Latest Posts
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Han Fei Tzu and Machiavelli
A nice review of some new translations of various Machiavelli texts in the New Yorker. As always, any talk of The Florentine brings to mind Han Fei Tzu; Machiavelli is, after all, the Italian Han Fei Tzu. The… Continue reading
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Unblocked in China
It looks like the Net Nanny has decided to unblock connections in China to Typepad blogs. I say this because in the past few days I have noticed the return of un-proxied hits from China. Welcome! I very much enjoy… Continue reading
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Taoist Football
This clip, which invokes existentialism, has a strong Taoist resonance – except that Taoists would not despair at meaningless and would not contemplate suicide, they would just laugh and open themselves to the unfolding of Way. http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/videoplayer/flvplayer.swf Pre-Game Coin Toss… Continue reading
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Can a Black Woman be Chinese?
A brief follow up to my earlier post about immigration, identity and race in China. A commenter, darts, makes a point that I want to bring forward for further discussion. Here it is: Sorry if the below seems excessively… Continue reading
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…light of the sparkling eyes…
…Keep your splendid, silent sun;Keep your woods, O Nature, and the quiet places by the woods; Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-fields and orchards; Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields, where the Ninth-month bees hum; Give me… Continue reading
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After Kim
News reports are circulating that Kim Jong-il, the supreme leader of North Korea, may have "suffered a serious health setback:" U.S. intelligence officials said today that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may have suffered a serious health setback, amid… Continue reading
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Modern Mimicry
Here's a post that I liked, over at The China Beat. Timothy Oakes builds on accusations that China is "faking" its way through modernization, the lip-syncing and video enhancements of the Olympics being the least of it. He didn't go… Continue reading
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Can a Black Man be Chinese?
I wrote something about the possibilities for increased immigration and expanded multicultralization (yes, I'm making it a verb) in China. I even submitted it to a journal, which today told me they would not publish it. Without time to work… Continue reading
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The Politics of Virtue Ethics
Here's an idea: John McCain is running a virtue ethics political campaign. Virtue ethics holds that "doing the right thing" is not determined by evaluating the consequences of specific actions or decisions (consequentialism), nor is it a matter… Continue reading
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China? What’s That?
A quick search of the four major convention speeches – those of Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin – reveals the following: The word "China" was mentioned once in the Obama speech and once in the Biden speech; it… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 