My first blog post appeared on this website on 22.10.2016. It took me a while to figure it out, but soon thereafter I started sending out a weekly newsletter to subscribers and fans on Facebook. My first newsletter went into the world on 24.11.2016 and I’ve been going strong ever since.
But some of you who visit my website may not know about my newsletter. And a handful of you might care to read them. So starting today, 26.01.2018, I’m putting all of them online for you to peruse at your leisure.
To help you find your way, I’ve listed the topics discussed, the famous and the not so famous people quoted. I’ve added any place that moved me from the theater to music, dance to film.
I’ve highlighted one search term per newsletter. If you click on it, you’ll go to the newsletter itself and whatever goodies I might have linked to it. For sure, you’ll find my blog post for the week and maybe a book review, too.
Check it out. And if you decide that you cannot bear the idea of missing another one, you can sign up for my newsletter here.
2023
December: Two Pushcart Prize and a Best American Essay nomination | Mini-reviews: Dishoom by Shamil Thakar, Kavi Thakar and Naved Nasir; The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs; The Lyric Essay as Resistance by Zoë Bossiere and Erica Trabold eds.; How to Cook a Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher; Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin; In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado; Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
November: Autumn’s bounty | Mini-reviews: A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam; The Part That Burns by Jeannine Ouellette; The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
October: This deadly love | Publishing news: “Food Fight” to appear in Sweet: A Literary Confection | Mini-reviews: Bao by Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung, and Wai Ting Chung; Not a Novel by Jenny Erpenbeck; Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen.
September: Women at work | Mini reviews: A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays edited by Randon Billings Noble; Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang; Intimacies by Katie Kitamura; The Promise by Damon Galgut
August: Publishing news: “Hats” appears in Issue 13 of Hinterland | Mini reviews: Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison; The Lover by Marguerite Duras; The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
July: Carpe diem | Mini reviews: I Hold a Wolf by the Ears by Laura van den Berg; Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard; The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited by Louisa Lim; A Fish Growing Lungs by Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn
June: A new look | Book reviews: Negroland by Margo Jefferson; Laogai: The Chinese Gulag by Hongda Harry Wu
May: In the public eye | Book reviews: Niet van hier by Judith Maassen; The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin
April: In the candy store | Book reviews: Circe by Madeline Miller, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez
March: Out of the frying pan and into AWP | Publishing news: Pleiades publishes “Inventory” | Book reviews: Object Lessons by The Paris Review, The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch
February: Happy Year of the Rabbit | Publishing news: Brevity Magazine publishes “Taiwan 1969” and Kenyon Review prints “Fish Tales” | I get accepted to Hedgebrook for a writing residency!
January: Tooting my horn | Book reviews: Redeployment by Phil Klay, The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction edited by Tara L. Masih, The Perfect Loaf: The Craft and Science of Sourdough Breads, Sweets, and More by Maurizio Leo, Dear Life by Alice Munro
2022
December: Achievement level unlocked | Publishing news: “Taiwan 1969” to appear in Brevity | Book reviews: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros; Dialect of Distant Harbors by Dipika Mukherjee
November: Study of the short story | Publishing news: “Inventory” is accepted by Pleiades | Book reviews: The Baby on the Fire Escape by Julie Phillips; A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li
October: En France | Publishing news: “Drift” is published by Hippocampus Magazine | Book review: Granta 63: Beasts
September: On the road (again) | Event announcements | Book reviews: The Glen Rock Book of the Dead by Marion Winik; The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
August: Writers in the Wild | Book reviews: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction edited by Dinty W. Moore, Weather by Jenny Offill, Mending Matters by Katrina Rodabaugh, The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
July: Field Notes from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop
June: Going to the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop | Book reviews: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, Tahoma Literary Review Issue 22
May: I win the 2022 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest | Book reviews: HoodWitch by Faylita Hicks, A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Creating Nonfiction edited by Lee Gutkind and Robyn Jodlowski
April: Tahoma Literary Review publishes my short story “Spoons” | Book reviews: Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous by Manu Joseph
March: Listen to your eyes | Book reviews: The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard, Bluets by Maggie Nelson, The World Doesn’t End by Charles Simic
February: Ekphrasis | Book reviews: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Field Study by Rachel Seiffert
January: What I did in 2021 | Book reviews: Granta: New Irish Writing, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, Half in Love by Maile Meloy
2021
December: The long road to publishing “Lord Millet” in The Cleaver Quarterly | Book reviews: Slouching toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion and The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
November: “Mrs Yip” gets a study guide | “Spoons” to appear in Tahoma Literary Review | Book reviews: How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell and That Distant Land by Wendell Berry
October: pausing the blog
Armchair Travel
This newsletter series, Armchair Travel, tries to understand what I saw while traveling the world in the pre-Covid era.
