This day, 19 August, in 2001, Philippine government forces engaged in a fierce gunfight with kidnappers to rescue Chinese hostages. During the operation, Zhang Zhongqiang and Xue...
Now, this may seem a little vulgar. But I beg your patience. I’m here to talk up the pleasures of burping.
As the father of a new baby, it’s a proud moment when I bash a burp out of her, especially a good dry one; there are no marks for puking the baby.
But I’m here to talk here about the pleasure of the
adult burp.
You see, food that “repeats” is my kind of food; garlic or
jiucai (韭菜) may only be a one-dimensional reminder
of a good meal well had, but...
We had just 1 hour minutes to fill four baskets. Any less, we were told, and the local tea master would reject the batch as a waste of effort.
So off we went to work on a hillside overlooking a road on the edge of Qiandaohu in neighbouring Zhejiang Province. With baskets attached to our bellies, our job was to pick those leaves from the bushes which were big enough to be called leaves but small enough to retain the desired pale green shade and moist texture.
It didn’t take...
I am a contrarian.
All of this unpopular opining of mine may look like critical thinking, heroic truth-seeking.
But don’t be fooled; it’s just knee-jerk doggerel.
My world-view is permanently controlled by the assumption that “those millions of people talking around me can’t possibly be right”. My brain rails against whatever prevails.
Remember that, especially when you catch me writing about Chinese medicine.
Remember where I am writing from. Here or there. Remember whose those surrounding millions of voices are.
If I am in my native UK, stifled by familiarity, you will find me warmly...
It’s pomelo season in Jiangnan. That pleases me.
Even if you don’t know its (obscure) English name, you know the fruit. It hangs, moon-like, from trees in parks and campuses everywhere. You can eat the windfalls, but they’re a little too sour. Thankfully, bigger, more-user-friendly versions of these yellow globes appear in stores. Open them up to find segments each as big and tactile as a Nokia phone. These segments are red (slightly more expensive) or “yellow” (cheaper and just as good), partitioned by a tough white pith. Unlike, say,...
