Do Chinese men make good husbands? A book review
As an American woman married to a Chinese man, I was intrigued when I discovered two recent memoirs by American women who married Chinese men. My memoir, coming out in September, is mainly the story of a young journalist covering China at a pivotal moment of history—but it also includes how I met...
A moving story of an unlikely cross-cultural marriage
Review of How Sweet the Bitter Soup: A Memoir by Lori Qian A young American woman from a struggling family in Chicago goes to China to teach, as a way of earning money. A young Chinese man from a poor rural village in central China goes to a thriving city to look for a good job. She hires him to...
Tashkent and Samarkand: fabled cities of the Silk Road
If it weren’t for the travel disruptions due to Covid-19, I would have been in Tashkent yesterday (on my birthday) and Samarkand today. I'm feeling sad that I can't be there, but someday we'll travel again! Tashkent is now the modern, sprawling capital of Uzbekistan, but it was once a major...
An adventure trip not taken
Ten years ago, I researched Issyk-Kul, a beautiful lake in the Heavenly Mountains of Central Asia, where I set a dramatic scene, the climax of the story of Daughter of Xanadu and Son of Venice. Today, May 8, I was supposed to visit that lake, at long last, as part of a three-week Silk Road...
Reading this book might give humility and sympathy
This book is a tour de force. Starting with a single, stunning revelation from her mother, author Helen Zia embarked on years of research, including more than 100 personal talks with survivors and their offspring, interviews with scholars, and deep dives into archives, vintage newspapers,...
Next Stop: Shenzhen, then and now
After a good few days in Hong Kong, visiting friends and reminiscing about my life there in the 1980s, I planned to cross the border by land and visit Shenzhen, the city just inside the China border. It was little more than a fishing village until August 1980, when Deng Xiaoping designated it to...