End of the road | What I Did on My Summer Holiday 13.09.2021
Escape from Perth 06.09.2021
Wheriko | Foodie Down Under | Book review: Modern Love by Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan 30.08.2021
The art world Down Under | Body and Soul 23.08.2021
Tasmania | Wallaby World | Book review: When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Díaz 16.08.2021
Hobart | Stargazing 09.08.2021
Melbourne | Book review: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 02.08.2021
New Zealand | A Cold Wind | Book review: Granta: The Map Is Not the Territory 26.07.2021
Hitting the Hump | Book review: How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee 19.07.2021
Destination: Napali Coast | Book review: Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra 12.07.2021
Destination: to visit the Birthday Boy | Book review: Tell It Slant by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola 05.07.2021
Detour: a birthday cupcake 28.06.2021
A week of firsts | Destination: Osaka 21.06.2021
Destination: Onsen | Book review: If I Could Tell You by Jing-Jing Lee 14.06.2021
A Tapestry of Colours | Destination: The Nakasendo | Book review: Citizen by Claudia Rankine 07.06.2021
Destination: South Korea | Book review: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis 31.05.2021
Traveling while Asian in Asia | Book review: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders 24.05.2021
Destination: My Son and the Kingdom of Cham | Book review: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson 17.05.20201
Into a tuktuk with Robbie 10.05.2021
Destination: Salon Saigon | Book review: Notes from No Man’s Land by Eula Biss 03.05.2021
Destination: Taiwan | Book review: Mothers and Sons by Colm Tóibín 26.04.2021
Shelter in place
A newsletter series — hopefully brief — on life in lockdown:
and counting …
End of an era | Lost in Translation | Book review: Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf 19.04.2021
Sweets for the sweet | Tap tap tap | Book review: The Four Books by Yan Lianke 12.04.2021
Happy Easter | Growing Season 05.04.2021
Month twelve
Leaving on a jet plane | Montebello 29.03.2021
Atlanta shootings | Sexy 21.03.2021
Strategies | The 36 Stratagems 15.03.2021
On stealing from life | Auntie May | Book review: Parallel Resting Places by Laura Wetherington 08.03.2021
Cows | The House Walsh Built 01.03.2021
Month eleven
Arts & crafts | Mosaic 22.02.2021
Anglerfish | I’m sorry I have to show you the next video 15.02.2021
Heaven or hell | Oh god | Books with a god-like narrator 08.02.2021
A kind reader | Quota | Book reviews: on refugees 01.02.2021
Month ten
Art and shadows | Shadow Box 25.01.2021
Goodbye | Book reviews: elegiac literature 18.01.2021
This is how we roll | Knock Knock | Books to be read 11.01.2021
Beginnings and ends | Fire | Book reviews: time travel 04.01.2021
Month nine
Goodbye 2020 | Looking back | Sneak preview | Book reviews: ghost stories 28.12.2020
Happy birthday, Dad | School days | Review of school books 21.12.2020
Adaptation | A Virtual Book Launch: Take 2 | Book review: For Work / For TV by Fee Griffin 14.12.2020
Wait | My Daily Practice | Book reviews: Craft 07.12.2020
Month eight
Writers: Near and Far | Double or Nothing | China books to be read 30.11.2020
Socially distanced dining | Knoxville | Book launch: For Work / For TV by Fee Griffen 23.11.2020
The long and winding road | Dirt | Book review: The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan 16.11.2020
Dawn | Writing the Other | Reviews of books written by Others 09.11.2020
Month seven
Fall | Green Thumbs | Book review: The Overstory by Richard Powers 26.10.2020
Time flies | Seoul | Book review: Mongrel Tongue by Megin Jiménez 19.10.2020
Amsterdam to Shanghai | Max Lazerich | Book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 12.10.2020
Home to Home | Moon Cake | Asian Short Fiction Reviews 04.10.2020
Month six
Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Eucatastrophe | Fiction by American Women 21.09.2020
Fire season | Getting to Know You | Book reviews: Korea 14.09.2020
Do you remember? | Memory | Book reviews: Memory 07.09.2020
Month five
Pandemic Parties | Dinner Time! | Book reviews: New Zealand 31.08.2020
Sound | Soundscape | Book reviews: dystopia 24.08.2020
Heat wave | How Does Your Garden Grow | Book reviews: Poetry 17.08.2020
Home again | Re-Entry | Book reviews: Vietnam 10.08.2020
Escape from Lockdown | Road Trip | Book reviews: On the Road 03.08.2020
Month four
City of Angels | Ivory | Reviews of books set in Los Angeles 27.07.2020
Church | China book reviews 20.07.2020
My Dad died 13.07.2020
Hong Kong blues | Payback Time | Hong Kong reviews 06.07.2020
Month three
Lockdown Larks | At the Zoo | Book review: White Houses by Amy Bloom 29.06.2020
Food! | Private Dining | Food book reviews 22.06.2020
The Bund 1930s | Emily Hahn | Reviews of literary journals 15.06.2020
Protests and pandemics: Insta-politics | Reviews of books by Black authors 08.06.2020
A belated welcome home: Serendipity | Nonfiction book reviews from around the world 01.06.2020
Month two
On families and distance: All for One | Short fiction book reviews 25.05.2020
Green Amsterdam: Chaos gardens and feeding the Heartland | Book reviews – Japan 18.05.2020
On navigating without a map: The Street Where You Live | Book reviews – Australia 11.05.2020
The art of travel is knowing when to sit still: Creature Comforts 04.05.2020
Month one
Lateral thinking: King’s Day | Listening Pleasures 27.04.2020
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop: Home Project | Book review: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton 20.04.2020
A sociological experiment: A Covid Conversation | How to Write Historical Fiction 13.04.2020
Shelter in place: Writing on the Road 06.04.2020
The Curious Monkey Goes To …
This newsletter series tracks my progress as I embark on a round-the-world journey September 2019 – March 2020.
A quiet Amsterdam 30.03.2020
The end of the road in Australia 19.03.2020
Recycle on the South Island of New Zealand 15.02.2020
The isolation ward in New Zealand 28.01.2020
Hawaii 18.01.2020
Los Angeles 25.12.2019
Kyoto 10.12.2019
The countryside of Japan 18.11.2019
Eat Korea 4.11.2019
Korea 23.10.2019
Hanoi 13.10.2019
The Beach 03.10.2019
Angkor Wat 25.09.2019
Saigon 16.09.2019
Taiwan 12.09.2019
AUGUST 2019
The Curious Monkey Goes To …
Hortus Botanicus Leiden | In the Chinese Garden | Master class Caoilinn Hughes | The Cleaver Quarterly
The Black Hands | Vortex Part 2
The Mapmaker | The Masters Review | In the vortex
July 2019
Caoilinn Hughes | Gardens | My Favorite Things | Submission strategies | Word-painting
Cha | Michelle Elvy | Master class Caoilinn Hughes | The Mapmaker | The Royal We
Democrats Abroad | The Common | The Devil’s Bargain
Banned Books | Ocean | Possessed | Talent on the Move
June 2019
Ghost City | Lights for Liberty | Millet
Bookish Asia | Expanded Field Journal | Master class Caoilinn Hughes | Novel Navigation
A Day of Writing and Publishing | Quiet Desperation | Talk to Me
#Tiananmen 30 | A Boot in the Face | Friendly Faces
MAY 2019
Dead Men Walking | Queen of Spring | Stone the Crows
Backlog | NUNUM Anthology 2019 | Torschlusspanik
Cultural Revolution 2.0 | Master Class Caoilinn Hughes | VERA
The Accidental Reviewer | Ingrid Mertens | Red Stick Festival
Have You Eaten Rice Today? | Science | Sweet Cheeks
April 2019
Amsterdam | Deaths in Venice | Writings on the Wall
Hecomi | Mass: Formulae | Me, Asian?!
Biters | Mouthfeel | You Know You Want This | VERSO
Bookish Asia | Fever & Famine | Han Kang | Kristen Roupenian
March 2019
Female Language | Han Kang |Mythical Saloon | Sheila Heti
Spring | The Smell of Memory | Vegetables of China
BreedReady | Fun in the Dark | VERSO / mass
Homeward Bound | Robert Macfarlane | VERSO | Witness
February 2019
Chinese Constitution | Prodigal Son | Uncle Xi Wants You!
