A 5,000-mile road trip to see old friends in changed times.
“The golden ocean flower.” Fiction
Our heroine wreaks havoc on the river with a flower.
Pop music and the Asian face
Thoughts on aversive racism in the American music industry.
Insights into China (Part 3/3): A stay in a hotel
The contradictions of China’s hospitality industry.
Insights into China (Part 2/3): A visit to a restaurant
There is no more revealing window into Chinese culture than its restaurants.
Insights into China (Part 1/3): A walk down the street
Chinese culture from the perspective of a pedestrian.
“Qiezi.” Fiction
Quick trouble for a free-thinking family in rural Qing-Dynasty China.
Music and totalitarianism
What happens to music when the state gets its hands on it.
Datura and the psychedelic Tao
Taoist sexual technology supercharged by the world’s most powerful entheogen.
Isham Cook’s China book picks by Book Shepherd
15 China books recommended by Isham Cook plus a few of his own.
Sexual Fascism: Essays
Under the mass surveillance of erotic intimacy, sexual freedom is retreating even as it appears to be advancing.
The state of rage: The American sexual dystopia
How the state exploits public rage to discipline the population.
Transgressions: From porn to polyamory
The walls of sexual repression within.
The sewage system, or What is fascism?
How fascism works, with a special emphasis on the USA.
Toilet terror
The surprising matter revealed when we really look into the toilet and everything it stands for.