How the state exploits public rage to discipline the population.
The state of rage: The American sexual dystopia
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.
The classic coffeehouse: Ten essentials
A visual tour of coffeehouses around the world by a connoisseur, with a few pointers of advice.
The Mustachioed Woman of Shanghai. A novel.
Exotic woman unleashes the emotions in those she comes into contact with.
Sexual surveillance in the Covid-19 era
Sex in the time of coronavirus in China and the U.S.
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.
ISHAM COOK 