In 1470, the Korean king Song-jong decided to restore the waning fortunes of Confucianism in his country, and invited Chinese dignitaries to his court. As described in Felipe Fernández-Armesto’s excellent book 1492: The Year Our World Began, when the Chinese arrived, they were as much struck by the backwardness of Korea (despite the ancientness and [...]
Archive for the ‘china’ Category
Korean Diplomacy
Posted in books, china, food, korea, liquor, wine, tagged books, china, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, food, korea on 01/06/2010 | Leave a Comment »
Package Deal
Posted in china, coffee, food, france, italy, music, usa, tagged food, life magazine, music on 28/04/2010 | Leave a Comment »
On Aug 17, 1962, Life magazine‘s Life Guide section had a brief note of the continuation of a fad for ‘package-deal’ music albums. MUSIC TO CHOKE ON. Furthering the fad for package-deal albums, the four-volume Sounds and Tastes of Foreign Lands series encloses a cookbook with each long-play record, providing both music and recipes for [...]
A Kerouac For China
Posted in books, china, food, tagged books, china, food, humour, kerouac, wang shuo on 21/03/2010 | 2 Comments »
Wang Shuo’s Please Don’t Call Me Human is an example of the stuff the Chinese government likes to ban – scurrilous, irreverent, blackly funny, deeply insurgent. Here, a peculiar outfit determined to recover China’s face after the national insult of losing the 2000 Olympics to Sydney has organised a meal in honour of their champion. [...]
