Someone named Anna Sophie Loewenberg, a onetime editor at Beijing Scene, has managed to flounce her way into China and join its social ranks as a Mandarin-fluent, boy-crazy and only slightly alienated Beijinger. (She’s from a Shanghai Jewish family.) Or at least she makes it look that way in “Sexy Beijing,” an online series, on a broadband channel of the same name, in which she plays the intrepid expat Su Fei, someone like Carrie Bradshaw and perhaps like herself.
She’s terrific in the role, and she keeps making episodes—I’m impressed by their sheer number—that recently captured the attention of PBS and The Atlantic Monthly.
But don’t let the mainstream attention put you off. These things are funny. Loewenberg is quick and has a light touch, and the things Chinese people tell her are quietly astounding.
Try to watch just one.
