http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/ <span class="insertedphoto"><img class="alignright" src="http://fortunecookiechronicles.com/jennylee.jpg" border="0"></span> <font><b>One woman. One great mystery. One consuming obsession. <span style="color: rgb(230, 74, 23);">40,000 restaurants.</span></b></font> <b>There are more Chinese restaurants in this country than McDonalds, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken <a href="http://www.fastfoodmaps.com/">combined</a>.</b> <p>In <a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/about/">The Fortune Cookie Chronicles</a>, author <a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/about/author">Jennifer 8. Lee</a> takes readers on a remarkable journey that is both foreign and familiar: penetrating this subculture by traveling the world (and almost every American state) in her quest to understand Chinese food and the people who make it. Her journey took her to the <a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/2008/02/20/welcome-to-general-tsos-hometown-xiying-hunan/">hometown of General Tso</a> (a military hero immortalized as much for crunchy chicken as his conquests), the<a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/2008/01/16/fortune-cookies-are-really-from-japan/"> surprising origins of the fortune cookie</a> (it’s not China), and to six continents in search for the world’s greatest Chinese restaurant. The book also sparks debates as to who really invented chop suey and why <a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/category/jews/">Jews love Chinese food</a>, or as she puts it: Why is chow mein the chosen food of the chosen people? The book is a tribute to immigrants and to America. If our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie, ask yourself, how often do you eat apple pie? Now how often do you eat Chinese food?</p><hr> <center><font size="+1"><b>Discuss the book with the group by <a href="http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/notes/compose">posting a note!</a><br>Like the book? <a href="http://multiply.com/gus/reviews/compose">Write a review</a> for your friends!</b></font></center> <hr> Fri, 9 May 2008 18:18:43 -0000 Fri, 9 May 2008 16:50:00 -0000 http://images.jennifer8lee.multiply.com/logo http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com 100 100 <p>Am in Denver to <a href="http://www.blacktie-colorado.com/calendar/index.cfm?FuseCalendar_ID=14946&amp;CurntDate=05/28/2008&amp;region=1&amp;FUSEACTION=ShowEvent">speak the local chapter</a> of the Society of Professional Journalist (a four star chapter at that). I just saw the invite for the talk and dinner. It’s adorable.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/denverinvite.JPG" title="Denver Society of Professional Journalists Fortune Cookie Chronicles Invite"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/denverinvite.JPG" alt="Denver Society of Professional Journalists Fortune Cookie Chronicles Invite" width="400"></a></p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/72 Fri, 9 May 2008 16:50:00 -0000 <p>Did some library events earlier this week, and I love seeing the signs they put up with the name of the book in that piecemeal lettering. I love local libraries. That is how I grew up learning to read.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/oldtappanlibrarysig.JPG" title="Old Tappan Library Fortune Cookie Chronicles"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/oldtappanlibrarysig.JPG" alt="Old Tappan Library Fortune Cookie Chronicles" width="400"></a></p> <p>The signs remind me of traveling through Iowa and Ohio and places like that. (though these were both in New Jersey).<br> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/oceancountylibrarysign.JPG" title="Ocean County Library Fortune Cookie Chronicles"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/oceancountylibrarysign.JPG" alt="Ocean County Library Fortune Cookie Chronicles" width="400"></a></p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/71/Fortune_Cookie_Chronicles_on_Local_Library_Signs Fri, 9 May 2008 16:49:00 -0000 <p>This is very odd. I looked up “Fortune Cookie Chronicles” on Google and was pleased that I was advanced enough to get my own little subcategories. It listed my most popular pages: Lee, Photos, About, Chinese food and then…a category called “Jews Love Chinese Food.”</p> <p align="center">.<a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/google-knows-jews-love-chinese-food.png" title="Google knows that Jews Love Chinese Food"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/google-knows-jews-love-chinese-food.png" alt="Google knows that Jews Love Chinese Food" width="400"></a></p> <p>That startled me, because as you see from the blog, the category page it links to is called “Jews <em>and</em> Chinese Food.”</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/jews-and-chinese-food.png" title="Fortune Cookie Chronicles Jews and Chinese Food"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/jews-and-chinese-food.png" alt="Fortune Cookie Chronicles Jews and Chinese Food" width="400"></a></p> <p>I actually only use the phrase “Jews love Chinese food” once on the page, low down, in a post. So I have no idea how Google knows that Jews love Chinese food, or why it chose that as the headline. It just does. Perhaps the fact that Jews love Chinese food is a truism, universal in knowledge. Or perhaps the Google engineers have a sense of humor.