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Top Obscura
The Creepiest Amusement Park of All Time? 
21 Amazing Bangalore Breakfast Dishes 
Why Chinese People Eat Sea Horse 
Classic Chinese Torture Methods (and their cute names) 
Amazing Old Bollywood Poster Shops 
The 38th Reich: Korean Nazi Cosplay 
Beijing’s incredible (and completely fake) Disneyland 
Castration Classes at the Beijing Eunuch Culture Exhibition Hall 
China’s all-time favorite (and all-time darkest?) comic book: Sanmao 
Why Chinese People Eat Ants 
Prosthetic Noses, Red Wigs, and Whiteface… American Characters in Chinese Films 
Learn How to Speak North Korean 
Beijing’s Single Most Horrific Meal 
This Hindu God has 1,000 Vaginas! 
Nazi Fashion in China 
About Andy Deemer & AsiaObscura 
India’s Incredibly Cool Hand-Drawn Movie Posters 
Small Children Feeding Live Animals to Tigers in a Chinese Zoo 
The Sick Collector and His 1000 Pairs of Shoes 
What the Fortune Teller Told Me (Hong Kong) 
Why Chinese People Eat Deer Penis 
Outrageously Cute Korean Cosplay: The 21 Favorites 
Chisney & Koreansney: Local Disney Knockoffs 
Whoring in Chiang Mai 
18 Terrible Moments from a Taoist Hell 
One Ghostly Cambodian Ruin 
Another Abandoned Beijing Amusement Park 
Dr Shankar’s Wonderful Collection of Brains and Other Medical Obscura 
A Huge Pile of Gorgeous Old Thai Movie Posters 
The Poem I Can’t Find… 
Heavy Petting in Seoul 
Sweet gruesome statue asking for donations 
Beijing’s Dongyue Temple and Their 19 Incredible Taoist Gods 
Our Six Best China Stories! 
American Imperialist Bastards in a North Korean Comic Book 
Porn, Rats, and Antique Projectors at Sri Lanka’s Classic Cinemas 
Best Pix from Bangalore’s First Ever ComicCon - The Disastrous Fall of Sanmao
Why Chinese People Eat Snake as Medicine 
North Korea frightening customs declarations form 
Relive the Cultural Revolution (aka The Weirdest Dinner Theater in Beijing) 
North Korean traffic lights… um… robot ladies. 
13 Amazing Indian Circus Posters 
Return to Fake Disneyland? Sweeeeeet! 
China’s first sci-fi movie: Death Ray on Coral Island (1980) 
The Incredible Furniture of North Korea 
A Postcard from Erenhot 
Metropolis finally finds the right marketing campaign… 
The Bold Boys of Korean Cosplay - 15 More Pictures from weirdoid Tiger Balm Park
Tag Archives: cultural revolution
Sweet Movies and Wild Books
The Goriest, Raunchiest Chinese Classic of All Time
"Have you ever heard of Leonard Cohen?" Sidney shouts. He's trying to be heard over the album that's blasting through his hutong apartment. "Someone gave me this CD. It's great for doing taichi!" Sidney Shapiro's 90-something years old. He moved to Shanghai looking for a job in 1947. And he's lived in ...
Historical Wonders, Lost in Translation, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
Cute Little Cultural Revolution “Learn Chinese” Booklet
The cultural revolution-era "Learning English" book blew my mind, but when I stumbled on this little "Learn Chinese" booklet the other day, I was touched. It represented such a different side of the Cultural Revolution. Instead of war/hate/fear of the "Learn English" book, this one radiates with the hope, promise, and togetherness that ...
Historical Wonders, Lost in Translation, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
Pages from an Amazing English Textbook
Back in the cultural revolution, China was in turmoil. Almost anything could get you in trouble. Han Xin, a blacklisted artist, told me that painting the sun the wrong shade of red would mean jail time. Absolutely everything had to be in unquestionable service to Mao and a Maoist China. The only plays were ...
Copyright Carelessness, Fashionista
Best Skirt in the Worst Spot Possible
You may have seen my post about the Red Restaurant, where dancers, singers and audiences recreate and celebrate the years of famine and starvation of the Great Leap Forward, and the torture and slaughter of the Cultural Revolution. Something I left out was this lady. While many were dressed in the red guard dress of ...
Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
China’s all-time favorite (and all-time darkest?) comic book: Sanmao
Not many foreigners know about Sanmao. Here in China, though, he’s bigger than Disney. He's as prone to mischief as Bart Simpson. As endlessly honest as Richie Rich. And as dark as Charlie Brown. Darker. Even though Sanmao comics are as much for kids as they are adults, they're filled with death, ...
Extraordinary Eats, Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism
Video of the Cultural Revolution Restaurant
I gave all the juicy details of this restaurant where you can make merry, while celebrating the best of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, earlier this week. But here, for your pleasure, is some video of the mad show and the flag-waving audience. For China: For elsewhere:
Extraordinary Eats, Historical Wonders, Strange Tourism
Relive the Cultural Revolution (aka The Weirdest Dinner Theater in Beijing)
Update: read the story below, but don't miss the video of the performance! "Two foreigners in the RED restaurant?" Reverb howled, "I think this will be more fun than the restaurant itself!" Red Restaurant, in the east of Beijing, is an opportunity to relive the passion and pain of China from the late 50s through the late ...
Historical Wonders, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
Red Detachment of Awesome
This Wednesday thru Friday, if you're in Beijing, you shouldn't miss the best of the "model operas," The Red Detachment of Women (红色娘子军). Playing for three nights only at Poly Plaza. It's called a model opera, but it's actually a ballet. The eight model operas were, during the height of the cultural ...
May 23, 2011 / Comments Off
Offbeat Museums
The Best Stamps from Beijing’s Incredible Stamp Museum (including 3-D North Korean stamps!)
Continuing on from yesterday's post, here are my six top favorite collections from Beijing's wonderful stamp and post museum.... Sorry for the spoiler above. But it's just... too weird. 6. Table Tennis What's there not to love about table tennis? Mao adored it, so did Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai. Plus, there's always the ...
Offbeat Museums
Incredible Chinese Stamp Museum (first of two)
I'm not a stamp geek. My dad is, my nephew is... but to be perfectly honest, I had some low expectations for the Beijing Stamp Museum. Even with free admission, four floors, over one million stamps, and "for rent" magnifying glasses, Michelle and I were the only visitors. But I have to admit, this museum is ...
Historical Wonders, Holy Curiosities
The Mystery of Shuanglin’s Scooped-Eye Statues
A $2 tuktuk ride from the ancient city of Pingyao 平遥, in the deserts of Shanxi Province, there's a wonderful little temple called Shuanglin Temple (双林寺). The name translates to something like A Pair of Forests Temple. Cute. Inside, though, you'll find a strange sight. Walk to the back, and you'll come across the Goddess Temple, ...