The Rain, the Books, and the Boy in Pudu
Lazy Sundays, rainy afternoons. I recall fondly my lazy and quiet Sunday afternoons of my tender years between the ages of 4 to 6. In…
View More The Rain, the Books, and the Boy in Pudu
Memoirs of Old China
I love reading memoirs of lives in China in days long gone. Here are two gems. One is by an American lady who went to…
View More Memoirs of Old China
The Tibet Question
What’s the origin of the conflict between the 14th Dalai Lama and China? What is the history of the relationships between Tibet and the Mongols…
View More The Tibet Question
When The Red Gates Opened – Part 1
Unless you are Arundhati Roy, whose memoir on her relationship with her difficult but distinguished mom, ‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’ (published 2025), was reviewed…
View More When The Red Gates Opened – Part 1
The Hungry Ghost Festival – Part 1
In Peking, 1939: Lu Hsing Yuan (HY Lowe) described how the Ghost Festival was celebrated in Peking in one of his installments in the English…
View More The Hungry Ghost Festival – Part 1
Behind the Fall of the Gang of Four
Who prevented the Gang of Four from seizing power? When Mao died in 1976, it would appear to many that his wife Jiang Qing and…
View More Behind the Fall of the Gang of Four
Jiangnan
South of the Yangtze evokes a mythical place in Chinese culture. The Chinese call the area Jiangnan ( literally, south of the Yangtze) river. It…
View More Jiangnan
From Mao to Modernity
On 2 Sep 1945, Japan formally surrendered. China designated 3 Sep 1945 as “Victory Day” to commemorate its victory over Japan. This year, on 3…
View More From Mao to Modernity
Tibet in Its Own Words
The Tibetan History Reader is an anthology of essays on Tibet. It complements Sources of Tibetan Tradition, which is a collection of 180 mainly Tibetan…
View More Tibet in Its Own Words
Two Characters, One Identity Lost
Why is a Chinese name wrongly transliterated in Hanyu Pinyin? A Chinese name is in three characters: surname and two characters for the given name.…
View More Two Characters, One Identity Lost