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Blog Downtime – Transfer of Web Hosting

Hi all,

Please note that there will be some blog downtime in the coming 24-48 hours while we transfer web hosting for this blog. Our hope and reason for this transfer is to bring our readers a better experience!

-Duncan (pseudo webmaster)

How to find a girlfriend in China

All the single ladies, all the single ladies!  Well, and single guys too.  Yesterday, bachelors and bachelorettes in Hangzhou flocked to a grand blind date party, scouring personal ads hung clothes-line-style to find that special someone.  The event, which was televised nationwide, is one of many blind date parties becoming popular in China.

Check out the full gallery here!

Suzie

Happy Diwali from President Obama!

Happy Diwali, everyone!  Emily, Amy and I grew up in Singapore, where Diwali (we call it Deepavali, the Tamil pronunciation of the word) is a public holiday so I was pretty stoked to find that President Obama gave a special Diwali message today.  Check it out!

Suzie

Bittersweet North and South Korean reunions

The last time Lee Hye-gyong saw her mom was when she was 16, almost six decades ago.  Now 75, she was given the chance to reunite with her family after the 1950-53 Korean war.  Her mom is 100.

Last month, 200 families from North and South Korea, 100 from each side, were randomly selected for a rare opportunity to reunite with long-lost loved ones.  But the briefness of it all made the meetings exceptionally emotional.

“We had five reunion sessions in total, spending two hours with my sister each time, in addition to a one-hour farewell meeting,” younger sister, 62-year-old Lee Kyong-hee, said in her reunification story.  “The moment Hye-gyong entered the reunion hall, I recognized her immediately even though she looks very different from what I remember about her appearance.”

While some critics say these reunification programs are cruel because the meetings are so short and communication after the reunion is still banned, others insist that it’s a step towards reconciliation between the two countries.

Click here to watch a video of the reunions. Be warned, you need tissues for this.

Suzie

Japanese bodybuilders flex their muscles

Asian guys can be built too, you know! Just check out these male bodybuilders posing at the Japan Bodybuilding Championships in Tokyo last Monday. I think some of them need to work on their spray-on tans. Hot or not?

Emily

UPDATE:

I just found a picture of their girlfriends on China Daily.

Link

Singaporean cabbie with a Stanford PhD

You can find still find yourself behind the driving wheel of a cab even after forking out loads of cash, and devoting a backbreaking amount of effort and time to obtain a PhD from Stanford. This happened to 57-year-old China-born Dr. Cai Mingjie, who resorted to driving cabs as a way to make ends meet after he was retrenched from his job researching cell genetics at a research institute in Singapore. After facing multiple rejections, he saw the taxi industry filled with job vacancies.

He also started blogging about his experiences. His latest post talks about getting an “indecent proposal” from a bar girl.

Fobber Amy and I are chasing our graduate degrees right now, so here’s to hoping that years from now, we’ll be on the career paths we wish to be on. If we ever do find ourselves in dire straits, the lesson to learn from Cai is to suck up your pride, and take on whatever job you can find.

Emily

Link

Meet Singapore’s Rick Warren: Pastor Joseph Prince

Formerly an IT consultant, Pastor Joseph Prince (originally named Xenonamandar Jegahusiee Singh) made a complete career change and founded the New Creation Church in Singapore. Today, the church has around 19,000 members, but his ministry doesn’t end in Singapore.  His sermons are now broadcasted weekly to millions of households across America, Canada, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.   In fact, I was flipping through some late-night television on my couch in Seattle, when I came across a broadcast of his sermon. Of course, the distinct Singaporean accent was what initially caught my attention.

Known for his personal and humorous style of preaching, his popularity has soared in the past few years. His recent book, Destined to Reign: The Secret to Effortless Success, Wholeness and Victorious Living was listed on Christian Retailing Top 100 Books. Making a generous SGD$500,000 (approximately US$360,000) a year, Pastor Joseph Prince just proves that making preaching a professional career may not be such a bad idea.

Check out one of his sermons here!

Amy

Chinese senior citizens break it down in hip hop dance-off

Apparently hip hop is getting popular among the 50+ folks in China…

Funny, I just had a convo with my coworker about how her 95-year old grandpa sends her emails, and how my 85-year old grandma swims for two hours every morning.  Seriously, these senior citizens are making us young’uns look bad!

Suzie

(Thanks Lydia for the link!)

The real Couples Retreat: Malaysia’s beach mends rocky marriages

I wonder if this is where they got the idea for the newly-released movie, Couples Retreat.  In hopes of slowing the state’s soaring divorce rates, Terengganu, in north-east Malaysia, is offering troubled couples a three-day “second honeymoon” free of charge at one of its gorgeous beaches.  The offer is worth about US$440, and interested couples must apply, interview and agree to marital counseling.  So far, the Muslim-majority state has already done a pilot program with 25 couples, attempting to mend relationships on the brink of divorce.

“I want to strengthen family ties. If a marriage breaks down, it will hurt the children and it will have serious implications on society,” Ashaari Idris, a government official in Terengganu, said.

Growing up in Singapore–just an hour away from Malaysia–I can personally attest to the soothing power of Malaysia’s amazing beaches.  But I wonder if it’s really possible to fix a rocky marriage in just three days??

Suzie

Link