The Impossible Quest for a Courtyard in the Hutongs

My plan was to move to Beijing and score a home in one of the hutongs, the densely packed laneways in the center of the city that contain clusters of traditional courtyard dwellings. They’re known in Chinese as siheyuan (四合院). The idea of being able to hang in the private courtyard during summer with a [...]

A Glimpse at Chinese Contemporary Art

Besides the once ironic but now overly clichéd soviet socialist realism often used in propaganda, post Cultural Revolution China has had a dearth of decent art. Only in the past decade or so have people started to rock out with their cocks out when it comes to art. Still, innovation and artistic ability are not [...]