https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3163282/why-china-deserves-host-2022-winter-olympics In a few weeks, China will be hosting the 24th Winter Olympics in Beijing. Here’s my rationale why I support it. I know many of my friends and acquaintances may raise their eyebrows, but I think the Olympic Games are all about sports and people. If the Chinese people want it, then I am… Continue reading My oped – why I support China’s hosting of the Olympics

It can’t go too wrong with Macbeth. With its intriguing plot line, it has all the essential ingredients to make a good story/film, power, murder, treachery, witches and prophecies. There have been quite a few of Macbeth film already. I’ve seen Polanski’s 1971 version and Kurosawa’s 1957 loose adaptation Throne of Blood, which shifts the… Continue reading My review of movie The Tragedy of Macbeth

Upon the recommendation of several friends, I watched a Japanese film Driving My Car, directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Wow, it is by far the best film I watched in the past years. Based on a short erotic story Men Without Women, by Murakami, the director, a rising star, greatly expanded and enriched the story and… Continue reading My review of Driving my car

https://www.letemps.ch/societe/metoo-chinois-inquiete-maitres-pekin

https://www.prints-online.com/queen-elizabeth-ii-duke-edinburgh-malta-1951-7193437.html I didn’t realize that there is an interesting personal connection with Malta. Before leaving London, my ex told me that his maternal grandfather Ben Fisher served as Captain of the Mediterranean Fleet, based in Malta. For years, he had a suite at the luxurious Phoenicia, an art-deco hotel right by the City Gate of… Continue reading Malta

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3161231/china-cannot-achieve-gender-equality-while-excluding-women Here’s my commentary on the draft laws on the protection of women. For those who are interested, do take a look at the Global Times piece. How ridiculous to think that the #MeToo movement is aimed at subverting the Chinese government!

https://gal-dem.com/peng-shuai-chinese-feminists/ I was interviewed for Jessie Lau’s piece.

In the wake of the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai’s alleged sexual assault by a vice premier, Shakespeare’s play Measure of Measure seems more poignant. As I sat in the Shakespeare Globe, watching this powerful show, I thought to myself: things have not changed much. For centuries, powerful men have preyed on vulnerable young women.… Continue reading Measure for measure and Peng Shuai

I’ve been quoted in this NYT piece about the tennis player Peng Shuai. The journalist who interviewed me said to me apologetically that the editor had trimmed my quotation. In any case, I was happy to comment on a topic I feel passionate about. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/world/asia/china-peng-shuai-metoo.html

For many years now, I’ve been writing and publishing articles. They are not always literary, or not as literary as I’d like them to be, or perhaps the formats are not suitable for wordy prose. Here’s my latest piece for the New European, about how learning English has changed my life and how downgrading it… Continue reading a wordy essay