Essay · 2 min · EN
The Fifth Month and the Dragon Boats
On the most perilous month of the Chinese calendar, protective rites, Qu Yuan, and the pendulum swinging between sickness and health, order and chaos.
Writing
Essays and field notes
Essays, field notes and research by Noam Backner on China, Inner Asia, Buddhism, the Silk Roads, food, agriculture and the lived experience of place.
Essay · 5 min · EN
Iranian Jews and the Baha'i Option
On the historical encounter between Iranian Jews and the Baha'i movement, and the possibilities for identity, equality, and modernity in the late Qajar period.
Essay · 2 min · EN
The Fasting of the Heart
Exploring the Chinese tradition of 'zhai' as a holistic preparation for the sacred, and Zhuangzi’s radical concept of internal emptiness.
Essay · 2 min · EN
The Gap in the Smile: Ritual Tooth Extraction in Ancient China
Once a marker of identity and marriage in the Neolithic heartland, the custom of tooth ablation migrated south, eventually becoming a mark of the 'barbarian' other in later Chinese history.
Travel Journal · 2 min · EN
The Whole Village is Here
A Naxi wedding feast reveals the village as it truly is: a web of intimacy, authority, and the makeshift rhythms of a rural kitchen.
Essay · 2 min · EN
The Chromium Myth of the Terracotta Army
What actually preserved the bronze weapons in the First Emperor's tomb, and what metallurgy reveals about the first Chinese state.
Essay · 2 min · EN
The Elm Coins of Spring Hunger
On the young samaras of the elm tree: an ancient survival food turned seasonal delicacy in the cuisine of Gansu.
Essay · 2 min · EN
A Cabbage at the Doorstep
The humble Chinese cabbage: a nutritional pillar, a migratory crop, a courtly delicacy, and a national treasure carved in jade.
Essay · 3 min · EN
The Arrival of Botany in China
From Materia Medica to Genus and Species: A new scientific language, an imperial crisis, and the birth of a dual system of meaning.
Essay · 2 min · EN
Locusts on the Sabbath Table
An improvised Sabbath dish blending eggplant, shan yao, and spicy grasshopper dip in the style of southern Yunnan.
Essay · 2 min · EN
Flowers in the Yunnanese Kitchen
On pomegranate blossoms, rhododendrons, and the foraging traditions that bridge the garden, the mountain, and the stove.
Essay · 4 min · EN
Coffee and Tea at Heaven’s Gate
A brief munazara between two noble beverages and their spiritual traditions.
Essay · 3 min · EN
The Seven Necessities
On fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy, vinegar, and tea—and the home as a complete network.
Essay · 3 min · EN
The Last Farmers of Dali
From the view through my window to the challenges of 2026: observing the vanishing world of intensive agriculture in the Erhai Valley.
Essay · 3 min · EN
Dali’s Market Basket
A seasonal dispatch on wild mushrooms, orchid tubers, and the art of the market find.
Travel Journal · 3 min · EN
Immortals and Bunkers
A journey up Mount Fu Shan, where ancient Chinese mountain traditions collide with the concrete ruins of German fortifications.
Essay · 3 min · EN
Not Gazing Enough at the Mountain
On observation, landscape painting, and the mountain as a site for the practice of thought.
Essay · 4 min · EN
Chinese Thought in a Fractured World
On Confucius, Han Fei, the Daoists, and the possibility of contemplating the present outside the political din.
Essay · 3 min · EN
The Hall of Idleness
A return to Yunnan and reflections on the labor of sloth, the weight of purpose, and a poem by Bai Yuchan.
Essay · 2 min · EN
Matsutake: From the Forest Floor to the Global Market
The wild mushrooms of Yunnan sit at the center of a vast network connecting foragers, traders, and high-end restaurants across East Asia.
Essay · 4 min · EN
Ti-Yong and the Iranian Crisis
Viewing the structural collapse of the Islamic Republic through the lens of Chinese political philosophy.
Essay · 3 min · EN
The Long Road to Spice: How the Chili Pepper Conquered China
From New World curiosity to the soul of Sichuan, Hunan, and beyond.
Field Note · 3 min · EN
The Road to Heaven
Modern recluses in the Zhongnan Mountains and the ancient promise of freedom found in the high peaks.
Essay · 4 min · EN
My Dad, the Dragon
From the cosmic Long of the imperial court to a weary dragon riding the subway.
