22 years ago, in an effort to improve the social environment of Shanghai, the city government issued a list of 7 “Don’ts” — behaviors that the citizens were to avoid. It was an attempt to eradicate the bad habits of Shanghai citizens. They included things like spitting, smoking in public, and cursing. Earlier this month…
Month: January 2017
Friday Photo: Easy Rider
On a late summer afternoon in Beijing, I parked myself on the side of a busy road and snapped pictures of people on their evening commute. This was my favorite. She was riding due west, into a bright sun, hence the “Darth Vader” hat. And if you think it’s purpose is to merely shield her…
Who Can Turn the World on With Her Smile?
The great actress and comedienne Mary Tyler Moore died on Wednesday. She got her start on television playing Laura on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and later starred in her own show, simply named, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. When my family moved to the Twin Cities in 1973 from Pakistan, the show was already a…
Chinese New Year Nagging — In Song
Do you think your parents nag? Try being a young person going home for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). The questions come fast and furious, and no matter what you are doing or achieving it seems never to be enough. Singles have it particularly rough. “What? STILL no boyfriend (or girlfriend)??” This is a big…
Recommended: “The Dust of Kandahar”
On a mid-April day in 2013, I heard a news report about an attack on US State Department personnel in Afghanistan in which 5 Americans were killed. I held my breath and said a prayer because a friend of mine from childhood, Jonathan Addleton, was at the time a diplomat in Afghanistan. In due time…
Yibin: Then and Now
The first bell that I found in China was in the city of Yibin, in Sichuan Province. The American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society began work there in the late 1800’s and in the early 1900s they built a church and hung a bell that had been brought over from the United States! Here’s what the…