
The conventional history of English force-fed to university students benefits no one but the academic textbook business and its tired stakeholders.
American essayist and novelist based in China since 1994. Writing philosophy: downmarket, big concept, provocative, discriminating, outrageous. Ballard, Beckett, Borges, Dick, Kafka, Hesse, Melville, Mishima, Sade are influences.
The conventional history of English force-fed to university students benefits no one but the academic textbook business and its tired stakeholders.
Only a perverted and schizophrenic society dangles sexual temptations to ever-younger people and punishes them brutally.
An atheist patiently explains why most atheists are really believers in disguise.
Historical novel set during Taiping Rebellion cultivates a richly textured English, while another captures Sir Robert Hart’s love for a Chinese woman.
The exponential growth in international tourism seen in the context of European travel and tourism stretching back a millennium.
What happens to writing when it’s fed through the political correctness machine.
England was home to the first great school of classical chamber music, preceding the Viennese School of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven by two centuries.
The ambiguous host/guest boundary in many Airbnb households makes for most inhospitable stays.
Photo essay of old Macau with nudes and choice literary quotations.
The rococoesque beauty of the American ghetto and the obese.
Tongue-in-cheek explanation (with more than a grain of truth) of why it’s so hard to land a Chinese beauty.
What decades of living in China have taught this American expat.
Chinese “face” and Chinese “apathy” reconsidered in dynamic relationship.
A civilized approach to men’s obsession with the breasts.
An openminded appreciation of the Great Firewall of China.