About our blog
326 Authors, 173 countries, and 400 travel-loving staff. We're using our network to bring you the best in travel blogging - buzz-word events, breaking news, tough travel, odd corners and the world's craziest kitsch.
Travel Blog terms of use ›
Posted Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 12:13 AM by Lonely Planet
I've been feeling sorry for Yang Peiyi, the crooked-toothed seven-year-old singer who wasn't allowed to be seen (though her voice was still used) at the Olympic opening ceremony because she wasn't suitably 'flawless in image'.
But if you think that description's hard to live up to, try these:
-A neck like a conch shell
-Eyelashes like a cow
-Thighs like a deer
-Chest like a lion
-Voice soft and clear as a duck's
They're just a few of the '32 perfections' a prepubescent Nepali girl needs to possess in order to be recognised as a Kumari, a living goddess who's worshipped until she menstruates - after which she becomes mortal again.
But even goddesses have to go to school, apparently. Nepal's Supreme Court has ruled that the current Kumari, Preeti Shakya, has a right to an education instead of being cooped up in a palace. She's going to retire at the end of the year, and Nepal's new secular, Maoist rulers may well decide to scrap the whole system.
I bet the intrigues of her strange temple life are nothing compared to the social dramas and hierarchies she's sure to encounter among ten-year-old schoolgirls.
- Kate James
Labels: China, Nepal
Join the Discussion:
Posted Tuesday, August 12, 2008, 6:21 PM by Lonely Planet
When I'm sending messages home from an internet cafe in an unfamiliar part of the world, I like to check out what the locals are doing there. In China, I saw a lot of people playing complicated multi-user games; they all seemed to be shooting each other. Posters on the walls showed fantasy characters with huge swords and angular haircuts.
But among the gamers, there were a few lonely bloggers. And now it turns out they weren't so lonely after all.
There are, in fact, more than 47 million of them. In spite of the Great Firewall of China, the famous censorship system that prevents people from reading and dispersing information, the Chinese have become the word's most prolific bloggers.
With the world watching Beijing this month, Chinese bloggers are using all kinds of methods to bypass the firewall and get heard - including hosting their sites on foreign servers.
One of the most high-profile Chinese bloggers is Isaac Mao: in a fascinating interview he talks about the whole phenomena, and why he's proud to have 'blogger' on his business card.
- Kate James
Labels: Beijing, China, travel blog
Join the Discussion:
Posted Thursday, February 21, 2008, 5:17 AM by Lonely Planet
Year of Rat? That it may be, but 2008 is looking more like the year that contemporary Chinese art hits the global headlines. So we all know about the massive architecture-as-ego projects that are underway for the Beijing Olympics, but how many of us can name a single contemporary Chinese artist? No hands?
Well with major exhibitions planned at the Guggenheim New York (the first ever show devoted to a Chinese artist) and a new Saatchi Gallery in the offing in London all that is about to be put right. Check out Wang Guangyi's cool political pop art or the eerie portraiture of Zhang Xiaogang.
By August you should have plenty of opinions to bandy around when you hit the Olympics, especially as you tour the 798 Quarter, Beijing's new backdrop for cutting edge contemporary art.
Any hot tips on Beijing's budding art scene or 798, why not post them here?
-Paula Hardy, a fan of Yue Minjun
Labels: Art, Beijing, China, Guggenheim, Saatchi
Join the Discussion:
