Latest Posts
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Lei Feng as Confucius
Danwei has a great post today about Lei Feng. For those of you new to Chinese revolutionary propaganda, Lei Feng was a fellow who was said to have served in the PLA in the early 1960’s. He died… Continue reading
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What She Said
I have mentioned professor Yu Dan before. She is a media scholar at Beijing Normal University who has published a very popular book in China about the modern applications of the Analects. She has apparently now done some… Continue reading
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Taoism and the Transformation of Marriage
A couple of stories today keep the issue of the transformation of marriage in the media spot light. First, the Washington Post notices the relationship between marriage and social class: As marriage with children becomes an exception rather… Continue reading
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Chinese Football
Another mark, albeit modest, of the continuing transformation of Chinese-ness in the face of globalization: Chinese football players. No, not international football (soccer) but American football: The Chinese athletes Gao Wei, Ding Long and Shen Yalei are being… Continue reading
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Something funny
Imagethief really made me laugh with this one: If there is anything more sinister than a grubby urban pigeon, it must be a grubby urban pigeon under remote control! That’s right, first the testing of an anti-satellite weapon,… Continue reading
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China Daily: Confucianism Without Marriage
My most recent China Daily commentary is up. You can find it here. For regular readers of The Useless Tree, you will notice that it is an amalgam of several past posts about how modern Confucianism might relate… Continue reading
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Why Put Off Democracy?
Premier Wen Jiabao wrote an article that has attracted some attention: The Communist Party cautioned China’s increasingly impatient reformers and intellectuals Tuesday that political liberalization and democracy are still a long way off despite the rapid pace of… Continue reading
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CCP Saves NYSE
Yes, it seems to me that the Chinese Communist Party gave a very big helping hand to the New York Stock Exchange today. Think about this for a minute: The Chinese government is also a huge factor here.… Continue reading
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The Tao of Stock Markets
A little upset today on world stock markets: Stocks in the United States plummeted today after a surprising plunge in the Shanghai market provoked worries worldwide about the global economy and the valuation of share prices. The Dow… Continue reading
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Narcissism
This review in the NYT caught my eye just now: Vacuousness and self-absorption, it appears, never go out of style. In a new play with an unpublishable title, Michael Domitrovich introduces five 20-somethings who are awash in both — irritating… Continue reading
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