The September issue of That's Beijing is out now – paper-and-ink-form citywide, digital pdf form right here or in your browser here. Editor-in-Chief Oscar Holland introduces the magazine:
Luddites: avert your gaze for the contents of this month’s magazine may dumbfound you. Indeed, had we published this issue ten years ago, it might have dumbfounded all but a handful of tech speculators and futurists.
Because although 2006 doesn’t seem that long ago, remember this: The first iPhone wouldn’t be released for another year. As such, it would be difficult for our hypothetical historical reader to comprehend this month’s photo essay (page 10), in which we bring together the best Chinese entries from this year’s iPhone Photography Awards.
But while I’m confident that people could have gotten their heads around the concept (phone cameras – albeit terrible ones – existed in 2006), our bitcoin cover story would have created greater confusion. To be honest, the subject still confuses people in 2016.
Noelle, Dominique and I pose with a digital currency guru while on assignment for our bitcoin cover story. By ‘digital currency guru’ I mean ‘Tianjin senior,’ and by ‘bitcoin cover story’ I mean ‘our September/October Tianjin pullout’ (which you can find in the center of the magazine).
Thankfully our very own Noelle Mateer is on hand to unpick the topic for you, as she delves into China’s role in this game-changing cryptocurrency. From bitcoin ‘mines’ in rural Sichuan to the tech hubs of Zhongguancun, the country is already a major player in this borderless global phenomenon, and Noelle’s fascinating feature profiles some of the characters leading the charge.
Elsewhere in the magazine:
Dominique Wong looks at China’s fixation with exotic pets and considers the ethical problems it poses (page 14)
Andrew Chin chats to both rapper A$AP Ferg and the dudewho plays the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones (in separate interviews, obviously, pages 34 and 32 respectively)
I meet a veteran of the Pyongyang International Film Festival to find out about North Korea’s movie scene (read a full interview here)
And finally, I tell you about some things I’ve recently consumed for our Eat & Drink section (from page 52)
Happy reading.
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