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The Beijinger

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The Beijinger
北京人
PublisherTrue Run Media
Founded2001
CountryChina
Based inBeijing
LanguageEnglish
Websitehttps://www.thebeijinger.com/
ISSN1673-0178

The Beijinger (Chinese: 北京人,[1] stylized as "the Beijinger" or "thebeijinger") is a free monthly English language listings and entertainment website and magazine produced by True Run Media in Beijing, China. It was founded in October 2001, as that's Beijing. In June 2008, True Run Media was required to rename that's Beijing to The Beijinger because of trademark issues. A newly created and unrelated that's Beijing magazine was launched under the ownership of China Electric Media, and China International Press.

The magazine has a weekly newsletter discussing the city's events and lists places' addresses in both Chinese characters and pinyin. It has classified advertising and personal advertisement sections that allow users to find housing, employment, and relationships as well as buy and sell goods.

History

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The Beijinger's pizza festival

The Beijinger is a free listings and lifestyle magazine published at the beginning of each month by expatriates and available in numerous restaurants bars, hotels, and cafes in Beijing.[2][3][4][5] Founded in October 2001, as that's Beijing,[6][7] it has been owned by True Run Media since the beginning.[7][8] Mike Wester was the founding producer and the general manager of the magazine.[9] The editor Jeremy Goldkorn assisted in creating the magazine.[10]

Government licenses to run publications require substantial money and work, so the magazine opted to rely on collaborations with Chinese companies to get approval. The magazine in this way occupied a "legal grey zone".[11] The State Council Information Office-backed China Intercontinental Press owned the "that's Beijing" brand.[9] Over many months of discussions about the magazine with True Run Media, a private company, China Intercontinental Press attempted to expand its authority and profits.[9] China Intercontinental Press terminated the partnership in June 2008.[9] Mike Wester, the general manager, said in an interview, "It just didn't seem fair, but it's totally within their rights because they control the brand. This is just the way business works in China."[9]

That month, that's Beijing was required to rename to The Beijinger after China Electric Power News' subsidiary China Electricity Media purchased the "that's" trademark from China Intercontinental Press.[7] The first The Beijinger issue was released in July 2008 after the publisher and editorial staff decided to continue the magazine.[7][11] Under the ownership of China Electric Media and China International Press, a newly created and unrelated that's Beijing magazine was planned to release its first issue that month.[7]

Overview

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The magazine has a weekly newsletter discussing the city's events and lists places' addresses in both Chinese characters and pinyin.[2][12] It has blogs and forums and routinely reviews newly opened bars and clubs.[13][14] Although the English-language website's primary audience is people from outside of China, Beijing women make a substantial number of postings in the personal advertisement section, seeking relationships with foreigners. Some of the women who have made posts had obtained master's degrees from American, Australian, British, Canadian universities. Calling themselves "nontraditional", the women say they have trouble rejoining Chinese society after having until just a while ago been out of the country for so long.[15] The writer Roseann Lake said the website had a "very lively" classified advertising section.[15] Expatriates in Beijing frequently use its classified ads when they need to secure housing. The website has several hundred housing options available, allowing expatriates to use an English-language resource to do their search (as most other options are in Mandarin) and to find roommates from countries outside of China.

Many agents on The Beijinger will take advantage of expatriates' ignorance, levying rental rates that are far above a property's market value. For example, while a Chinese tenant might pay a monthly rent of CN¥1,000 (US$151) through a room found on a Chinese website, an expatriate might may have to pay CN¥2,000 (US$302) on The Beijinger. A downside of the website is that listings largely come from letting agents, who charge fees. There could be very few options in expatriates' desired location still remaining after excluding agent-listed properties.[16] The website also offers homestays.[17] Expatriates can use the site to sell and buy furniture, bicycles, and scooters.[17]

