I'm coming clean. One of my favorite books was written for children aged 4 to 8. And it takes all of two minutes to read--if you don't absorb the colorful illustrations and brilliant details of the 60+ pages.Miroslav Sasek, a Czech writer and illustrator, was born in 1916, … [Read more...]
Happy International Women’s Day
I didn't learn about International Women's Day until I moved to Hong Kong. While it wasn't a popular holiday there, my classmates from China always wished me a Happy International Women's Day on March 8th.Interestingly, according to danwei.org:March 8, or 'san ba' in … [Read more...]
Slow boat
In 1970, my maternal grandparents were delighted when this ‘new fast route' opened to Hong Kong. (From the mid-60s to the early 80s, they visited Hong Kong 8 times.) They were always jetting off to some place far from their home in Elgin, Illinois: Hong Kong, Bora Bora, … [Read more...]
Traffic jam
Hidden River, Hubei province, 1995 I'm excited. Whenever a new book about China comes out, I try to restrain myself from logging onto Amazon and buying it before checking the queue at my local library. Or packing my three kids into the Subaru and driving six miles to our closest … [Read more...]
It’s in the genes
When I told my parents I wanted to move to Hong Kong at the age of 19, they started planning trips to visit me there.For my mom, having a daughter in Hong Kong didn't seem out of the ordinary. In her teens, she traveled to the Philippines, her first excursion to Asia. … [Read more...]