China’s City Life | WBUR and NPR - On Point with Tom Ashbrook

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Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 11:00 AM EDT

China’s City Life

An elderly man smokes near Shanghai's Oriental TV Tower on Sept. 10, 2004. (AP Photo)

The city of Shanghai is home to 18 million people. Beijing, 17 million. New York City, a mere 8 million. And the hi-rises in China keep going up.

To put our finger on the pulse of big city life in China, we’re turning to American-educated Chinese media mogul Hong Huang, a woman who’s been called “China’s Oprah.” She’s got a whole stable of magazines behind her. A TV show. Movie credits. She’s got a wildly popular blog called “Hong Huang is looking For Fun,” and a racy advice column called “Ask Me.”

Hong Huang pays a lot of attention to Chinese life and lifestyles today in the big city. And she speaks her mind. That’s good. We’ve got questions…

This hour, from Shanghai: Life in the big city, China-style, with media mogul Hong Huang.

This show was pre-recorded in Shanghai, and we’ll have the full audio here on this page later today, but you can join the conversation right now. Post a comment below, and tell us what you think. -Tom Ashbrook

* * *

Guest:

Hong Huang, joining us from Beijing, is CEO of China Interactive Media Group, which publishes the fashion magazine iLook. She’s published and sold TimeOut Beijing and TimeOut Shanghai, and she launched the Chinese version of Seventeen magazine. She hosts an English-language TV talk show “Crossing Over,” and starred in the 2005 film “Perpetual Motion.” She’s the author of an autobiography, “My Abnormal Life as a Publisher.” Her mother, a famous Chinese beauty and diplomat, was interpreter for Mao Zedong.

Slideshows:

City Life: Shanghai
A collection of photos from Flickr showing city life in China, with an emphasis on our immediate environs in Shanghai.

City Life: Beijing
A collection of photos from Flickr showing life in Beijing.

Links:

My Ex-Husband and the Steam Bun
In a translation posted on Danwei.org, Hong Huang writes about the controversy surrounding her late husband’s reaction to a spoof made of his unsuccessful film “The Promise.”

TimeOut Shanghai
The international magazine TimeOut’s Shanghai edition online.

ShanghaiSmart
A webzine and online resource center for Shanghai that includes a list of upcoming events and an interactive map.

Google Video: 21 days in 2.37
3000 photos of 21 days in Shanghai, all in 2 minutes and 41 seconds.

Virtual Shanghai: Shanghai Urban Space in Time
Photos of Shanghai in the early 20th century before the massive development that turned it into the modern city it is today.

Tags: Shanghai

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