Mr. Lee and I stop to stare at jars of pickled vipers. The Sunday market crowd in old Kaili, China, snakes a detour around the tooth-pulling table set up cockeyed on the sidewalk next to us. Across the street, women who dream of mile-high buns sort through bags of unwanted human hair. They pull the... Continue Reading →
The Vanishing Bride
The bride sought the shadows of the long afternoon as the bridegroom's village filled with strangers anxious to see who would marry a favorite son. For hours, the Bengli villagers in China's Guizhou Province had chopped, sizzled and stirred every part of a slaughtered pig and all the vegetables they could find. It was a... Continue Reading →
China’s pig fetish turns sour
When China's dead pig problem bubbled to the surface in Shanghai's rivers last week, I wasn't surprised. Every meal I ate in China last October and November featured some part of a pig. On the one night when a flavorful white meat swam in a soupy broth, I thought we'd hit chicken pay dirt until the... Continue Reading →