Women's Mosques in Chinese Islam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DewWSGTwOXo China used to be surprisingly tolerant of Muslims and uniquely had 500 women’s mosques run by female imams . I learned about them from Dr Maria Jaschok, Director of International Gender Studies at Oxford.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50890519 There really is nothing new about this story . In Brushstrokes in Time my coming of age novel about a Chinese artist on the fringe of real events in China , two chapters are set in a Labour camp
The disgraceful scenes in Bulgaria gives this recent email of mine to BBC Radio4 Feedback relevance. ‘My husband is not white and we married when that was unusual. In the seventies I wrote to Hugh Weldon and the Director General saying that black,
Tuesday October 1 is China’s National Day it marks the seventieth anniversary of the Chinese Revolution. It is also the 40th anniversary of the day the Stars Artists marched to Tiananmen Square under a banner saying ‘In Politics we want
I spent a delightful Saturday revisiting Chiang Yee -the charming artist who was ‘The Silent Traveller in Oxford etc. I first encountered his books when I ran the Jam Factory (1987-1998) and I loved them. After a symposium at the
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-48476879/tiananmen-s-tank-man-the-image-that-china-forgot In China it is dangerous to mourn the students who died in the Tiananmen Square 30 years ago today. Even more citizens of Beijing died trying to stop the tanks reaching the square. My novel ‘Brushstrokes in Time’ could
Memories.. a video Part 1 by the Meridian Society. Meeting Qu Leilei https://www.facebook.com/TheMeridianSociety/videos/1141067562675489/ Parts 2 and 3 https://www.facebook.com/TheMeridianSociety/videos/1141567299292182/ https://www.facebook.com/TheMeridianSociety/videos/1147685558680356/
This is one of my favourite reviews of Brushstrokes in Time. I am fortunate that whoever reads my novel(including those named above)are impressed by its authenticity.They say they feel transported to the time and place when the courageous Stars artists
I couldn’t have written Brushstrokes in Time without the background detail of the years 1965-1980 provided by the artist Qu Leilei. The artist's father, Qu Bo, was the most famous novelist of his time. Tracks in the Snowy Forest was
During the 15 years I reviewed exhibitions for The Oxford Times – when I was proud to write for it - the show that moved me the most was Qu Leilei's ‘Everyone’s Life is an Epic.’ Meeting him and hearing