Last month, The Atlantic published a series of amazing photos from China showing people — lots of people — doing things in unison. I had a good chuckle because seeing people do things as a group is a fairly common site in China. Students (from pre-school to university) learn how to march in step and do […]
Friday Photo: Satisfaction
I took this one in Zhengzhou during my first year in China, way back in 1984. So many things are typical of China at that time–the layers of clothes on the kid; the face mask; the orange soda (no Cokes yet); the bicycles with the plastic baskets. But one thing is universal — the look on […]
Friday Photo: Washing the Fire Truck
In the mid-1980’s I taught at a small college in Zhenghou, Henan Province. Our school was next door to the local fire station and we loved watching them wash their trucks out on the street. And yes, you are seeing that correctly — they are pointing that hose INTO the truck. Must’ve all been plastic […]
Taking in the Mountain Air
This is definitely my favorite story out of China this week — residents of Zhengzhou (my original China ‘home town’) lined up to take shots of O2 from bags filled with mountain air (from the Wall Street Journal): “Proving that China’s fight against pollution has moved decisively into the realm of parody, bags containing mountain […]
The Henan Famine
During my first year in China (1984), I lived in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province. Before getting my assignment to teach there, I don’t think I had ever heard of the place and pre-internet, it wasn’t easy finding out information. I remember, though, stumbling across a book about the city that had been produced […]
The Great Moon Cake Exchange
One last moon cake post..a slightly edited reprise of something I wrote a few years back: Today is Zhong Qiu Jie, (lit. Mid-Autumn Festival) in China. In colloquial terms, it’s called the Moon Festival, because it’s celebration coincides with the full moon. Much like Thanksgiving in American culture, Moon Festival is a time when people […]
