A few maps put Paul French’s “true crime” story in perspective.
Midnight in Peking and true crime fiction
Chungking: China’s heart of darkness
A brief history of travel in China and the challenges of inhospitality.
The Mustachioed Woman. A novel. Chs. 1-2
Exotic woman unleashes the emotions in those she comes into contact with.
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.
