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Chinese Massage Can be Elicit and it Can be Painful

With Chinese cupping in the news thanks to the strange circular black and blue marks on Michael Phelps and other US swimmers, I thought I'd share my own experience with the procedure. My The Expat Life column from WSJ.com from almost a decade…
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Wild Great Wall hike with my Dad was a memorable one

Six years after moving back from Beijing, I no longer think about my three and a half formative years in China on a daily basis. Repatriation is a long process and now the whole experience has been processed through my system and simply become…

An inside look at Chinese hoops

Once again inspired by Jim Yardley's wonderful new book Brave Dragons: A Chinese Basketball Team, an American Coach, and Two Cultures Clashing, I present my own experiences with Chinese basketball. I am in the process of interviewing Jim…
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Hometown girl does good… Chinese army hoops team does bad.

Rebecca cringed, but still I promote. This is a classic "hometown girls does good" story in yesterday's Bay City Times. She just has to get more used to some public acclaim. I am going to work with her on getting a better headshot, though.…

Old School corn milling – Mutianyu, Beijing, China

In February, 2010, I was in beijing for a final reporting trip for Big in China. I wanted to have a little writ'ers escape and the kind folks at the Schoolhouse, hard by the Mutianyu Great Wall were kind enough to give me a beautiful little…
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Being Jewish in China and Discovering What Really Matters

When my wife and I decided to move our family from Maplewood, NJ to Beijing in 2005 we weren't really sure what it would mean for our Jewish life. We were prepared to scale it back for a few years, and to take more responsibility for keeping…
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Making dumplings

Learning to make dumplings with the great Hou Ayi in Beijing. I get hungry and sentimental watching this. I'm glad that more people are picking up on the passion for food displayed throughout Big in China. It was certainly a big part of my experience…

China Misunderstood: Did We Contribute to Ai Weiwei’s Arrest?

"China Misunderstood: Did We Contribute to Ai Weiwei’s Arrest?" is a really interesting take on the Ai WeiWei arrest and, more broadly, about Western press coverage of Chinese crackdown of dissidents. It was written by my old friend and former…

I was a Fu Man Jew

What it was like to be a Fu Man Jew.
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From the Archives: Me on NBC talking about Chinese hoops

I finally found the NBC basketball clip featuring me. See below.I pop up twice, at 1:22 and 2:27. I was amazed by how many people saw this. It aired at halftime of the USA/China basketball game. I was sitting there watching the game and my email…