A visual tour of coffeehouses around the world by a connoisseur, with a few pointers of advice.
The classic coffeehouse: Ten essentials
The Mustachioed Woman of Shanghai. A novel.
Exotic woman unleashes the emotions in those she comes into contact with.
Sexual repression in the post-Covid-19 era
Sex in the time of coronavirus in China and the U.S.
Covid-19 and the disease of American exceptionalism
The U.S. Government is more responsible for the Covid-19 carnage than the virus itself.
Confucius and Opium: China Book Reviews
Book review essays tell China’s history over the past two centuries.
Writing China in English: Recent novels
Difficult novels — and that’s a good thing — by Chinese and foreign expat authors.
The adorable expatriate eccentric
The term “expatriate” is a misnomer and misrepresents the life lived abroad.
Midnight in Peking and true crime fiction
A few maps put Paul French’s “true crime” story in perspective.
Chungking: China’s heart of darkness
A brief history of travel in China and the challenges of inhospitality.
Out of the squalor and into the light: When the Shanghai wall came down
Glimmers of Shanghai’s modernity in a 19th-century courtesan novel.
The breasts of Bali: An update
Things are grim on the ground but the tradition lives on in pictures.
Confucius and opium
An investigation of intoxicants in the time of Confucius.
Multilingualism and the time travel novel
Writers who play carelessly with time may leave the language in tatters.
American fascism: The sexual rage of the state
The U.S. sexual surveillance state horror.
The expat and the prostitute: Four classic novels, 1956–62
Reviews of McKenna’s The Sand Pebbles, Mason’s The World of Suzie Wong, Arsan’s Emmanuelle, and Reynolds’ A Woman from Bangkok.
