Chinese cities happily gut their historical districts to rebuild them into cheesy simulacra which in turn will soon see the bulldozer.
How to have fun in China’s disposable cities
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.
Lust & Philosophy. A novel
Debut autobiographical novel will appeal to fans of Hermann Hesse, Philip K. Dick, J. G. Ballard and other novelists of the uncanny.
The Chinese university: A primer for prospective foreign teachers
When I asked students what they learned in their politics classes, they couldn’t even remember the names of the courses.
The poverty of the institutional imagination: The case of Beijing’s moats and canals
If it reclaimed its water system, Beijing could become a great city of canals.
Multiply, cascade, explode: A theory of literary fiction
“Monsters cannot be announced. One cannot say: ‘Here are our monsters,’ without immediately turning the monsters into pets” — Derrida
Questioning China’s “5,000 years” master trope
When measured against other ancient civilizations, China is not 5,000 years old but more like 3,000-3,500 years old.
A modest proposal regarding sex work: Why all sex should be paid for
The sexual fees levied on hubby would compensate working wives for the housework they do on top of their day job.
A Shakespeare sex-and-violence starter kit
It was not just Shakespeare’s obsession; we can assume virtually the entire audience attending his plays was syphilitic.
On harpsichords and white pianos: The challenge of music in China
Our distaste for the white piano stems from certain associated stars of the Easy Listening school (Liberace, Clayderman, etc.): music for people who don’t like music.
Theatrics of Japanese Noh, Kabuki, and the mixed-bathing Onsen
A visit to a nude mixed-bathing Onsen revealed more than passing resemblance to the traditional Japanese dramatic stage.
The Chinese-Japanese cultural chasm on display at Starbucks
Profound cultural differences epitomized by Chinese and Japanese Starbucks.
The high priests of medicine: U.S. and Chinese hospitals
The USA and China both bear the distinction of having the worst health care systems in the world not attributable to national poverty.
Black forest cake blues: The customer service problem
The idea of cake, a jokester’s cake for flinging in the customer’s face.
From struggle sessions to public dressing-downs: China’s continuity of psychological control
At the Revolutionary University, students vie with another to express how much they enjoy hauling night-soil feces.
The old Chinese bathhouse, circa 2000
That Chinese bathhouses draw families and their children while operating simultaneously as brothels is a phenomenon found nowhere else in the world.
ISHAM COOK 