Tag: China Daily

My latest column for China Daily was just published in the paper. It’s titled The magic of finding an ancient civilization in your backyard. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s one thing to see history on display behind a museum glass and another to experience it right beneath the soles of your hiking shoes, just as my husband Jun and I did one afternoon while wandering the hills within sight of the family home in rural Zhejiang.

That ridge, one of a chain of undulating hills that encircled the village, looked like every other we had climbed before. It had the usual assortment of bamboo, pines and rhododendrons in its canopy. And the sinuous trail we followed swept through the same tangles of bracken ferns, satintail grasses, mugwort and clover we always walked through on our hikes.

But at a small clearing on top, we discovered an astonishing marble historical marker, etched with Chinese characters designating the fertile ground beneath our feet the site of an ancient civilization that flourished 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.

How could such a seemingly ordinary ridge hold such an extraordinary secret? The marker offered scant introduction to the civilization, beyond that it thrived during the Neolithic Age and occupied the crest of that hill.

Still, even this historical crumb left behind by a team of archeologists thrilled me more than gazing upon one of China’s national treasures in a museum, because we had stumbled upon it right in the backyard of the village where my husband grew up.

You can read the full piece here and also hear a recording of me reading it. And if you love it, share it!

Great news to share — China Daily website just upgraded me to featured columnist, complete with my own banner featuring my photo and name.

You can find my columns here on China Daily website. And as always, if you like my writing, share it. Many thanks for reading!

China Daily just recently published my latest column, Love at first bite: Yangmei is a delicious taste of summer fun. Here’s an excerpt:

Never mind the harsh humidity, the relentless sunshine or anyone complaining of unbearably hot summers in China. Who has time to worry about that in June, a month that, for me, is inextricably entwined with the arrival of what I consider the country’s most enchanting fruit－yangmei, also known as the waxberry or Chinese bayberry.

This uniquely summer indulgence grows primarily in China, with much of the fruit produced in my husband Jun’s home province of Zhejiang. If you’ve never tried the juicy goodness of yangmei, imagine a mouthwatering, sweet-tart mix of pomegranate, strawberry and cranberry flavors, packed together into a cherry-sized sphere with a curiously bumpy surface and, when fully ripe, the deep burgundy color of a fine red wine. It’s a little piece of ecstasy that will dance across your taste buds and probably dribble onto the table or your summer clothes. But you won’t even care about the mess because it tastes so amazing.

Yangmei, which has been used in traditional Chinese remedies for more than 2,000 years, also has high medicinal value. The first time a Chinese friend brought a bag of the fruit to my apartment, she told me, “Yangmei saves your life,” a popular saying I would come to hear echoed by many others, including my father-in-law. Studies have shown that yangmei provides a rich source of antioxidants such as vitamin C, and may be useful for tackling inflammation, diarrhea, intestinal ailments, cancer and even diabetes. It’s no wonder people have dubbed it a superfruit.

No matter your reasons for eating yangmei, chances are you might end up just like me－in love at first bite. Consuming the fruit is now a yearly ritual for me and my husband, and every mouthful brings with it sweet memories of summer days.

You can read the full column here. And if you like it, share it!

Earlier this week, China Daily published my latest column, Every grain of rice reflects virtue of hard labor along life’s path. Here’s an excerpt:

One evening in May, while spending a summer break at my in-laws’ home in their village in Zhejiang province, I returned from a walk to discover a dusty brown water ox tied to a tree just outside the gate of the house.

It stood perfectly parallel to the road, much like a parked vehicle, apart from grazing on the grass at its hooves, and eyeing me with a stony gaze that suggested I best keep my distance.

The ox signaled to me, long before I entered the house, that we would be having dinner that evening with a distant relative long appointed as my husband’s godfather, a man I simply referred to as “uncle”.

A tiger in the Chinese zodiac, this uncle had often joked of how much he embodied the sign, calling himself “fierce”.

You could believe it, given his thunderous voice, which even the ox minded, his ability to move beehives and the fact that he made a living slaughtering livestock. Some dubbed him the finest butcher in town.

Upon settling onto my stool at the table, I soon learned why the uncle had brought along his bovine companion. He had spent the afternoon leading the ox, pulling a plow, through my in-laws’ square plot of land in the terraced fields, to prepare for growing rice.

This uncle never shied away from grueling tasks, such as working the rice fields, and his face bore witness to this “fierce” side of him, weathered and tanned from years of labor outdoors in all sorts of conditions.

Watching him and the ox trundle through the sunny fields, as I did later on, proved fascinating.

Enjoy the full piece here — and if you like it, share it!

I’m thrilled to share that China Daily’s website ecently added me as one of the featured contributors in their “China Views” section on the Opinion page. (See my photo in the lower right-hand corner, which I’ve circled in red.)

You’ll now also find my regular columns right there on the website (as well as the paper and, often, its official WeChat account).

As always, thank you so much for reading and following my work!