Latest Posts
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Teheran and Tiananmen, II
As per my earlier post comparing Iran in 2009 and China in 1989, today's reports of Supreme Leader Khamenei's speech denouncing the dissenters has a eerie resonance. It seems rather similar to the April 26, 1989 editorial in People's Daily… Continue reading
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Tehran and Tiananmen
Watching the extraordinary political events unfold in Iran, I am reminded of the massive protests that swept across China twenty years ago. Here are a couple of comparative ideas: 1) Protests of this sort start out spontaneously, in response to… Continue reading
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Pico Iyer: Daoist Sage?
I just found this post by Pico Iyer on the NYT Happy Days blog. The title pointed in a Daoist direction: "The Joy of Less." He doesn't explicitly invoke the Daodejing or Zhuangzi but the spirit if clearly there: I’m… Continue reading
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Mencius in Lhasa
There are people in the PRC, brave people, who are willing to stand up to power and present facts that run contrary to both popular perceptions (which, after all, are shaped by official media control) and political interests: A group… Continue reading
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What Freedom in a Chinese city looks like
…Throughout the park, banners in Chinese demanded the vindication of the students and other Beijing residents who perished during the Chinese government crackdown against the protesters. There were people of all ages, from grey-haired retirees to young children whose… Continue reading
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Against Killing
An Asia Times article (h/t Western Confucian) looks into the revival of Confucianism in the PRC as a possible means of distracting attention away from the killings of June 3-4. This sounds about right to me: Others say dressing its… Continue reading
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Daoist Gun Control
The pro-gun lobby in the US has long circulated a slogan: "Guns don't kill people, people do." This came to mind as I was reading one of my student's papers recently, a paper on the Daodejing. In that text there… Continue reading
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Thoughts on the first week of June, twenty years ago…
Mencius said: "The people are the most precious of all things. Next come the gods of soil and grain. The sovereign matters least. (14.14) If the CCP took that sentiment to heart, it would not be so fearful of popular… Continue reading
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Kim Jong-il, please read Mencius
The North Korean leader should ponder this passage (as should all journalists tempted to refer to NK as somehow "Confucian"), before he makes any personnel decisions: …Let no one hold office by hereditary privilege, and let no on hold more… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 