Essay · 4 min · EN
The Humid South: Miasma, Body, and Space in Southern China
On the perception of the Chinese South as an ecological and metaphysical frontier—and how a landscape of danger became the empire’s economic and intellectual engine.
Essay · 3 min · EN
Rivers and Lakes
“When the springs dry up, the fish huddle together, gasping to keep one another moist; it would be better if they could forget each other in the rivers and lakes.” (Zhuangzi)
Field Note · 3 min · EN
The Ginger Garden
On gardening, rhizomes, and a small botanical obsession in a Dali courtyard.
Essay · 4 min · EN
Between Mysticism and Revolution: The Poetry of Khomeini
On Persian verse, mystical insight, and the fine line between spiritual transcendence and political authority.
Research · 1 min · EN
Journey to the Pamir Mountains: A Guided Tour (September 2021)
It is no secret that this creaky blog is updated sporadically and is due for a facelift, but I would still like to use this modest platform to announce a tour I will be leading this September to the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan.
Essay · 3 min · EN
Listen to the Reed!
Marking 746 winters since the wedding of Jalal ad-Din Rumi and the return of his shell to the dust, we recall his immense contribution to the spirit that moves through those who fill their lungs with it and exhale its essence in the proper direction.
Essay · 2 min · EN
Faces of Eternity
Plaster is famously suited for mending what is broken, but in the hands of the Tashtyk, it served a more permanent purpose: fixing the dead in place for the afterlife.
Essay · 1 min · EN
The Skeptic of Khorasan
One late summer afternoon, Mullah Nasreddin paused to rest beneath a walnut tree on the outskirts of Bukhara.
Essay · 4 min · EN
The Tulip Cult of the Turks
Many flowers once graced the gardens of Islam, but above the fragrant rose, the sapphire hyacinth, and the heady narcissus, one stood alone: humble, low-lipped, and divine.
Essay · 5 min · EN
The Tamed Wild: Control and Artifice in the Classical Chinese Garden
Chinese culture is celebrated for its affinity for the raw and natural, yet its famous gardens reveal a sophisticated effort to neutralize the dangers of the wild.
Essay · 1 min · EN
Vipassanā Vespers
With back withered, search / where is Lake Biwa / the crow's cry.
Essay · 4 min · EN
Thus Spoke the Old Camel Owner
Zoroastrianism, the ancient faith of the Iranian peoples, shaped the moral landscape of the East and left an indelible mark on the monotheistic world.
Research · 3 min · EN
The Mosaics of Soviet Central Asia
To many, Soviet art is a gray dinosaur dragging a tail of obsolete symbols—superficial propaganda masking a regime's horrors. Yet perhaps we should judge its language no differently than we do the religious art of a Mayan temple or a Gothic cathedral.
Research · 3 min · EN
Central Asia in Photos: The Lens of Max Penson
In our age of digital noise and constant documentation, it is easy to forget the transformative power photography wielded during its first century, and how profoundly it shaped the modern world.
Research · 1 min · EN
A Strange Beast at the Song Court
“On July 21, 1058, the state of Jiaozi presented a beast to the imperial court, claiming it was a qilin.”
Research · 2 min · EN
The Archers of Islam
For a millennium, the art of mounted archery was the defining military discipline of the Islamic world, especially across its eastern frontiers.
Research · 3 min · EN
Forbidden Apricots in Xinjiang
Kashgar is quiet this year.
Essay · 15 min · EN
Out of the Mist: The Old Tea Horse Road
Chinese soil lacks selenium, and Tibet had horses. A conversation with a former caravan leader about what that trade actually was.
Essay · 4 min · EN
Outlines of the Heart
The art of writing as a spiritual discipline.
Essay · 2 min · EN
Verses from Cold Mountain
猪吃死人肉，人吃死猪肠。猪不嫌人臭，人反道猪香 猪死抛水内，人死掘土藏。彼此莫相啖，莲花生沸汤
Essay · 2 min · EN
Blind Justice
“You are deficient in understanding and religion”
Essay · 8 min · EN
Zen Stones
If you break open the cherry tree, / Where are the flowers? / But in the spring time, see how they bloom!
Essay · 6 min · EN
Moonlight Over the Brothel
In the humid summer of 1950, a musicological delegation from Beijing’s Central Conservatory arrived in Wuxi to document the folk traditions of eastern China.
Essay · 5 min · EN
Trees in Trays
When I was fourteen, my grandmother gave me a small olive tree, a few shallow pots, and a strange pair of shears she had brought back from Japan.