China Archives - Comfortably Numb

Book review: Sikkim by Andrew Duff

SIKKIM: Requiem for a Himalayan Kingdom by Andrew Duff. Random House India Books. 2015 release. Duff tells the sad and sorry tale of this beautiful little mountainous habitat, the name of which ironically enough, translates to `happy home.`It is indeed, the stuff of a political potboiler but alas, a true story. This account begins with…

Book review: Behind the Wall by Colin Thubron

Just when the first lockdown was enforced, I started on one of my fave travel writer Colin Thubron`s 1988 China travelogue, Behind the Wall. And I only just finished reading it. It`s not an easy book to read, and it`s even more difficult to review. Oh, Thubron is at the top of his game…

Travel: The Lantau Buddha

When big really is beautiful Lantau Island A trip to gaze at the Lantau Buddha You glimpse him from a fair distance away. It`s a hazy day and on high in the cable car coming up from the Ngong Ping 360 cable car station, the first sighting of the seated figure, majestic in its very…

Travel: Chinese Checkers

Chinese checkers It took a 20-day trip for me to ascertain some things about China All the literature I had read, which, admittedly, was of China of the old, not the modern glitzy country I saw, had led me to believe that it was not the cleanest of places. Not true. Not true at all….

Travel: China Diary

China Diary The overarching impression is of a country where everyone has turned consumer with a vengeance. The Mao suit is grey I am in Beijing a week after the PLA parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of China’s war against Japan. On subway trains, the TV screens are beaming the visuals in a loop:…

Travel: The Legend of Kung Fu, a Beijing Show

Broadway Style Ballet in Beijing I promise you: you could hear a pin drop. This is Beijing’s Red Theatre, with a façade so red that it hurts the eye! And this evening, the compact auditorium is silent but packed to the gills. Those waiting for the curtains to lift on The Legend of Kung…

Photo Feature: Eating Chinese food in China

All photos by Sheila Kumar. All images are subject to copyright. Bouza. They made for a great breakfast and kept one going through the day. Jianbing. A fried egg crepe with all kinds of delicious fillings, veg and non-veg. We were gorging on these in the mornings when not scarfing down bouzas. Platter at an eatery…

Photo Feature: China Chronicles

All pictures by SHEILA KUMAR except where otherwise mentioned. All images are subject to copyright. …

Photo Feature: Signs in China: Lost in translation?

All pictures by SHEILA KUMAR except where otherwise mentioned. All images are subject to copyright. Ran Over, it says on the vehicle up front.They have a sense of humour, these Beijingers. This polite but stern warning in our Shanghai hotel room caused much bemusement, amusement…and the immediate urge to follow a stranger! Delighted to…

Book review: Smoke and Mirrors, an Experience of China by Pallavi Aiyar

The author is walking around the Potala with an interpreter from the Chinese ministry. A Danish journalist starts to ask the latter questions about Tibet. The woman is upset. The author tells her that in India, people often disagree with each other on a topic and that’s okay.“But in China, it’s different,“ says the…