It’s not yellow. Let’s get that out of the way first. The leaves are as green as Act One in Sonic. And the drink; well, green tea makes a pale yellow drink anyway, so there’s no room for differentiation there. It all reminds me of that ad for Canada’s Red Rock cider; “It’s not red and there are no rocks in it”. But, for Westerners like me, there’s perhaps always been a need for “Yellow Tea” to exist.  Fascinated by the variety of Camellia Sinensis; from oxidised to unoxidised, with additional parameters like...

Of course it’s not reasonable to expect commemoration or contemplation. The “Great War” was concluded more than a century ago. How can I expect “the eleventh day of the eleventh month” to resonate somewhere so far away from where the Armistice was signed?  Yes, China was the non-European nation which committed most men to that war, with real casualties and real costs. It’s a story that needs telling, one which may one day receive more airing. But those events are too far away to claim such as exclusive calendar slot in...

So you drink coffee? Fair enough. You’re not alone. It’s an easy mistake to make. There’s plenty of time to remedy your error. If you’re reading this here in China, you have ample opportunity to switch yourself on to a better pick-me-up.  Let me try and make a pitch. I need to start with that smell you’re emitting as a coffee drinker. Coffee-roasting smells great. Coffee brewing smells great. Luckin smells delightful. You probably don’t, not unless you chased up your last cup of Joe with a gallon of water. Unless you...

So I’m a red risk all of a sudden. It’s a shock for someone who’s conjured only green codes from so many apps this past quarter-of-a-decade. My red code will be a shock for some reading this, too.  Perhaps, blissfully green for as long as such colours existed, you just experienced a twinge in your buttocks, before remembering that, no, printed paper cannot transmit pathogens from some guy in Shanghai, and nor can an LCD screen. Mindful of the two negative results after my near-exposure and before my colour-slander, it’s not concerning me...