Almost 16 years ago to the day, I woke up in the YMCA on Waterloo Road, scared I'd made the biggest mistake of my life.Weeks earlier, I had quit my job in Washington, DC, moved all my belongings to my parents' house in Chicago, and then packed a couple suitcases to bring to … [Read more...]
Polygamy in Hong Kong
When I lived in Hong Kong, I tutored a woman named Maria one summer. She was in her early 20s and spoke fluent English, but wanted someone to help her with advanced vocabulary.Every Saturday morning we met in the small flat Maria shared with her three sisters. Two bedrooms, … [Read more...]
Bound to China
I just started an epic novel about early 20th century China and Hong Kong (The Concubine's Daughter by Pai Kit Fai). Bound feet is a predominant theme in the early pages and while I've read plenty of books about this subject, I never cease to feel sick to my stomach when I read … [Read more...]
Reflections on Tiananmen 21 years later
Today marks the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Although I wasn't there (I first saw Tiananmen 11 months earlier), the events from June 4, 1989 influenced me more than I could have imagined when I watched the CNN footage from my college dorm in Baltimore that … [Read more...]
Book of the week–The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel
In the author's note of The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel (Bloomsbury, 2008), Maureen Lindley writes:...a novel based on the extraordinary life of a Manchu princess whose striking image, that of a beautiful girl in men's clothes, caught my attention when she appeared … [Read more...]
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