Latest Posts
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Obama’s Taoist Foreign Policy
In a blog post over at the New Yorker site, Ryan Lizza follows up on a point he made in a longer article: the idea of "leading from behind" that has recently arisen in connection with Obama's foreign policy. He… Continue reading
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Cambodia Vietnam China photos
Just putting these ppts here so I can use them later… feel free to take a look (but beware, they are rather large ppt files): Download Cambodia Vietnam 2011 Download Yunnan2011 Continue reading
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A Shout Out to the Dazhai Boyz
One pleasant result of my trip to Dazhai, Yunnan, last week was meeting the Teach for China fellows there. River and Richard and Tom and Gareth, a nice crew: It seems that Tom and Gareth blog about their experiences, and… Continue reading
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To Shangri-la and back
Home in Williamstown again, after an intense, if short, China trip. After Lincang, I went up to Shangri-la to visit some new friends, Russ and Kesang and Fei Fei at Black Pottery Coffee. Let me put down some of my… Continue reading
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Dazhai, Yunnan
I'm now in Lincang, a small city (about 500,000 people is small by Chinese standards) southwest of Kunming. I arrived here Monday, spent the night, visited a middle school where Teach for China has fellows, and then headed over to Dazhai,… Continue reading
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A Weekend in Kunming
It's been a pleasant two days here. I was last in Kunming in 1989 and, obviously, the city has grown considerably since then. But it has retained a certain charm. The central shopping district, Zhengyi street, has a long tree-lined… Continue reading
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Off to Yunnan
I leave tomorrow for Yunnan province, China. The main purpose of my visit is to observe and learn more about a new organization, Teach for China (formerly China Education Initiative). Like its sister organization, Teach for All, its mission is… Continue reading
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Confucius in the Schools… Taiwan Schools
It seems that Taiwan's Ministry of Education, pushed no doubt by Guomindang party leaders trying to maintain cultural links to the mainland, have come up with a singularly ineffective educational and social policy: In February Taiwan’s Ministry of Education said… Continue reading
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The China-is-not-Confucian Watch, Episode 5489
From ChinaSMACK; not much else needs to be said: Beijing Normal University professor “warns” students: If you don’t have 40 million by the time you are 40-years-old, don’t come see me Dong Fan: When you are 40-years-old, if you don’t… Continue reading
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Psychology of Freedom
I heard a radio spot this morning on NPR that, although it was discussing the Middle East, made me think of China. "Backstory of a Revolution: Studying Tweets, Posts," considered how social media and internet communications had changed people's expectations… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 