Ying C Compestine's Blog

• Ghosts of the Great Wall

  November 5, 2009

  • For three years I worked as the food editor for Martha Stewart's magazine, Body+Soul. I began with my own food column, "Yin/Yang Diner" in which I developed recipes based on the Chinese concepts of Yin/Yang balance and harmony. Before long I was asked to develop all of the recipes for each issue. Instead of trying to pre-plan each recipe, I would go to numerous grocery stores and ...
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• On Becoming a Hungry Ghost

  November 3, 2009

  • In Chinese folklore, hungry ghosts devour everything they can find and are never satisfied. We may scoff at their appalling lack of self control. Yet if we look around, how many of us have become entwined in the same fate? In the story "Tofu with Chili-Garlic Sauce" from A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, the antagonist, Dr. Zhou surrounds himself with material goods: an expensive car, ...
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• Ghosts to My Rescue

  October 30, 2009

  • While I was writing A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, I frequently wondered if at some time every child has fantasized about having a powerful ghost come to their aid. The brightest light in my childhood was torn from me when, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, my father was imprisoned for the "crime" of being a Western-trained surgeon. His act of loyalty, choosing to stay and help ...
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