Chinese Village Gives Every Villager Gold and Silver Bars
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of a village-owned business, Changjiang Village, in China’s Jinagsu Province, has given every one f its 3,000 villagers 100-gram bars of gold and silver. It’s no secret that China has the world’s fastest growing major economy, but some of its residents like to flaunt their riches anyway. Take Changjiang village, for […]
The Hikikomori – Japan’s Social Outcasts
Hikikomori (Japanese for “pull in”) is a term that refers to reclusive adolescents and young adults who choose to isolate themselves from social life. With about a million people in Japan suffering from Hikikomori, I suppose you could call it an epidemic of sorts. Except, the condition is not spread through physical means, it’s purely […]
The Creepy Walking Dead of Tana Toraja
If you thought that zombies were only a figment of the imagination of storytellers, well, prepare to have your mind blown. If the rituals of the villagers of Toraja, Indonesia, are to be believed, almost every person who dies can turn into a zombie. Apparently, certain people of the village had and still have the […]
Hang on to Your Panties: Thai Man Collects 11,000 Pairs of Women’s Underwear in 30 Years
Some hobbies are downright disgusting. Like this guy from Thailand who collected 10,000 pairs of women’s underwear. No that’s not the gross part. What’s truly disturbing is that he smelled them all the time, even while he was driving. Ewww, right? Apparently, his obsession was not just for underwear, but also for the stealthy way […]
Taiwan’s Musical Garbage Trucks
Taiwan is a small and densely populated island. Many years ago, their waste disposal system was faced with a huge issue – the public garbage collection spots were overflowing, smelly and infested with rats and insects. The Taiwanese government rose to the occasion, coming up with a unique solution – musical garbage trucks. Instead of […]
Buffalo Body-Painting at Unique Traditional Festival
What started as a means to ward off intruders, is now a full-blown festival. The people of Jiangcheng County, China’s Yunnan Province, have their bulls painted and decorated by artists for a major event every year. The bulls are displayed in a riot of colors, painted with a variety of themes. Traditionally, the bulls were painted […]
Tickets for Noah’s Ark 2012 Are Holiday Bestsellers on Chinese Shopping Site
It’s been long said that the year 2012 will see the end of the world. The movie 2012 even makes an attempt to show us the catastrophic events leading up t0 the worldwide disaster, and a modern version of Noah’s Ark, a ship in Tibet where people will be safe. While tickets for the movie […]
Chinese “Wolf Dad” Reveals Brutal Parenting Techniques
This isn’t the first time the Chinese have been in the news for their strict parenting techniques. When Chinese-American Amy Chua came out with her book, “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, it was met with a lot of criticism. Now it’s Xiao Baiyou’s turn. Also Chinese, the 47-year-old businessman recently published a book called […]
Bride Kidnapping – A Controversial Tradition in Kyrgyzstan
Many women dream of being carried away on a white horse, by their knight-in-shining-armor. But what if the so-called knight turned out to be an abductor, forcing a woman to elope with him? That is exactly the case with bride kidnappings that take place in Kyrgzstan, Central Asia. Parodied in the 2006 film Borat: Cultural […]
Lensless Glasses – Asia’s Crazy Fashion Trend
The grass is always greener on the other side, to quote the cliche. Those who have glasses don’t want them, and those who don’t, will wear them with no lenses! This is the latest fad in Hong Kong and several other Asian countries. It’s common to find people sporting empty plastic frames, in a variety […]
Taichung’s Rainbow Village – The Hand-Painted Wonder of Taiwan
It’s hard to believe that one man can change the fate of an entire village. Huang Yung-fu, an 86-year-old war veteran has done just this. Huang lives in a village in a corner of the Taiwanese city of Taichung, a community that was created for Nationalist soldiers in the 1940s and 50s. Over the years, […]
Japanese Company Offers Single-Person Karaoke Rooms
We now have one more reason to visit Japan – private Karaoke rooms. Do you find yourself wishing that you could have had a little more practice before getting up to karaoke before all your friends? Or are you just a bathroom singer who prefers to sing alone, along with just music and lyrics? Either […]
Chinese Chef Builds His Own Jeep with Just $600
Qu Zhibo, a chef from Zigong City, China’s Sichuan Province, spent three years and just 4,000 yuan ($628) building his own knockoff Jeep. His efforts have made him somewhat of an Internet celebrity, in China. I was convinced Chinese car enthusiasts can be very resourceful when it comes to building their own dream cars after seeing […]
Students Claim Haunted Toilet is Causing Them to Faint and Scream
Kids love exchanging horror stories at school, even if it means weeks of sleepless nights. But what if a real ghost decides to make a guest appearance? It could cause kids to lose not just sleep but even their sanity. In Vietnam, it’s causing them to faint on a regular basis. The students of Son […]
In Thailand, a “Like” on Facebook Can Get You 15 Years in Jail
In older times, it was “off with your head” if you spoke ill of the King. Now, you go to jail for posting your feelings on Facebook about the Thai monarchy, which many of the Thai folk actively do. In fact, over 10,000 pages of material was found on the social networking, containing images or […]