This is one of the churches that I write about in my book The Bells Are Not Silent: Stories of Church Bells in China. The Xishiku Catholic Church was founded in 1703 and was originally christened The Church of Our Savior. My fellow bell-hunters and I somehow convinced the priest to let his assistant take […]
Published: “The Bells Are Not Silent”
For a long time, friends and colleagues of mine have urged me to write a book about China. “You lived in China for nearly three decades,” they say. “Surely you have something to say.” My standard reply has been that there are so many books written about China each year; I don’t want to write […]
Homesick for Manchuria
Since I lived in Beijing for the last 15 years of my time in China, it’s not often that I get nostalgic for Changchun, the city in Northeast China that was my home for most of the 90s. Recently I found myself thinking of my time there and the experiences I had. I am, dare I […]
Soon, and Very Soon
It’s a new year, and after a break I’m firing this blog back up. One of the things I’ve been working on in the hiatus is this: Watch for details next week!
Road Trip Reading List
Many of you have written asking for a list of the 11 books I mentioned in the last post, that the four of us knocked off on our road trip. Here it is. I will leave it to you to figure out who read what! A Man Called Ove: A Novel, by Fredrik Backman A Storm […]
Farewell to a Great Story-teller
One of my favorite American authors, Pat Conroy, passed away on Friday. Here’s how NPR reported it: Pat Conroy, the beloved author of The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline and The Prince of Tides, has died. Conroy — who announced last month that he had pancreatic cancer — died Friday night at his home among his family in Beaufort, S.C. […]