Circus Animals | On Revision | Synchronicity
JANUARY 2019
Chinese New Year | Lucky Strikes | Year of the Pig
Bearded Lady | ICAS 11 | Made in China
Feeding the Homies | How to Get Lost | Travel Fair | Winter Reading
Dragon Ball Z | Food Fight | Original Sin | Republican Fever
2018 | 2019 | Food | Flowers
December 2018
End in Sight – Favorite Foods – Lantern Festival
Christmas Prep – It’s All About Me – Wicked Witches
Cold – Head for the Hills – Lady Bankers
Fork & Knife – German Fairy Tales – Holidays – Ribbons
November 2018
the gift economy – Prize – The Slowdown
Maps of China – Ruben Terlou – sea serpents
Antwerp – Chain Reaction – US midterms – Zurich
100th blog post – Batting Average – Global Voices – Sentinel Tree
Blue Wave – Little by Little – Teaching
October 2018
Empty Pasture in Afternoon – Henny van der Meer – Richard Powers – The Cop and the Showgirl
Limbo – Numbers Game – The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Best of the Net – Frogs – Global Voices – Iron Horse – Treasure
September 2018
A Chinese Banquet – Chinese Cooking – Harvest
Amsterdam University College – International Writers’ Collective – Rules – Uighur
August 2018
Blue wave – Crazy Rich Asians – Lucky number 8
Chairman Mao – Cityscapes – Manu Joseph – Rewriting History
Annotated Alice – M50 – Shanghai Minds – social media – Tianzifang
Canoe – Mother Tongues – The Putz
July 2018
Blood moon – International Writers’ Collective – Violent Femmes
Bergen – Graffiti – Travel writing
Hope – Master Class – Reading with Your Ears – US Voter Assistance
Accommodation – Finding Nemo – Fourth of July
June 2018
Angel Island – Palm-of-the-Hand Stories – US Supreme Court
Bonsai – Master Class – More voter registration
Mindfulness – US voter registration – VERSO/
Gulag with Chinese Characteristics – Sacrificial Acts – Tank Man
May 2018
Modern Couples – Van Gogh in Japan – Who am I?
#bookstagram -Oedipus Rex – Truth or Consequences – Vacation
Body Parts – craft meetings – Skin in the Game
Family Photos – Joodse Huizen – Women in China
April 2018
Green Dutch – Pollinators – Sweet Dream
Mirror, Mirror – Sloth – Spring Reading
Authors Electric – Global Voices – Ons moeder is dood – #RiceBunny – Spring Reading
Fact vs Fiction – My green thumb – More book reviews?
March 2018
Easter – Father Jacquinot – Jesuits in China
Dutch elections – FRIA Photo ’18 – Global Voices – Low Countries – Mata Hari – Vivek Shanbhag
Francisco Cantú – Curve of the Land – Granta – Narrative Magazine
Authors Electric – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Janan Ganesh – Prisoner #24816 – Ward Road Jail
Bubble Life – Francisco Cantú – Jennifer Egan
February 2018
#VoteThemOut – Magazine Mashup – Orient Express
Afternoon of Readings – AM Homes – Nunum.ca – POV – VERSO/ Uprising Seat at the Table
Coco – El Dia de los Muertos – The Impossible Voyage – Propaganda
January 2018
book clubs – book reviews – Migrant Writing
Bakery Institute – bread – Late Bloomers – poetry
Cory Booker – International Writers’ Collective – Model Minority – Shanghai Literary Review – Tracy K. Smith – Zadie Smith
Ai Weiwei – Geometry – Madeleine Thien – Madame Mao – Socialism Is Great! – Socialist Realism
2017 in Words and Pictures – bee hotels – Georgetown Law – Gustave Flaubert
December 2017
Kristen Roupenian – sushi – The Smell of Opium
Arts Council England – Francine Prose – Tim O’Brien – To Teach or Not to Teach – Will Self
Peace Court – snow – Speaking in Dialects
chiles Mexicanos – Facebook – House of Books – Mohsin Hamid
November 2017
Jiaozi – Laila’s Levain – short stories
Al Franken – John Lassiter – Say It Ain’t So, Joe
East LA – JRR Tolkien – Mind Map – Ramona Magazine – teaching
Bishop Robert C. Wright – Chinese Historical Society of Southern California – Day of the Dead
Devil’s Bargain – Laogai – plus ca change – San Diego Chinese Historical Museum – We Chinese
October 2017
By now, I’ve figured out how to post blogs wherever I am in the world. As a result, you’ll find no gaps in my October newsletters. All sent from sunny Southern California during my second book tour!
