Pearl Buck in China
I recently finished reading Hilary Spurling’s masterful biography of Pearl Buck, the daughter of American missionaries who grew up in China and became a novelist who…
Banquets in Washington DC and Changsha
Chinese President Hu Jintao was honoured with a state banquet at the White House last night. Apparently he and his entourage had requested a ‘quintessentially American’…
The ultimate multi-function kitchen gadget
You can hear me talking about the versatility of the Chinese kitchen cleaver (èœåˆ€) in last week’s edition of The Food Programme on BBC Radio 4.…