</p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/70/Google_knows_that_Jews_love_Chinese_food Fri, 9 May 2008 16:46:00 -0000 <p>I might be going to speak at an <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/confservices/upcoming/upcomingconferences.cfm">American Library Association conference</a> in Denver next January (yes, Denver in January) on my use of the <a href="http://www.aproquest.com/products_pq/descriptions/pq-hist-news.shtml">historical newspaper archives offered by ProQuest</a>. I love ProQuest and even thank them in my acknowledgments. Basically their historical archives were perfect for something like my book — searching for early terms that may or may not show up in sporadic locations. So this helped me trace the history of fortune cookies, chop suey, General Tso’s chicken and Chinese restaurants. This is how I found the 1883 NYT article that asked, “Do the Chinese eat rats.”</p> <p>It also made me really proud to work for the New York Times, because our content has been so good from day one. And the New York Times was as obsessed with Chinese food then as it was now.</p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/69/Proquest_the_American_Library_Association_and_Fortune_Cookies Fri, 9 May 2008 16:45:00 -0000 <p>I thought this invite, sent out for my Phoenix event this Sunday, was adorable.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/phoenixinvitefront.png" title="Phoenix Jewish Invite Front Fortune Cookie Chronicles"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/phoenixinvitefront.png" alt="Phoenix Jewish Invite Front" width="350"></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/phoenixinviteback.png" title="Phoenix Jewish Invite Back Fortune Cookie Chronicles"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/phoenixinviteback.png" alt="Phoenix Jewish Invite Back Fortune Cookie Chronicles" width="350"></a></p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/68/Phoenix._Why_is_Chow_Mein_the_Chosen_Food_of_the_Chosen_People Fri, 9 May 2008 16:42:00 -0000 i see this in your welcome box "There are more Chinese restaurants in this country than McDonalds, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken combined." thats amazing :) i be true and say i have not read your book but i will check outs at libray and if them not have i will ask that them buy lotsa copies:) my question is for my girlie figure :p is true chinese food not fatting? do your book have low cal recipes and stuff like this? manda<font color=deeppink>&hearts;</font> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/notes/item/3 Tue, 6 May 2008 15:27:44 -0000 <p>My friend Kathleen took a photo of this Chinese restaurant in Venice for me (love the boat out front).</p> <p align="center"><a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/chineserestaurantinvenice.JPG" title="Chinese restaurant in Venice Italy"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/chineserestaurantinvenice.JPG" alt="Chinese restaurant in Venice Italy"></a></p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/67/A_Chinese_Restaurant_in_Venice_with_a_boat_docked_out_front Tue, 6 May 2008 14:51:00 -0000 <p>I’m in a recent Podcast episode from my conversation at the Asia Society.</p> <p><strong>4/22/08: India Goes Hungry; Secrets of Chinese Takeout<br> </strong> The world food crisis and Asia, with analysis by Asia Society Fellow Mira Kamdar… Food author Jennifer 8. Lee solves a Chinese takeout mystery… and upcoming Asia Society programs in Mumbai and Hong Kong.</p> <p>To the podcast: <a href="http://www.asiasociety.org/podcasts/subscribe.html">http://www.asiasociety.org/podcasts/subscribe.html<br> </a><br> To my episode: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/asiasociety/eqec/%7E3/276217508/weeklyfix20080422.mp3">http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/asiasociety/eqec/~3/276217508/weeklyfix20080422.mp3</a></p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/66/My_Asia_Society_Conversation_Now_Partially_in_Podcast_Form Tue, 6 May 2008 14:50:00 -0000 <p>YouTube and The Asia Society <a href="http://www.youtube.com/AsiaSociety">collaborated for a video series</a> on Asian Americanness for Asian American Heritage Month. And I got to be included in it (very flattering). It’s a pretty fneat group — including a senator, Hollywood actors and a Silicon Valley start-up folk. The main video is a montage of interviews from a bunch of Asian Americans, and then we get our own video. And then Asian Americans are invited to submit their own and win an iPod if they get the one that is most watched.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/2008/05/02/youtube-celebrates-asian-american-ness-and-you-can-win-an-ipod-nano/#more-849" class="more-link">more »</a></p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/65/YouTube_Celebrates_Asian_American-ness_and_you_can_win_an_iPod_Nano Tue, 6 May 2008 14:50:00 -0000 <p>I’m recommended on <a href="http://boldtype.com/164524">Boldtype’s list this month</a> (first book!). As their site explains, “Boldtype is a monthly book review focusing on smart, readable works of fiction and nonfiction, from current titles to past gems.”