The ambiguous host/guest boundary in many Airbnb households makes for most inhospitable stays.
Why Airbnb ain’t my cup of tea
Isham Cook
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.
Macau and the writer: A photo essay
Photo essay of old Macau with nudes and choice literary quotations.
American rococo
The rococoesque beauty of the American ghetto and the obese.
The question of breeding (why foreign men get the “ugly” Chinese girls)
Tongue-in-cheek explanation (with more than a grain of truth) of why it’s so hard to land a Chinese beauty.
At the Teahouse Café: Essays from the Middle Kingdom
What decades of living in China have taught this American expat.
The many faces of Chinese “face”
Chinese “face” and Chinese “apathy” reconsidered in dynamic relationship.
The breast etiquette project
A civilized approach to men’s obsession with the breasts.
Honesty, diligence, obedience: Why I support China’s Great Firewall
An openminded appreciation of the Great Firewall of China.
Massage and the Writer: Essays on Asian Massage
What if the antagonistic aspects of the massage practice—the therapeutic and the erotic—were seen as inseparable?
A massage school
There is no such thing as strictly nonsexual massage: massage is always already erotic.
The curious benefits of neurosis
Crucially, she has the “touch.” Love in her hands.
Coffee and massage in Burma
Burma’s burgeoning massage and café industries considered in tandem.
My lovely little oriental doll: On yellow fever
On the triteness of the “yellow fever” and “Asian fetish” clichés.
When poets speak of death: 100 aphorisms and epigrams on massage
“When poets speak of death, they call it the place without breasts.”
Men massaging men: Three countries
I am drawn to the seedy establishments, poorly lit portals to the underworld, busy inside with silent activity, chess games of intimate squalor.
