I'm so relieved and excited to announce that Sasha has successfully arrived in California just in time for her Birthday and will now along with me be living here for the foreseeable future (at least for a year or so).
It has been a very long and difficult process to ensure that she can keep her medical license in China as she will not be able to work on her dep...
2019-03-29 18:38:14 +0000 UTC View Post
So it's time to sit back, wind down and get ready for the weekend (at least if you're not working overtime!)
Let's get this week's early release out of the way first, and it's a bit of a doozy! I was contacted by an Australian living in Shenzhen who has been barred from leaving China because of a legal farce and I thought that his story would be quite instructional, I also really like the areas we were riding through 2019-03-22 17:37:05 +0000 UTC View Post
I had have a good laugh, whilst in Vietnam C-milk and I were travelling quite a lot through the northern parts of the country and we stayed in some rather low budget hotels. The hotels in Vietnam are actually incredibly cheap and even really good hotels will cost you less than a crappy Motel in the states to stay in! For example, a large room with two queen sized beds including an awesome full buffet continental breakfast was less than 60 US dollars for the n...
2019-03-19 22:19:59 +0000 UTC View Post
I've just returned from my adventure with C-milk to Vietnam, we filmed a heck of a lot and we now have an immense amount of videos to edit which I cannot wait to share with all of you.
I wanted to share with you what impacted me the most about Vietnam from a non-touristy, non-backpacker, non-travel blogger point of view.
As someone who has had a lot of experience living in Asia I can see through the initial excitement ...
2019-03-17 16:42:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Before you read this, I need to assure you that everything is okay, my wife is incredibly strong and understanding and she is currently safe and beyond the clutches of these maniacs. I also want to make it clear that no matter how much these lunatics try to make me hate China, I refuse to let this very dangerous and disruptive group of Chinese people mar my image of the good people and good aspects of Chinese society which made me fall in lov...
2019-03-10 21:36:42 +0000 UTC View Post
I can't believe how much I love Bahn mi! The French gave an amazing gift to Vietnam... Breakfast, lunch and dinner you see local Vietnamese pulling over to the side of the road and ordering Bahn mi, which is actually just french bread with vegetables and meat inside, in other words a really good sandwich (or sub).
The Vietnamese are a lot mor...
2019-02-20 17:13:11 +0000 UTC View Post
This has been a bit of a running theme lately on my channel, This week's early release video is a fantastic follow up and expansion on the disconnected youth video I released last week.
We have an in-depth conversation about the virtual girlfriend industry in China that is absolutely booming! And we're not talking about livestreams here, we're t...
2019-02-16 03:15:44 +0000 UTC View Post
I've been working on a montage that I'll be including somewhere in my next video, I really like how it's turning out. Here's how it's coming along so far, please take a look:
I honestly do love Shenzhen, it's an amazing city that continues to grow and yet still holds on (albeit loosely) to that very vibrant communal village feel in certain parts.
I've just released a video about the disconnected youth of China, it is something I honestly feel strongly about as I know so many people that are affected by it, China really is an odd society as you're surrounded by people all the time yet at the same time can feel very very lonely, I hope that you all enjoyed that little bit of insight:
Happy Chinese New Year to you all! Right now all over China people are sleeping off their massive dinners and probably a lot of Baijiu, there will be massive hangovers in the morning and everyone will be looking forward to more of the same as soon as they wake up. This is the most important holiday of the year and is all about family and eating to the point of insanity and although it's fun and jovial it's very difficult to be a part of it 2019-02-04 19:27:46 +0000 UTC View Post
I personally am not a fan of Rap and Hip-hop and in fact when it comes to music, it may in fact be my least favourite genre. I avoid it like the plague but at the same time I can still appreciate people's right to enjoy the music and subcultures that they like. So when China banned Rap from TV and media I was secretly a little pleased but at the same time very alarmed because of the once again seemingly arbitrary way in which the law and government wo...
2019-02-01 18:08:38 +0000 UTC View Post
I was in Hong Kong quite a few years back in an area that's quite popular at night for walks along the coast, I used to very rarely go to Hong Kong back then as this was before they introduced the border crossing paper and each time I would visit Hong Kong it would result in 5 stamps in my passport, one for leaving Mainland China, two for entering Hong Kong as one was the entry stamp and the other was the stamp saying how many days I was allowed to stay in HK...
2019-01-29 05:45:15 +0000 UTC View Post
And yes, I say that because in today's early release we're talking about the craziest girls we've ever met/dated in China, its more that that though as we're riding on probably the most famous mountain road in Taiwan and it's gorgeous! Come join us for a little fun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx9KqTcimIY
Once you're done with that you can relax and hav...
2019-01-25 18:47:13 +0000 UTC View Post
I was asked by some subscribers and friends to do the “10 year challenge”, suffice it to say I never take part in these internet fads but I'd had a few beers and went back into some old photos and was able to find a picture that was technically 10 1/2 years old and posted it to instagram. I obviously didn’t pay attention to the challenge since you’re supposed to post a recent photo too but whatever, thing is a lot of people were commentin...
2019-01-24 01:50:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Making a documentary in China is both incredibly difficult and challenging yet at the same time easier than in some other countries.
I've been shooting on the street for years and so I'm very attuned to what's going on around me, I know how to feel the room, when to stop filming and more importantly when to move on. You see in China, although there are very strict rules and laws, no one really wants to enforce them beca...