</p> <p><strong><em>Available everywhere from shacks that sell it alongside hamburgers to highly rated Zagat favorites, Chinese food is one of the most iconic comfort foods in American culture.</em>”</strong><strong>Review</strong><br> For over a hundred years, Chinese food has transcended religion, race, and picky eaters in American culture. More than a mere cuisine, it has become a cultural phenomenon — it’s a <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-25-chinese-food_x.htm" target="_blank">Christmas Eve tradition</a>, a midnight indulgence, and a source of fortunes and good advice. Available everywhere from shacks that sell it alongside hamburgers to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine/05food-t.html?ex=1343966400&amp;en=e3c5f57701ffcb4d&amp;ei=5088&amp;partner=rssnyt&amp;emc=rss" target="_blank">highly rated Zagat favorites</a>, Chinese food is one of our most iconic comfort foods.</p> <p>In <em>The Fortune Cookie Chronicles</em>, Jennifer 8. Lee re-examines this beloved food with a series of questions. How true is American Chinese food to its forebears? Who <em>is</em> General ... http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/64 Tue, 6 May 2008 14:49:00 -0000 <p class="medHeading">I’m just trolling and catching up with random reviews that I never got around to adding. Here is <a href="http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/03/20/nonfiction">one from the Philadelphia City Paper.</a></p> <p class="medHeading">The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food</p> <p><em>By Jennifer 8. Lee</em></p> <p><em>Twelve, 320 pp., $24.99 </em></p> <p>“This book began as a quest to understand Chinese food,” <em>New York Times</em> reporter Jennifer 8. Lee writes in <em>The Fortune Cookie Chronicles</em>. “But three years, six continents, 23 countries, and 42 states later, I realize it was actually a personal journey to understand myself.” Born and raised in New York, Lee tells a story of immigrants through the cuisine they spread throughout their adopted countries.</p> <p>The chapters read like a loosely connected series of magazine articles, with fortune cookies providing the framework. Lee begins her book by trying to track down 110 Powerball winners who’d found their fortunes through one set of lucky numbers. From there, she hunts for the origins of the Pacman-shaped cookie itself. (Japan, as it turns out.)</p> ... http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/63 Tue, 6 May 2008 14:48:00 -0000 <p>In searching the <a href="http://leopac.nypl.org/">NYPL LEO</a>&nbsp; (and their research catalogue is <a href="http://catnyp.nypl.org/">CATNYP</a>, adorable no?) I discovered there were <a href="http://leopac6.nypl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=120K69K80F546.27027&amp;menu=search&amp;aspect=basic&amp;npp=10&amp;ipp=20&amp;spp=20&amp;profile=dial--3&amp;ri=&amp;index=GW&amp;term=fortune+cookie+chronicles&amp;x=12&amp;y=9&amp;aspect=basic">166 holds on 19 copies</a> of the Fortune Cookie Chronicles at the NYPL as of May 1 (none seem to be in stock, oddly, they are all on order…didn’t this book come out two months ago?).</p> <p>This made me curious about other libraries.</p> <ul><li><a href="http://www.sfpl.org/">San Francisco Public Library</a> has 71 holds on 40 copies (what’s with the 3-star rating?)</li><li><a href="https://catalog.spl.org/">Seattle Public Library</a> had <a href="https://catalog.spl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=dial&amp;menu=search&amp;aspect=power&amp;index=.GW&amp;term=fortune+cookie+chronicles">185 holds (156 active, 29 inactive) on 33 copies</a> (wow)</li><li><a href="http://www.lapl.org/catalog/">Los Angeles Public Library</a> had all 10 copies checked out.</li><li><a href="http://www.chipublib.org/search/details/cn/8288793/results/1/">Chicago Public Library</a> had 12 copies, all out or on hold.</li><li><a href="http://catalog.mbln.org/">Boston Public Library</a> had <a href="http://catalog.mbln.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12096PU495021.31623&amp;profile=bpl1&amp;uri=link=3100019%7E%215161210%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&amp;aspect=subtab440&amp;menu=search&amp;ri=1&amp;source=%7E%21horizon&amp;term=The+fortune+cookie+chronicles+%3A+adventures+in+the+world+of+Chinese+food+%2F&amp;index=ALTITLP">11 of 12 copies out or on hold.</a></li><li><a href="http://catalog.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/">Brooklyn Public Library</a> had <a href="http://catalog.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/search%7E/a?searchtype=X&amp;searcharg=fortune+cookie+chronicles&amp;searchscope=63&amp;SORT=D">10 copies out or on hold.</a></li><li>Queens Public Library’s catalogue is down for computer maintenance, but they should have a bunch.</li></ul> <p>Yay.