Once upon a time, in a year I do not want to remember (but long ago), I took a safari tour across Northern Kenya. On a day I also choose to forget, I arrived at the end of the world. Scarped slopes lay accusingly in the distance, behind Lake Turkana. Round-bellied children looked up at…… Continue reading World’s End
A friend of mine once asked me, “What would a farmer in Italy or a cab driver from the Bronx want to know about China?” As I think of this question during the Chinese New Year I thought of three things based on my living in Shenzhen for the past fifteen years: the color red,…… Continue reading A Spring Day
I believe I am a great poet, but perhaps I am not. My name is Li Shangyin. I am a writer from the great Tang Dynasty. Well, not so great, unless one praises corruption, cabals, ostentation, endless battles between the Taoists and the new Buddhist religion from the West, and ignoring the poor and downtrodden.…… Continue reading Poem Without a Title 1
