Aimee Barnes

Rethinking Chicken in China

Aimee — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:20:18 +0000

Imagine this: You’ve just finished a long day of hiking through the karst hills of Guilin, China and are famished. You come upon a small, family-run food stall, complete with four plastic folding tables, two woks on a gas burner stove, and about a half dozen healthy adult chickens running around the premises. A young woman hands you a paper menu printed in Chinese. You order 宫保鸡丁 (Kung Pao Chicken) not because you have a craving for it, but because it’s one of the only menu … [visit site to read more]

A New Home Away From Home

Aimee — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:47:42 +0000

A few months after my now-husband proposed to me I had asked him, point-blank and in the most unromantic way, “how will it work when we get married? I want to return to Asia, but your career is in the US.” He simply smiled and, as typical with die-hard optimists (and maddening to people like me) said, “things have a way of working themselves out.” Due mainly to the economic crisis, our first year as a family had its challenges as I sought meaningful work while he contemplated the next … [visit site to read more]

If I Had a (Few Hundred) Million Dollars…

Aimee — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:05:23 +0000

When the going gets tough, I daydream. To be quite frank, I’ve found myself daydreaming a lot over the past few months. So, when I first learned about China’s attempt to acquire ailing magazine, Newsweek, my imagination shifted into overdrive. I find few things more tantalizing to waste my time musing over then the possibilities which exist at the intersection of … [visit site to read more]

“Update Your Vision of the United States”

Aimee — Fri, 07 May 2010 03:01:48 +0000

This morning I made a trip to my local Xinhua Bookstore in Flushing, Queens with the aim of purchasing a few current American suspense novels published in Chinese. While browsing through a section of English/Chinese books geared toward advanced native Chinese-speaking learners of English (because there is no comparable equivalent for native English-speaking learners of Mandarin), I came across a text entitled, “你所不知道的美国”which had been translated on the cover in … [visit site to read more]

Heroes, Commies and the American Face: A Commentary on “Red Dawn 2010″

Aimee — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:54:05 +0000

Way back in 1984, amidst the triple threat of Cold War “Commies,” nuclear weapons and lingering unemployment, Hollywood alchemized national fears with the propagandistic blockbuster film, “Red Dawn.” Part action thriller, part coming-of-age story, Red Dawn depicts a surprise Russian-Cuban invasion that would drown the American midwest in its own children’s blood if it were not for a few teenagers-turned-guerrilla fighters (Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) who eventually save … [visit site to read more]

Sometimes an Image Just Says it All…

Aimee — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:32:15 +0000

I’ve been fixated on this wheat paste stencil from Beijing’s Xinjiekou Nandajie, originally posted at NeochaEDGE (artist as of yet unknown) which to me captured recent sentiments on a shifting US-China relationship rather perfectly…. without all the punditry. What do you think?

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Mandarin For “Dummies” – A Proposal

Aimee — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:36:57 +0000

Way back in junior high school, I had read an article which profiled the skill sets of students admitted into Ivy League universities, most notably Harvard and Yale. It was determined that a significant number of Ivy bound American kids had learned Mandarin, a language that was, as the article conveyed, reserved for only the smartest of youngsters, those shining stars who had been destined for academic elitism since birth. As I had perceived it, Mandarin- like Harvard or Yale- was … [visit site to read more]

The Unplugged Month: Notes From An Experiment

Aimee — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:16:16 +0000

After a month away from all forms of social media- and the internet, generally- I’m finally crawling back into the game with a changed perspective and a better handle on time management. Prior to this hiatus, I was clocking approximately thirty hours a week composing blog entries, posting news items on Twitter, leaving messages on Facebook, chatting internationally over Skype, … [visit site to read more]

Until Next Time… On Blogging, Connection and Contemplation

Aimee — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:18:17 +0000

Nearly a year ago, I launched this blog as a way to organize some of my thoughts on the US-China relationship in an effort to find clarity on issues that I’d started to consider while living in China and during graduate school in New York City. I did not expect more than a few readers to drop by, nor was I entirely comfortable with conveying my opinions in a public forum. However, the process of thinking and connecting online immediately drew me in, eventually leading to many … [visit site to read more]

A Life Transformed By China: A Conversation With Saul Gitlin (Part 2)

Aimee — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:51:53 +0000

Saul Gitlin (冀碩臨)- Executive Vice-President of top rated Asia-focused multicultural advertising agency Kang & Lee, founder of a popular LinkedIn group for … [visit site to read more]