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In Search of the Red Chamber
People laugh at us history buffs (okay, history nerds). In turn, we find your divorce from continuity amusing, the way you talk and act as though you're the first real people, as though everyone were a two-dimensional historical stereotype
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In China, You Listen to Dad
It's been a tough few decades for fathers. It's a lesson in life imitating "art". Media dads, from movie to sitcom to commercial, are either abusive, repressive, incompetent, or a scintillating combo of the three.
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China's Storybook Heroes
The Eight ImmortalsRambo and Batman say as much about American culture as JFK and Michael Jordan. A country's fictional heroes grant insights into its collective subconscious.
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The I Ching Speaks Truth to Power
Times are always uncertain, but with everyone trembling on the doorstep of 2009, it makes sense to proceed with extra caution. Trouble is, rational thinking doesn't apply to the irrationality of the masses, and infinite x factors defy a finite
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The Stories Behind Kung Fu Movies
Eagle Shooting HeroThe storylines and dialogue behind Kung Fu movies are generally dreary stuff, Crouching Tiger notwithstanding. So is it a surprise that it all comes from a rich Chinese literary tradition known as wuxia? Perhaps not; the tendency
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Legendary Feminism: the Story of Ashima
-By ErnieTime and fate can rob a people of their possessions, but not their souls. Before merchants became kings, the Yi of southwest China were anything but a coddled minority.
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Five Naughty Chinese Novels
A time-honored prejudice dividing East and West concerns our concepts of the other's sex lives. The Chinese are prim, demure, and scandalized by the least bit of raunch, while Westerners are all confirmed sex addicts before they're done wi
