Manling's Journals

Without fear, the virus won't survive

Spring has arrived. Flowers are blooming, grass and plants are turning green. Mother Nature lives on her own rhythm of life. Life gets born and perished according to the set law of nature. The sun rises and sets. This year these all seem to have nothing to do with me. I have lost contact with nature and the ability to enjoy its beauty.

Is drama the vitamin C we need to live a happy life?

Chinese people have long compared life to a drama on the stage. We often hear people say, “Life is just like a drama” (rensheng ruxi, 人生如戏), or, "Life is a big stage” (rensheng shige dawutai, 人生是个大舞台). These are clichés people use to express their dissatisfaction and cynicism. But when I spoke with the theater director and educator William Yip and he said, “theater is beyond the stage”, he was sharing a totally different sentiment about what drama can offer our lives.

Lost and found in the sounds of Beijing

Colin is a contemporary artist, art director, museum curator, and musician. He is now the curator of his own museum, Sound Terminus, in downtown Beijing.

Playing to survive a paradoxical life

"Thank you, sickness." "Thank you, depression." These two sentences from among Enoch Li's blog writings have lingered in my mind. During our interview, she expressed gratitude for her suffering. She was saved with the help of a little toy bear, and has become a voice calling for more awareness of people's struggle for mental health.

An Amateur Hanzi Expert Lives For His Unchained Passion

After reading piles of media coverage about Richard Sears, nicknamed Uncle Hanzi (汉字, Chinese characters) by Chinese netizens, we invited him to come to our studio to talk about himself and how he would come to obsess about Chinese characters.

A Practical Idealist Makes An Interesting Economist

Economics has been nicknamed the dismal science, a derogatory term given by the Victorian historian Thomas Carlyle in the 19th century.

Starfish And Salmon Appear on His Philanthropic Genome Map

The number 127 was a signpost in the career of the former investment banker turned NGO founder Chung To. He’s now the head of the Chi Heng Foundation, the NGO he established in Hong Kong in 1998 with a mere 100 Hong Kong dollars. 

Animals Are Not Moving Objects

“Animals are not moving objects!” This is the strongest message I received from Grace Ge Gabriel, a through and through animal conservationist who has been leading the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) office in China since she founded it in 1997, fighting battles at the forefront of wildlife protection, something rather remote from my own life and career.

The Evolving Bubble of Love and Protection

Joy Chen is well known in China for becoming the deputy mayor of Los Angeles at the age of 31 and for her 2012 book “Do Not Marry Before Age 30”. She learned the frog bubble story from her five-year-old daughter whose teacher taught mindfulness to their class at a very young age.

From Exclusive to Inclusive, David Goes Universal

When I was told that my next interviewee, David Lai, was a young blind pianist whose talent has won domestic and international acclaim, I was uncertain about how close I’d be able to get to him to dig into his life for a profile story. Despite having worked in radio for several decades, this was my first interview with a blind person, or more accurately, with a person with a physical disability.

Love of China Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder

David Ferguson was heavily involved in the translation of Volume I and II of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" along with innumerable other political and non-political texts. 

From the invisible to the visible: She sees hope amid the smog

I was happy to hear Fu Lu say that she is surrounded by other women like her. Women who are less concerned with money than they are with the public good. 

12NextEndTotal 2 pages