Neil and I were checking out Ocean Terminal and we walked by Waterstone’s. I spotted China Cuckoo in the window display (I think the technical term is ‘front of store’) as we passed and I did a double-take.
“Mark Kitto… I know that name… that’s the guy who did the magazine!”
We made what’s called a beeline, and I got a look at one of the two remaining copies in stock.
I repeatedly make promises to stop buying books — I was at two BookCrossing events last week and picked up ten used books, but I really couldn’t resist getting China Cuckoo. This is the man who blazed the trail and made it possible for all of us crazy foreigners (who like to push shit uphill) to publish expatriate-focused magazines in China.
I’m fairly convinced that I corresponded with him over email when the shit hit the fan with What’s On Xiamen back in 2004 because I needed some advice and he was very nice. And that was before he got forced out of That’s… because he’d been too successful.
I hope book sales since publication have already covered his advance and my small contribution (by way of purchasing China Cuckoo for full RRP in Waterstone’s and not on Amazon) has gone towards his royalty earnings.
(Read the Danwei interview with Mark Kitto when China Cuckoo was first published. Especially about the ‘self-important brigade’, the main reason I couldn’t wait to leave China in the end.)
While we were having coffee in Costa, I took the opportunity to dip into the book a wee bit, and I think I’m going to enjoy China Cuckoo.
It is slightly amusing that some people I met in Xiamen (who are still in Xiamen) cannot help but tell me about the new restaurants, cafes, bars, barbecue stalls, etc. opening in Xiamen. Either they’ve never had much to say to me and this was the only thing we had in common (since I’m so quiet, the latest interpretation I’ve heard is quiet = ignorant + stuck-up), or it’s something that’s become a reflex.
Heh.
(All are welcome to go wild with mathematical interpretations of what ‘quiet’ means in the comments, by the way.)
I’m very, very tempted to remove all my handcoded, static archives, and slowly, LABORIOUSLY, enter them into WordPress so my archives are all in one place (and I can fix any posts that are essentially dead or no longer suitable). The post numbers will be all fucked up, but I’m not about search engine-friendly URLs on this bloog anyway, so it doesn’t matter (or maybe I should do the nice permalinks thing just because I can).
Anyone at all think this is a good idea? With my rather panicked crafting of various swap items and birthday presents, WOX once a week (yes, it’s baaaccckkk, I’m going to start helping out as editor at large), and potential general not-very-manual labouring on the house project, deciding to move my static archives to WordPress seems dead foolhardy.
However.
Manually re-formatting the archives is a serious pain in the arse (if you look at what’s there at the moment, you’ll see they’re all over the fucking shop), and I am currently obsessed with reworking the site so as much of it is powered by WordPress as possible (fewer re-design headaches). I’m going to have to redo all the image URLs, though. That’ll be fun.
I’ve debated (with myself) the wisdom of writing what is printed below. I’m not annoyed because I’ve not come away with much more than bucketloads of experience, as that experience has been invaluable. I’m pissed off because not only is someone trying to pass off my work as their own, they’re doing it so poorly.
Neil showed me an e-mail from a friend in Xiamen. He’d scanned the editorial page from the last What’s On Xiamen he’s seen. In it, the assistant editor I’d picked to replace me on my departure said she was so stressed working so goddamn hard on the content to deliver the issue to her dear readers after I left suddenly and without warning.
Yes, she worked really hard writing that editorial and getting other people to do her job. I got a teeny tiny thank you at the end, with no mention that I’d done practically all the work remotely (one skim of the articles and the editorial makes it clear they were not written by the same person — I write using grammar and punctuation). She’s probably already been paid more than me because she’s salaried and I wasn’t. And she’s asked me to help her (free of charge) with taking over the website (and her first questions concerned how much profit it makes, followed by saying she has no clue how to administer a website so if I could tutor her through it she’d be very grateful).
My dear girl who spent a year studying in England but only hung out with other Chinese students and did not make one British friend, I lived in China for three years. Complimenting me then trying to scam me isn’t gonna work. If you want to do it, you’re gonna have to find help somewhere else, and I can guarantee you that your new foreign friends are expecting to profit from it, too.
- really learned how to eat (some) spicy food
- visited a bunch of Shaolin temples in Fujian
- moved countries TWICE
- got a new laptop after five years with my old one — almost a record, I like to think
- ended my relationship with a magazine I slogged to launch and run
- learned to use our old sewing machine again
- made my first sock monkey (and second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth)
- crocheted a shitload of stuff
- continued to suffer from chronic re-designitis
- became an employed writer and professional blooger (not this site, of course)
- was part of a Western-style family Christmas for the first time
Wow. Doesn’t look like very much when it’s written down.
There’s a programme on BBC Two right now called The Choir. It’s about a classical choirmaster taking on a school that has never had a choir, and training a group to compete in the World Choir Games that were held this year.
It’s completely freaky since the World Choir Games were held in Xiamen, and my magazine was the official guide book for the games. I almost feel like I have to focus my camera on the television screen and wait and hope to catch a glimpse of my magazine lying around on a table or something.
I’ve heard that there is an editorial in a later issue of the magazine saying that I left Xiamen suddenly. The impression I got was they are accusing me, behind my back, of leaving them high and dry. I didn’t. I got pissed off with the Chinese publishers because I spent my own money on research in China — as I always did — and did most of the writing and all of the editing from Singapore and they were, as usual, dragging their feet on actually getting it published. All this work for an issue I would never see. So I told them they could use the stories I wrote and edited, and to leave me out of it from then on.
No sight of my last What’s On Xiamen on the programme. Ah well! Hehe. Neil thinks the conductor, Gareth Malone, is a poof for crying at the end. I disagree. I’m sure it was an incredibly stressful experience, and when it was over, he did need to let it out.
I wish people would stop trying to appeal to my assumed vanity over What’s On Xiamen. Just because I was the one to re-launch it doesn’t mean I will do whatever you want to keep it going, disadvantaging and challenging my own principles in the process (i.e. stop prefacing your requests with, “You worked so hard to get it going and now it’s doing well,” followed with, “Now if you’ll just [insert request here].”).
If I never stop working on it because I’m selfish and want to reap all financial benefits (which, frankly, are due me, I worked hard — but I’m also practical), it will suffer. If I’m unhappy with how things have gone, I will say so. If the expat community and Chinese publisher are so desperate to maintain the site — buy it from me, by all means. My price is non-negotiable.
(I don’t know why people keep asking me to silence myself or lie for financial benefit when they know very well that it is not in my character. I don’t wish What’s On Xiamen to fail without me, but I’m not going to pretend I’m not disappointed with how the production almost immediately showed large cracks the moment I left.)
That all said, I am also not conceited enough to imagine that there isn’t someone (or some people?) willing to take over my role and its attendant responsibilities (although the unstable income will not appeal to most foreigners in Xiamen). If someone is found, good luck and Godspeed. If you want to ask me questions about the production process, I will answer, but I will not help you do your job otherwise. I have conducted myself openly — and I believe, honourably — over the magazine’s dealings. It is only fair, in my opinion, that people deal with me fairly and openly if they choose to take over the reins. But I also know what foreigners in Xiamen are like when they smell a business opportunity, so I’m not even considering holding my breath.
I’d seen this on the telly a couple of months ago — the Singapore government is going to provide countrywide WiFi coverage using WiMax. After my hacking scare on What’s On Xiamen, I’m extremely loathe to do anything using a public, unsecured wireless network — except aimless surfing. If you must check your e-mail or access password-protected sites while connected to a public hotspot, your best option is to use SSH tunnelling.