Barbie World

Last weekend I wondered to the Shanghai Barbie House. It has some 6 floors, and boasts a Barbie Spa, a Barbie Cafe, and heaps of Barbie things: Barbie Jelly Beans, Barbie chocolate (and chocolate Barbie, keep on reading...), umbrellas, towels, sun glasses, clothes and whatnots.

...I am a Barbie girl...
... in a Barbie wooo ooorld...

Do you remember the perky Aqua song from the 90's? It is almost unbearable, no, forget the almost, unbearable, and it was played NON-STOP in the Barbie House.

Hi Barbie!
Hi Ken!
Do you wanna go for a ride?
Sure Ken!
Jump In...

I'm a barbie girl, in the barbie worldLife in plastic, it's fantastic!
You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere.
Imagination, life is your creation.
Come on Barbie, let's go party!

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. And that is what they play in the shop that sells children's toys :o) Speaking of which: there actually weren't many children present. Most people were clearly out of their teens. A lot of Asian couples together.

I like these different nationality-Barbies. Of course they don't have a Finnish one.

But isn't it great that nowadays Barbie Girls can do anything? Be anything? Of course there have been plenty of options before, but they have been the likes of "Great Shape Barbie Doll (from 1984), Olympic Gymnast Barbie Doll (1996), horse riding Barbie, Art Teacher Barbie Doll (2002) or Flight Attendant Barbie. But now. Now you can be a President! President Barbie Doll.

There is a strange echo in that. President... Barbie... DOLL.

Of course you can also be a TV Chef Barbie.

I bet they have a Reality TV Barbie too.

At least they should.


Then there are vintage Barbies, like the "Original Teenage Fashion Model".

And look at these ladies:

Beyonce and Marilyn have their own dolls...

...as do Elvis and Pricilla. I can fully understand that they do. Legends that they are (maybe Beyonce excluded).

But why, of why, has Hershey's Chocolate its own Barbie? What a manipulative, corruptive world we live in. To lure all those children from the beginning.... how sad.

Of course nearly all Fashion Houses like Versace, Donna Karan, Armani, Vera Wang, Caroline Herrera and even Hello Kitty have their own Barbie designs... No doubt they, too, have some reasons to do that :o)

This might be my favourite one, surprisingly dressed in black gown by some real-world fashion designers whose names I forgot in a split second. It was Badgley-Mischka, I think.

Aren't they pretty in a very plastic-unrealistic kind of way? It is funny: I think these dolls give girls totally wrong image what should be aspired in life (I think I've became old and petty and hypocritical!), and how thin one's waist should be... But on the other hand I so wanted to buy one when visiting this place. I had heaps or Barbies when I was yong, and I think only one of my problems can even remotely be connected to playing with Barbies. Namely the delusion that I need a wardrope with about a dozen or so evening gowns and about 30 dresses. And preferably a new outfit every week. Or two. But then again I might have inherited it from my mother, too.



Yeah, I am pretty sure that was it.

Edited 10.6.09:

You can find the House of Barbie:

Huai Hai Zhong Lu 550

(By metro: Huang Pu Road Station

or Shan Xi Road Station)

PSFK told in their website:

Mattel has been hyping their massive flagship store in Shanghai for a while now and this past weekend, the $30 million “House of Barbie” finally opened to generally rave reviews. Malcolm Moore of The Telegraph covered the opening, getting right to the point: “I’ll say it straight away - I think the store is the work of a clinical marketing genius and that it will be a huge success in Shanghai. “

Anniversary restrictions

All of you not in China can make a quick Google search and check what happened on a fourth day of the sixth month, two decades ago in one square in Beijing. We, here in China, basically cannot, because the birthday of this event is just around the corner now, and the almighty officials in the aforementioned capital (Beijing) have done good job in blocking many websites. For example, without our company proxy I could not access this blog. (Of course, you can also download a free proxy from internet, or buy one for a small charge.)

