Around the World #38: Sean Kelly

Hanging out with Sean.

My guest today is Sean Kelly. He's an art teacher in Beijing, China. He has also lived in Shanghai and Costa Rica. We talked about life here, living on campus, travel and a few interesting movies that remind us of China.

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Show Notes:

The original Blade Runner came out in 1982 and was set in Los Angeles in November 2019. Seven different versions of the film have been released, so it can be a bit difficult discussing the plot.
Blade Runner 2049 comes out in October of this year and is (obviously) set in 2049. It looks to be a sequel, not a reboot.
The Blade Runner movies are based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick.
Brazil is another classic movie that I mentioned. Some of the scenes, especially those with “nature”, remind me of China.
Check out these photos of Shanghai in 1990 vs 2010.
Here's a video from the Chinese/Burmese border town of Ruili:
Contrary to what I had thought, 70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhist, 12.6% are Hindus, and 9.7% are Muslims.
Big shout out to Carol and Fei Fei; you can find the podcasts I recorded with them by following the respective links.
The Nicaraguan Canal is a strange story. Progress appears to have been halted amid controversy, protests, and extreme engineering difficulties. But officially, the project is still on.
Sean and I were both right about the Panama Canal's history. The US originally wanted to build the canal in Nicaragua, but the French changed the proposed location to Panama, which was then part of Colombia. In 1903 the US backed a revolt which led to Panama becoming a separate country, and more agreeable to US interests. You can read more about the history of the Panama Canal on Wikipedia.