This day, 16 August, in 1971, China and Iran established diplomatic relations, sharing the ideological themes of anti-imperialism and third-world solidarity, and as natural allies seeking to...
You don’t need to come to Asia to encounter bamboo; it’s there on the steering wheel of the E-Type Jaguar, on umbrella handles, there on that corporal punishment device once kept behind teachers’ desks.
Even edible bamboo was a concept familiar to me before I arrived here; bamboo shoots in tins were part of my English mother’s cooking in the 1980s. But, as with many things we already know about China, we’re not prepared for the abundance or the variety.
The bamboo shoots that appear in Chinese dishes in the real...
Delicious, isn’t it? Remember the smell when you unpeeled your first credit card?
If you have bought electronics, you will know the excitement of transparent sleeves and instruction booklets. Let us also mention polyethylene.
If I write here about the smell of new bin liners, you will experience something quite specific in your “inner nose”. Polyethylene.
It is the softer plastics that seem more generous to give off their scent. PVC raincoats and toy umbrellas. We all know the aromatic explosion from a roll of bubble wrap. Tiny seams of injected modernity.
It...
I would normally have said no. But I was all out of tea that day.
Actually, I welcomed that big cup of coffee after another poor night’s sleep. The drink was ice cold, mercifully unsweetened and wrapped in the green of Starbucks’ gentle gorgon.
Among international brands, Starbucks is bucking a trend here, its China arm remaining wholly-US owned after other fast-food concerns have sold out to local firms. Starbucks has not splintered nor run away yet.
So it’s logical that my foreign colleague chose this brand for his gift to the...
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...