</p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/62/On_hold_checked_out_due._Fortune_Cookies_Chronicles_in_Libraries Tue, 6 May 2008 14:48:00 -0000 <p>Another event at the Asia Society next Tuesday, May 6. (James Oseland, Editor in Chief, Saveur Magazine, is really a very skilled moderator)<br> <strong>From Silk Road to Steppe: Exploring Cuisines Beyond the Great Wall</strong></p> <p>In the West, when we think about food in China, what usually comes to mind are the signature dishes of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. But beyond the urbanized eastern third of China lie the high open spaces and sacred places of Tibet, the Silk Road oases of Xinjiang, the steppes of Inner Mongolia, and the steeply terraced hills of Yunnan and Guizhou. The peoples who live in these regions are culturally distinct, with their own history and their own unique culinary traditions. The inimitable duo of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid–who first met as young travelers in Tibet–will discuss the enticing flavors of this other China while presenting riveting photographs chronicling their travels.</p> <p>Panelists:</p> <p>Jeffrey Alford &amp; Naomi Duguid, Authors, Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Tra... http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/61/Beyond_Chinese_Cuisine_The_Asia_Society_on_May_6 Tue, 6 May 2008 14:47:00 -0000 This is awesome (though it’s in Chinese): <a href="http://www.chinesefoodmap.com/">www.chinesefoodmap.com</a>, a Google maps mashup of Chinese restaurants that Chinese people want to eat at across the country, with ratings. http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/60/Chinesefoodmap.com_for_Chinese_people. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:01:00 -0000 <p>Speaking on a panel at the<a href="http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/"> LATimes book fair</a> called Eat This Book with <a href="http://frederickkaufman.typepad.com/">Fred Kaufman</a> and <a href="http://www.rajpatel.org/">Raj Patel</a> at 1 p.m. Sunday in Moore 100. The moderator is Barry Glassner.</p> <p>It is gargantuan book fair, basically taking over the entire <a href="http://www.ucla.edu/">UCLA campus</a>.</p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/59/_LATimes_Festival_of_Books Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:00:00 -0000 Last week I got to speak in the Dining Hall of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in Chicago (at the invitation of Lisa Yun Lee). This was a room that W.E.B &nbsp;Dubois, Ida B. Wells, Upton Sinclair, Gertrude Stein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Carl Sandburg have all spoken in. Very historic. So it was a real honor. http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/58/Hull_House_Where_Eleanor_Roosevelt_Upton_Sinclair_W.E.B._Dubois_have_all_tread Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:05:00 -0000 <p>Wow. They are still running reviews of my book(!). The Boston Globe today printed <a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2008/04/23/fortune_cookie_chronicles_delivers_tasty_cultural_history/">its review</a> by Ralph Ranalli. Interesting that he is astute to point out that Chinese food has “a veritable buffet of cheap metaphors” (I will note many of which have been used by headine writers (egg drop scoop, lo mein street, wok on)</p> <p>BOOK REVIEW</p> <p>‘Fortune Cookie Chronicles’ delivers tasty cultural history<br> By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff | April 23, 2008<br> The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food<br> By Jennifer 8. Lee<br> <em>Twelve Books,</em> 308 pp., $24.99</p> <p>For better or for worse, critiquing a book about Chinese food’s place in the modern world presents a reviewer with a veritable buffet of cheap metaphors.</p> <p>One could say, for example, that the book was a pu pu platter of mixed styles (true, in this case), or that, after finishing, the reader was hungry again for more an hour later (also true). However, unlike in most cases that involve interaction between myself and Chinese food, I’ll try ... http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/57 Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:41:00 -0000 series on the music&amp;lit blog, Largehearted Boy (note the cute logo someone designed for him!) <p>And amazingly he has compiled the most <a href="http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2008/04/book_notes_jenn_2.html">comprehensive list</a> ever of my reviews and interviews.</p> <p>So when he first invited me after hearing about his book, I checked out his blog, and discovered it had been highlighted in a WSJ article as a coveted place for pubishers. The article spoke about how publishers were trying to get people to buy more books (seemingly older and fuddy duddy) by using music (seemingly hip and fresh!)</p> <p>This is what it said.</p> <blockquote><p>One byproduct of the book soundtrack trend has been the transformation of a grassroots music blog into a coveted marketing slot for authors like Mr. Ellis and Mr. Klosterman. The blog, called Largehearted Boy, features a running series called “Book Notes.” About once a week, an author of a recent book posts a list of songs that inspired the work or that readers might want to listen to as they turn the pages. The series was begun last year by <strong>David Gut... http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/56/Largehearted_Boy Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:16:00 -0000 <p>Here is <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_fn/text/0,3175,FOOD_31036_66868,00.html?sortby=recent&amp;pn=1&amp;pageref=Photo_Video-890810&amp;vw_arrange_order=DESC&amp;vw_sort_order=MOST_RECENT#">an episode</a> of FN Dish, the Food Network’s edgier online cousin, hosted by Adam Roberts of the <a href="http://amateurgourmet.com/2008/04/chinatown_alton.html">Amateur Gourmet</a>.