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China Divided in Half
It is often said that there are two China’s — urban China and rural China. But according to this map, recently published on Tea Leaf Nation, China can be split in half according to GDP distribution....
View ArticleHong Kong, China. Really?
Way back in 1997 I was the director of a Chinese language program at a major university in Changchun. As the semester was coming to an end, one of the students (they were all Americans) let me know...
View ArticleSpray Painting Beijing
When most people think or talk about Beijing today, the focus is on pollution or the crowds Rarely do they think, “Beijing? Great graffiti!” But that may change, thanks to a documentary about graffiti...
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How Many USA’s Can You Fit Inside China?
I ran across this interesting map on the inter webs the other day. It divides the population of China into four different regions, each with a population roughly equal to that of the United States. As...
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What China Wants
Recently, The Economist published an excellent 4-part essay exploring China’s future. The first part, titled “What China Wants” looked at some of the major drivers of China’s economic and diplomatic...
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Finding Samuel Lowe
On September 2, the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report blog posted an article about a Jamaican-Chinese woman’s search for her roots. Growing up in New York’s Harlem, Paula Williams Madison...
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East and West and Hong Kong
Like many others, my journey to being a Sinophile began in Hong Kong. In the summer of 1979 I spent 3 months in the city on an internship, teaching English and working in the office of the Chinese...
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A Conversation with Peter Hessler
One of my favorite China writers, Peter Hessler, recently sat down with a reporter for Xinhua, China’s official news agency, to talk about his books, as well as the joys and challenges of writing about...
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Happy Constitution Day! Don’t Mention the Constitution!
China just celebrated a brand new holiday: Constitution Day (December 4). The government has put forth this holiday as a way to signal it’s commitment to “rule of law,” something that Chinese President...
View ArticleEscaping the Cities
In the 1960′s and 1970′s the Chinese government sent millions of city dwellers “down to the countryside,” many of them students and intellectuals. The purpose was ostensibly to have them learn about...
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Christmas in China
Here is an an al-acarte of stories and posts related to Christmas in China. And as we say in Chinese, Shengdan Kuai le (圣诞快乐), which means, well Merry Christmas. The Chinese word for Christmas is...
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Where Are the Foreigners From?
When I first went to China (way back in 1984), foreigners were something of a novelty. At the time, I was working in the city of Zhengzhou, in Henan Province. I was one of perhaps a dozen foreigners in...
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Now You See It; Now You Don’t
A week and a half ago as a dress and a couple of llamas were melting the Internet in the US, Chinese netizens were gripped by an online documentary. The film, titled Under the Dome, is a hard-hitting...
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The Chinese are Coming!
During my first year in China (1984) I was an English teacher at a small teachers college in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. My students were middle school English teachers in smaller cities around the...
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All Aboard!
This post is for all you train lovers. The Guardian recently published a wonderful photo essay of China’s last steam train line,which runs along a rail line in Sichuan province. Here’s the...
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The No Smoking Dance
Nobody can launch a massive nationwide propaganda campaign like the Chinese government. Whether it is to promote an event or mobilize support in favor of a new policy pronouncement, they are in a...
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I Love a Parade
I’m actually ambivalent to parades in general, but I must admit to having a strange fascination with Chinese military parades. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s because they are multi-layered and...
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Ripples of the Population Policy
On February 1, the NPR show Fresh Air broadcast an interview with Mei Fong, author of the book One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment. Here’s the introduction to the interview: Fong...
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Don’t Do This in Shanghai
22 years ago, in an effort to improve the social environment of Shanghai, the city government issued a list of 7 “Don’ts” — behaviors that the citizens were to avoid. It was an attempt to eradicate the...
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Kung-fu Granny
No, I’m not talking about my mom, who is approaching her 90th birthday. But I do love this story coming out of China about a 94-year old woman nicknamed the “Kung-fu Granny.” Apparently she’s been...
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