Like many others, my journey to being a Sinophile began in Hong Kong. In the summer of 1979 I spent 3 months in the city on an internship, teaching English and working in the office of the Chinese Church Research Center. When not working, I explored the city, taking random bus lines to the far-flung parts of town. […]
Make it look like a parade
Years ago I had a poster hanging in my room that said: “When you’re being run out of town, get in front and make it look like a parade.” I thought of that this morning when I read an article in the People’s Daily (Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece) that referenced the hundreds of thousands of people who took […]
Hong Kong, China. Really?
Way back in 1997 I was the director of a Chinese language program at a major university in Changchun. As the semester was coming to an end, one of the students (they were all Americans) let me know that he needed to go to Hong Kong at the end of June. This was back in […]
Good-bye Sweet Oreo?
Why China’s Falling Out of Love With the Oreo Now that’s a headline that we surely would never have seen back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. In those days, Oreos were a prized possession for the foreigner working in China — something that you asked your mom to put in the big box that […]
Chungking Mansions – a Global Village
Anyone who’s been to Hong Kong is probably familiar with Chungking Mansions, the building that towers over the lower end of Nathan Road and is home to shops, restaurants, apartments and hostels. In the 90’s I travelled to Hong Kong at least twice a year, and without fail my colleagues and I would enter the […]
Two of My Favorite Things
I have lots of favorite things, but two that are right up there on the list are road trips and Chinese history. Last week I found a way to combine those two loves by listening to episodes of the fantastic China History Podcast while driving across Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. If you are a […]
