During the long plane ride from Japan to Italy, I read a new book by the American Chinese author Annie Wang, a novel called The People's Republic of Desire. Even though the book is being marketed as "chick-lit" -- Sex and the Forbidden City, if you will -- I found it to be a very intelligent and insightful look at the current state of Chinese culture. Wang points out many of the intriguing contradictions of modern China that I noticed while in Shanghai (not least of which - a Maoist re-education camp that, according to Lily and Lulu, turned out to be a luxury spa). Diane Pernet is coming along to Rome with me and during the flight she read Confessions from the Velvet Ropes by Glenn Belverio. (Somehow she managed to snag an advance copy.)
We had to switch planes in Frankfurt and I had a rather embarrassing episode at airport security which went something like this:
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