Life in Beijing – Mudblog

The Digestive Biscuit, My Madeleine

In the Carrefour the other day, shopping for groceries, I spied some Digestive biscuits and felt an obscure kind of joy that immediately brought to mind Marcel Proust’s rumination about the madeleine. I’m no Proust, so if you want to read something extraordinary, please click away from this post and read this instead. I promise it is… Continue reading The Digestive Biscuit, My Madeleine

Last post from Beijing (at least for now)

Well, it’s happened. Our time in China is nearly finished. Hilary left early this morning for Taiwan, where she’ll be doing some research for a couple weeks, and I leave this evening for the US. Almost everything in our apartment is packed up, and as I sit here alone typing, the sounds of the keystrokes… Continue reading Last post from Beijing (at least for now)

Shakedown at High Honesty Plaza
(Mobocracy update II)

Well, our favorite restaurant has finally given up. They, along with every other business in the plaza that used to be home to the High Honesty Supermarket, have closed and are looking for new locations.

Mobocracy update

The restaurant owners (see ambiv’s post, below) are fighting back, but it’s clearly a losing battle. In front of each of the restaurants now hangs a protest banner, white with black characters: “High Honesty Supermarket, give back our blood-sweat money!” “You illegally cut off our electricity, and treat tax-paying people like convicts!”, and so on.… Continue reading Mobocracy update

Back in Beijing, Hu in Seattle

We arrived Monday afternoon back in Beijing, flown from the sunny blue Aegean to the Chinese capital at the tail end of a 10-day dust storm. Parked cars and buildings are coated in light brown powder that matches the color of the sky. Bicyclists squint against the dust, pedaling furiously and blindly against the wind.… Continue reading Back in Beijing, Hu in Seattle