At the risk of looking like a complete attention whore (Emma says I’m more like an ‘attention stripper’) – let me just say

LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!

 

This is the latest edition of That’s Shanghai- a magazine for expats in Shanghai, and is the first one to carry my new regular column. 

One thing I’ve learnt writing this is that the editor of the magazine has to meet with a Communist party apparatchik in a windowless, underground room before every issue.

With a cigarette clenched tightly between thin lips, the official will read through all of the copy (that’s magazine speak for “words”) for any dodgy content. When I received a call to say that a part of the column had fallen under the censors’ red pen I was fascinated to see which bit it could be.

  • The section where I alledge that blind masseurs are sexual predators?
  • The allegation that taxi drivers in Pudong are all crooks?
  • The many calls to overthrow the capitalist roaders and fight for a true Marxist state?

No. It was a list of 4 cocktails that I enjoy. 

One of the shots is named “The Chairman Mao“, which apparently is a bit of a taboo (!).
Instead we could either call it “The Great Veteran Chinese Revolutionary Leader Cocktail” or…

 

 

 

Don’t bother going into the Blue Frog and asking for a “Red Firecracker”, they’ll have no idea what you’re talking about. 

(But for Marx’s sake don’t tell anyone I told you that.)

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