Beijing Calling

Many times, husbands are criticized by their wives for not being helpful with chores or raising children in the household. That has given rise to the phrase: yún pèi ǒu in Chinese pinyin, aka spouse in the clouds. The term is derived from that of cloud computing, meaning spouses are virtualized in a remote interactive mode, they are usually stored in the cloud - they cannot be synchronized, seen, or relied on in an emergency. They must be manually downloaded to the local in advance when needed. This time Shirley is glad she is not falling into the "spouse in the clouds" trap.

Li Yuan presents to you the latest cool sound from Chinese musicians. This week's show features Yuhan Su, a talented young jazz vibraphone player, introducing her new album City Animals, and her understanding of jazz music. Take a listen!

As non-native English speakers, we've got our own impression of what British and American people are like. Sure, they all speak English, but they have such different ways of talking, and they have their own unique national characters. But let's not be too serious about it, because sometimes we might get the wrong impression!

An imperial palace drama is a popular historical period television genre in China. The Game of Thrones-like series, The Story of Yanxi Palace, has taken the audiences by storm this year. What made it so successful? In addition to scheming and backstabbing concubines, dramatic plotlines, detailed set designs, the character development of the heroin Wei Yingluo seems encouraging to young women nowadays when independence and self-empowerment are greatly valued.

One, one, one, one.

What is that?

It's November 11th! The Single Dogs' Day in China!

Yep! You heard that right.

And how do Chinese people celebrate this day?

With a carnival of course!

China is not really a nation of carnivals. Floats and marching bands are not really our thing, but we sure can shop, especially online!

The Double 11 Carnival is waving right at you.

Find out all about it on this episode.

Watching clips on Chinese video-streaming sites can be confusing — words in different colors suddenly appear out of nowhere and fly across the screen. This is called "dan'mu" - "Bullet screen" in English. This function is wildly popular among young netizens. It allows real-time comments from viewers to fly across the screen like bullets. The dan'mu messages include jokes and snarky remarks, but also informative explanations. It all serves to help netizens socialize online.

After years of lurking underground, hip-hop fashion and streetwear culture have finally made their way into the mainstream market. Wei Xiang, our guest in this episode, says he's lucky to witness the change. He talks about his love for hip-hop music since high school, and how he learns to produce songs with his American friends.

Li Yuan presents the latest cool sounds from Chinese musicians. This week's show features electronic prodigy Howie Lee and jazz nova Xi Chenchen. Take a listen!

Clearly, Shirley is confused and embarassed by the mysterious acronyms that are popular among young Chinese netizens. Check out this episode and see if you are in or out.

The Chinese idiom "Yuan Jiao Jin Gong" which means "collaborating with distant allies and attacking nearby enemies", taken from “Thirty-Six Stratagems”, has taken up a new meaning, describing the degree of tension between parents and their school age children when it comes to homework supervision. Is it an exaggeration to say one is dying from helping his or her child with homework? It turns out these Chinese parents aren't joking! To help or not to help? Listen and tell us what you think!