Category Archives: International Culture

Chinese street extortion as entertainment.

Peng Ci, as the Chinese call it, is a scam where a person will go out in public, pretend to be injured by another person’s clumsiness, and then try to extract money or favors from the person they accuse of injuring them. I’m sure it’s not only a Chinese thing – in fact, I suspect it even explains an odd public interaction my wife and I were confronted with right here in the US a few years ago – but this American living in China was inspired to make what is actually a pretty catchy tune out of it.

Bald and Bankrupt.

Some travel videos carry the message of “you should come here someday and here are the things you should do,” and others carry the message of “we go here so you don’t have to.” I suspect most people would put Benjamin Rich’s videos through what we used to call Soviet Central Asia (think countries ending in -stan) in the latter category. And he’s up to the job… in fact at times he’s downright controversial.

Baseball in the winter.

Sometimes I think it’s easier to watch baseball in the winter because I don’t have as many outdoor chores and activities. The choices on YouTube vary from winter to winter. This link here is to Nicaraguan baseball but I’ve found Venezuelan, Dominican, Puerto Rican and Mexican at times. Do a search for “beisbol en vivo.” Did I mention it’s all in Spanish?