One of the reasons I check Language Log regularly is to see posts by Victor Mair, a sinologist at U Penn. Half or perhaps more of his posts are devoted to the quirks of Chinglish (Chinese English), most of which seem to be the result of less than expert translation, but he posts on other matters as well. I don't read a bit of Chinese and I have no more than nodding acquaintance with Chinese culture – and I do own a small Chinese wooden box and a somewhat larger 19th Century Chinese cabinet – but I'm interested in China in the way that any reasonably awake adult is: it's there and it's terribly important in the world. Mair's columns are an interesting way of reminding me of that fact.
And they keep bumping me into stuff I would't otherwise encounter, something that's very important in my overall mental economy.
