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Beijing

Detox Aggregation: Buddy Up With Beijing

De mortuis nihil nisi bonum …” “Of the dead speak aught but good.”

 

The ancient admonition seems the only way to hedge the reflection that as bad as Citi’s problems are, how much worse might they have been had Walter Wriston still been running the bank. It was the late Citibank CEO Read More

Obama, From Behind the Great Firewall

BEIJING—There was nothing on TV about the election when I got up on Nov. 5, just about the time that the polls were closing in Indiana. I had been looking forward to following the results of an election from the other side of the world--as with the NBA's West Coast games, the important part would Read More

At Beijing’s Sex and da City, the Debauchery is Low-Key

BEIJING—“Of course, nobody wants to be Samantha,” Eva Shen said. It was a warm Saturday night on Houhai, the lakeside bar strip, and Ms. Shen, 40, had stepped outside the club she co-owns. Over the door, in glowing characters, was the Chinese name of the club, Yuwang Chengshi; above that, in larger letters, was its Read More

How I Became a Prop for China

BEIJING—Before I became a mascot for China's new spirit of cooperation with journalists, I first had to get the People's Republic of China to certify that I was legally a journalist.

Resolving that issue in China requires wrestling with questions of being and reality—including, in my case, an argument with a uniformed officer of the Beijing Read More

Not Since Nixon—Friedman in China, Sells Tom’s World

BEIJING—I had just begun haggling for a silk comforter at the Yuexiu Market on Chaoyangmen Street when I got a phone call saying that New York Times Op-Ed columnist Thomas L. Friedman was on his way to a bookstore nearby. I wrapped up the deal, disadvantageously, and grabbed a cab. You can learn a lot Read More

Global Media Report: [em]Oggi[/em] Magazine Turns Five

BEIJING -- Oggi, a Japanese fashion magazine with a Chinese edition, held a fifth anniversary celebration the night of Nov. 10, at the Rui Fu nightclub. At first glance, it appeared that Rui Fu had closed and been replaced by another nightclub--a routine thing to happen in Beijing, with or without bulldozers involved--and that the Read More

Bargaining in Beijing: Zing Went My Strings—Boy, China Is Big!

BEIJING—I’m standing on the third floor of a multi-story shopping center not far from Tiananmen Square known as the Silk Market. It’s sort of like a horizontal version of Canal Street, although this hardly does it justice: There are literally hundreds of stalls spread out over six stories, selling everything from real Chinese silks to Read More

Bargaining in Beijing: Zing Went My Strings-Boy, China Is Big!

BEIJING—I’m standing on the third floor of a multi-story shopping center not far from Tiananmen Square known as the Silk Market. It’s sort of like a horizontal version of Canal Street, although this hardly does it justice: There are literally hundreds of stalls spread out over six stories, selling everything from real Chinese silks to Read More

Culture Clash in L.A.: A Crutch for Young Talent

It’s been three years since Nell Freudenberger quieted most of her critics with a sharp collection of short stories, Lucky Girls. And yes, it speaks to the unique pettiness of the literary world that she already had critics, despite the fact that her publishing history consisted of one short story in The New Yorker’s 2001 Read More

Chinatown, North of Houston: General Tso Goes Glamorous

Ever since my son was old enough to bang on a glass with a pair of chopsticks, I’ve been going for dim sum in Chinatown, a few blocks away from where I live. Now, still close to home 17 years later, eating oysters deep-fried in fortune-cookie-shaped wontons and fabulous green dumplings stuffed with mushrooms and Read More


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