I read that Zoe Churchman, a 19 year old English girl was refused a job at personal care retailer Body Shop, because she didn’t speak Chinese. Apparently, most of their customers are Chinese, hence the requirement.

I feel bad for young Zoe, but would recommend she apply for a job at Cambridge’s finest Chinese restaurant, Charlie Chan (14 Regent Street). You certainly don’t need to speak Chinese to work there, just say you’re a friend of WoAi!

So, has the world gone crazy or is this a fair requirement? I don’t think it’s so crazy. There are many restaurants that cater to westerners in Shanghai that insist on staff who can speak at least some English and that’s the way it should be. Of course, there are about 1,000 Daily Mail readers who don’t agree with me!

How time flies … Many people, especially in HK, make a big thing about this every year. And of course, it was a big thing. But it was also 24 years ago, almost a quarter of a century. We criticise the Chinese for kicking up a fuss about Japanese atrocities all those years ago, so perhaps we should not be hypercritical. China has a long way to go, but it has come a long way since 1989. And it’s a different group of leaders.

Spot the rat meat!

I’m back in Singapore once again after a break of 2 years and I have to say, even more than usual, it’s great to escape from Shanghai. Two years ago, there was no bird flu worry about and pollution was far less of a problem than it has been recently. And I wasn’t worried that the mutton I was eating might actually be rat meat. So on top of all the usual reasons, it’s just a joy to be in a country where I don’t need to eat my eggs “well done” and I know there’s a good chance that if it says mutton on the menu, then it’ll be mutton on the plate.

China, you’re started to piss me off.

Lu Mingzi, one of three killed In Boston by the bombing

I haven’t mentioned the tragic events in Boston last week, but the links with China are stronger than you might think. One of the 3 killed from the bombs was a Chinese student, Lu Mingzi, from the north eastern city of Shenyang, part of the massively expanding numbers of Chinese students studying overseas in the hope of getting an edge over their domestically educated peers.

What I only discovered recently though was that the Mercedes SUV that was hijacked by the two bombing suspects belonged also to a Chinese national. Here’s what I thought was a very interesting read on what happened when he was briefly kidnapped by the two brothers.

I don’t want to die,” he thought. “I have a lot of dreams that haven’t come true yet.

I wonder if it’s because he’s from China (where car-jacking is yet to catch on) that he foolishly wound down his window when the elder of the two brothers approached his car. I’m from London and I’d never do that at 11 at night. Lesson learned I guess.

Like most people, I’ve been following the story closely as it unfolds. I still don’t understand how the police managed to fire several hundred shots in to the boat where Dzhkokhar Tsarnaev had been hiding without killing him. It’s also not clear why they shot at the boat while the 19 year old didn’t have a gun. I wonder if these and many other questions will ever be answered.

You don’t need to be a genius to work out that not wearing a seat belt is a much bigger issue which removing screens won’t address. For a start, people sitting in the back of the taxi on the driver’s side will likely suffer equally if not more serious injury in the event of an accident as they are smashed in to the plastic security partition. But funnily enough, these aren’t going to be banned any time soon.

Most people still don’t get it. I still sometimes get told off by drivers for putting on seat belts. They often say “there’s not need” or more recently “it’s very dirty, you better not use it”.

I’m not a fan of the TV screens but I do feel sorry for companies that promote them who now face a big drop in their revenues.

Don’t be an idiot. Buckle up guys.

Horrific footage of a hit and run in Fuxin, Liaoning province in northern China. Yes, the car involved is a police car which doesn’t even stop while the civilian car that captures the incident on a dash mounted camera slows down before carrying on its way. It doesn’t occur to him to check if the pedestrian is alive or to call an ambulance.

Sadly, this is the way things are in China. People often crowd round to look at some incident or other, but they’ll rarely intervene or help. I do hope this culture changes. A few minutes could make the difference between life and death.

Seen on Beijing Cream via Shanghaiist.

I sometimes write about some of the odd and weird behaviour I’ve observed here in China, but let’s not forget that China doesn’t have the monopoly on idiotic behaviour. I was somewhat shocked to read about the death of Britain’s first female prime minister yesterday, but even more shocked to read about the celebrations taking place around the country. Yes, celebrations.

I’m not going to get in to politics here, my point is fairly simple – regardless of your political beliefs, the woman has just died and celebrating is pretty sick. She’s been out of office for over two decades already. Celebrate the end of her political career if it makes you happy. Celebrate her party losing the election to Labour in 1997. But celebrating her death, well, there’s just no reason for it other than you’re a brainless moron with far too much time on your hands.

What’s this got to do with China? Well, back in 1984, she of course negotiated the return of HK back to the Chinese after the lease for the new territories ran out in 1997. If she hadn’t, HK could still be British, so thanks for that!

RIP, Baroness Thatcher.

The theory is that the pigs were being kept in inhumane circumstances and decided to escape by swimming across the river. Okay, perhaps not. The most likely theory is that they were sick or infected and dumped in the river in a neighboring province. There are two health concerns – firstly, the river is the source of drinking water for many Shanghai residents, although authorities have insisted the quality of the water has not been compromised by the pigs.

The second concern is that unscrupulous opportunists will fish out the dead pigs and then sell them to restaurants. I think this worries me more than the drinking water issue (I never drink water from the taps anyway).

More on the story in the Shanghai Daily.

Real Estate Trading Centre in Shanghai – Sell, Sell, Sell!

I imagine everyone has had quite enough of sunny beach posts, so it’s time to get back to what I do best – report on the weird and wonderful world that is life in China!

The government is forever playing a cat and mouse game to try and control the property market in China. Prices have been spiraling upwards as wealthy Chinese buy up property as a way of storing their wealth. It is not uncommon for people to have 20 or so properties. Shanghainese landlords love to boast about how many properties they own as I found out when I was looking for a place to rent.

Similar scenes at the Nanjing Municipal Real Estate Trading Centre

And it’s these multi-property owners that the government wants to penalise with its measures like the newly introduced sales tax on second properties. Basically, profit on sales of second properties will soon be liable for a 20% tax. This has had an interesting impact on the market as people scramble to dump their properties before the tax takes effect. But a surprising side effect is the rise in divorces. Why? Because couples with say, two properties are getting divorced, so that they can put one property in each of their names, to avoid the sales tax. They can then sell one property as a sole property, before getting remarried. Genius!

This phenomenon happened a few years earlier too, when the government introduced a rule that meant you needed to pay a higher down payment on additional property purchases. So while you might pay a 30% deposit for a first property, 50% would be required on a second property and 100% on a third property purchase. So some couples were getting divorced so that they could buy a second property but only pay 30% down payment instead of having to pay a 50% deposit on a joint second property.

Who says romance is dead!

My favourite cell phone provider back in England had a catchy slogan: the future’s bright, the future’s Orange. They obviously have never been to Beijing!

The pollution situation is starting to not be funny. Beijing seems to have the occasional clear day but otherwise it’s invariably off the air quality scale. Shanghai isn’t great either, but at least whatever terrible health catastrophe we face, our friends in Beijing will encounter it long before we do. I’m seriously considering giving up breathing.

WoAi’s hot investment tip – invest everything you have in face mask companies!