In In January, I realized that I had been in Beijing for nine months straight with no outside travel. No wonder I was going crazy. I lacked discipline, inspiration and productivity. My health was terrible. It wasn’t me. It was the city and it’s grueling winter pollution. Plus the onset of seasonal affective disorder. For […]

Last Sunday, after hiking on the Great Wall in the heaviest snowfall we have seen this winter, I had the chance to join a friend in the choir of the Church of St. Joseph located in Wangfujing in the heart of Beijing. He had dubbed singing in the choir there as “Catholic Karaoke” because of the dodgy sound system, and like all karaoke sessions, it promised to be fun.

I had dinner recently with a man, a Hong Kong Chinese, exactly twice my age – 62 to my 31. I reminded him of his daughter, he said. You’d like her, she’s just like you, natural. She likes to bike. She wears simple things, comfortable, t-shirts, no make-up.

1月5日，按照某个女朋友的规则，新的一年到来时，我们不说新年愿望，不盘点过去发生的人类大事。随机地，来数一数2012年里那些还能从记忆里翻捡出来的数字。

In taking stock of my life in 2012, I thought rather than the standard “best of lists” (best books, best movies, etc) that are invariably boring, I should account for my year using arbitrary numbers. So, here is how I take stock of the year past.