My China
The Chinese author and journalist, who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, gives her perspective on China's changing fortunes

Keeping Mum
My mother's heart attack has shattered our dreams of finally getting to know each other

Lost in translation
Why do old men, who need sticks to walk, open doors for healthy middle-aged women?

Food for talk
The English break the ice by talking about weather, but the Chinese choose food

An inspector calls
Ears, lips, fingers, toes: Chinese men used to check them all in the search for the perfect wife

Going with the flow
There is no point worrying about feeling down. Life benefits from both happiness and suffering

Stockings in summer
Socks are a status symbol - does that mean barelegged westerners are all peasants?

The sky's the limit
English schoolchildren have shown me that China has much to learn about the joy of education

Sex in Chinese Culture(3)
There are still students in China who believe babies come out of their mothers' tummy buttons

Sex in Chinese Culture(2)
How to bridge the gulf between Chinese and western painting

The Chinese chatroom
The chatroom gives Chinese women a chance to be open and express their true thoughts

Identity struggles
China is my homeland. But these days - in the bars, cafes, on the streets - I am lost in translation

Blending cultures on a canvas
When Chinese art meets western culture, an inner world is revealed

Sex in Chinese Culture(1)
The gap between western and Chinese paintings is as vast as that between the two cultures

The front of the queue
The west ruined our self-confidence years ago. Now, finally, we're getting it back

Lost in translation
Victorious Egg Festival, Sexual Hooligans' Day? It was once hard to understand western festivals

Merry Craze Mass
How China has embraced all the bright lights and overindulgence of a very merry Craze Mass

Letters from the heart
Receiving a handwritten card in this age of computers is one of the great pleasures in life

One More Sorrowful Story
In 1976 an earthquake in China caused double the death toll of the tsunami. But no one talks of that.

Seeds of Change
I used to think there were no good Chinese men, until a brief encounter at Paddington station