Umma

Umma

Winning short story for the 2021 Danielle Alyse Basford Writing Prize, written by daughter Sumi Kim   The plane was still boarding when her mother called. Hannah was squished in 28B, a middle seat. Normally Hannah would pay extra for the window seat, but today...

The East is Red

The East is Red

This New York Times article provides a good summary of the state of the Chinese appetite for wines. Though it offers little new information, it broadcasts (in a way that only the New York Times can) to the world how large and sophisticated the Chinese wine market is...

Robbing the Baron

Robbing the Baron

No one should feel amused to hear that someone has been burgled. However, if that victim happens to be Hong Kong's Cecil Chao - the property billionaire who has made a second career of openly serial bachelorhood, and who has famously offered HK$500 million to any...

My Tutor, My Rock Star

My Tutor, My Rock Star

An exam question: Korea's college entrance exam process is increasingly considered to be detrimental to public health because: (a) it contributes to a startlingly high incidence of myopia (75%) and a doubling of curvature of the spine over the past ten years among...

Draining Away

Draining Away

The young Chinese PLA soldier, dressed in camouflage uniform and spiky haircut, stepped out from the ramshackle shop into the harshly bright sunlight. The local Tibetans ambling by along the dusty sidewalk glanced askance at him and at the large brown trout that he...

The Company of Outsiders

The Company of Outsiders

She bounced a superball against the polished floor tiles of the mall as she approached. Among my daughter’s cluster of high school classmates, she was the only one not clutching a Forever 21 shopping bag. “Didn’t you buy anything?” I asked. “Just this,” the girl...

Egg Tarts

Egg Tarts

A willowy young woman approaches the old man. Can we help you, Uncle? Are you lost? The old man blinks to clear his vision. She’s dressed in a beige pantsuit and holds one of those skinny computer slabs. All the young people seem to have them these days, cradling them...

A Feast of Spirits

A Feast of Spirits

The dead receive two bows, the living only one. And each bow is not the familiar bend-forward-stiffly-at-the-waist variety, but rather, a full and solemn forehead-to-the-ground kowtow-style keun jul to be held for a few reverential moments before rising back up to...