Latest Posts
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Mencius on Sectarian Violence
I’ve been reading Mencius with my class this week. Many of his passages jump off the page with contemporary resonance. Here’s one that gets at both the futility and self-reproducing quality of the kind of violence that we… Continue reading
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Traveling
I have long had some differences with certain sections of the Tao Te Ching. At one point (I’m at home and all my copies are in the office), the text tells us that you do not need to… Continue reading
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Humane Treatment of Animals
An op-ed in today’s NYT discusses the issue of humane treatment of animals, especially farm animals destined for slaughter and human consumption. The author, Nicolette Hahn Niman, draws upon her personal experience to make the key point: As… Continue reading
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Mencius in Zhushan Village
Frustrations boiled over in Zhushan village in Hunan province a few days ago, as people trying to take the bus to Lingling town were confronted with price gouging. Roland has the links, and pictures! People are… Continue reading
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President Giuliani? Confucius Would Say “No”
Rudy Giuliani’s personal life – especially his very public second divorce – is getting a lot of attention: Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, said that a messy personal life can raise questions about… Continue reading
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When Chinese Eyes Are Smiling…
Add another item to the ever growing list of expressions of Chinese-ness: Irish-Chinese (or Chinese-Irish) political representative. This story came to my attention today: An Alliance candidate has become the first person from an ethnic minority background to… Continue reading
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Baudrillard and Chuang Tzu
Jean Baudrillard is (not) dead. From the Guardian: Jean Baudrillard’s death did not take place. "Dying is pointless," he once wrote. "You have to know how to disappear." The New Yorker reported a reading the French sociologist gave… Continue reading
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Jewish, Chinese, American
One of my fascinations, in studying ancient Chinese philosophy and its application to modern American life, is how the meaning of "Chinese-ness" changes over time and in different locations. My interest was piqued, therefore, when I spotted this… Continue reading
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Flexible Family Values
A good op-ed in today’s Washington Post gets at the ways in which globalized modernity (or modernized globalization) undermines traditional family structures and engenders new social practices. The author, Harold Meyerson, focuses on the divergent experiences of different… Continue reading
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Yu Dan’s Errors
It seems we have a bit of a controversy on our hands. Yu Dan, the scholar who I praised for her popularizing efforts to bring ancient Chinese thought to a wider audience, is being attacked. Critics say she… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 