Pursuits : Elizabeth Thomsen

During the three summers I spent in the beautiful, seaside city of Dalian, China, I loved watching the yangge dancers performing in various squares and parks. Yangge is a style of folk dance that’s performed for recreation and exercise in squares and parks, especially popular with middle-aged and older women.
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In the summer of 2002, my daughter Kristin, her friend Alejandra and I went to China. My daughter Meg was a Peace Corps volunteer there, and we met her in Beijing and took the long train ride together across China to the city of Deyang in Sichuan province. Meg had lived there the previous summer during her training period, staying with a wonderful family who had become her true Chinese family.
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Sitting in China — By Michael Wolf

This is a collection of photographs of chairs, stools, benches, walls and other places where people in China sit. There are seats of every type, from the elegant to the makeshift seats Chinese people use to sit along the street and eat, sleep, work, talk, play cards and otherwise observe the street life. Old chairs, tied together with string, stools padded with rags– images of the way that the Chinese make do. This book reminds me of my time in China better than any book of scenery.

I suppose this doesn’t really count as part of my reading life, since it’s a book without words, but it’s definitely a book I recommend.