In a slight variation of the “books I read this year” type post, here are 2 lists: the last five books I read in 2015, and the first five books I intend to read in 2016. The Last Five (starting from most recent) Looming Transitions: Starting and finishing well in cross-cultural service, by Amy Young […]
Top Ten Most-Read Posts of 2015
It’s that time of year again — time to highlight the most popular posts on this blog during the past year. State Names in Chinese — Literally This was the most popular post on my blog during 2015. I guess everyone loves to read transliterated names! When I began studying Chinese (years ago), one of […]
Reviewing the Year in Rap
Just when you thought it was safe to poke around the Chinese internet, the Chinese Communist Party releases a new “rap” video promoting Party Secretary Xi (“Big Daddy Xi”) and all the wonderful things he has done this past year. The Wall Street Journal wrote about the video on their China Real Time Report blog: The […]
Friday Photo: Coldest Christmas Ever
My first Christmas in China was in 1984. Wanting to do something nice for the motley crew of foreigners who were working in Henan Province, the Provincial Foreign Affairs Office decided to take us all on a trip to Xi’an, Shaanxi, about 12 hours away by train. On Christmas Day, we saw all of the […]
Friday Photo: Free Market
When I arrived in China to teach English in 1984, the economic reforms instituted by Deng Xiaoping were just getting underway. The most visible sign of the changes was the “free market” that suddenly appeared on a nearby street. Prior to this, goods were only sold in state-run department stores and grocery stores. But here at the […]
Iceland in Winter
When I woke up on Tuesday morning, my first thought was “I dreamed a friend and I went to Iceland for 5 days.” Then I remembered that we had actually done the trip; it was not a dream, but a dream come true. The dream actually started more than a year ago when we had […]
