China – DISSENT! Sans Frontières

Trump Might Have Forgotten the Great Wall of China Was an Economic Disaster

January 6, 2017

Donald Trump just referred to his signature campaign promise as the “Great Wall”, without noting the ironic fact the actual Great Wall was partly responsible for the collapse of one of the world’s great superpowers.

Shoot First? Reflections on a Tibetan Sky Burial

May 17, 2016

As soon as the monks dumped the limp corpse onto the grass, my first instinct was to start shooting. But did I really have the right?

Explosions Can Be Awkward

May 17, 2013

Probably one of my weirdest experiences was in Chengdu, when a building exploded while I was brushing my teeth, and laughing hysterically. Standing on the pavement, laughing

I Must Be Doing Something Right If I’m Blocked in China

January 20, 2013

Once I decided that civilisation is evil. The revelation came when a student told me what she wanted to be when she finished high school. “I want to travel the word as a

Strength

December 9, 2012

Once in Kunming, I felt like shit. Things just weren’t going right. I was wandering around the city, feeling sorry for myself. Then I came across a man with no legs. It

The Wise Man

December 9, 2012

Once in a village in Sichuan, I met a wise man in a bar. He was using his retirement pension to sustain not only himself, but an entire family. He told me how even then there

The Sky Burial

November 23, 2012

Once in China, I saw a Tibetan sky burial. It took less than ten minutes for the birds to eat him. The feathered scrum writhed as more and more vultures shuffled over the

Monitor lizards in moonshine

November 4, 2012

Tastes like petrol, with a hint of

Things can always get weirder

November 1, 2012

The Gift

November 1, 2012

The bit I always tell Once when I was in the foothills of Tibet, I was attacked by a pack of dogs. I was on a mountaintop, surrounded by steep drops on all sides. The nearest