One of the most remarkable things about the famine which occurred in China between 1958 and 1962 was that for over twenty years, no one was sure whether it had even taken place.So begins Jasper Becker's Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine (The Free Press, 1996), the first … [Read more...]
All the Tea in China
I'm so excited to feature guest blogger Stuart Beaton's fabulous post about the tea culture in China. I learned to drink tea in China, first as a survival tactic during my initial experience with a Chinese winter (Nanjing, 1991), and then as a true connoisseur. Stu's podcasts can … [Read more...]
Treasures from my family’s old Southeast Asian slides
Looking back at my 2011 blog posts, I'm drawn to a handful of old scanned photos I came across this year. Scanning my mother's and her family's old slides was like opening a jewelry box full of sparkling diamond necklaces. These photos were all taken in Asia in 1965.Angkor … [Read more...]
Jailed writers in China
So today is the 56th birthday of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. It's a bittersweet birthday, I'm sure, for a number of reasons.First, he's currently serving an 11 year prison sentence that's not due to end until 2020. And just last week two more Chinese writer/activists … [Read more...]
Book of the week–Defiled on the Ayeyarwaddy
My holiday season has been nice and quiet, allowing me to plow through a few novels and memoirs since my kids went on break 10 days ago. One memoir I recently finished was Ma Thanegi's Defiled on the Ayeyarwaddy (ThingsAsian Press, 2010).The title refers to the defiles … [Read more...]
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