Just in time to depress you for Valentine’s Day, a nevertheless fascinating read in the Washington Post. Titled, “The Single Life: Some People Never Find the Love of Their Lives. And Live to Tell About It,” the article chronicles people in their late forties, fifties, and sixties who have never been married and investigates “why?” Read more…

That loud clicking noise just as the wheels of the plane touch the ground reminds me that I am not in Kansas anymore.* It is the sound of dozens of seatbelts being unhooked almost simultaneously with landing. As in America, the announcement has been made to keep your seat belt strapped until the plane reaches the gate. The only difference here in China is that for the most part people choose to ignore it. On the one hand, I admire the lack of deference to authority. On the other hand, if the plane suddenly stops I don’t want the fat guy sitting next to me to do a face plant into my lap. Read more…

If like me one of your New Year’s (whether Chinese or Western) resolutions involves learning more about China, let me suggest one book as a must read: Yu Hua’s “China in Ten Words.” Read more…

Religion is often considered a big deal in dating in America. There are whole dating websites devoted to members of a single religion. Along with one’s political affiliation, religious belief is often a significant factor in the selection of a life partner. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Shared values are important in a meaningful relationship, and one’s religion and politics are, in America, a reasonable indicator of one’s value scheme. Read more…

Why the hell does China want to learn English? Read more…

The final installment of impressions drawn from reading a series of essays on moral matters in China from Chinese graduate students at Sichuan University. Read more…

Here is a continuation of my impressions from reading one hundred essays on ethical topics in contemporary China by a group of graduate students at Sichuan University Read more…

As I have mentioned before on this blog, I am currently teaching an online course to a group of one hundred plus graduate students at Sichuan University. For the entire semester, they have devoted themselves to a single essay topic of their own choosing. My only requirement was that they write on an issue in the area of ethics. I did this because I am interested in how my students view the world, and there is no better way to find out someone’s worldview than by getting them to discuss issues of good and bad, right and wrong. This was what I did for two years in a weekly discussion group when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. Since I could not be there in person this semester to organize another discussion group, having the students write on ethics seemed about the next best thing. Well, the results are in. And before I begin the gruesome job of grading over one hundred long essays (and consuming large quantities of scotch in the process), I thought I would provide my impressions from reading these papers about how the young Chinese view the world. Read more…

The latest hot story on my favorite Chinese Internet scandal sheet, chinaSMACK, involves a video of a woman telling off her (soon-to-be-ex) boyfriend on a subway in Beijing. It’s not the activity itself that stands out — I mean, we’ve all been there. Rather it is what the woman says that has captured people’s attention. Among the many things she screams at her boyfriend, who sits silent and unmoving, sweatshirt hood over his head, is that, “A man without money is garbage”(“男人没钱就是垃圾！”: Nan ren mei qian jiu shi laji). Read more…

Inspired by David’s comments on the increasing American waist line, I want to take this opportunity to go on a little rant of my own. Read more…