Archive for the ‘Asia’ Category
A new Chernobyl
Photographer David Guttenfelder recently won a World Press Photo Award for his work, for National Geographic, on the deserted town of Namie, Japan–which lies within a 12-mile radius of the site of last year’s nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. His photographs were some of the most stark and significant images I had seen [...]
February 22nd, 2012If the Chinese middle class permits
The expanding Chinese middle class has more money to spend on tourism, like this family in Nanjing, June 2007. Bill Saporito’s October 31 Time article said it best: “Consider the cosmic irony: wobbly Western economies are depending on the Chinese Communist Party to save their capitalist bacon. Likewise, the Chinese government’s grand scheme to rebalance its economy [...]
November 14th, 2011“I want to say, this machine isn’t just history.” The garment industry in history, and in our lives today
A denim factory in Kaiping, in southern China, where whole days are spent doing what I could barely do for two hours. Photo by Bert van Dijk. If you ever complain about the price of your jeans, I want you to find a sewing machine and try to hem a pair. Granted, the industrial size [...]
April 11th, 2011Trying to understand a boiling water reactor schematic diagram, to begin to understand Japan’s situation
This is the most unbelievable photo I’ve seen from the wreckage in Japan, because the mourning woman is so small compared to earth and its strength. We’re all so helpless in the face of that. Photograph from Asahi Shimbun, Reuters. I found it among National Geographic’s Japan earthquake/tsunami/nuclear coverage. If you’re like me, i.e. NOT [...]
March 15th, 2011Shaolin Temple in the spotlight, and its role in one of the best days of my life
This morning I was reading my copy of the current National Geographic, and the standout piece was the story and photographs of the Shaolin Temple, which stands in the midst of the Song Mountains in Henan Province, China. The temple is serving as both an important component of a resurgence of popularity of kung fu and martial [...]
March 4th, 2011The charm of Indian English, filled with literary gems
The Jaipur Literary Festival has become a literary institution and event in India, over the last half decade. “And what would your good name be, sir?” asked the greeter, with the Dickensian formality that only India has preserved. So begins writer Benjamin MacIntyre’s visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival (read it all here), an event [...]
January 29th, 2011Modern-day “Peril”? Chinese language in American classrooms, and that long-standing friend-or-enemy dilemma
China has the second-largest economy in the world, a fact that looms ominously over the shoulder of El Numero Uno: the United States. And when you are as connected economically as China and the U.S., it behooves each side to attempt friendliness; it also means it would be nearly impossible for either side to start [...]
October 7th, 2010Beijing’s vanishing charm: for a buck, for better living conditions, and for a hefty price
Chicken coup, built atop a home inside a Beijing hutong It’s a bit mysterious to me how my fascination with China began; this far into it, I cant quite retrace the steps back to the beginning. But one of the first books I read about the country was journalist Ian Johnson’s Wild Grass: Three Portraits [...]
July 21st, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: home
View from the moutaintop temple outside Yangzhou To end my series on Yangzhou, it is only right to leave you with my favorite image: a hut, full of character, perched on the side of a mountain, overlooking the valley and farms below. Above this humble and beautiful home was a temple that we visited, which [...]
July 20th, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: future vision
On the outskirts of the city, the huge mall loomed as a vision of the future towards which China is aiming. On the outskirts of the bustling city lies some of the newest additions to the area, a modern development area that includes the enormous mall here, as well as the giant new museum that [...]
June 28th, 2010