But proxy or not, all the communication lines seem to have been slower lately. My guess is, because of all the checks they have in place. For example, it is not a good idea to write Tian and then An and then Men, plus square, and add to that a 'killings' or 'uprising' or, as some have said, "massa" together with "cre". Or "Butchers ororororor of ororororo Beijing", like Bill Clinton said at the time. Just testing here how intelligent their search programs are :o)

For the past week news I have been trying to watch from CNN / BBC is missing a piece. You can pretty much tell, as the screen goes black. But sometimes the guy pressing that blocking button is couple of seconds late, and you see what it is about that they sensor. Like just now the news anchor almost finished the first sentence before the screen went black. I wonder if the guy responsible for the blocking will loose his job for such gross oversight...

The remembrance events of this un-named incident (twenty years ago in Beijing, if you didn't get that), have been arranged in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is, naturally, the only place China allows that sort of events to take place. Hong Kong people are used to being able to express their views more freely than mainlanders, and who on earth would give away that right once you have had it? (Oh, except the Russians, who seem to quite like their charismatic, cold, dictator-like, undemocratic, free press muzzling Putin, who has taken things backwards in that vast land of vodka and oil.)

I asked my colleague what is in the Chinese news about this coming 20 year birthday party. Nothing. Of course. What did I think? I asked what does he know about what happened there 20 years ago? Not much. His cousin was there, but still he doesn't know what really happened there. Well, fare and square, who does? But at least we know many a student were killed that day, whether hunders or thousands is irrelevant.

He didn't even seem very interested or upset about the events, as he is with some government policies. There is nothing anyone can do about it anyway, is the feeling. There are more urgent things to worry about, like how to guarantee your own and your family's well-being and comfortable life.

Things have evolved and improved, but I wonder how much... Those of you who cannot see CNN cannot also read this blog right now, but nonetheless, here is a piece from an article from CNN.com: (sorry, it is a bit muzzy)

Trouble in my neighborhood

This is what they are planning to do to me: Open a Godiva Chocolatier less than 50 steps from our front door. Whilst I am alone in China? They have really done their demographics well...

And what would go better with quality chocolate than luxury-brand coffee? Like the famed "Louies vuitton Coffee". You haven't heard of it? I think that just shows you are not keeping up with the world. Ought to be shamed of yourself ;o)

Science faction

Regular blogging service will return as of.... right now. While in Finland, I just seem to be running out of time. Or, to put it another way, I am busy enjoying everything.

I returned to Shanghai on Sunday. When the plane touched down, as always, there were already several passangers on their feet, ready to grab their bags and get out of the plane. But this time we were in waiting for a little science faction show. Namely, several governmental healht inspectors "raided" the plane, and inscpected the planeful of passangers.

They were dressed to face plague, radio active waste, extra terrestial aliens, or... a planeful of possible swine flu carriers. And armed to shoot every one of us. Thankfully only with a some sort of thermometer. They came to every passanger, asked the passangers to close their eyes and aimed to the forehead.

Some persons were questioned, but I could not hear what they asked...

I was just thankful noone showed any symptoms, otherwise I can imagine we all would have been put to a guaranteen for a week. At least. And if they put the whole planeful of passangers to guaranteen, would they all get a private guaranteen? Otherwise the swine flu would spread IN the guaranteen.

Anyway, we were let to the country, and all is well.

For sale

I have already told you couple of times, that in Shanghai you can buy anything you could possibly want, like for example official receipts, live frogs, fake eggs or children. Or documents. Any documents.

Swiss James from I Spy Shanghai had noted an add providing an easy way to staying home "sick" for couple of days without loosing your salary (or job). Or you can simply choose to defraud your insurance company.

The world is your oyster, just pick your favorite sickness and contact "Michelle0924". The hottest thing in town, swine flu, might be out of stock right now, but she shoukd be able to get more next week.

P.S. I didn't find any babies or kids under the "Baby & Kids" section.

Borderline Hysterical Flying

I am in Finland now, arrived yesterday. Monday afteernoon, just when I was getting ready to leave the office a colleague of mine (non-chinese, not that it matters) said that "You must feel uncomfortable flying now, with the swine flu raging around and all. And through Germany! They have already confirmed cases."

