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The Billfold: The Cost of Living in Shanghai
I’m a loyal reader of The Billfold, which describes itself as simply “a site about money.” There’s some personal finance stuff—how to save for retirement, why you should know your credit score, what goes in to buying a house, etc.—but most of the articles are less predictable, and some are downright quirky (last week they…
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LA Review of Books: City of Reinvention
I took a short break from the LA Review of Books China Blog this spring, as I had conferences to attend and a dissertation to write, but I’m back now and returning to my schedule of posting there once every month or so. My latest post, a review of Amy Tan’s recent novel The Valley…
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Bookshelf: And the City Swallowed Them
Late one night in July 2008, a 22-year-old Canadian model named Diana O’Brien died in the stairwell of her Shanghai apartment building after being stabbed more than 20 times. O’Brien’s assailant was Chen Jun, an 18-year-old migrant worker from impoverished Anhui Province. Like O’Brien, Chen had traveled to Shanghai without proper papers, hoping to wedge…
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Never Apologize for Reading What You Like: Or, the Lesson I’ve Learned from Jennifer Weiner’s Books
I have never been ahead of trends. I always hear about good television shows when they’re well into their second or third seasons; I mainly buy clothes when they’re on the clearance rack, meaning that they’re already out of style; I did not start eating kale, quinoa, or polenta until they showed up a Trader…
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From Sea to Shining Sea—By Train
For a cross-country trip, taking the train doesn’t make much sense. It’s far slower than flying, and more expensive to boot. But my mother and I both love riding trains and have been talking about doing a big trip for years, so we finally decided that last week’s graduation in Southern California provided the perfect…
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Doctor for a Day
When I was nine or ten years old, my mother introduced me to the Sue Barton books that she remembered from her childhood. The books are a midcentury pulp series that follow the education and career of Sue Barton, the world’s most competent and most good-humored nurse (and a redhead!). I devoured all the books—multiple…
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Five Photos from the Tiananmen Vigil in Hong Kong
There are some amazing photographs at Business Insider from last night’s candlelight vigil in Hong Kong commemorating the June Fourth anniversary. Mine aren’t quite that good! But I did my best with the tools I had (a Canon PowerShot and my iPhone). I arrived at Victoria Park at 6:30, with the vigil scheduled to begin…
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Tiananmen at 25: Massive Reading Round-Up, June 3 Edition
Edward Wong of the New York Times tweeted the above yesterday, but I’m afraid the Chinese authorities are trying to close the barn door after the horse has escaped. As you can see below, foreign media are publishing Tiananmen stories left and right, and I’m afraid I did a very bad job trying to keep…
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Bookshelf: Lean In and Leftover Women
Possibly the most commented-on thing I’ve ever written online came about when I said that I didn’t really want to read Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, a bestseller in which the Facebook COO encourages young women to take charge of their careers and aim for the top. Even though…
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Tiananmen at 25: Super-Sized Reading Round-Up
Now that June 4 is less than a week away, news organizations around the world are ramping up their coverage of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen protests and crackdown. Though I’ve been limiting these posts to five points each in previous weeks, there’s so much to recommend this week that I had to make…
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Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 