On China

China is twice the size of the European Union and has over three times the population. You wouldn’t very easily generalize such a diverse area, and neither am I trying to do with China. So for financial news or politics, subscribe to a newspaper, for big sweeping generalizations or a singular answer to “What’s (the whole of) China like?” — sorry, not here.

I write about how I experience China; how it makes me think or feel; how it changes me; or about the people I meet. And China in this case is actually mostly Shanghai and the neighboring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. (Still, 175 million people, plenty of source material.)

Writing this, for me, is a way of discovery and exploration. There’s so little that’s understood well about China. It’s also one of the main motivations to learn Mandarin Chinese. When you learn something new from something or someone, your life becomes part of that and the thing or that person becomes part of you. That’s how I like to spend my days.

If you want, you can subscribe to my newsletter. Any article I think is substantial enough, I’ll send your way.

Destinations and travel

About the 2022 Shanghai lockdown / covid in China

About culture

Media & market

Mandarin learning

All posts on China