Lolita review

If you want a joyful or entertaining book to read, look elsewhere. Lolita is slow to read and the story itself, dare I say it; boring. Yet Lolita consists of prose perfection on a grim subject, and I learned afterwards that the book helped introduce the idea (and policing) of sex abuse of children in the US — hence I’m giving a five star rating. Lolita is Malevich’s Black Square in bookform; an artform not for enjoyment, rather for evoking emotion, however grim that might be.

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Torrential rain and colorful umbrellas

Torrential rain and colorful umbrellas

I was planning a bike ride, but then saw it was drizzling, so I carried Hasse outside — underneath an umbrella — to go get a coffee. Yet the rain was so heavy we just hid underneath the canopy in front of a supermarket to see some of the chaos unfold. I’ll miss these streets […]
May 25, 2026
Streetside in the AI Park

Streetside in the AI Park

Be skeptical of sweeping stories about China, regardless of how good or bad they portray things. The technological advancements mentioned in the news may be even more profound in reality, but not as widespread as shown. The GDP growth has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but real wealth is mostly concentrated in coastal […]
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Clothes Making Clouds

Clothes Making Clouds

There are so many ways to define Shanghai, yet a few popular icons do a lot of the talking. As the international metropolis and a symbol of China’s rising economic power, there’s the Lujiazui (陆家嘴) skyline — with the Oriental Pearl Tower (东方明珠) and high offices of Chinese and multinational corporations. There’s the Maglev train […]
May 5, 2026
Passing on the Baton

Passing on the Baton

Day 2876 in Shanghai and I’m walking with Hasse on Dongdaming Road (东大名路) in the Hongkou district. In 2018, I lived next to this road; here I registered my first Chinese bank account, bought my first baozi in a FamilyMart, and it’s here that I photographed so many random things because Shanghai was all new […]
April 13, 2026