Water

When they speak of China, the Chinese speak of the South and the North: the South is wet, lush, and the people living there traditionally eat rice, which is a water-intensive crop; the North, on the other hand, is dry, and arid. There’s not much in the way of rice growing in the north of […]

China: “upon all the living and the dead”

It is a little (actually very) late, but the incendiary, self-financed documentary Under the Dome by Chai Jing, one of China’s best known journalists, is worth watching. It is about air pollution, which is finally being debated in China. I recall taking the train from Shanghai to Nanjing, and Shanghai to Hangzhou on successive days, […]

Milk

2008 was supposed to be a glorious year for China, and in some senses it was: it was the year of the Beijing Olympics, in which the host nation topped the gold medal table, and the world was delivered an event that showcased a confident China, firmly in control of her own destiny. That control […]

China: Tainted Food

Everything you’ve always wanted to know about tainted food? Well, maybe not everything. Tainted food does, after all, have a long and storied history in China. Ever since the country opened up to foreigners, the stories and scandals have been flying out like cardboard-filled hot buns (more on that later). But let’s get started at […]

China: Leizhou, where they butcher tigers

Something I recall having seen on Xinhua (新华网) last year (2014) was a report of tigers being butchered on the street in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, in a town called Leizhou (雷州市). The pictures you can find if you search 雷州市宰杀老虎 (Leizhou City slaughter tigers) are particularly shocking, with the corpses of tigers […]

Spilled Water

覆水难收

Asia