From The Book Show, ABC National Radio

Recorded live at The Glamour Bar, for the International Literary Festival

The scale of the traditional hutongs is quite different from the high-rise of the 'modern' Beijing. Thought I'd capture the feel of this hutong, south of Tiananmen, which locals feared was up for demolition.

The jianbing is actually a Shandong food, but it sums up good (wheat based) northern street food in China: plum sauce and chilli, crunch and soft egg.  Street food makers are quickly being replaced by supermarkets, the tight hutong neighbourhoods already largely replaced by high rise. 

There is no more Chinese and more poignant sound of China than the itinerant salesmen who walk door to door, village to village.  Each has their own unique call, recaptured here

Where better to spend Mid-Autumn Festival than one of China's more literary and charming towns     (11th October 2006)

Sounds and pictures       

(11th October 2006)

Compiled from multiple interviews, a history of 20th Century China in the people's own words     (1th October 2006)

Chinese people talking about village and city weddings from before the Liberation           (28th Septemeber  2006)

In the autumn of 1989 a profound tremor upset the world.  The epicentre was definitely located in Russia, west of the Urals; but the shock waves were much more keenly felt in mainland Europe.

The day Minister Li retired from office, he lay on his bed and felt a great sense of release, as if the values and morals that had controlled him through his life were as frail as the morning dew.

For two weeks exploding firecrackers shredded the winter gloom at Shaoyang’s Number Two Space Rocket Factory.

three Chinese lullabies

A staircase of paddy fields rises to a red adobe house, roofed with grey slate, bundles of dried red chillies hanging from the eaves and a thin brown dog held by a chain. 

at the pavilion by the river

each monsoon day

hastens your departure

many cups of clear wine

sharpen the sense of loss...