Mandarin version by Misaka Clover | Japanese version   The first time I came to Shanghai, in 2017, I was amazed by how developed the city was. My only other Asian experience was Mumbai, and compared to that, Shanghai was clean and organized. I was amazed by how you could pay for a laundrette with […]

This piece of calico from Wuzhen is still waiting to meet my mom. I never know what to buy her, but I think she’ll like this, a piece of tangible China bought in June, 2020. Now I’m moving houses again, and again this piece is going with me, waiting, just like me. 搬家。我还没有机会给我妈这块乌镇蓝印花布。我明天又搬家，这块又陪我去一套新的房子，它正在等待，就像我一样。

Zero covid China: cases rise and everyone gets nervous. All over the city, living compounds, malls, schools, offices, are locked up with residents, shoppers, teachers, staff all inside. Sometimes a delivery guy is extremely unlucky and runs into his proverbial Hotel California. It’s not really good or bad, it’s just the situation here that suits […]

I first watched “Her” nine years ago and loved it then: a science fiction movie, yet on a much more intimate level than pew-pew laserbeams or spacetravel. “Her” shows how difficult love is between humans, and how easy it can be between a human and a conscious yet bodyless operating system. When the movie ends, […]

Written for Dao Insights Last week, a colleague told me she’s from the same hometown as Zhou Enlai (周恩来 the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China): Huai’an (淮安) in Jiangsu province (江苏省). I had never heard of that place, and it’s the same thing when people tell me they’re from Kaifeng (开封) or […]

Three characters in the wild: “油坊 Yóufáng” (Oil mill). In the back of the building was indeed an oil press. Eva tells me about her grandpa who also had a 油坊 business, how people can bring nuts or something and then for a tiny fee her grandpa would turn it into oil. The second one […]

The paper faces of Mao and Qin Shi blacken and deform as fire takes the bills. Even though this money is fake, I never knew burning money to be so beautiful — it feels like a rebellious act. Eva’s dad twists the poke and turns over more unburned ghost money (冥纸 Míng zhǐ) into the […]

A world map that is upside down is just as correct as the one we’re used to. In China they use these kinds of world maps, with China in the middle. China’s Chinese name, 中国, Zhōngguó, means middle country. If you now think “OMG but why are they so arrogant they have to put China […]

This series is called ‘Secret Listening’, from the Chinese word 偷听Tōutīng. I know this can be — and should probably be — translated as ‘eavesdropping’, but secret listening captures it better and adds a bit of jest. These little stories or remarks stood out to me, and show a more personal side of China away […]

The museum in Taicang (太仓) shows the city’s history, how 1000 years ago — during the Yuan and Ming Dynasty — it was one of China’s richest cities, thanks to its position next to the Yangtze River. But the link between that city and today’s Taicang remains unclear to me, apart from some excavations and […]