nanjing
Latest
A Nanjing Massacre survivor's story lives on digitally
On the morning of December 13th, 1937, Japanese troops pounded on the door of Xia Shuqin's family home in Nanjing, China. Thirteen people had taken shelter under this particular roof: Eight-year-old Xia, her mother and father, two grandparents, four sisters (one, four, 13 and 15 years old), and four neighbors. The Japanese army had ridden into the city on horseback that morning and faced little resistance; the Chinese army had made a full, chaotic retreat the prior evening, December 12th. When Xia's father answered the door, the Japanese soldiers immediately shot and killed him. They bludgeoned and killed her one-year-old sister. They raped and killed her mother. They killed her grandparents. They raped and killed her 13-year-old and 15-year-old sisters. And they bayoneted Xia three times in the arm and back.
Dexmo exoskeleton glove lets you touch and feel in VR
As much as we enjoy virtual reality these days, there's still the occasional urge to fiddle with virtual objects using just our hands. If all goes well, the upcoming Manus VR glove will be the first to unwrap our hands from controllers, but it'll only provide tactile feedback, meaning you still won't be able to feel the shape nor physical properties of virtual objects. This is where Dexmo comes in: This mechanical exoskeleton glove tracks 11 degrees of freedom of motion and offers variable force feedback for each finger. To put it simply, you'll be able to realistically squeeze a rubber duck in the VR world. Better yet, this seemingly clunky glove claim to be lightweight and also runs wirelessly "for a relatively long time."
Huge crowds attend Shanghai Apple Store grand opening
As expected, China's newest Apple store opened today in Shanghai. The store's 300 employees were greeted by a crowd of over 500 people on hand for the grand opening. Located on the busy Nanjing road, the store is China's fifth Apple store and its largest. It occupies five stories of retail space and has an expected foot traffic of 40,000 customers each day. The opening of this store is part of Apple's long-term strategy to increase its presence in China and other parts of Asia-Pacific. In the past, Apple has been slow to introduce products into China. It took Apple 4 months to introduce the iPhone 4 to China, 5 months for the iPhone 3GS and a whopping 16 months for the iPhone 3G. Apple is trying to reverse this trend by slowly adding new retail outlets to improve its brand awareness and hopefully boost its sales in the region. Apple's biggest hindrance may be its own popularity. Demand for Apple products has created an underground network of fake Apple products being sold both in open air marketplaces and fake retail stores.
Shanghai's Nanjing East Apple Store to open this weekend
China's new Shanghai store will open for business this weekend. Plans for the retail store were revealed earlier this year and construction to turn the former jewelry store into an Apple store has progressed smoothly. Last week, the red curtain covering the store was lifted, revealing an Apple logo and a promise that Apple was going to light up Nanjing Road soon. Nanjing road is one of Shanghai's busiest retail roads and the Apple store is one of the largest in China. A large store combined with a high traffic location is a win-win situation for both Apple and its Chinese customers. [Image from Micgadget]
Live crab vending machine makes us think there could be better uses for vending machines (video)
Yes, it's true: an entrepreneur in Nanjing, China, has stocked a vending machine with Shanghai Hairy Crabs. The delicacy (if anything with "hairy" in its name could be a delicacy) is kept at 5° Celsius, where it hibernates until it is sold for ¥120-600 (between $1.40 and $7.30), which is apparently a thirty percent markdown from retail. Even the Japanese media seem to find this one peculiar -- and this is a country that sells liquor, pornography, and Maine lobsters in its vending machines. See it for yourself in the video after the break. Update: Our man on the scene in China (actually, he's in London, but whatever) noticed a few additional details in the video, including the fact that the prices in Chinese Yuan range from ¥10 to ¥50, and that the owner of the machine offers a pretty sweet guarantee: if your crab is dispensed in a "dead" condition, you get three as compensation. Sounds more than fair to us!
Sharp, CEC partner up for cheap LCDs in China
Sharp and Sony are planning to dazzle and amaze us with the latest and greatest 10G LCDs rolling off the production lines of their shared facility in 2011, but there will still be plenty of money to made on older tech. With an eye on the bottom line, Sharp has partnered up with the generically-named China Electronics Corp. (CEC) in Nanjing. Not only will Sharp be selling 6G equipment for smaller displays to the Panda group of CEC, but the two will also be firing up an 8G LCD plant in Nanjing in March of 2011. Thanks in part to government stimulus action, China's developed a voracious appetite for affordable LCDs, and the Nanjing plant will aim to serve up 80,000 cheap panels to the market. So far, this collaboration is all about LCDs, so don't expect any CHBD-infused toys from Sharp any time soon.
All the World's a Stage: Magical table, magical screen
All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening.As with many other people, my first experience of roleplaying was with a "tabletop" roleplaying game in high school. The older kids introduced me to Vampire: The Masquerade, and although I wasn't enthralled by the whole "bloodsucking" thing, I quickly realized that the basic activity was lots of fun, and I ended up starting my own roleplaying group with Earthdawn, a more traditional (yet surprisingly original) fantasy setting. Those games were my some of my happiest memories from high school.In college I couldn't find many people who were interested in playing with me, and when I came to live and work in China after graduating in 2000, I thought that my roleplaying days were over for sure. You may imagine my surprise when in late 2007, I came across another foreigner here in Nanjing, discussing Dungeons and Dragons with his Chinese wife in one of my favorite restaurants. It turns out he needed another player for the group he has going here, and although his wife wasn't interested, I happened to appear, ready and eager to join up.Originally I had thought that WoW would be the only way I could continue roleplaying while living in the far East, but starting to get back into my old hobby has given me a chance to see more clearly what the differences are between tabletop roleplaying and roleplaying in a game like WoW. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and different people have their preferences. Both have a special value which is mainly derived from connecting creatively with other people.
