The Magazine
Dumbing Down?
Offensive slang or Great Aussie Adjective? Tourism Australia’s latest ad campaign has been both celebrated and castigated down under thanks to its use of the English language’s most common swear word. "We’ve poured you a beer...we’ve shampooed the camel...we’ve saved you a spot on the beach," say a series of ‘real’ Australians in a variety of appealing locales. "So where the bloody hell are you?" The fact that the punchline is delivered by a bikini-clad young woman probably only adds to the ire of those accusing the creators of dumbing down Australian culture. However, the USD 133 million campaign received
...The Way Ahead
Better roads, bigger planes, classier hotels – what’s there not to like about a booming economy? The year’s travel prospects in Asia seem as rosy as a Humble Administrator’s flowerbed, even if bird flu does represent a rather large knife pressed against the industry’s jugular. Asia may be heralded as the place where the anticipated ‘virus mutation’ will likely take place, but fortunately this isn’t a continent that lets fear worry it too much. It’s a case of ‘fingers crossed’ rather than ‘batten down the hatches’ because right now there’s far too much fun to be had.
Close to Home
...Rising Stars
From time immemorial, mankind has looked to the stars. We wish upon them, we dream about them and they guide us in times of doubt–not least when we're booking our next vacation.
Amid the murkiness of hotel hyperbole, those stars stamped on the reception desk plaque have become the modern traveller's guiding light–a reliable means of charting a path through their next heavenly holiday. Or that's the theory at least.
In reality, the star rating system underpinning the hotel industry worldwide is as difficult to pin down as a horoscope column. Despite the way it is casually bandied about by
...The Foreign Babe
Pretty American graduates arrive in China's capital to do stints with foreign firms all the time; an ever-growing contingent of 'foreign babes', as common as that other US export Starbucks and equally unremarkable. Yet Rachel DeWoskin will be remembered – for she was the definitive article.
As a child, DeWoskin travelled extensively throughout the People’s Republic with her father (noted sinologist Ken DeWoskin), mother and two brothers. After graduating from Columbia University (US), she returned to Beijing in the mid-'90s wanting to experience Chinese culture as an adult. Before long, and with a little luck, she became it: starring in ...
