food

www.timeoutbeijing.com — In 1969, aged just nine years old, Sasha Gong was forced to leave her home in Guangzhou to live with a family in a small village in Hunan Province. Gong, who now heads the China branch of news service Voice of America, was one of 17 million youths displaced during the Cultural Revolution years.

www.lostlaowai.com — For many in China, “fast food” means McDonalds and KFC. To the average laowai, a visit to the nearest burger joint (or a phone call to the bicycle delivery man) is a periodic necessity for those craving a reminder of life back home and a break from their usual Chinese diet of rice and noodles. But Western fast food restaurants in China have long been outnumbered by native competitors.

www.thehypermodern.com — A China rant, in the style of David Sedaris.

Before I went to China, I made sure to know nothing about it. No books, no movies, not even the lottery numbers inside fortune cookies. The only thing I knew about China was that my rosewood end table and Zen-chic Roman shades were manufactured there.

www.voanews.com — China's largest egg processing company says it is demanding an apology from a U.S.-based television network for describing a traditional Chinese dish as the world's most disgusting food.
Chinese broadcast and print media said Wednesday the demand was issued by the chairman of the Hubei Shendan Healthy Food Company on behalf of his 3,000 workers.

www.washingtonpost.com — China is at war. It is not invading armies but expanding deserts that threaten its territory. As old deserts grow, as new ones form and as more and more irrigation wells go dry, Beijing is losing a long battle to feed its growing population on its own. In the years to come, China will almost certainly have to turn to the outside world for grain to avoid politically destabilizing price spikes.