The website has a feature "Echinacities" that lets people browse a substantial number of jobs. Users can choose jobs that are freelance, part-time, or full-time and filter by location. They can choose jobs in the secretarial, IT, and teaching sectors. Since a posting will include the employer's email address, users can apply directly instead of having to create an account on The Beijinger.[16] Around 2010, the company Rent A Laowai ("laowai" means "foreigner" in Chinese) created an ad listing on The Beijinger offering to rent foreigners to foreigners.[18] The ad said, "Occasionally companies want a foreign face to go to meetings and conferences or to go to dinners and lunches and smile at the clients and shake people's hands. There are job opportunities for girls who are pretty and for men who can look good in a suit."[18]

The magazine puts on the Hot and Spicy Festival every year, a two-day event featuring worldwide spicy food.[19] At the Canadian International School of Beijing, it hosts a five-minute hot pepper challenge to celebrate Canada Day in which participants are asked to consume as many of the peppers as possible. They are given 100 hot peppers, water, and yogurt. Drinking water was allowed, but consuming yogurt would mean participants had given up.[20]

From 2001 to 2011, the writer Kaiser Kuo wrote a Beijinger column titled "Ich Bin Ein Beijinger" that discussed his experiences in Beijing.[21][22] The column's German-language name means "I am a Beijinger" and is inspired by the 1963 speech "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner") that John F. Kennedy gave in West Berlin.[23]

Reception

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Food critic Michael Shafran called The Beijinger an "influential magazine".[24] Fodor's said that The Beijinger provides "the most critical and comprehensive coverage" of dance shows, plays, and concerts alongside Time Out Beijing and is "the best way to find out what's on and where to party" with the "most extensive listings".[2][25] Rough Guides in 2003 called that's Beijing "irreverent and informative", noting it had a "giant listings section" with "the more underground gigs".[26] Lonely Planet in 2007 found the magazine to be "slick and confident" as well as "well-designed, well written and the best of the bunch" of free English-language publications given at hotels.[27]

China Daily's Edward Mills wrote in 2011 that, disregarding restaurant reviews' quality, The Beijinger, along with Chinese website Dianping and fellow expatriate website Localnoodles, were among "the most popular locations for finding comments from the 'man in the street'".[28] The author Roseann Lake called the website "a bit of a cross between TimeOut and Craigslist".[15] The Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo said in 2010 that among the publications that help the over 100,000-strong expatriate group in Beijing, The Beijinger is "the most famous publication and has a very useful website".[29]

