One hundred years of coffee culture in the land of tea.
Insights into China, Part 6: An afternoon in a café
Insights into China, Part 5: An invitation to a party
In which a gaping East-West cultural difference is explained.
Insights into China, Part 4: A visit to the library
The surprising popularity of libraries in China.
The Tao of Poison. A novel.
A poisonous maiden, a Daoist sex cult, and a violent insurgency.
Pop music and the Asian face
Thoughts on aversive racism in the American music industry.
Insights into China, Part 3: A stay in a hotel
The contradictions of China’s hospitality industry.
Insights into China, Part 2: A visit to a restaurant
There is no more revealing window into Chinese culture than its restaurants.
Insights into China, Part 1: A walk down the street
Chinese culture from the perspective of a pedestrian.
Music and totalitarianism
What happens to music when the state gets its hands on it.
Datura and the psychedelic Tao
Taoist sexual technology supercharged by the world’s most powerful entheogen.
Isham Cook’s China book picks by Book Shepherd
15 China books recommended by Isham Cook plus a few of his own.
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.
ISHAM COOK 