I'm loving 汉子英雄 (hànziyīngxióng – "Chinese characters hero") as usual. It's a programme on Chinese TV where contestants are tested on their memory of hand-written characters (hanzi), under the clock. There's also an app which lets you test yourself in a couple of different ways – which is a lot harder than I thought when you are put on the spot with a time limit.

Marriage, loss, and red tape – by Carl Setzer

I arrived at the US consulate in Shenyang at 8:15am. The handwritten sign on the window of the security office said citizen services would begin at 8:30. There didn't seem to be the threat of a line forming, so I figured I was safe to wander around a few minutes to see what the capital of Liaoning Province had to offer.

As I turned to leave, I bumped into something solid – it felt like a tree or a telephone poll, but turned out to be a person.

A poem by Tom Mangione

Here are a couple of expressions that have stuck in my head for ages:

山中无老虎 猴子称大王 (shānzhōngwúlǎohǔ hóuzichēngdàwáng)

If the tigers leave the mountain, the monkey is named King. This phrase is from a fable too long to summarise here, and is an equivalent to "When the cat’s away the mouse will play." You can use it in the same situations, such as when your boss is away for a week.

英雄无用武之地 (yīngxióngwúyòngwǔzhīdì)

A hero with no place to display his prowess.

One family's revolution – by Lusha Chen

A version of this piece originally appeared on the Wang Post

December 26th was the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong. After three decades of market-based reform and the gradual “opening up” helped by internet and technology, his popularity and relevance are fading in China. But I want to talk about one Maoist’s memory of the leader – my grandmother, who passed away four years ago.

In the 1950s, Grandma used to be in the highest echelons of the Chinese working class, but she grew up as the last generation of poor Chinese peasants’ daughters, who had bound feet and were married as children.