Michael Crichton Goes to China

HarperCollins is bringing Michael Crichton to readers in China. The publisher has teamed with the Jilin Publishing Group to release a number of Chinese-language editions of Crichton's books, the first of which, Next, is being released in trade paperback there. Following Next Jilin and HC will release Chinese- language editions of The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery and Airframe.

HC president worldwide, Brian Murray, who made the Crichton announcement in Beijing, also said the publisher is acquiring two titles in a series from local bestseller, Hongying Yang. (The publisher bought world rights to eight books by the author at the Beijing Book Fair in 2007.) The series, Diary of a Smiling Cat (笑猫日记) for readers 7-9, was acquired from Tomorrow Publishing House and will be published by HC simultaneously in English worldwide. According to HC, the books, which follow a talking cat that communicates with its owner and were published in China in 2006, have already sold over 3 million copies in the country.

The moves are part of the house's growing expansion into China, which began back in 2006.


Written by Rachel Deahl

Chopsticks Made in America

Many manufactured goods sold in the United States are made in China.  But one small company in the American state of Georgia is making traditional Chinese chopsticks (筷子), and sending them to China.

Chopsticks are sticks used in many Asian countries to eat food (it’s about one-third of the world’s population). They are mainly made out of wood, but can be made of bamboo or plastic. Most of the world’s chopsticks are made in China. Several hundred Chinese manufacturers produce about sixty three billion pairs of chopsticks a year. Unfortunately, they are running out of wood. One small American company, Georgia Chopsticks recognized this demand. It started producing chopsticks late last year, and makes two million pairs each day.

In central Georgia, sweetgum and poplar trees grow in large numbers. And these trees can make good chopsticks. This is because the wood is not firm and has a nice color. Unlike many Asian chopsticks, these Georgia-made chopsticks do not need to be lightened with chemicals and bleach.

Korean-American Jae Lee, the president of Georgia Chopsticks, says that the world market for chopsticks is huge. “We’ll have seven machines coming in, so it’ll increase to like four million per day. End of this year, we will produce ten million per day.” 

Every chopstick his company makes goes to Asia, where they are sold to stores in China, Korea, and Japan. Right now, Georgia Chopsticks cannot keep up with demand for its product.

It costs Jae Lee less than one cent to make a pair of chopsticks. But he says he is not making any money yet. To earn a profit, he needs to produce more than four million chopsticks a day. He says he hopes to do this in the next month or two.

Download MP3, please check the VOA page.

China Getting Fatter, But Not Like U.S.

When I turn on TV, the most popular commercials showed up are about fitness, diet, or weight loss. Overweight, obviously,  is one of serious problems in the U.S. I usually don't eat cakes, sausages, packed ham which are made there. Because they are either too sweet or too salty. Sometimes, I wonder, do American people enjoy eating those kinds of food everyday? Why the ready-to-bake cake package does contain so much sugar? I don't understand this. We can add an amount as much as we like, can we?

Today, I read a story about young Chinese generation getting overweight problem too. How it happened? I mean, they eat a lot of veges. Some researches conducted in the U.S. show that China is getting fatter, but not like U.S. There are two interesting facts that I want to point here. One is: the richer families in China are, the fatter their kids could be.  Another one is: boys are fat, girls not.

If you are interested in the story, please read at ChinaRealTimeReport 

Eat This, Not That

I don't think that Americans eat fennel until one day I went to our local farmers' market. I was walking around a veggies booth, a box with big light green bulbs caught my attention instantly. It's fennel. What's a surprise! Although there are few leaves on it, I still recognize them. And I realize that we all eat fennel but different part--we eat leaves, they eat bulbs.

Usually, we use fennel leaves to make dumpling (饺子) or Chinese pizza（馅饼）. We cut leaves into tinny pieces, mix them with ground pork, salt, sugar, ground white pepper, soy source, sesame oil, cooking wine, and a little bit finely chopped ginger as filling. The rest of job is very easy. You can make wrappers at home or (to save time ) buy them directly from a Chinese supermarket, like 99 Ranch. If you want to make Chinese pizza, you may have to make the wrappers by yourself because they are much bigger, and there is no way you can buy them.

In terms of the seeds, we both use them as a seasoning but in different ways. We use the whole seed heavily when cook pork, chicken or beef. Europeans and Americans, however, use them to make spice saucages or sauces.

I learned a brief history of fennel. It has been grown for cooking at least since the time of the ancient Romans, who introduced the plant to England. In Italy, the seed is used whole to spice sausages, ground for tomato sauces of all kinds (especially pizza sauce), and also used for pork roast. The English use fennel in almost all fish dishes, especially court bouillon for poaching fish and shellfish. Fennel has an even longer history as a medicinal. The toasted seeds are often chewed as a digestive aid. Whole fish can be baked on a bed of fennel branches for a aromatic and flavorful presentation.

Want to know how to choose good ones? Please see the Food University.