This day, 3 April, in 1949, the First Congress of Chinese Women held in Beijing officially announced the establishment of the All-China Democratic Women’s Federation, with He...
You’re not completely sure how you got home last night. You’re worried what you might have said to those friends you were with. You just cannot find that cash which you keep in your wallet for emergencies.
Strainer cannot help you with any of these problems.
You’re listless. Every movement requires double the effort. There’s a headache on the horizon.
Now we’re talking. It’s about time this column got around to hangover strategies. And I’m sure you won’t be surprised to see tea playing a role in the recommendations here.
Sweat it out?
Actually,...
I am a contrarian.
All of this unpopular opining of mine may look like critical thinking, heroic truth-seeking.
But don’t be fooled; it’s just knee-jerk doggerel.
My world-view is permanently controlled by the assumption that “those millions of people talking around me can’t possibly be right”. My brain rails against whatever prevails.
Remember that, especially when you catch me writing about Chinese medicine.
Remember where I am writing from. Here or there. Remember whose those surrounding millions of voices are.
If I am in my native UK, stifled by familiarity, you will find me warmly...
We had just 1 hour minutes to fill four baskets. Any less, we were told, and the local tea master would reject the batch as a waste of effort.
So off we went to work on a hillside overlooking a road on the edge of Qiandaohu in neighbouring Zhejiang Province. With baskets attached to our bellies, our job was to pick those leaves from the bushes which were big enough to be called leaves but small enough to retain the desired pale green shade and moist texture.
It didn’t take...
Take a trip to a tea plantation. Nanjing is surrounded by mountains where tea grows. You’ll bump into one soon enough if your eyes are open to it. If you already know one, go to that one.
Steal a handful of leaves. Not many. Just a handful. The farmer won’t see you. Don’t worry.
If he does, just blame me.
Now, if you put those leaves into your mouth, they will taste like “leaves”. And that’s pretty much all they will taste of. Infuse them in hot water and the liquor will...