To be honest, the thought had crossed my mind, but I was nowhere near the level of precautions of my other colleague who cancelled his family vacation to Malaysia, which was ment to take place in JULY, because of the swine flu. The flu is already in China, what does it help to not travel to Malaysia in July? Non of my business, of course. And I figured I haven't usually gotten a flu when I fly even there is always someone coughing and sneezing, so I have no reason to think I would now get this flu, just because it happens to be a very famous flu.

Where were we? Yes, I was leaving the office, and in the elevator I met another colleague, who asked rhetorically that I must have bought masks for the flight. "No, not really." "Think about it when someone is coughing just next to you. We bought masks for our family."

And so, they awakened the hysteria in me. I marched to the drug store and bought a packet of one-time use masks. What's the harm? I don't have to wear a mask, even I bought one. In the airport I noticed few passangers were wearing masks, but hey, this is China. In China, you can see people wearing masks anytime and anywhere. All the officers working at the airport had masks, though, so that much was new.

I got to the plane and left the packet of masks to the overhead compartment. I didn't see but a few who were wearing them. And the goddamit flu hasn't really been fatal outside Mexico. I think. I am not wearing the mask. Definately not.

A nice lady sat next to me. She doesn't look sick, I though. But then it started. People in all directions started coughing. Sneezing. Coughing more. Blowing nose. We looked at each other with my neighbour. Someone coughed just behind us. I saw her eyes growing in fright. We both felt the anxiety.

What if I get sick, and then I have to think back and wonder if I could have avoided the horrible pork flu just by wearing the stupid mask. "I know this might be ridiculous and hysterical, but I have face masks and I think I'm going to wear one" I said to my neighbour. "I'll have a baby in two months, I cannot get sick." She said with worry in her voice. "I have a whole packet of these things, so please go ahead and help yourself."

I have always - always- looked at people travelling hiding behind their masks a little silly. And there I was, with my pale baby-blue mask. Because they didn't turn the light off, I even topped that off and put on my eye-mask so I could sleep. My stupid eye-mask, which says "Genius at work", which I got from SAS flight. And then, because this combinations looked a bit more embarrassing than I can take, I put my baby-pink hood of my hooded-sweater on, to hide from the world. And I had my iPod headset on. I happened to get a glimpse of how I looked, from the reflection of the personal entertainment screen. Oh boy. Like some comical bank robber. Oh boy oh boy oh boy...

But I slept really well. Which I don't think would have happened without the mask. But I started wondering, what is the use of the mask, as I need to take it off anytime I eat or drink anything? Does it dimish my change of getting the darn flu by any degree? Or is it just to calm down some nervereck (=me) crazy (=me) passangers (=me)?

And what makes this embarrassment truly stupid is that as soon as I stepped out of the aircraft, I took the mask off. I could not imagine myself marching to the "Lufthansa Senator lounge" wearing it :o) And, in my connecting flight to Helsinki, I did a quick health check and deemed my fellow-passangers healthy, and forgo the mask. My hysteria was cured by then. I still have about 8 masks. In case it strikes again.

Keepin' up the appearances

My Past Saturday I went jogging. I don't run much outdoors during the winter months, but the spring is here, and the blissful outdoor runs in Australia awakened the need to run outdoors, despite of... everything.


I put on my grey running pants and my new old rose colored Puma sports top and was ready to go. Except that J. said: "You are not going out dressed like that, are you?" "I sure was going to." "Chinese women do not wear pants like that. Shouldn't you at least wear your sweatpants?"

Err... I am going out for a run. To a nearby park. We live in a city where people go out in their pajamas! We live in a city where some of the girls in office wear the so called "come f**k me boots" and skirts that end 30 cm above their knees. IN the office. We live in a city where neon pink sweat pants and golden pumps are a disturbing, but not a rare sight. And I could not go running in my clean, below knee-ending pants and top which doesn't reveal anything more than my arms? I should wear sweat pants for a run when it is +26 degreed warm? Oh. No. No no no no no.

Sometimes I have got to wonder goes on in the head of that man of mine.