Comments on: ‘Shanghai Cocktales’ and the Curse of the Expat Memoir http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/ A Dollop of China Tue, 22 Jan 2019 17:42:34 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ricardo http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-391420 Thu, 03 Mar 2016 14:26:56 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-391420 I think the real question is what’s going on between Isham and Tom. Alec attacks the Tom’s book and Isham swears by his “pencil” to avenge him.

]]> By: Soo-doe-nim http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-383216 Sat, 18 Jul 2015 12:13:23 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-383216 Late to the party here, but I want to say I also REALLY don’t enjoy these expat diaries, and if there was a club where all we did was pan them, I would join. Of late I’ve actually been subjected to more than a few stories like this, and I’ve met people who IRL say stuff like “20% of the guys get 80% of the girls” and separate men into alphas and betas without even trying to be ironic about it. I’ve also started to really really like Thailand, where these sorts of memoirs are waaaaay more common. Indonesia, it’s happening too. Uh oh.

I may be late in pointing this out, but I think the Chinabounders and Robert Blacks are morphing into a more dangerous scourge taking the Western expat communities across Asia and the world. I see the professional online poker players, pickup artists, redditors, cultural exchange people, “authors” like this one, liquor importers working on commission, direct-retail importers who do wechat and taobao marketing, and a few outlying elements all bleeding together in a perfect storm of ugliness fueled by booze, male entitlement, and get-rich-quick schemes.

Cirrhosis and bankruptcy take them all.

]]> By: FOARP http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-381876 Sat, 20 Jun 2015 10:14:22 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-381876 Wow, I haven’t read this level of comment since the last CDE-related article that came out.

]]> By: Dylan http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-381413 Sat, 13 Jun 2015 06:19:52 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-381413 I have sympathy for people that want to write about fucking. But if all I’ve got is Shanghai Cocktales and Chinabounder, no thanks.

I do have the same feeling sometimes as Isham re: the relative lameness of writing on China. Even if you’re not a weirdo Swedish sexpat– I mean, I’m not and my experience of China wasn’t of a chaste and sexually conservative country. I don’t think that was the experience for most of my peers, whether Chinese or expatriate, so I do wish there was more engagement with the dirt. But I have no interest in self-published sexpat memoirs, either. I’ll settle for things the way they are.

]]> By: Hungry_Joe http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380990 Mon, 08 Jun 2015 09:05:55 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380990 Right or wrong, fair or otherwise, the last line of this review just fills me with joy.

It’s almost a shame that this review makes me want to read the book. Actually no, I think I’ll just read the review again. It’s probably better anyway.

]]> By: Gus http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380975 Mon, 08 Jun 2015 05:26:15 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380975 I slogged through Olden’s entire book. The writing is passable, but the narrative is almost entirely self-indulgent, and reveals very little about Shanghai at the time, and rather simple descriptions of the tepid hedonistic endeavors of a handful of expats, all of which could have happened almost anywhere else. Ash’s review in spot on.

]]> By: jixiang http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380557 Wed, 03 Jun 2015 04:59:35 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380557 Yes Tom, hire a Pr person.

While some of what you say might make sense, the graphics of the video and the way your voice is distorted make you sound like a criminal delivering a demand for ransom.

]]> By: Jonathan Alpart http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380534 Tue, 02 Jun 2015 21:18:41 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380534 Hire a PR person.

]]> By: Wank Malarky http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380486 Tue, 02 Jun 2015 08:36:28 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380486 Well so far it’s Beijing Spunk 0 Shanghai Cocktales 1

At least “Tom Olden” is funny. Beijing Cream is just nasty to people.
Cool YouTube vid never seen anything like that before…
So: WHAT is the Beijing Spunk response?

]]> By: Tom Olden http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380482 Tue, 02 Jun 2015 07:06:33 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380482 I’ve made my official response to this review here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpRZK3YPGaU
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/VKalmlXnyKg/

]]> By: Eleven Jeenping http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380417 Mon, 01 Jun 2015 12:30:23 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380417 Shanghai Cocktales strikes back!

http://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/382jhg/shanghai_cocktales_official_response_to_beijing/

]]> By: Francis Poulenc http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380371 Sun, 31 May 2015 03:31:17 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380371 Beijing Cream is becoming a parody of itself.

]]> By: RhZ http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380337 Fri, 29 May 2015 08:53:09 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380337 Ha! Ok then…

]]> By: Poo Poo Dumpster http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380331 Fri, 29 May 2015 07:12:11 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380331 I can’t wait for Anthony Tao’s book….

]]> By: Jonathan Alpart http://beijingcream.com/2015/05/shanghai-cocktales-and-the-curse-of-the-expat-memoir/#comment-380329 Fri, 29 May 2015 04:06:31 +0000 http://beijingcream.com/?p=26917#comment-380329 Thanks. But what about Xinjiang?

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