2019-01-22 02:56:33 +0000 UTC View Post
All jokes aside, C-milk and myself are very often accused of "Stealing China's women" by our detractors online and we talk about this phenomenon and how this has affected us in real life in this weeks' early Patreon ADV release:
The video I've just released about the Japanese Adult movie star who taught almost every man of my ...
2019-01-18 19:13:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Take a look at this clip: https://youtu.be/8LScr9-YtdY
This happened last year as part of Shenzhen's anniversary (I on purpose avoided it) although I watched the lights from the top of my building, I refused to go anywhere near the event itself.
There are two astounding things about crowds in China, 1) They're inconceivably big! I personally have been in si...
2019-01-16 18:18:11 +0000 UTC View Post
So by now you know that my new documentary is finally out, for those of you who have already seen it I'm sure you could pick up on just how awkward I felt when I went to visit Gulu, the photographer in Beijing who has made a name for himself in the underground scenes taking nude and risque photos.
I honestly thought that it would be a case of us visiting him and talking to him about his work and maybe he'd show us some sort of gallery o...
2019-01-14 20:26:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Okay, that's seriously a nightmare... Let's rather focus on the upcoming weekend and all the love, excitement, boredom and heartbreak it may bring yet at the same time let's get learn about how you can't fail in college if you go to China!
Some of you may have noticed that there wasn't a video today over on my channel and that is beca...
2019-01-11 21:57:28 +0000 UTC View Post
In the above photo (taken close to my wife's ancestral village, more about that in a bit) I'm holding a vegetable of some sort which was given to me by a rural farmer who I simply had a conversation with on the side of a dirt path... So let me explain the situation that led up to this.
During the Grave-Sweeping day holiday I went with my wife and in-laws to burn paper offerings to their grandfather at his grave (also paper clothes and v...
2019-01-09 22:46:17 +0000 UTC View Post
It goes without saying but when most people think of Chinese food in the west, images of fried rice, noodles and orange chicken come to mind, I don't need to tell you guys as most of you have probably seen my Quest for the Best Chinese in America series that I did with C-milk over on ADVChina when we searched the West coast of America looking for authentic Chinese food (and found a lot of it). During a conversation the other day I was asked what the f...
2019-01-08 03:39:32 +0000 UTC View Post
It's Friday! And early access to Monday's video is a nice bit of fun and a good balance to the downer of a video I've just released (I'll explain shortly), first however go over and watch C-milk and myself as we stumble around after a few beers and have a fun walk around a small city in Taiwan at night as we try to explain that China is 1st, 2nd and 3rd world all rolled into one:
China sure loves Panda bears! I was always very amused at the panda-shaped e-bikes that you see buzzing around in the 3rd tier cities of China.
Sure they may be considered cute but I doubt that you'd be able to sell anything like this other than in China (unless it's for children), but you see adult men and women buzzing around on these things....
2019-01-02 22:49:02 +0000 UTC View Post
So this is usually the part where people moan about what went wrong in 2018 and why they're so glad it's over and why 2019 is going to be amazing and they start making resolutions about losing weight or maybe paying off that pesky credit card, nothing wrong with all of that but I'd like to take a different approach.
Life is a non-stop and ongoing adventure for all of us (yes even sitting on your couch watching TV), it neve...
2018-12-31 19:10:46 +0000 UTC View Post
It's Christmas Day here where I am, although I'm away from my family (I always am due to living in China), I'm super lucky to be able to spend the holidays with my friend Dan who has been slaving away smoking his famous "Apple-wood smoked ribs" all day..
There will be plenty of beers and cheers and I'm wishing you all the very best of the holidays (no matter wh...
2018-12-25 22:23:17 +0000 UTC View Post
By now if you haven't checked it out yet, I did a sort of silly and different video which I released today, one about South African TV adverts... The reason why is that it's almost Christmas and the rather serious video I have been working on just simply doesn't fit in with the Christmas spirit and so I'll release that one next week:
As for th...
2018-12-21 20:24:08 +0000 UTC View Post
So, you're in a relationship with a Chinese woman (or man) and you're a foreigner, thinking of inviting your spouse to live with you in a different city or especially a different country? Get ready for some serious hurdles!!!
As discussed many times before on both SerpentZA and ADVChina, the Chinese extended family unit is one that came about from a need to survive in a country that in essence offers very little in way of securi...
2018-12-20 07:41:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Down in the South of China we have a lot of creepy crawlies and due to the constant humidity cockroaches are a huge issue during summer (which is most of the year), the thing is we also have these very nasty flying cockroaches in and around the Guangdong province and when we were working on my upcoming documentary, the film crew who all live in the North of China had no idea that they even existed and it resulted in an hilarious...
2018-12-17 19:42:44 +0000 UTC View Post
It's almost time for the weekend! And this week's early access ADVChina video is a good one! Why is it good? Because finally both C-milk and I got to talk about something that's rarely talked about (since it's heavily censored in China) and that is China's sexuality.... From levels of attractiveness to the open acceptance in China of prostitution (even though it's illegal) and all sorts of other important things 2018-12-14 18:32:06 +0000 UTC View Post
As you all know, I've been spending some solid time here in the United States over the past 2 months setting things up with C-milk, I will be going back to China in the very near future, but until then I'm still working at editing some ADV content and finishing up some very important business here with regards to things such as an American driver's license and getting my corvette legal on the road in California as well as a bunch of other more pressing i...
2018-12-12 21:35:40 +0000 UTC View Post