<br></p> <p> </p> <p>Adam and I went to New York City’s Chinatown and eat my favorite buffet place on Grand Street between Chrystie and Bowery: $4 for five items! He tried pigs heart (his Jewish grandmother rolling over in her grave). This is Chinese buffet for Chinese people, not Chinese buffet for Americans.</p> <p>Also on the episode, Alton Brown’s biggest fans get to meet him at a book signing</p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/55/Food_Network_Online_interview_with_the_Amateur_Gourment Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:14:00 -0000 Why is Chinese fooooood so good & delicious to people worldwide? I thought about this and have concluded that because the Chinese people had a particular set of circumstances that made it possible to produce some of the best tasting cuisine in the world. 1) A written language; Made it possible to create recipes that could be passed on & widely distributed, tweaked to perfection over many generations. 2) Do the math!; Having a working numerical system of weights & measures made it possible to expand or reduce the size of any recipe and know exactly the right amounts of ingedients to use or not. 3) Location, Location; China is an enormous country with abundant & varied natural resourses. With so many possible ingredients to choose from, why not choose the best? That's it, that's my theory. It makes sense to me, anyway. Reply if you like. Bye. Thanx, Karl-Marcel Koenen http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/notes/item/2 Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:13:16 -0000 <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/driedratjerkybycharliegrosso.jpg" title="Dried rat jerky in Guangdong Province Late 2006 by Charlie Grosso"><img src="http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/driedratjerkybycharliegrosso.jpg" alt="Dried rat jerky in Guangdong Province Late 2006 by Charlie Grosso" width="400"></a></p> <p>This is a picture of some kind of jerky in a Guangzhou market by a photographer named<a href="http://www.charliestudio.com/charliegrosso/CGPFA_bio.html"> Charlie Grosso</a> (”a Chinese American woman with a male Italian name” or as she put it in her offer to buy me a drink in Los Angeles “I am a Chinese girl much like yourself so this is not a creepy come on”). It’s up to you to figure out what it is.</p> <p>She has an art project called “<a href="http://www.charliestudio.com/charliegrosso/CGPFA_index.html">Wok the Dog</a>” (and yes, I think those are headless dog carcasses)</p> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/53/So_what_kind_of_jerky_is_this. Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:13:00 -0000 <p>Nate Barksdale remembered of his Let’s Go India researchers wrote in his report on Dharamsala back in 1998 — to wit, that one of the Dalai Lama’s lesser-known tools of statecraft involves choosing between balls of dough that had little notes hidden inside. (fortune cookie-ish yes?)</p> <p>There’s even <a href="http://www.tibet.com/buddhism/divination.html">an explanation</a> from the Tibetan government-in-exile:</p> <p>Varieties of Divination:</p> <p>i) Doughball Divination: This method is practised mainly in the monasteries or by individual lamas when an important decisions needs to be made, such as in the search for the reincarnation of very high lamas. A number of possible answers to the enquiry, such as the names of likely candidates for a reincarnation, are written on slips of paper. These are then encased in equal sized balls of dough. Great care is taken to weigh the dough balls to ensure that they are exactly the same size. The doughballs are then placed in a bowl, which is carefully sealed and placed in front of a sacred object, such as the Jowo statue in ... http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/journal/item/54 Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:13:00 -0000 Read the first chapter of the book http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/links/item/3/Read_an_excerpt_from_The_Fortune_Cookie_Chronicles Thu, 3 Apr 2008 19:16:19 -0000 http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/calendar/item/10021/Appearnace_Evanston_Illinois Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:40:08 -0000 <a href="http://www.itasa.org/">Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association (ITASA) Midwestern Conference</a> http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/calendar/item/10020/Appearnace_Evanston_Illinois Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:39:00 -0000 Hosted by the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Cocktail hour until 7 p.m., followed by a talk about the http://jennifer8lee.multiply.com/calendar/item/10019/Appearance_Denver Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:36:51 -0000