The idea for travelling in Scotland, to spend a week playing golf, was my father's. He proposed it four years ago, and for the last three, I had resisted. My reservations were various, but the reasons why I changed my mind over those years were also diverse and different. Still, one of the conditions that I wanted my father to meet was to let me ( Read more... )

"Hi, my name is Cris and the story that I'm going to tell is about a road trip that I took thirteen years ago. I was twenty-four, a couple of years out of college, in that point of time in one's life where you're making friends, meeting new people, forming the surrogate family that you've chosen. That summer, a few friends of mine and I decided ( Read more... )

My last 24 hours in China involved one last night in Hong Kong, to pick up my tailored suit, meet an old friend from university and enjoy one final dinner in Asia. I can say that I chose to stay at the W because it was within walking distance of the Airport Express train from Kowloon Station and so would be convenient, but in all honesty, I just ( Read more... )

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To judge Chinese Opera by what we had seen in Chengdu and Beijing, one can be forgiven for thinking that the term was a rough mistranslation. Yes, there were singers in fantastic costumes, belting out some kind of aria on stage, but in those evenings, they were only one brief act amongst a collection of acrobats, puppeteers and fire breathers. ' ( Read more... )

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The painting had not caught my eye until K started cracking up next to it. It was a shout out, he explained, to an old Chinese myth of a young boy who defeated an ancient sea dragon and had, thereby tamed the seas. Except, in the painting's case, the dragon was an American aircraft carrier and the boy was toppling it by peeing on it.


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Earlier this week, I was having lunch with a friend and describing to her how ayun and I had spent a couple of days in Sichuan taking the train out to the countryside to climb this holy mountain called Qingchen Shan. "It's supposedly the cradle of Taoism," I said, "so it's this mountain that's really almost like a vertical park with a bunch of temples ( Read more... )

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During one of our last days in Hong Kong, I remember walking along some busy section around Central, surrounded by Western expat bankers, and observing to ayun, "I feel like this is the airlock between China and the rest of the world." At another point, while we were taking the subway back from Lantau Island, she had also mentioned how one of the ( Read more... )