Latest Posts
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Kung Fu Panda Redux
I have not seen the sequel, and really have no plans to do so. But I will link here to my commentary on the original, for those, like Zhao Bandi, who seem to think there is some great cultural significance… Continue reading
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Kissinger is wrong on Confucius
So there I am, waiting for the lady in the bookstore to calculate my savings on my purchase of several volumes, and I notice Henry Kissinger's new book, On Chna, which is not one that I am buying just now,… Continue reading
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It’s not nice to fool mother nature
Props to Peter Bosshard for the best blog post title of the week: Mao, Tao and the Three Gorges Dam. He provides a lot of good links on the recent Chinese government acknowledgement of serious problems with the mega hydro… Continue reading
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Unfiliality…
…is that the proper English antonym for filiality? I find the nouns "filiality," as well as "filialness," in my OED. But I don't find antonyms, using either the prefix "un-" or "a-." I do find "unfilial" as an adjective, and… Continue reading
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More on Understanding China
I've been away for a bit, giving lectures in Chicago and Milwaukee, and that, and other things, have distracted me from blogging. But I received various responses on the last post below and those replies have sparked some other thoughts… Continue reading
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Understanding China – or not
On Monday, Vice-Premier Wang Qishan said, in an interview with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on The Charlie Rose Show: It is not easy to really know China because China is an ancient civilization and we are of the Oriental culture.… Continue reading
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The Erosion of Asian-American Confucianism
A strong piece in New York Magazine – "Paper Tigers: What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends?" – caught my eye. Author Wesley Yang puts out some sharp observations of social and cultural difference and bias. … Continue reading
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How not to do Confucianism
On May 4th (which in the PRC is called "Youth Day," but which might better be called "remembering how we broke with tradition" day) a middle school in Guangdong organized an event where students kneeled before their parents in an… Continue reading
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Election time in Singapore
The polls are open in Singapore for their general election. And it is shaping up as the most interesting one in many, many years. Since 2006 political opposition has grown significantly, and young people are turning away from the tired… Continue reading
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OK, Shooting someone in the head is not a Taoist foreign policy…
My last post below was singularly ill-timed: the day after I pointed out a Taoist facet of Obama's foreign policy he goes and orders the attack on Osama. Oops. Clearly, the careful planning and calculation that went into the raid,… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 