Latest Posts
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Calling Attention to Reality
This is a small operation, a modest blog. I do not attract the kind of attention that the big blogs get; if I have 200 unique visitors a day, that’s good for me. So it was somewhat surprising… Continue reading
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Old Confucianism and New Mistresses
In the China Daily today we learn of a web site set up to claim rights for mistresses of Chinese men: Six months after it began, Zheng Baichun’s website (www.2n88.com), known for defending the rights of er’nai, or… Continue reading
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Taoist Parenting
In a NYT story today, Michael Winerip asks: "But When Is There Time to Be a Kid?" It is a fairly common litany of over-programming of children. He describes the frenetic pace in one household: The family lives… Continue reading
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Our Children, Ourselves
An article a couple of days ago in the NYT raises all sorts of ethical issues about birth and disability. It draws from a piece in the journal Fertility and Sterility and describes a particular medical procedure: The… Continue reading
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Getting Modern Confucian Education Right
A story in yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor describes a school in Guangdong (it doesn’t tell us what city or town) that integrates Confucian classics and traditional Chinese cultural practices into a modern elementary school curriculum: "Now the government… Continue reading
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Iraq Study Group
Not much to add to the US media outpouring on the Iraq Study Group report that came out yesterday. Can’t get better commentary than that of my neighbor Abu Aardvark. It strikes me, in the end, as a… Continue reading
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Confucianism v. Taoism in Chinese Popular Culture
Roland, at ESWN, reminds us again of how debates about popular culture in can reveal significant changes in political – or, at least, potentially political – attitudes. He posts a translation of a Southern Metropolis Daily piece (original… Continue reading
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Asia-ization
So, in my class, Asia and the World, the question arose (OK, I admit it: the idea came to my mind and I worked into my lecture): is the "West" becoming more "Asian"? A little background:… Continue reading
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Buddhism and Death
I must preface this post by saying I do not know all that much about Buddhism. In recent years, I have been spending time learning what I can about pre-Qin Chinese thought, a historical period well before Buddhism… Continue reading
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Beijing Weekend: Moving Up to the Main Paper
My meteoric rise in the Chinese media continues! (I am being facetious…). Yesterday, December 2nd, I had a piece, albeit rather short, in the Features section of China Daily, the main newspaper (or, at least, that… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 