We Met in Beijing Last night, I attended a lovely reading by Anthony Tao from his poetry collection We Met in Beijing, held at the charming Electric Elephant Café near Elephant and Castle. The collection combines confessional poetry with a “poetics of witness”. Personal poems about friends, bars and everyday life gradually form a portrait… Continue reading Poem evening

RIP Gloria Steinem. In 1957, a London doctor who helped her obtain an illegal abortion asked her to promise him two things. One was: “You must do what you want to do with your life.” She did exactly that. In doing so, she helped transform the lives of generations of women, inspiring them to claim… Continue reading RIP G Steinem

I’ve never developed green fingers. I grew up in my mother’s residential compound in Nanjing, a crowded urban jungle with few green spaces. My grandma used to grow pots of jasmine, gardenia and spring onions on our tiny-weeny balcony. Now I live in a house with a large garden. I struggle to maintain it, with… Continue reading Plant displays

My Review of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma I rather liked this strange and highly original film, a surreal psychological slasher directed by Jane Schoenbrun and starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder. I must admit, however, that I am still not entirely sure what to make of it. Perhaps that is part of… Continue reading A unusual horror

It is heartbreaking to learn about the flash floods along the Nepal–Tibet border. Hundreds have lost their lives, and 1,500 people on both sides are still missing. Back in 1991, my ex and I travelled through this region. From Gyirong (吉隆), the nearest town on the Tibetan side, we hitchhiked and were picked up by… Continue reading Flood

My Review of The Summer Book I thoroughly enjoyed The Summer Book, based on Tove Jansson’s much-loved 1972 novel. I should say from the outset that it certainly isn’t a film for anyone looking for plot-driven drama. Very little happens, and that is precisely its charm. Set over the course of a summer on a… Continue reading The summer book

Here’s my piece about Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country that has fascinated me since my first visit in 1992, a year after it gained independence from the Soviet Union. [Uzbekistan and the New Great Game](https://democracyasia.com/articles/uzbekistan-and-the-new-great-game)

China’s birth rate has plunged to a record low. In the world’s second-most-populous country, why are so many young women reluctant to have children? I set out to discover what lies behind this dramatic demographic shift. My article has just been published in The Persistent, a women-led publication covering politics, economics and culture through a… Continue reading China’s low birth rate

A Buddhist Temple in Peckham Looking at the first photo, you may wonder: what is it? A church? But the writing on the front says “Qing Liang Buddhist Association.” I had heard there was a Buddhist temple in Peckham, so when a friend invited me to attend a guided meditation and sutra chanting session, followed… Continue reading A Buddhist temple in London

Last night, I went out with my mentee Daisy, who is as lovely as the flower she is named after. An English girl, she studied Chinese and is immensely interested in Chinese culture. We had dinner in Elephant and Castle, followed by a talk on social change in rural China. I’ve been mentoring for decades,… Continue reading Mentoring he