References

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  1. ^ 《內幕》第92期: 香港局勢異常詭異 習總面臨巨大陷阱 ["Insider" Issue 92: The situation in Hong Kong is very strange, Xi Jinping is facing a huge trap] (in Chinese). 內幕雜誌社. 2019. ISBN 978-1-936895-92-2. Retrieved 2022-02-22 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b c Kelly, Margaret, ed. (2011). Fodor's Beijing. New York: Fodor's. pp. 184, 261. ISBN 978-1-4000-0526-0. ISSN 1934-5518. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ DK Eyewitness Beijing and Shanghai. London: Eyewitness Books. 2016 [2007]. pp. 110, 217. ISBN 978-1-4654-4004-4. ISSN 1542-1554. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Insight Guides: Explore Beijing. London: Insight Guides. 2016. ISBN 978-1-78671-034-5. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Lin-Liu, Jen; Pham, Sherisse (2010). Quintero, Melinda (ed.). Frommer's Beijing (6 ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-470-52566-1. Retrieved 2022-02-22 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ White, Jonathan (October 2011). "Editor's Letter". The Beijinger. p. 6. ISSN 1673-0178. Retrieved 2022-02-22 – via Issuu. This month marks the Beijinger's tenth birthday and you're all invited to the party.
  7. ^ a b c d e Wei, Annie (2008-07-04). "'That's Beijing' back, but under new editorial team". Beijing Today. Retrieved 2022-02-22 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ Santelli, Santelli (2018-10-15). ""Roma fa schifo", polemica per la gaffe della catena di pizze cinese" ["Rome sucks", controversy over the gaffe of the Chinese pizza chain]. la Repubblica (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  9. ^ a b c d e Savadove, Bill (2008-06-19). "Media with foreign tie-ups under attack". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  10. ^ Wei, Annie (2009-01-30). "Jeremy Goldkorn: Blogging the trend". Beijing Today. Retrieved 2022-02-22 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ a b Fitzsimmons, Ella (2008-06-26). "Beijing keeps expat media in check". Media: Asia's Media & Marketing Newspaper. Haymarket Media Group. p. 10. ISSN 1562-1138. EBSCOhost 33930513.
  12. ^ The Rough Guide to Beijing. London: Rough Guides. 2017. ISBN 978-0-241-31494-4. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ Eimer, David; Holden, Trent, eds. (2017). Lonely Planet Beijing. Footscray, Victoria: Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-78701-050-5. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ Wilson, Paul (2007) [2003]. Stedman, Stedman (ed.). The Silk Roads: A Route and Planning Guide (2 ed.). Hindhead, Surrey: Trailblazer Publications. p. 372. ISBN 978-1-905864-00-3. Retrieved 2022-02-22 – via Internet Archive.
  15. ^ a b c Lake, Roseann (2018). Leftover in China: The Women Shaping the World's Next Superpower. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-25464-8. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  16. ^ a b Erickson, Sophia (2018). The China Option: A Guide for Millennials: How to work, play, and find success in China. Palo Alto, California: Travelers' Tales. ISBN 978-1-60952-133-2. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  17. ^ a b Aitken, Shannon (2014). Moon Living Abroad in Beijing. Berkeley, California: Avalon Publishing. pp. 119, 127, 220. ISBN 978-1-61238-539-6. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  18. ^ a b Farrar, Lara (2010-06-29). "Chinese companies 'rent' white foreigners". CNN. Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  19. ^ "Hot and Spicy Festival to lure foodies in Beijing". China Daily. 2019-04-05. Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  20. ^ Wei, Xi (2011-07-01). "Hot pepper eating contest highlights Canada Day celebrations". Beijing Today. Retrieved 2022-02-22 – via Internet Archive.
  21. ^ "Bridge over troubled water". China Daily. 2009-08-07. Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  22. ^ Kuo, Mercy A. (2016-07-10). "New Potus Brief: Getting US-China Relations Right. New Potus Brief: Getting US-China Relations Right". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  23. ^ "图文：郭怡广在TEDxBeijing发表演讲" [Photo: Guo Yiguang speaks at TEDxBeijing] (in Chinese). Sina Corporation. 2009-11-13. Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  24. ^ Shafran, Michael (2011-10-11). "A leader in fine China. An Australian chef has revived a waning Beijing restaurant". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  25. ^ Kelly, Margaret, ed. (2009). Fodor's China. New York: Fodor's. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-4000-0825-4. ISSN 1070-6895. Retrieved 2022-02-21 – via Google Books.
  26. ^ Leffman, David; Lewis, Simon; Atiyah, Jeremy (2003). China. London: Rough Guides. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-84353-019-0. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  27. ^ Harper, Damian; Eimer, David (2007) [1994]. Beijing (7 ed.). Melbourne: Lonely Planet. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-74059-842-2. Retrieved 2022-02-22 – via Internet Archive.
  28. ^ Mills, Edward (2011-02-10). "Taking online reviews with a pinch of salt". China Daily. Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  29. ^ Maisonnave, Fabiano (2010-09-23). "Apesar da barreira da língua, Pequim é hoje cosmopolita. Cidade pós-Olimpíada esbanja segurança e serviços eficientes; série de publicações em inglês ajuda turista. Restaurantes têm fotos no menu para facilitar pedido; trânsito caótico e o excesso de poluição são os pontos baixos" [Despite the language barrier, Beijing is now cosmopolitan. Post-Olympic city oozes security and efficient services; series of publications in English tourist help. Restaurants have pictures on the menu for easy ordering; chaotic traffic and excessive pollution are the low points]. Folha de S.Paulo (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
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