One of the best feelings I have as a writer is when something I’ve worked on sparks a conversation I could have never even imagined. That’s why I was so thrilled to find this post at the China Beat:
Learning from Lai Changxing?
Last year, Angilee Shah wrote a review at China Beat of Oliver August’s Inside the Red Mansion. The review inspired Simon Fraser University Professor Jeremy Brown to assign the text to a class and he recently invited the book’s protaganist, Lai Changxing, to join his class for a day. Brown and one of his students provide an account of the day’s visit below…
I enjoy writing book reviews, but it never occurred to me that readers might take any action other than a trip to their local library or bookstore. It certainly never occurred to me that Lai might agree to being questioned by a classroom full of students. I only wish I could have been there. Read more on Writing is Rewarding…
Anka Lee on the Star Ferry in Hong Kong
It’s June 4th today. 20 years ago, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing a huge protest movement was violently suppressed. The numbers are disputed, but hundreds, if not thousands were killed in clashes with the military. Tiananmen Square Massacre, June 4 Incident, or just Six-Four — whatever you call it, the event had a big impact on Anka Lee. He was just a kid then, but he remembers the day well. He was born in Hong Kong and was nine years old that summer in 1989. He talks about his memories and the city where he was born in this episode of Global Lives.
Read more on Global Lives #3: Anka Lee’s Hong Kong Perspective on Tiananmen Square…
I’m starting a weekly post that rehashes some of the most interesting and unusual reports on Asia (in English) and the world. Let me know what you think, and if you find this kind of feature useful. For more interesting things on the web, from newspapers and blogs, see my shared stories page.
Read more on This Week: Follow-ups to terrorist attacks in India and the earthquake in China, perspectives on Iraq and North Korea…
Also posted in Asia, India, United States | Tagged BBC, broadcast, China, Christian Science, current tv, Demick, earthquake, Emily Wax, India, Iraq, los angeles times, news, North Korea, Pyongyang, Sichuan, terror, terrorist attacks in india, Vietnam, washington post |
I’ve been a loyal reader of Tim Johnson’s McClatchy Newspapers blog, China Rises, since it started three years ago. It’s only today that I thought about it, though, because Johnson is leaving the blog behind. He writes:
Read more on the China bloggers post…
Also posted in Asia, India, United States | Tagged bloggers, china correspondent, china rises, culture china, hindustan times, internet china, journalists, mcclatchy newspapers, news, reading list, tim johnson |
After visiting grand Shanghai and glittering Chongqing, it was in a taxi in Dongguan that my view of China took a small, but important shift. I was traveling with a friend to the South China Mall, down the main road that stretches from the city’s train station all the way out to the suburbs. It was Olympics time, but we were a far cry from Beijing’s impressive Bird’s Nest.
Read more on good feelings and the Olympics…
The China Beat just ran an email interview I did with Louisa Lim, the dynamic Shanghai correspondent for National Public Radio, formerly of the BBC. My favorite part?
When we arrived at their office, their faces fell. We sat around, drinking tea and waiting. In the next room, we could hear the government officials conferring with each other worriedly, “What’s the BBC doing?”, they were asking. “Do you think these are real reporters? They look more like kids on work experience.”
Read more on NPR correspondence by email and me in print…
When I was at the Pusan International Film Festival in Korea, I went to a hotel on the beach to meet a documentary filmmaker from Beijing. I was very impressed by his film, Who Killed Our Children.
Read more on The best reporting on the Sichuan Earthquake you’ll never see…
In the last days of the Olympics, neighbors in Sanyuanli and residents of the Clifford Estates left their televisions on so that the final matches and last medal ceremonies set the backdrops of their daily lives.
Read more on Two Guangzhou Neighborhoods…
Posted in China | Tagged Anka Lee, China, Clifford Estates, Flickr, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Jacky Peng, Neighborhoods, opium war, sanyuanli, slideshow |
Marketing material for the 1926 Milan premeire of Turandot on the left, and for the 2008 Singapore staging on the right.
Like most people, I don’t know where I first heard the famous aria Nessun Dorma of Puccini’s Turandot. But my interest in the opera has certainly been revived several times recently.
Read more on Orientalism or chinoiserie?…
I went to China. It was a fantastic and eye opening trip. I took some photos and wrote a bit — will share that soon.
For now — I can’t help but echo the crowd about the Democratic National Convention. I had missed the Hillary Clinton who spoke on Tuesday, the woman who was a leader not because she’s a woman and certainly not in spite of being a woman. And Al Gore gave my second favorite speech I’ve heard him give — the first is on Ted.com. But I’m no political junkie, so I’ll comment more on what I know — online journalism.
Read more on beautiful things…
