Latest Posts
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You Know, Culture is Business
It seems that China is running a "huge" "cultural trade deficit:" Chinese cultural products should be further promoted to the international market to narrow China’s cultural trade deficit with other countries, top officials said. Ding Wei,… Continue reading
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Can We Stop Calling China A “Confucian Society” Now?
A story in the LA Times over the weekend points out just how far many people in China have fallen from the Confucian ideal: Respect for parents and clan elders has been a cornerstone of Chinese culture for… Continue reading
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Inequality, Again
A convergence of stories on the growing economic inequality born of globalization. Walter Kirn in the NYT Magazine has a short piece reflecting, somewhat shallowly, on the cultural meaning of the exploding income gap between the richest CEOs… Continue reading
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A Taoist Easter
As I have done for Thanksgiving and Christmas, let me put down a few thoughts here about Easter from a Taoist perspective. Easter may be the most Taoist of the three holidays. Of course, Taoists would… Continue reading
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Compassion
Little Dragon, at Wanderer Amongst Strangers, directs our attention to passage 67 of the Tao Te Ching. We find there reflections on compassion. Here are a couple of excerpts from the Hinton translation: There are three treasuresI hold… Continue reading
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Sun Tzu and Taiwan
Richard, The Peking Duck, links to an op-ed written by my old friend Lin Chong Pin on China’s strategy toward Taiwan. Lin’s main point is that China has decided to downplay its military threats against Taiwan and pursue… Continue reading
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Microphones in a Flat World
Simon links to a review (in pdf!), by economist Edward Leamer of UCLA, of Thomas Friedman’s big, bestselling book, The World is Flat. If you bear with me, there is something to say here about how we might bring… Continue reading
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Something for Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad
Auspicious weapons are tools of misfortune.Things may not all despise such tools,but a master of the Way stays clear of them. The noble-minded treasure the left when homeand the right when taking up weapons of war. Weapons are tools of… Continue reading
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How Confucian Values Can Undermine Chinese Nationalism
I am thinking about the relationship between Confucian ideals and Chinese nationalism. In fact, I am giving a talk on the subject tomorrow and I want to use this space to kick around a few ideas. … Continue reading
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Mencius on Iran and Iraq
So now Bush is thinking about attacking Iran. You would think that the failures in Iraq would demonstrate to him the complexity and difficulty of using military force, but you would be wrong. Apparently, he is incapable of… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 