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Pain in the Wrist
My earlier bout with tenosynovitis had cooled off several months, but had announced its return soon after my arrival in Wuhan. After a month of tolerating it, I decided it was time to seek medical help. Secretly I hoped Chinese physicians might have some alternative approaches of coping with the malady — which I believe, […]
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Acts of Violence
Act 1. Returning from lunch at the student cafeteria yesterday, a guy stopped my on the stairs and asked, very politely, if he could talk with me. Nothing unusual in that; it’s nearly a daily occurrence, as students of English want to show off their skills. I’ll call this guy Frank — because he was. […]
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Net Bar
Having ones own computer is a luxury among Hubei University students. There are a few scattered around in the library and dormitories for general use; old PCs with slow network connections. But if you’re out for some serious surfing, the ubiquitous net bars are the place to be. That these establishments run all night, I […]
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Proletarian Sensitivities
The premise behind my being in Wuhan is simple and sound. My earlier sojourn was in Hangzhou — a town which I really come to like. But it is clearly not your typical Chinese city, nor is Zhejiang University your typical Chinese university. Both are among the elite in their class. If am I to […]
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Public Displays of Disaffection
In these beautiful spring evenings Hubei University campus is alive, indeed, writhing with couples enjoying mutual affection. In some of the (never very) secluded areas innocent pedestrians have to step carefully as they would to avoid squashing earthworms after a saturating spring shower. There is considerable public discussion on the impropriety of such “public displays […]
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Scaring Crows in Wuhan
The balcony of my apartment on Hubei University campus faces south, and overlooks a tract, of several acres I would guess, obviously serving some experimental agricultural purpose. What purpose, or under whose aegis, I have yet to ascertain, but even the students from farm families agree, that, though the crops are commonplace, the personnel are […]