Chinese nationalism comes in many flavours. There’s the tanks-in-the-street, I-hate-the-Japanese variety that was on display earlier this
month when Beijing closed many of its streets and factories to parade killing machines through Tiananmen Square.
But there is also the altogether more palatable Sichuan-peppercorn-beer kind of nationalism, which involves brewing beer from local ingredients, for local palates, and seasoning it with a bit of Chinese philosophy, a dash of middle kingdom history — everything short of an actual Chinese flag. It sure beats that watered down, German-inspired brew that they sell for almost nothing, down at my local convenience store.