Tired of formulaic fiction? This novel does not pander to the reader.
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
- Restaurant time warp. A short story
- Paradox. A short story
- A little accident. A short story
- What you know, you know. A short story
- The mean and the angry. A short story
- The mistress. A short story
- There she blows! A short story
- Incident at Dongwuyuan Fuzhuang Shichang. A short story
- iProstitution. A short story
- 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
Tag Archives: China
Questioning China’s “5,000 years” master trope
The name “China” straddles two different entities, Zhongguo (中國), the Chinese state, and Zhonghua (中華), the Chinese nation. The state, i.e., the Chinese Mainland, consists of one dominant ethnic group, the Han, and 50 or so non-Han ethnicities or “Minority … Continue reading
Posted in Essays on China
Tagged brainwashing, China, Chinese education, civilization, ethnocentrism, propaganda
33 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
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
The old Chinese bathhouse, circa 2000
Splashed across the illuminated photomural signs in bold red characters, the names – “Golden Water,” “Sparkling Sea,” “East Wave,” “Little River,” “Dragon Bridge” – conjure up an Oriental island paradise. The photomurals depict a corresponding scene, such as a quiet … Continue reading
Posted in Essays on China
Tagged Bathhouse, Beijing, China, Dalian, Essay, Massage, Prostitution, Public bathing, Sex Work
7 Comments
Lust & Philosophy. A novel
Isham Cook, an English teacher in China, has it all worked out. He lives a highly ordered life of the mind and is not one to be swayed by circumstance, until his dispassionate existence is tripped up by Cookie, an … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction on China
Tagged Beijing, Chicago, China, Fiction on China, LSD, Lust, Novel
2 Comments
Xiyu: The Baths. A novel (planned – synopsis).
Xiyu (洗浴) is the Chinese word for bathhouse, a microcosm of Chinese society and the primary setting for Isham Cook’s latest adventures in China (familiar as the protagonist of his previous novel Lust and Philosophy). The problem this time, however, is that he … Continue reading
Renrou: The Kitchens of Canton. A novel (planned – synopsis).
Renrou (人肉) is the Chinese word for human flesh, the subject of this sequel to Isham Cook’s second novel Xiyu (in progress) and the third in this series. Here the term is employed in the wholly literal sense of “human … Continue reading
The fine art of securing the staff’s cooperation at Chinese culinary establishments
I have hundreds of Chinese restaurant stories. They are definitely worth a book, as Chinese restaurant service is the surest window into Chinese culture that you will ever find, with different social classes thrown together in a single large room … Continue reading
Posted in Essays on China
Tagged Beijing, Cafe, China, Chinese customer service, service worker exploitation
2 Comments
How China works; or, black forest cake blues
I stopped in a Weiduomei (味多美) for the first time, a local chain bakery shop in Beijing, when they opened at 7am yesterday morning, for some coffee on the way to work, after staying overnight at a friend’s place. A … Continue reading
The Guangzhou coffee paradox
I’m not the bar person or night owl and never have been. My day is structured around coffee. Enabled by coffee, more exactly, good coffee, first in the morning at home and then in the afternoon at one of a number … Continue reading
Posted in Essays on China
Tagged Cafés, Cafe, Cantonese, China, Coffee Culture, Guangzhou
9 Comments
The high priests of medicine
The USA and China bear the distinction of having the worst health care systems in the world, in that medicine in both countries is largely privatized and capitalistic, ensuring the widespread perpetuation of illness and disease for the sake of … Continue reading
Posted in Essays on China, Miscellania
Tagged American hospitals, China, Chinese hospitals, Hepatitis
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Emotional labor and other tricks of the trade
In big American department stores and supermarkets, you are routinely ignored by the male clerks stocking the shelves when you need help. You can solve this problem if you bring along a hot young female, or if you happen to … Continue reading
Gu Cheng, selected poems (trans. Isham Cook & Zhao Shufen)
Gu Cheng Poems.2002
