrow when I was packing. It is really an exciting thing just to realize your feelings hidden deeply at the bottom of your hearts.
#4. Recipes
Credit: thegarumfactory.net
I don’t like cooking, not to mention good at it. However, we all love delicious foods. As for me, after reading some recipes on FP, I started to like to see how the delicious foods were made.
To see the flour, eggs, water and other materials that I can’t name becoming foods is a really enjoyable process. In addition, if you love cooking, you would find some amazing recipes such as Sheet Pan Apple Tart, Savory Pumpkin Tart and Skinny Onion Rings.
#5. Humors and wits
Some bloggers are really people with talents or sense of humor. You would just LOL to read their posts or could learn something. Just like Lorna’s post: To be Honest with You. She really wrote something that we ignored in life. In addition, it would be a pleasant and funny experience to read this post thanks to her humorous writing style.
Besides professional experts, every blogger can be an expert on some fields especially such as life and emotional issues. For example, each traveler can be an expert due to their personal experience. Travelling experts (I am not sure if there are travelling experts) may not know matters need attention when travelling with kids, but on FP, we can get it: Travel (with Kids) Advisory. Some other life tips and suggestions by non-experts bloggers are numerous on Freshly Pressed. You just believe that visiting Freshly Pressed, having benefits.
#6. It is really hard to list all what you can get from FP…
As an English learner and lover, I have been keeping visiting FP only for a few months but I have got too much from it. Not only benefiting my English learning, FP extends the horizon of my knowledge and foreign culture understanding.
ross jo's blog 