Category: China
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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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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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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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New Arrival
I brought a lot of books back with me to Shanghai after a recent trip to the U.S., most of them things I need to read for my dissertation or review copies sent to me by publishers. But one paperback tucked in my carry-on bag was a book I have no desire to crack open.…
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What’s in Your Water?
Last Sunday night, while riding a bus across Shanghai, I pulled a bottle of water from the side pocket of my backpack and unscrewed the cap. As I raised it to my mouth to take a drink, an elderly man in the seat behind me reached forward and tapped me on the arm. “You shouldn’t…
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More from Moganshan
After visiting the mountaintop retreat of Moganshan on a somewhat rainy weekend last November, I was itching to get back there once the weather had improved. I had just started to think about finding a weekend to do so when my friend Jeremy mentioned that he was once again taking a group of students up…
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Moscow in Manchuria
If someone were to give me a blank check, my passport and laptop, and three months off from all work and responsibilities, I’d head to Russia. I’ve been wanting to go there since I was a teenager—entering the country by the Trans-Siberian Railway from China, preferably—but the cost and time needed to make a significant…
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 