SS Quah's Anything Goes

Cheng Beng ( 清明 ) is over for us this year. We finished it last week, spread over two visits. The first was on Monday at Sungai Lembu on the...

We attended an Anhui cultural show at the recently opened Penang Waterfront Convention Centre last Sunday. Actually, we almost didn’t go. Ch...

What is real and what is fake? Netflix's 3 Body Problem had a brilliant portrayal of the Cultural Revolution which enveloped China for ...

This story was originally scheduled to appear on this blog on 20 June 2017 but somehow, I decided to save it for a later day. As things went...

After years of procrastination, we have finally spent the last week watching those two Ang Woo epic films, Red Cliff and Red Cliff II. One o...

I hope Global Times will not mind if I were to repeat their opinion piece here. It makes so much sense to compare the reactions between the...

Somewhere in China, even wall murals are faked. 

I've always liked to keep a few pieces of foreign currency in the house as a memento of my travels, and these two pieces of 50 Yua...

There are valid reasons why the World Chess Federation wants smartphones and other electronic devices banned from chess tournaments. By nat...

Two days ago, I received a surprise invitation to dinner. The former women's world chess champion, Xu Yuhua, was in town, the invitatio...

So finally, I've completed my Cheng Beng obligations for this year. My wife and I left the house later than usual at just past seve...

Whether we like it or not, we are all in the minority. Below is the latest ranking of Chinese surnames in China, given to me by someone. And...

Who was the real Tang pilgrim monk, Hsuan Tsang (玄奘)? The man was real and his odyssey was real, but all that we have ever known about him ...

While listening to the radio in the mornings during the past few weeks, I've been hearing a story repeatedly about a freight forwarding...