Feature Stories

Liya followed her father nervously down the corridor. Six guards marched awkwardly behind her. “Daddy, I … I’m not allowed down here”, she said, half peering with curiosity, half trying to avert her eyes which she imagined might keep her...

Listen closely to the vocabulary employed in everyday use by many a Nanjinger and you would be forgiven for imagining a preoccupation with Dante’s vision of the afterlife. I’m starving to death! I’m dying of thirst! I’m freezing to death! These...

Listening to a podcast with some of my kids this week, I paused when their eyes went glassy and asked them, “Do you understand?” They made that vague sound of wanting to say yes but having to admit that,...

There was once a princess locked away in a tall tower. Kept away from all who might claim her beauty, covet her loveliness, take her virtue. And then one day there was a prince, fair and tall and from...

“To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To...

“Smith”. “Kim”. “Li”. “Devi”. These are all surnames from different parts of the world. I was never very interested in names, or the meanings that are behind them. I merely believed that names were labels meant for identifying who...

Know anyone with a dog named “Coca Cola”, shortened to “Cola” (可乐 )? Turns out that is also in fact a real life surname for a human in China. Now everywhere has weird names. In the western world, many are...

Surnames stick to you. Like skin, you can’t actually change them. You get tanned or bitten by insects, but cells are always there to remind you that this is your shape for ever and ever. Surnames just stay with you,...