Recognizing that the environment really is changing, townspeople have had to come to terms with the situation. Some have seen the retreating ice as an opportunity for a slower, more sustainable approach to community, and they seek to promote Mombetsu as the “Slowest Town in Japan.” – John Einarsen, Pouring Light Into Mombetsu: A Hokkaido Town Looks Beyond Global Warming
How the Mongols managed to take over China and Korea, the Middle East up to the borders of Syria and Egypt, and what is today known as Russia, this is not an easy question to answer. I do not propose to even try. Perhaps the more constructive question, the one we should really ask ourselves today is why it is so difficult to understand?– Paul Kahn, The Central Question
While I was studying in India, I had a German classmate with whom I also shared a room in the hostel. In a word, we were roommates. …I told him I had read the work of the German poet Heinrich Heine, his namesake. He shrugged—nowadays, he said, everyone was writing poetry. I abandoned nineteenth century German literature and mentioned Heinrich Boll and Erich Maria Remarque. He looked at me suspiciously, as if I were trying to trap him into admitting some association with criminals wanted by Interpol. – Ho Anh Thai, The Barter (trans. Ho Anh Thai & Wayne Karlin)
Contents:
Pouring Light Into Mombetsu: A Hokkaido Town Looks Beyond Global Warming – John Einarsen
Suzuka Yasu – Samsara
Ishihara Masumi – Connecting With Healing Spirit
Sato Tokihiro – Building A Camera Obscura Out of Ice
Shadow Diary – Photos by James Jack
On the Art of Shaanxi Shadow Play – Edward A. Burger
Encounters:
In the Valley of Lijiang– Or Giladi
Kashgar to Tashkurgan – Notes from Far West China – Scott Ezell
Poetry:
The Negative – Arthur Sze
Chinese Art & Greek Art – Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks)
The Sun in the Marketplace – Yan Li (trans. Zhang Er & Leo Schwarz)
Thanks For That – Yan Li (trans. Dennis Mair)
A Poem on Things – Zhang Di (Trans Jeanne Hong Zang)
The Firebombing of Tokyo – Tony Barnstone
Bontei – Marc P. Keane
The Central Question – Paul Kahn
Conversation
Re-branding China: Wang Min and the Beijing Image
Fiction:
Tunnel of Love – Tze Ming Mok
Realizations:
Land and Money – William Stimson
In Translation:
Troopers’ Inn – Takenishi Hiroko, trans. Lawrence Rogers
See also online feature “The Man Who Believed in Fairy Tales” by Ho Anh Thai
in Kyoto, Japan.