There were lots of new faces at last night’s dinner at Ritan Park’s Xiao Wang Fu and the group totaled 26, a new record. The first get-together I ever held back in 2003 boasted seven participants (get a load of that photo). The last one, which must have been nearly a year ago, saw about 22 faces.
Jeremiah did most of the work inviting people because I was mostly out of commission and it was a great group of bloggers, journalists and China hands. (I couldn’t get everyone’s name, so if you want to introduce yourselves and your blogs in the comments it would be great). Unlike the last few dinners, there were no moments when you got the uneasy feeling a fist-fight was about to begin. Just lots of intelligent conversation and good food.
My two “complaints” about last night: I thought the food was great but a little pricey. And I didn’t think of asking anyone to take photos. These things should be documented for the historical archives.
Huge thanks to everyone who made it there, and especially to Jeremiah for suggesting the dinner in the first place and handling the invites and RSVPs. Shulan, after enjoying your comments on this blog since 2003, it was great to finally meet you. To everyone who couldn’t make it, we’ll try to give you a little more notice next time. Thanks again for a memorable night.
1
By Jeremiah
Actually, the largest share of the credit and a hearty thanks to Richard for organizing the space and the dinner.
Let’s do it again soon.
March 8, 2008 @ 1:43 pm | Comment
2
By Brendan
Oh, god, I remember that first blogger meetup. I showed up late and hung-over, and you said that you “disagreed with every one of [my] opinions.” Good times!
Last night was good fun. We really must do this more often.
March 8, 2008 @ 2:36 pm | Comment
3
By otherlisa
I swear I’ll make the next one! I miss you guys.
March 8, 2008 @ 2:55 pm | Comment
4
By Jack Sideburns
Yes all good stuff – many thanks to R and J
March 8, 2008 @ 5:18 pm | Comment
5
By David Feng
Thanks for the fantastic party! And the Duck! 🙂 Delicious stuff…
March 9, 2008 @ 11:43 am | Comment
6
By michael
I may be looking at a move to Beijing sometime in the near future, so I hope I can represent the Northwest at next year’s dinner!
March 9, 2008 @ 11:44 am | Comment
7
By Math
I believe many have heard of the famous CCTV Documentary “Rise of Great Powers”, produced by the Chinese state Television as a 12-part documentary series on the history and rise of major nations.
This is the opening 3 minutes of the episode on America, aired last year in China (English caption was done by a viewer, not official translation) :
This documentary was played on many other networks throughout Asia, and was especially popular in Japan and Singapore.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=a4h_70N_FXM
March 9, 2008 @ 11:56 am | Comment
8
By shulan
Had a lot of fun and some intereseting conversations . Was great to finally meet you guys in person. Thanks for organizing, Richard and Jeremiah.
Would be great to do this again soon.
March 10, 2008 @ 12:59 am | Comment
9
By b. cheng
I’m coming late to the party here, but thanks for organizing it, after reading your blog for so long, it was great to finally meet the man behind it. Hope that another event like this can be put together in the near future.
March 11, 2008 @ 3:41 pm | Comment