One-Eyed Panda’s Journal

One of my favourite new followers on Twitter is the Canadian publisher, House of Anansi Press (@houseofanansi). What I like about this corporate tweeter is it isn’t just trying to drive people to buy their books. The publisher is actually adding value with its messages. 

An example is when they posted the link to the 2008 CBC Massey Lecture podcasts. Anansi publishes the transcripts of these lectures that are broadcast on CBC Radio every year. And since this year’s presenting is the Canadian author Margaret Atwood (probably the most famous of our female authors) and her lecture topic is the concept of debt in a year when we’re facing the greatest recession in 25 years, the book was already doing well. Anansi didn’t need to post up the free podcasts — you’d think this might actually undermine their sales (I for one won’t buy the book, if I can get the podcasts instead).

But the marketers at Anansi knew that if people could try out the book by listening to the lectures for free, they might invest money in something they enjoy. Those people who enjoy the book might try out other Anansi titles and maybe even spread the word to their friends. That’s good marketing as far as Anansi is concerned. 

Me, besides the links to some great lecturers, I’m just happy Anansi isn’t gumming up my twitter feed with crap.

J.

I’m on the bit of a Canadian literature kick at the moment. I’m currently reading Rawi Hage’s Cockroach. It’s an extremely dark novel but still feels like Canada — Canada in the middle of a Montreal winter but still Canada. I’m only about 30 pages into it so I can’t really say more than that about it at this point. I’m a little sad that it didn’t win the Giller Prize this week but I am looking forward to Joseph Boyden’s Through Black Spruce.

Afterwards I’ve got plans to read books by Michael Ondaatje and Carol Shields — plus a very thick biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. I am not exactly sure why I’m on such a reading path right now. I’m not homesick, it’s probably because I’ve been hanging around so many Canadians lately and remembering what a great country Canada can be. If you’re looking for good fiction check them out.

J.

I finally got around to putting up a new post on LostLaowai about Ma Jian’s Beijing Coma.

In other publishing news, I’ve got two book reviews in the November issue of That’s Beijing.

Enjoy

J,

While catching up on reading LostLaowai I clicked on the personal blog of LL contributor Biscuet. And I became hooked on it instantly. Biscuet is an English teacher working and living in Beijing. But he avoids all the boring pitfalls that many English-Teacher blogs do. He just has a genuine joy for life and discovering life in China which brings me back to my early days in China (those long five years ago) while at the same time teaching me about an expat’s life in Beijing.

J.

Douglas Coupland

“I grew up thinking the Americans lost the War of 1812, and it turns out there’s this creeping revisionism happening. Americans are saying maybe we didn’t lose. Maybe we won it,” 

- Douglas Coupland on the release of his new art installation about the War of 1812

Rememberance Day was on Tuesday in Canada and a lot of people have been saying that World War I will be forgotten when the last veteran dies. But all the veterans from the War of 1812 are dead and now people are starting to revise the events that actually happened. 

I’ve always been a history buff and changing history to suit a person’s/organization’s own purposes has never sat well with me. That’s why I’m so happy that one of my favourite writers/visual artists Douglas Coupland released his toy soldiers installation in downtown Toronto at the beginning of the month. It’s protecting history as it really happened without throwing it in everyone’s face but still being out there for everyone to see.

The installation also has a real kitsch factor to it and it makes a clear statement about who won the war. That’s a better use of money than some abstract sculpture which nobody can agree on what it is.

I am definitely looking out for it next time I am in Toronto.

J.

I know it’s been awhile since I last posted anything here and besides the commitments I mentioned in my last post I haven’t had much to say really. The last month has been pretty quiet and mostly focused on work. That is until last week.

I had the opportunity last Tuesday to meet with the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty at Shanghai’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA).  It was great to meet the head of the government of my home province — it’s one of the odd opportunities that you get living aboard. If I was at home, it’d be very difficult to meet with the Premier or any government minister, but when you’re one of the few Ontarians in Shanghai, the opportunity is very easy. 

My actually meeting with McGuity was rather short — about 15 seconds. I was able to shake his hand and he asked me where I was from and where I went to school and then moved on to the next person.  I didn’t really make an attempt to chat with him after either. I had other people that I need to get in touch with, some for business and some were friends who I only seem to see at CanCham events.  This chatting kept me at MoCA after the premier had left. As I was chatting with the six or seven remaining guests I was really surprised to be handed a giftbag by Richard Choi, CanCham’s executive director. The contents of the bag probably cost about CDN$50 or so, but it had great significance to any Canadian:

• A Home Hardware 2009 charity calendar
• A Canadian Tire reusable grocery bag and coupons
• A Hockey Night in Canada t-shirt and cap
• A Vinyl Cafe CD
• Last week’s issue of Maclean’s
• A Ontario pin and umbrella
• A Coffee Crisp chocolate bar

At first I was really happy just have the Coffee Crisp — you can’t get it anywhere else but in Canada. But later when I went through the package it’s the Vinyl Cafe CD (I’ve now become a fan) and the Hockey Night in Canada clothing. They just give me that feeling of being at home when I miss it — which seems to be happening more and more these days.

They’ve also sparked some conversation among my Canadian friends. When I met a few of them for dinner last week, my Coach’s Corner cap started a conversation about where we can watch NHL hockey in the city.  Then we started to discuss the upcoming Hello Canada street fair this weekend.  It’ll be great to see a little bit of Canada in the middle of downtown Shanghai.

And best of all it made me forget about my homesickness.

J.

A heavy workload, watching all five seasons of The Wire and the series Generation Kill and a promise to Winnie to spend less time in front of the computer has meant no blog posts over the last month but I hope to get back to posting regularly soon.

J.