This day, 12 February, in 2006, the United Nations Convention against Corruption officially entered in to force in China. As the most authoritative and influential global legal...
It’s teenagers who enjoy it the most. It’s there in so many of the snacks they eat. It is a horrifying rottenness. They love it. They are wrong to love it.
Of course, many of these snacks of rottenness contain chilli; that fresh adventure for the young person. With alcohol, even coffee, still far on the horizon, the enjoyment of chilli carries an illicit charge and bragging rights.
And, of course, these snacks are heavily freighted with umami, the protein decoy. While adults somehow remain wary of this big-FMCG alchemy, the...
I would normally have said no. But I was all out of tea that day.
Actually, I welcomed that big cup of coffee after another poor night’s sleep. The drink was ice cold, mercifully unsweetened and wrapped in the green of Starbucks’ gentle gorgon.
Among international brands, Starbucks is bucking a trend here, its China arm remaining wholly-US owned after other fast-food concerns have sold out to local firms. Starbucks has not splintered nor run away yet.
So it’s logical that my foreign colleague chose this brand for his gift to the...
I’ve spent more money than necessary, wasted too many grumpy gulps than necessary on a tea which usually fails to reward. I’ve thought altogether too much about it.
And, as well as trying to understand my problem, there’s another reason to chase the mercurial charm of “biluochun” (碧螺).
Back in the winter of 2015, I drank a cup which stunned me. It came at the end of a long tour featuring some great teas. But it somehow capped the whole experience. Like fresh peas and gooseberries was the biluochun that day.
https://www.thenanjinger.com/magazine/strainer/meat-is-murder-im-going-to-need-a-toothpick-with-that/
It’s...
There’s an English word that begins with “b”. It literally means “female dog”. Don’t pretend you don’t know it.
The word has retained its full force during the many years since I first learnt it, while other “b” words, such as “bloody”, have lost theirs.
Secularism and permissiveness have prevailed. But even as the old lexicon of oaths and obscenities fades into quaintness, there is actually a whole group of curses that retain the capacity to shock.
These are the terms that will lose a broadcaster his/her job; the terms that imply/constitute...
