Pub’d on China Daily: A Basket of Raspberries, With Love

Earlier this month my column appeared in the China Daily — both in the paper and its WeChat account. It’s titled A basket of raspberries, with love and recounts a touching gesture from my mother-in-law when I lived at the family home one summer. Here’s an excerpt:

I never thought a misunderstanding over wild red raspberries would send my mother-in-law out to the hills at dusk, just to pick an entire basket for me.

It happened in May many years ago, during a summer I lived with my in-laws in their rural Zhejiang village. My mother-in-law had just called us all downstairs for dinner and, as usual, the table was already covered with a steaming selection of delicacies.

But while sitting down to my spot at the table, I thought I had heard somebody say miaozi, the term for raspberries in the local dialect. The very possibility of dining on this jewel of a fruit, my favorite in May, was too tantalizing for me not to ask if there were some in the house.

Turns out, I was wrong.

But that didn’t stop my Chinese in-laws from interpreting my question as a veiled request.

You can read the full piece here online. And if you love it, share it!

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