It’s easy to dislike this book (but hard to hate, I guess). Because Warcross by Marie Lu is full of youth-adult fiction clichés, and everything feels just a bit too exaggerated. Plus the pacing of this book feels wrong, first too slow and then too fast. But it’s also easy to like, for Warcross is […]

Firstly, I love the HSK system because it’s clever and introduces compound words/characters really well. In HSK1 you may learn 谢谢Xièxiè (Thank you), in HSK3 觉得Juédé (Think), in HSK4 感谢Gǎnxiè (Thank) and 感觉(Gǎnjué). You can forgive HSK for becoming increasingly written language (especially HSK5 & HSK6). And although I cannot really compare HSK1 to 高级口语, […]

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 […]

Ready Player Two is a bit like ‘meh’ movie sequels that take the same cast of a popular movie and basically copy the story: old wine, new bags. But I absolutely loved Ready Player One, and so I also loved being back in The Oasis with Wade and the gang, this amazing mix of nostalgia […]

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 […]

I loved plenty of crime novels — Devotion of Suspect X, Journey under the Midnight Sun, In the Woods by Tana French, and several Agatha Christie stories as well as Lee Child, some Stephen King — and I’m now reading The Chestnut Man. The main thing I noticed, though, is that even when I absolutely […]

It’s several years after reading this book that I’m writing this review. I’m wondering now why I read books, whether the key is enjoyment, relaxing down and winding down the day. Or whether books should teach me something new, let me live a life I do not have. Or perhaps they should teach me something […]

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 […]