The Nanjinger

Chinese cabbage, or Da Bai Cai (大白菜), may be to most people, boring and insignificant. That it is even on the table for this month’s column may ignite some serious yawning from readers. Before giving up on this humble...

It is not an exaggeration to say that everyone who learns Chinese calligraphy will at some point come across Wang Xizhi, China’s most celebrated historical calligrapher. Fewer perhaps know that his iconic work, the Lantingxu, was written while under...

Each and every issue of The Nanjinger magazine is available for free here. Click on any volume title to access any issue of the magazine from that period, to read online or to download as a PDF. The Nanjinger Back...

The Longxia (or crayfish) Festival held in Nanjing in June had nothing to do with those blighted crustaceans that hang onto life as they await their garlic-heavy fate. In fact, this small scale festival of performance art packed a...

Since this column is dedicated to the discovery and discussion of quirky and unusual Chinese food, it makes it quite the challenge to keep looking off the beaten track, but so worth it. So far, we have had a...

Confucius may be China’s best known scholar, especially on a global level, but he was not her most influential. That is a title that falls better to Zhu Xi, he being but one of the many reasons for a...

In the late 50s, the first discovery of the implications for rare earth elements was in the United States, in particular, California. Those elements, despite their name, are not actually so rare, they can be found in nature as...