Ah, here’s the new entry, although I’ve nothing much to discuss, honestly. Without Beijing to feed me abnormal experience, I’m forced to generate it on my own. I turned 30 recently, but I kept it under my hat. It was a mistake in hindsight, if only because I missed out on what could have been [...]

I landed in LA two weeks ago, and spent time with friend before flying home.  I was struck by the beauty of California- even with all the drag-strip minimall architecture, and the highway culture, I found it to be a lovely place.  Although I kept expecting it to “look like the movies”, which it never [...]

Chinese people are tough. Or are these guys Mongolian?

Well, in ~36 hours, I’ll be embarking on the 3 day novel writing contest. On the one hand, what was I thinking? On the other, of course, if nothing else, it’ll make a nice link to add to the rather sparse Writing page I’ve set up.  Got to get it through the contest before I [...]

Well, I’m far enough ahead on my work for grad school that I figure I’m ready for the the show: I’ve entered the 3 day novel writing contest. We’ll see how this goes. Tentative title: Beijing Palimpsest. In other news, I’m transitioning my stuff from this blogger site to one hosted on my own website [...]

I’ve been here for about a year, now, and this is the first work of Chinese prose that’s really moved me, from Taiwanese writer Miou Si, by way of Danwei. It’s hard to see new things, but easy to have your own prejudices confirmed, and I think Miou captures something of the privation-born nastiness that [...]

…by which I mean the sandwich shop behind my old building near 东四十条 station. Criminality is serving coffee at a place where the toilet looks like this:

Well, I’m back in la Chine for another few months- I’ve got to buy my Dad another couple of Mao Zedong watches. This blog wasn’t intended to be the Willy’s Adventures in the Land of the Red Chinese, but the majority of my hay has certainly been made from Chinese stuff. Traveling the Beijing – [...]

What with the announcement that the cardboard baozi story was, in fact, an adulterated version of the truth, or possibly not, I’m officially retiring the list of adulterated food. Unless someone dies in my arms, I’ll leave the reporting to the pros. Not that I didn’t call the story months before it blew up, of [...]

So, on Sunday, I’m returning to the US. A fourteen-hour plane ride, with, now, four bags. I’d started with three bags, but I bought a hanging bag for my three new tailor-made suits (pictures to follow). Lisa Tailor, at 三里屯 3.3 Mall did a good job, although the buttons they used were cheap… My feelings [...]