Dare to read a novel with no murder, death or vampires.
Lust & Philosophy in Chinese:
Latest Essays on China- The ventriloquist’s dilemma: Anglo travelogues of China
- The Chinese art of noise
- Irreducible, like the country itself: China books I have reviewed for 2012
- How to have fun in China’s disposable cities
- The Chinese university: A primer for prospective foreign teachers
- The poverty of the institutional imagination: The case of Beijing’s moats and canals
- Questioning China’s “5,000 years” master trope
- Latest Fiction on China
- Latest Miscellania
- Philip Glass and Tan Dun
- Isham Cook’s blog: 2012 in review
- Multiply, cascade, explode: A theory of literary fiction
- A modest proposal regarding sex work: Why all sex should be paid for
- A Shakespeare sex-and-violence starter kit
- Theatrics of Japanese Noh, Kabuki, and the mixed-bathing Onsen
- The high priests of medicine
Monthly Archives: January 2012
A Shakespeare sex-and-violence starter kit
London’s entertainment district in Shakespeare’s time was to be found in the suburb of Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames. It was a bohemian enclave burgeoning with artists, poets, dramatists, craftsmen, migrants from the countryside and abroad, foreign … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellania
Tagged bear-baiting, Elizabethan stage, Shakespeare, Shakespeare and syphilis, Shakespearean stage
5 Comments
On harpsichords and multicolored pianos: The challenge of music in China
Hit your pause button for the day, slow down, clear your head. Splurge on a bottle of good Bordeaux and listen to some music to match, like the opening track of the recording pictured at right, the master harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt … Continue reading
Posted in Essays on China
Tagged China, classical music, country derry, harpsichord, Lang Lang, piano, red piano, white piano, William Byrd
25 Comments
Theatrics of Japanese Noh, Kabuki, and the mixed-bathing Onsen
Elusive, enigmatic, and paradoxical, the Japanese konyoku onsen (混浴温泉), or nude mixed-bathing hot springs, is forbidding enough of access as to retain a quasi-mythical status – somewhere between the zebra and the unicorn - not only for foreigners but for Japanese as … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellania
Tagged bathing, hot springs, Japan, Kabuki, mixed-bathing, Noh, onsen, Public bathing
21 Comments
The Chinese-Japanese cultural chasm on display at Starbucks
Apart from obvious differences in size and layout, all Starbucks are basically the same. On the surface this appears to be the case with the shops in China and Japan as well. The signature decor in various coffee tones, the … Continue reading
