The Useless Tree

Current Affairs

  • A Little Rectification, Please!

          Can we discern a pattern?         – Wolfowitz screws up and then stays on too long at the World Bank;       – Gonzales screws up and then stays on too long at Justice;      … Continue reading

  • Buying Children

         I have suggested elsewhere, that Confucianism, with its emphasis on the social embedded-ness of the individual, would likely support some forms of medical intervention to facilitate child birth.  If the intent and purpose of such intervention were driven… Continue reading

  • Burning Mao

        Last Saturday a man from Xinjiang, with a Chinese name, threw some sort of flammable material at the giant portrait of Mao that hangs over Tiananmen Gate, scorching its lower left hand corner:           … Continue reading

  • French Sinological Food Fight: Thoughts on Politics and Writing

        New Left Review runs a piece on an intellectual battle between two French sinologists, Jean-François Billeter and François Jullien.  I have not read any of the many books cited; obviously both men are accomplished scholars.  One of the central… Continue reading

  • Derek Fisher, Confucian Gentleman

         Derek Fisher is a professional basketball player.  He is also a father.  And his two roles came into heart-rending conflict this week: Fisher, a point guard for the Utah Jazz, sat in an office at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer… Continue reading

  • Mr Wolfowitz, Please Read the Classics

        Paul Wolfowitz, having overseen the disastrous US policy in Iraq (remember: he was the one who publicly contradicted General Shinseki), has now made a mess of the World Bank.  He is cutting a pathetic figure of late, hanging… Continue reading

  • More on Yu Dan

         A story in today’s LA Times about the revival of Confucianism and the irrepressible Yu Dan (whom I have blogged before here and here).  Yu has attracted a host of critics, and the Times story quotes my friend… Continue reading

  • Nations Don’t Have Values, People Do

         I linked to this piece a couple of days ago, but now notice that it has caught the attention of some other big sites.  In coming back to it, I see it in a somewhat different light.  … Continue reading

  • Controlling Birth

         With just under two weeks to go until the end of classes here, my mind is starting to turn from the daily routines of course preparation and grading (although a nice big stack of papers sits besides me… Continue reading

  • Religious Confucianism

        Richard Spencer, in a post about Hong Kong making Confucius’s birthday a holiday (in which he says some nice things about The Useless Tree), raises a question about the revival in China of the thought of the Venerable… Continue reading