Agree.
I make a fiendishly-nerdy long-form documentary series ( livinghistorychina.substack.com ) and the longer and deeper we go the more people seem to respond.
07.03.2026 05:23
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Agree.
I make a fiendishly-nerdy long-form documentary series ( livinghistorychina.substack.com ) and the longer and deeper we go the more people seem to respond.
It takes a lot of work to put on intl. concert tours and I am overjoyed when it all works out well. Right now, Soraya are on stage in Hong Kong, delivering another great show. There shall be more to come.
Sadly I had to already head back to Shanghai.
But definitely marked for next time.
Something that confused (maybe even depressed) me in Taiwan was the lack of good ice cream. I was craving some soft-serve and just could not locate any. Maybe just closed down for the winter, even though it's mild.
In spite of the furious scratching and large TVs overhead?
I, too, keep seeing them and find the feeling far more wholesome compared to HK Jockey Club glass-boothed betting joints.
Here is the concert poster:
Tonight 8PM Hong Kong
Soraya Live
at MOM Livehouse
The flight was as expected.
I tried to find some ice cream at the airport to soothe the senses but came up short: not one shop at Taoyan stocked any. Seems like everyone only wants to sell luxury bags.
Time to close the books on this day.
My flight turns out to be an hour delayed and packed to the gills. I do not look forward to this.
Another day, another flight.
Taipei's Taoyuan airport is one I tend to avoid. There isn't much to do besides watching airplanes through dirty windows or shopping for purported luxury bags at inflated prices.
But today I have no choice.
An EVA A330 is taking me back to PVG.
Performing together since Covid-times, bassist Kurena Ishikawa and pianist Kento Tsubosaka are a wonderful combination. I highly recommend giving them a listen.
Great turnout for Soraya tonight in Taipei.
Saturday 2/28 They will perform in Hong Kong at MOM Livehouse.
Many Taiwanese iot/AI/etc engineers work in Shenzhen. Could it be related?
I'll be in Taipei for the Soraya Jazz concert tomorrow night at Riverside Livehouse. Our show starts at 8pm. If you are in town please consider coming by!
EVA gets a lot of praise for their food and legroom, even in economy, and rightly so. But I dislike that staff is far stricter and assertive than mainland Chinese carriers. My suitcase was required to be checked because it was 1.5kg over their carry-on limit today.
Another day, another flight.
I am once again flying to from Shanghai to Taipei on EVA's always-empty 787-10.
Chinese citizens struggle to get tourist visa and have to often go via Hong Kong, resulting in terrible yields, yet they keep using this large aircraft.
It's Japan. The competition is stiff. I would always go for a Donburi.
Das sehe ich ähnlich. Würgegriff ist fuer mich click-batey.
Have you tried them? At least in Japan they are ... okay-ish.
Würgegriff?
Dramatic much?
That's very common in Japanese 7-11
SAICs managers ALL wanted to be photographed on stage signing with VW and Kohl. The protocol chief however deemed this unacceptable. Lee ended up calling Li Peng himself to cut through this gordian knot. Peng solved the issue. Later, Peng became infamous for his actions in 1989.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was present in Beijing for the Oct 1984 ratification (again: cooperation, not a Joing Venture yet!) of the contract between Volkswagen and SAIC.
Lee provides an amusing anecdote about some last minute drama that struck me as oddly stereotypical:
43 years later, XPeng will gladly sell you their G6 SUV for the same price.
Adjusted for inflation you could probably buy a top-of-the-line NIO. (ChatGPT claims RMB 170k in 1983 is ¥760k – ¥850k today but that seems high to me.)
This "not a Joint Venture" cooperation was immensely meaningful for Deng Xiaoping, who ensured the paperwork was signed on October 3, 1984, the 35th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic.
It had been just 8 years since the death of Mao and the end of the Cultural Revolution.
The Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co., founded in 1984, was a Chinese company, not a Joint Venture. This was because foreign partnerships were not yet legal in China. The Joint Venture contract with Germany's Volkswagen was only signed in 1988.
Instead of asking various ministries for approvals he simply requested permission for a test run. He got the necessary ok's and by April 1983 production had started. The first 100 cars sold out immediately.
By the time the first Santana became available (it cost an astonishing RMB 170,000) other cars had already been driving on Shanghai streets. They had been illegally imported. VW struggled getting the necessary approvals until Wenpo Lee had an idea...
The desire to not stand out among consumers was a key reason for Volkswagen only introducing one model to China: the Santana.
The car had already been scheduled for replacement in Germany.
Lee suggests the desire for conforming consumerism prevalent in China was an outcome of the communist economy of scarcity.
But Chinese cars, while in parts better, are still not finding good sales success in Germany today. The desire for conformity seems universal to me.