birthday cake – long life noodles – Phoenix Bakery – Shanghai Noir
#metoo – China Daily – Harvey Weinstein – Peace Court – Volkenkunde Museum
California book tour – Dipika Mukherjee – Ghost Month – Pages Bookstore Cafe Amsterdam
Afternoon of Readings – book blog tour – Genesis of a Quartet – Hugh Hefner
September 2017
Book Club Questions – newspapers – Pope Francis
A Book Blog Tour – Jeanette Winterson – London attacks – Narrative Magazine – William Carlos Williams
Image source: Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art CenterUntil 21.09.2017, my newsletter went out under the name Shanghai Lady. That was, of course, a reference to Song Anyi, the main character of The Dancing Girl and the Turtle, but also to myself. Going forward, you’ll see my newsletter come in under the name Shanghai Noir, the genre in which I write.
Mao Zedong – Martial Arts – Mohsin Hamid
Authors Electric – Forum van Rossum – Frank Dikotter – Fujianhua – Reverend William C. Barber – Sea Prayer
August 2017
#FreeRightsDefenders – Dudok Quartet – Hortus Ensemble – Nicole Krauss – The Art of War
Labels and Charlottesville – Kunstmuseum Kloster under lieben Frauen – Lucas Foglia
kokeshi dolls – McTyeire’s School for Girls – SieboldHuis
Britta Marakatt-Labba – documenta 14 – Richard Flanagan – Wanderlust
July 2017
Once in a while, I need a break from blogging and this newsletter. Recharge the creative juices with a little wandering. This summer, my holiday was in Germany: documenta 14 and the Skulptur Projekt, West and East and places in between.
Instagram – Lost in Translation – Not the Booker Prize – Summer reading list
Frankfurt Book Fair – Ginkaku-ji – Grandma – Natsume Soseki
Electric Literature – Fiftiness – foot fetish – Kitten Heels
June 2017
critique groups – Custom House – gardening – John Green
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag – Mine mine mine – Peace Court – Shanghai Quartet
Gong Ho – Hollywood Boulevard – Twitter etiquette
activist fatigue – Marianne Boruch – Glimmer Train – Lawyers for Good Government – The Five Stages of Trump
May 2017
Andres Barba – Holland Times – Qipao – vlog
Expatica – Fish – Jean Genet – Goodreads – Hendrik Ibsen – Simon Stone
California Dreaming – Historical Novel Society – LA Review of Books – On the Road – South China Morning Post
April 2017
This was a big month for me. First, the standing-room-only launch of my debut novel here in Amsterdam. Then, just a few days later, a whirlwind book tour through California: from Los Angeles to San Francisco, through Silicon Valley and ending in San Diego.
jetlag – playlist – SFMOMA – Show Don’t Tell
All That Jazz – Paul Beatty – jazz – In the Mood
March 2017
Leo van Gestel – Jackie Hatton – Korea – launch preparations – Singer Laren Museum
Amah – author events – countdown
ACLU – Dutch elections gone wrong – Politically Correct
Femflection.com – For Books’ Sake podcast – International Women’s Day – Kunisada – Rhiannon Jenkins-Tsang – Shame Is a Useless Emotion
family ghosts – Old House – Shanghai longtang
February 2017
book promotion – Bugs Bunny Show – The Sense of an Ending
A Death in the Family – book reviews – The Handmaiden – Park Chan-Wook – Sarah Waters
book promotion – War Without End
activism – galley proofs – The Language of Blood – Yiyun Li
January 2017
Beyond the Bestseller – book review section – Femflection.com – Pig Knuckle Soup – Women’s March
#writersresist – activism – The Good Immigrant
book cover – Labor Pains – Through the Looking Glass: An Asian-American Identity
A New Progressive Narrative – Book by Book – happy new year
December 2016
Christmas Chinese-American Style – Holiday wishes
A Reading List – Du Yuesheng – Suzhou
Slowly but surely, the coin drops. This week’s blog is about the family ghost who inspired The Dancing Girl and the Turtle and the Shikumen House Museum that helped me create that world.
Here’s my second newsletter. Still haven’t got the knack of providing content but at least I managed to link my post for the week: Origami for Authors.
November 2016
This was my very first newsletter. Before I knew what to say or how to attach my latest blog post Chicken Shit. At this point, all I could figure out to say was Welcome to Shanghai.