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An American writer chronicles daily life in a tiny village on an island in the South China Sea
2010-11-13 01:35
Is it my imagination, or are we experiencing a particularly long and tempestuous dragonfly season? I associate dragonflies with the heat of summer, clouds of colorful buzzing insects as harb… Read More
2010-11-08 06:24
The Ghost Tree is under threat.I'm not sure how it got that name, but that's what local people have always called it. It's a rubber tree, at least 50 years old and possibly much older, locat… Read More
2010-11-07 10:34
"I've never seen so much garbage in my life!"That was my mother's first response on her visit to Wang Tong a number of years ago. She'd envisioned it, from my letters and phone calls, as a p… Read More
2010-08-06 09:38
The garden taps sputtered dry. That meant the village reservoir had filled with sand again. Once more all of Wang Tong went into water hibernation, everyone waiting for somebody else to dig… Read More
2010-07-02 00:25
Summertime, and the living is queasy. When we haven't had non-stop torrential rain and thunderstorms, the temperature has hovered in the mid-30s Celsius (90 - 95 Fahrenheit) with 99 percent… Read More
2010-06-29 09:36
How do I explain three months away, when I've been here all along? Was the removal of the ill-fated Welcome sign, the day after the deadline ran out, a signal to everybody to please shut up?… Read More
2010-06-18 00:33
The water buffaloes are back. Though their timing might have been a little better. My wife nearly missed the morning ferry because, as you can see, they didn't leave much room to squeeze pas… Read More
2010-03-07 13:18
A notice taped to the village "Welcome" sign says it has to come down. What it actually says, in true government-speak, is that pursuant to the Lands (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance, in… Read More
2010-02-23 09:32
Chekhov's Madame Ranevskaya had her cherry orchard. Our village has its starfruit orchard, located on the eastern frontier, between the last houses and the steep base of a hill. Like the Ran… Read More
2010-02-21 14:28
I heard the lion coming ten minutes before it arrived. Cymbals crashing, drum pounding, wood blocks clacking, the lion dance sauntered along the beach before the procession veered onto the p… Read More
2010-02-14 12:45
Wang Tong welcomed the Year of the Tiger at midnight with a barrage of firecrackers, followed by around an hour of barking from the frightened village dogs. Maybe they were especially upset… Read More
2010-02-06 05:24
It's a light day for Ah-Wah, the village postman. A couple weeks ago he was complaining about the phone company. They used to distribute their printed phone directories at the Rural Committe… Read More
2010-02-01 10:14
I found this note in the mailbox today. At least it was something. In the age of e-mail and texting instead of letters, and junk calls (at 2:16 a.m. last night!) instead of bulk post, our ho… Read More
2010-01-12 16:43
They're digging up the Wang Tong Stream. Well, that's a good thing. During typhoons and heavy rains a lot of coarse sand washes down from the granite hills, down through the village, and rep… Read More
2009-12-14 03:22
I wonder whether one of those letters is for me. Yes, sometimes I still get mail there. I didn't risk finding out, for fear of contracting ebola or some other disease growing on them.This wa… Read More
2009-12-08 13:04
The other day, while walking past the graveyard behind the village, I noticed this little stone plaque on the side of a family tomb. It's an advertisement for the local stoneworking company… Read More
2009-12-06 15:33
Wang Tong is not a very photogenic attraction. That's the conclusion I came to after looking at the picture I took today. It appeared so gorgeous from the hilltop: our little village snuggle… Read More
2009-12-04 14:41
News travels slowly out in the wild and remote hinterlands. There's a famous story of the Han Emperor Wu-ti sending an emissary to Central Asia in 139 BC. The envoy reached what is now north… Read More
2009-12-04 14:36
I'm delighted--surprised, even--to report that Wang Tong Valley did not burn to the ground today as expected.Today is the Chung Yeung Festival, one of two annual holidays to honor departed a… Read More
2009-12-02 12:13
Wang Tong is a tourist attraction again!In 1962 the restaurant on top of the hill behind the village shut down, signaling the nail in the coffin of the Cross-Lantau Footpath, once the main t… Read More
2009-11-30 14:39
Yet another visit from a government posse to talk sewers and flowers. I'm starting to consider these guys part of the family.This time they brought a detailed survey map and diagrams to pinp… Read More
2009-11-29 14:06
While Ah-Po uses the anti-Disney approach of a twisted Magic Kingdom to keep the birds away, the two other significant vegetable gardens in Wang Tong--Mr. Tam's and ours--employ more classic… Read More
2009-11-29 07:14
Can a stuffed panda save the world from magpie devastation?Magpies are considered good luck in Chinese tradition; they're harbingers of positive changes coming. That's great. I need all the… Read More
2009-11-14 00:36
I think autumn, October in particular, is the favorite time of year for people who are dreamers, whereas pragmatists prefer spring. If so, then Wang Tong is for the dreamy type.Spring is alw… Read More
2009-10-24 13:40
One of Hong Kong's basic laws of nature is: Any open green space is just a temporary absence of concrete.You see this law in action where they're reinforcing (meaning: pouring a concrete she… Read More

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