About
Matthew Clayfield is a journalist, critic, screenwriter and playwright. He is currently travelling through China and the Commonwealth of Independent States, covering the Russian presidential election and other stories as a freelance foreign correspondent. You can read more about that project here.
Soon to be based out of Istanbul, Turkey, Matthew co-edits the website Disposable Words and can be followed on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
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The Student from Nanjing
January 31, 2012 | 2 Comments
"No one told me China was the worst country in Asia," the student from Nanjing tells us. "Vietnam shits on China. Thailand shits on China. Singapore shits on China. Japan positively shits on China." He is excited to hear that we're heading to Russia. "Russia shits on China," he says.
Martha and Ernest
January 28, 2012 | No Comments
In Travels with Myself and Another, Martha Gellhorn writes of a trip to China with her then husband Ernest Hemingway. (Gellhorn hated Hemingway after their divorce and never refers to him in the book by name.) China was not the ideal location for two people who were not ideal travelling companions. Gellhorn was anally retentive about cleanliness and found the country's hygiene lacking. Hemingway, who was inspired by almost every country he ever visited, and who got at least one great story from each of them, never got one from China, and indeed didn't get any decent journalism from it, either. He liked the local liquor and the men who drank it, but not even the baijiu could stir him to write.
Productivity and Intensity
January 14, 2012 | No Comments
My three months in Perth end this afternoon and I thought I should probably write a short post about my time here. It is very early in the morning right now and I have just finished a too-long essay on Schindler's List for Screen Education. (The picture is one of those that I actually quite like, but which disintegrates under the pressure of my fingernail the moment I start to scratch at it.)
A Year of Television
December 31, 2011 | No Comments
There were a number of new and ongoing television series that took up a lot of my time this year. Homeland beat out Game of Thrones as the best new series of the year. (I've just started watching Boss, too, and am already very impressed with what I'm seeing.)
A Year of Books
December 31, 2011 | No Comments
Where my university years were all about movies, and the four that followed them all about theatre, the last two have been taken up, in the main, by books and television.
Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)
December 16, 2011 | 1 Comment
"Remaining debonair," Irwin Shaw once wrote, "means that one must always be ready to go to the next bar or the next war, no matter how late the hour or how unattractive the war." Writing about his friend Robert Capa, Shaw could also have been describing Christopher Hitchens, who died today at the age of sixty-two after an eighteen-month battle with oesophageal cancer.
Getting Interesting Without Me
December 10, 2011 | No Comments
Last week my IndieGoGo campaign came to an end. Over the course of the campaign's ninety days, forty-two people contributed over two thousand dollars to my upcoming trip to cover the Russian presidential election in March. I am cannot adequately express my gratitude to these people. Providing a little over fifteen per cent of my overall budget, they have all but covered my travel and accommodation costs. They have also confirmed for me the idea that readers are willing to pay journalists directly for stories and projects they find interesting. If you missed the deadline but are interested in contributing, I am still accepting PayPal donations here.
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Current Location: Harbin, China
Next: Vladivostok, Russia
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