· July, 2006

Stories about Arts & Culture from July, 2006

Nigeria: Missing Lagos

  31 July 2006

“Lagos,” writes Jangbalajugbu, “is a city that habours the hardworking as well as the lazy. The sane and insane. It is a city with different kinds of people from the rich, educated, wealthy, brilliant & intelligent to the dejected, the accursed, the incorrigible, the hopeless, the dead but breathing-walking corpses,...

Old dating practice

  31 July 2006

Cigay of Bhutan Weblog writes about an age old tradition of Bhutan. Young men used to visit a girl's house discreetly at night, to let her know of his feelings and his intention to marry her and have children with her. With the passage of time, this rural practice has been misunderstood and grossly abused by those who are richer or more powerful.

Indonesia: Chinese Valentine's Day

  31 July 2006

Indonesian blogger Christine Susanna Tjhin, currently a student in China, talks about the traditional Chinese Valentine's Day. This year, the day falls on 31 July.

Latvia: Baltica Festival

Dykun posts footage from the Baltica Festival in Latvia: “More specifically, this is footage of two groups from Latgale. Latgale is a region of Latvia that has long fascinated me; it is considered by many to be the most rural part of Latvia, and it shares a long border to...

Czech Republic: Moravian Folklore

Bored in Brno posts a report from the 49th “annual celebration of local music and folklore in the town of Velka nad Velickou in South Moravia”: “Being a Czech festival, the beer flows liberally. Despite the higher elevation, the region can still sustain some grape cultivation and there is a...

South Korea: green tea

  30 July 2006

Sanshinseon in Marmot's Hole blogs about the recent Tea World Festival in Seoul and gives the readers some background about Korea green tea culture.

South Korea: fan death

  30 July 2006

Robert Koehler in Marmot's Hole blogs about the urban legend of “fan death” in South Korea: Can you really die from falling asleep with your fan on and your windows closed?

Reunion, USA: From Maryland to Florida

  30 July 2006

US-based Reunion-born blogger Reunion-USA2 discovers (Fr) cultural differences between Maryland and Florida:”My husband is happy in Florida: no more politically correct here! When he goes out with colleagues, they all drink beer –in Maryland, nobody drank during work hours so as not to be labeled a drunk. Yesterday they had...

Russia, Ukraine: Stories About Words

Below is the translation of three stories about words: in the first one, they are being banned; in the second, they offend; in the third, there aren't enough of them. LJ user plushev, a Russian radio journalist, writes (RUS) about the government's attack on the name of the controversial National...

Bahamas: Goodbye, British Honours list?

  28 July 2006

Nassau Bahamas Vacation reports briefly on the plans afoot in the Bahamas to abolish the British Honours list: “Her Majesty will no doubt let her views be channeled through her own discreet diplomats at some stage.“

China: spoofing culture

  27 July 2006

Lyn Jeffery in Virtual China blogs about spoofing culture in Chinese internet sphere and translates an article from QQ discussing whether spoofing can prevent social tragedies. Spoofing is a popular subculture that deconstructs serious themes to entertain people with comedy effects.

Hong Kong: Book exhibition

  27 July 2006

Many bloggers in Hong Kong blog about book exhibition. Henry porter criticizes book exhibition this year become even more “vulgar”. Because of the crowd, the host has to urge people to leave the exhibition center as soon as possible; so how can people choose their books? (zh). Thomas describes the...

Indoensia: Expat Life and Indonesian Thoughts

  27 July 2006

The blogger at Sarapan Ekonomi talks about expats discussing life in Indonesia. The blogger does not agree with some of the views the expats have but at the end of the post, the blogger asks everyone “Meanwhile, lighten up. It's Friday after all.”

Voices from the Caucasus

Russian tourists rest in the shade in the Novy Afon (New Athos) monastery near the capital of the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia – by eurutuf What follows is a roundup of notable blog conversations from the Caucasus that took place over the last week. For a change, how about...