Tsui-ku told me of their life of constantly welcoming new guests and seeing off old ones. When unhappy they still had to laugh loudly, and when they could not stand the taste of wine they still had to drink a great deal; when sick they still had to entertain guests, and when their throats hurtContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Hardships of the Sing Song Girls (Shen Fu)”
Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)
RKS Literature: Returning to London from Kurtz and the Jungle (Joseph Conrad)
I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed on my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life wasContinue reading “RKS Literature: Returning to London from Kurtz and the Jungle (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS Chinese Literature: Smoking Opium, Hugging and Joking with the Sing-Song Girls (Shen Fu)
We had the wine boat anchor in the middle of the river and happily drank away until several strokes of the night watch had sounded. By then I had begun to fear I could not control myself and so had firmly resolved to return to our rooms, but my friends told me the city gatesContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Smoking Opium, Hugging and Joking with the Sing-Song Girls (Shen Fu)”
RKS Chinese Literature: Where Monks Should Not Live (Shen Fu)
To the friends who were with me that day, I said: ‘Men who want to be monks must live in this kind of secluded place, seeing and hearing nothing for their entire lives, so that they can meditate in tranquillity. At a place like Tiger Hill in my home country, all day long there isContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Where Monks Should Not Live (Shen Fu)”
RKS Chinese Literature: Be Very Careful Looking at Stone Mirror Mountain! (Shen Fu)
Near the town was a mountain called Stone Mirror Mountain. To see the ‘mirror’ you followed a winding path through the mountains for about a li and then came to a cliff with water rushing down its face, and with moist greenery that itself seemed about to begin dripping over the ground. Gradually climbing higherContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Be Very Careful Looking at Stone Mirror Mountain! (Shen Fu)”
RKS Literature: Human Heads on a Pole in Kurtz’s Enclave (Joseph Conrad)
….I want you to clearly understand that there was nothing exactly profitable in these heads being there. They only showed that Mr Kurtz’s lacked the restraint in the gratification of his various lusts, that there was something wanting in him-some small matter which when the pressing need arose could not be found under his magnificentContinue reading “RKS Literature: Human Heads on a Pole in Kurtz’s Enclave (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS Chinese Literature: The Wheel and the Hoof Have Flowed One Another in Such Quick Succession (Shen Fu)
I have travelled about working in government offices for thirty years now, and the only places in the world I have never been too are Szechuan, Kueichou and Yunnan. The pity is that the wheel and the hoof have followed one another in such quick succession. Everywhere I have gone I have been accompanying others,Continue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: The Wheel and the Hoof Have Flowed One Another in Such Quick Succession (Shen Fu)”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:13September2026: Thessaloniki and Samos: The Rapidly Ageing Doryssa Seaside Resort
After a long flight transporting you to different time zones one thinks of sleeping like a baby but for me that is rarely the case. I had a restless sleep waking up at 03:30 and tossing, turning and dozing thereafter. That afternoon nap might have backfired on me. Down to a wonderful breakfast at 10:00.Continue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version:13September2026: Thessaloniki and Samos: The Rapidly Ageing Doryssa Seaside Resort”
2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version: 12September2026: Thessaloniki: Of Old Farts, Second Rate Seafood and Rain
Returning from MOMUS and the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography we discovered at last the construction of the Holocaust Museum of Greece has started. There has been talk of constructing the Holocaust Museum of Greece for a decade and finally construction is underway with an opening expected in 2028. Germany has pledged ten million Euros forContinue reading “2026 GREEK TRAVEL ADVENTURE: Short Attention Span Version: 12September2026: Thessaloniki: Of Old Farts, Second Rate Seafood and Rain”
RKS Literature: Kurtz’s Background and the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs (Joseph Conrad)
The original Kurtz had been educated partly in England, and-as he was good enough to say himself-his sympathies were in the right place. His mother was half-English, his father was half-French. All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz; and by and bye I learned that, most appropriately, the International Society for the Suppression ofContinue reading “RKS Literature: Kurtz’s Background and the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs (Joseph Conrad)”
