Megan Shank is a freelance journalist, editor, translator and playwright based in Shanghai, China. She formerly served as an editor at the Chinese-language edition of Newsweek. During her six years in China, she has extensively traveled the country and enjoyed diverse employment opportunities—from jazz singer to basketball coach. She maintains a website at meganshank dot com.

Blog Entries by Megan Shank

The Dirt on Ecosystem Stewardship

Posted December 27, 2008 | 08:10 PM (EST)


Originally published at meganshank.com.

Filmmaker John D. Liu believes we have a solution to climate change, but it's not as simple as reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Liu's film Lessons of the Loess Plateau, recently presented at the Asia Society's headquarters in New York, explores how,...

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Fat Bucks

1 Comments | Posted December 8, 2008 | 10:24 AM (EST)


A group of chubby 8- to 18-year-old children trudge around a sweltering track under the watchful gaze of Frank Yu, general manager of Shanghai Dianfeng Sports Management Co., Ltd. While still a student at the Shanghai University of Sport, Yu, along with the help of two classmates, independently generated 30,000...

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Monstrous Deals

Posted October 10, 2008 | 05:36 PM (EST)


Another behemoth info tech company is buying majority shares of its Chinese counterpart.

Monster Worldwide buys 55 pct of ChinaHR for $174 mln BEIJING, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Employment website company Monster Worldwide Inc said on Wednesday it had completed its full acquistion of ChinaHR by purchasing a...
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Export This!

Posted July 29, 2008 | 07:07 PM (EST)


Companies have done their best to capitalize on the Olympics, whether via serving as an official sponsor or posing as one, amping up brand image, signing up stars or pushing new products.

A high-level PepsiCo Food manager recently revealed to me a locally developed snack set for...

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Eight Ain't Great

Posted July 13, 2008 | 10:48 AM (EST)


Mao once purged the Chinese pursuit of superstitious practices and beliefs, including numerology. However, in using the date 8/8/08 for its biggest international event, the current government has instead embraced the way of the people and their beliefs, despite reservations about such ideas being unscientific.

Eight has traditionally been thought...

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The Victims vs. the Victimized

Posted May 22, 2008 | 05:44 PM (EST)


A Chinese friend who has become increasingly less friendly in recent months again sent me silly nationalist propaganda the other day. After reading a story in Newsweek by Mary Hennock and Melinda Liu, which very lightly mentions that the Sichuan earthquake might eventually shake things up politically as well,...

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Honk if You're Heartbroken

Posted May 19, 2008 | 04:52 PM (EST)


Today at approximately 2:30pm in Shanghai, a swell of horns surged outside of my 19th floor office window. From my office, I have a clear view of major roads and an expressway. Outside, cars on the highways and streets had stopped, as had cyclists in mid-intersection. Pedestrians slouched on curbs....

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Words to Live By

Posted May 18, 2008 | 10:19 PM (EST)


Watching earthquake coverage on CCTV Xinwen (CCTV's news channel) the other night, I witnessed something that shook me to the core.

A trapped Sichuanese woman waiting for rescue workers to dig her out told cameras poking down into her hole (in Chinese):

"I knew you would come...

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The Problem with Migrant Workers

Posted January 30, 2008 | 06:55 PM (EST)


Today while at a Bund-side five-star hotel's cafe where I was conducting an interview for the Enterprise section we'll launch in March's edition of Newsweek Select, a troop of 30-plus mud-covered construction workers tromped in with their rubber boots and construction hats and plopped down next to white collar workers...

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Chinese Netizens, Rest Easy

Posted January 23, 2008 | 11:11 AM (EST)


The Chinese can rest easy tonight. I should know. I saw it on the news.

Tonight, I flipped on the evening broadcast of CCTV1. The station is part of the China Central Television (CCTV) family, which also runs channels such as CCTV2, CCTV3, CCTV4, CCTV5, and, well, you get...

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How About a Facebook Race?

Posted December 22, 2007 | 04:41 PM (EST)


Growing up a Nebraskan, I was taught to deeply distrust Iowans--particularly while driving. I have learned that although they are poky behind the wheel, Iowans have expertly navigated the American electoral system to their advantage, drumming up much hubbub and hard cash for the state with their early caucuses.

...
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Giving AIDS Orphans Hope to Create a Better Picture

Posted October 2, 2007 | 12:05 PM (EST)


A roomful of children cheerfully cut hearts from luminescent gold paper, stencil dancing blue dolphins onto ocean scenes and paint smiling faces onto white ceramic mini Beijing opera masks. The charity foundation Chi Heng brought them from the provincial townships of their native Henan province to Shanghai for a summer...

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Trade on the New Silk Road: Euros for Emissions

Posted July 28, 2007 | 05:31 PM (EST)


Recently, I read with interest an article in the International Herald Tribune regarding the groundbreaking of the environmentally sustainable town, Dongtan, slated for construction just outside of Shanghai. I'd been following news of the town since plans for it were first published a few years ago. But what was...

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China: Engineering Social Harmony in My 'Hood

Posted June 12, 2007 | 10:31 AM (EST)


Tucked within the traditional Shanghai lane where I reside, a Sunday is in full swing. Alley cats creep along tiled roofs searching for the perfect spot of sun, the elderly resident opera fans tap in rhythm as a man on erhu accompanies an octogenarian with a plucky mezzo soprano voice,...

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