The book I’m reading, published in 1932, mentions two famous temples near Beijing, Chieh T’ai Ssu and T’an Chueh Ssu. While it’s easy to translate from one language to another along (even English to various forms of written Chinese), I’m having a hard time finding something that will translate the Wades-Giles in my book to […]

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I’m rereading a novel set in Beijing this American Memorial Day holiday weekend, and came across a passage that might be one of the things that inspired us to start Guanxi: The China Letter.
“[Laura] was prepared to like the[American] novelist, but all the same she was aware of the faint irritation with which Americans nearly […]

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My Chinese lessons have been disrupted by an unscheduled trip to San Francisco and a sprained ankle, but new lessons about China continue daily. Talking to Westerners can be useful–and enlightening, as was my talk yesterday with Harry Kendall of UC Berkeley, who served in western China during World War II–but it is conversations with […]

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