Something for the living room

I was invited a little while ago to submit an occasional article for one of the state-run newspapers here. I was not enthused - despite being encouraged that it was "just like blogging" and that I "could write about just about anything [I] like". Yes, well. There is at least one topic I knew I wasn't going to be allowed to mention this year.

And I felt I wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to write frivolous but coded pieces about how, perhaps, for example, I had recently spent a weekend shopping around Beijing's antiques markets, looking for a nice example of Tang Dynasty pottery like the one above, because, you know, I really feel that I need a nice big elephant in my living room.