From the inimitable Christopher Hitchens: Wiser and older people tell you that the passions of your youth will dry up and that a more sere and autumnal condition will overtake you as maturity advances, but the thought of the Nixon gang in the White House still infuses me with a pure and undiluted hatred and [...]
It appears that the visit of Kim Jong-un to China, stringently denied by Beijing, actually happened. The Financial Times: The son and heir apparent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il joined a delegation of senior military officials for a top-secret, week-long visit to China in mid-June in spite of Beijing’s claims that no such trip [...]
By the time I started listening to music, roughly 20 years ago, Michael Jackson was already past his prime. He was still a major star and a darling of MTV, but he had already begun his transition from the ‘King of Pop’ to ‘Wacko Jacko’. Within a few years would come the first charges of [...]
I’ve been thinking recently that the outlook and style of this blog could change a little bit. I’m sure some of you feel the same- the layout is a little too utilitarian, even for me. Alas, I’m hampered by two logistical problems. One, I don’t know to redesign/overhaul the blog’s look myself and two, I [...]
At long last, your comments will soon appear on the site the moment after you leave them, as I will no longer have to moderate them. The reason I began moderating comments in the first place was due to the overwhelming amount of trackback spam this blog received on a daily basis. Each day, I [...]
Via Glen at Lost Laowai, Business Week has published an asinine list of the world’s hardest ‘hardship’ posts; i.e., the worst places in the world to be an expat. Some of the names on the list are obvious; Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya rank in the top ten. However, BW also includes the Chinese cities [...]
From a friend, a Chinese woman in her mid-twenties: My best male friend is gay, and he has known this for sure since college. He first told me and a few other female friends about his sexual orientation, a difficult admission to say the least. I encouraged him to tell his parents. His father, not [...]
Twenty days is a perfect amount of time to spend on a vacation home from China. The first five are used up fighting jet lag and being spoiled by friends and family who haven’t seen you in ages. The last three are devoted to shopping, packing, and squeezing in last-minute visits with people. That leaves [...]
Iran is presently holding a presidential campaign, in which the current president finds himself trailing in the polls. Recent accounts indicate that opprobrium between the two camps- those of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his challenger Mir Hussein Moussavi- is high. The two men have been campaigning feverishly across the country, with one holding the support [...]
What is China’s role in the horrifying story of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two US journalists who have been sentenced to 12 years in a hard labor camp for illegally entering North Korean territory? The journalists insist they were on the Chinese side of the border, something that shouldn’t really be a matter [...]