I am excited to announce that Beyond Chinatown now has a proper website, www.beyondchinatown.com! You’re here! As some of you know, it’s been a long time coming. Countless thanks go to Xinyu Chen for setting up the website, designing the beautiful logo, and suggesting Beyond Chinatown’s Chinese name, 城里城外. Thanks to everybody who have supported Beyond Chinatown by following it on Facebook and spreading the word about it. I am also very grateful for friends who have helped me personally by furthering my understanding of Chinese culture by chatting with me and introducing me to people, art, film, music, and ideas. Constant discovery and learning have kept me and this project going.
So, why am I so excited about this website? In addition to being able to enhance our posts with embedded images, videos, music, and hypertext that link to related information, this platform offers the freedom to write more substantive posts and to post more frequently without worrying about overwhelming your Facebook feeds.
I will continue to post on Facebook, but those posts will primarily be teasers to entice you to read the full article on the website. In case you didn’t know, Beyond Chinatown is on Twitter.
Ticket Giveaway
In celebration of this launch, Beyond Chinatown is giving away a pair of tickets to the sold-out Saturday, April 26 5:30 PM screening of Black Coal, Thin Ice (白日焰火), winner of the Golden Bear award at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. Check out the trailer if you haven’t already. For your chance to win, either:
- comment on the Facebook post that announced this website;
- send an email to contact[at]beyondchinatown.com; or
- subscribe to our newsletter by entering your email address at the bottom of this form.
Entries must be submitted by 9 PM EDT, Thursday. To be eligible to win, you must be from New York or the surrounding areas and be able to attend the screening. On Thursday night, one winner will be chosen at random from the received entries. The winner will be notified by Friday morning, and once eligibility is confirmed, the tickets will be emailed to him or her. If the chosen winner is not eligible, then another will be chosen.
Good luck!
Site Tour
I’m still tweaking the design and content of the page, but here’s a quick tour of the page and its features in its current form:
- On the right side is the Upcoming Events section that lists events from our calendar of one-time and short term events. Clicking on an event expands it to display event details. This section will usually only be available from the front page and not from article pages.
- I’m still trying to figure out the best way to present the event calendar and the long-term exhibition calendar on the site.
- Beneath the logo are links to different categories of posts:
- News – posts relating to topics that are currently trending on the internet. e.g., news about a director or an art auction
- Articles – posts relating to topics chosen by Beyond Chinatown. e.g., article about the Chongqing Dockers or article about Chinese New Year customs.
- Events and Exhibitions – posts announcing events and exhibitionsOccasionally, there may be overlap between the categories.
- At the bottom of each article page are buttons that let you “like” the article or share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.
- Readers can comment on articles.
- At the bottom of each page, people can subscribe to the Beyond Chinatown newsletter. I haven’t decided what to do with the newsletter yet, but it will probably be a weekly digest of recent posts.
Bookmark www.beyondchinatown.com, and visit often!