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Chinese Fluency: The Green Light in the Distance
A couple of weeks ago, I took myself to dinner at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. After a few rotations of the belt, I realized that some of my favorite types of sushi weren’t being offered, so I called the waitress over and asked for a caidan (menu) so I could order them directly. She…
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China: A Land Without Left-Handers
Yesterday, August 13, was International Left-Handers’ Day, and no one here even noticed. After running out to my mailbox to check for cards and gifts (I’m sure they’ll arrive soon; China Post is slow) and waiting around the apartment all day for flower deliveries (none, but I’m allergic to most flowers anyway), I finally placed…
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LA Review of Books: “Life Goes On”
At the main LA Review of Books website you can now read my review of Sheng Keyi’s Northern Girls: Life Goes On, an often sensationalist novel about the lives of young women working in the factory towns of southern China: Sheng’s book, translated by Shelly Bryant, is a raunchy and provocative account of the lives…
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LA Review of Books: “Material Girls”
My monthly column at the LA Review of Books China Blog just went live; this month, I review Tiny Times, the hit movie of the summer here. It is, to put it briefly, a terrible film: Tiny Times (Xiao shidai), a Chinese summer blockbuster based on a book of the same name, ranks as far…
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Bookshelf: Rock Paper Tiger and Hour of the Rat
As I’ve mentioned, it’s been really, really hot here in Shanghai lately. One of my favorite hot-weather activities is to turn on the air conditioning, lie on the couch, and devour mystery novels. I’ve been spending my summers doing this ever since first cracking open my mother’s hand-me-down Nancy Drew books somewhere around the age…
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Shanghai’s Sweltering Summer
Shanghai has always had a reputation for hot and humid summers; after all, that’s why Western missionaries and businessmen used to take their families to mountain retreats like Moganshan during the season. But this summer has been unlike anything the missionaries ever experienced: Shanghai just ended its hottest July on record, with twenty-five days above…
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New Writing: “China’s Para-Police”
Here’s the first paragraph of an article I published last week at the Dissent magazine website, on the chengguan, or “urban management,” units that patrol cities like Shanghai. Chengguan have been in the news recently after the death of a produce vendor at the hands of one such para-police unit. I didn’t notice the apple…
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Shanghai State of Mind
Rivalry between Beijing and Shanghai goes back a long way. It’s often, in my experience, of a friendly sort: upon hearing that I’ve lived in both cities, Chinese will ask me (usually with a smile) which one I like better, and I’ll laugh as I declare that whichever one they come from is my favorite.…
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Keeping Busy
At the beginning of 2013, I set a goal of writing one blog post a week. Halfway through the year, I’ve obviously fallen short. I don’t necessarily lack for things to talk about, but some weeks it’s nearly impossible to find the time and energy to organize my thoughts, sit down, and write. It’s amazing…
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Rubber Ducky, You’re the One
Shanghai has been rainy, polluted, and humid for the past couple of weeks; everything here (including me) seems gray and beaten down. As in Southern California, the city goes through an intense “June Gloom” before summer arrives in full force. As I was walking home last night, though, I spotted a bright flash of yellow…
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Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 