Tag: Creative writing
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Tibet is Here
It was the sort of flight which would crash, I reasoned: a random, once-a-week route to a remote area where Tibetan independence protests often took place. An old aircraft, difficult mountains. It probably wasn’t an economic route for anyone. A crash would be a good reason to cancel it altogether.
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Chinese Whispers
When I leave the hotel early each morning, walking out into still air, there is the crack of a whip.
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Exploring Dandong: A View into North Korea
I had come to Dandong in China’s northeast to see the Yalu River, the natural border separating China and North Korea, but had not reckoned on Dandong itself.
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A Winter River
The morning of the freeze there is beeverish activity on the river. What was yesterday a moving body of water is today as hard as stone. Groups of sweepers with brooms walk upon the ice, brushing away the snow which has come with the overnight freeze.
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A Walk Around a Lake in Shenyang…
Siberian gusts blow dry leaves which swirl and scratch along the paving slabs around the man’s tai-chi slippers. Dressed in a baggy blue felt tracksuit, his movements are slow and graceful. He is aware of my sitting watching him but makes no obvious sign of feeling observed. I know nothing about tai-chi but sense he…
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Shaoshan: The Birthplace of Chairman Mao
The strangeness of visiting Shaoshan had appealed to me. Since his death in 1976 the idea of Mao Zedong has been in flux. All over China he is visible: his face on every bank note, his portrait on the wall of Tiananmen Square near where his embalmed corpse lies, often with a line of weeping…
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To the Mountains
Did they build this tower block to withstand such a storm? Brilliant flashes lit up the night sky and thunder shook the room’s windows.
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Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
At first glance the paintings of Eric Ravilious are cheerful. Bright and airy landscapes, soft hills, the still life of an afternoon tea, chalk figures seen through the window of a railway carriage; all with a straight-edged exactness which brought order to the world he was depicting.
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New Deaths
I did have some food in but had thought to get in more – in fact I’d decided to learn how to bake bread and had none of the ingredients. But I did not say this. I told him I had run out of cigarettes and peanuts. I said this to appease him; I imagined…
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On My Birthday
My birthday started as I wanted: up early with coffee, reading something new.
Bardo travel: Writings on experience and place 